California Literary Review

Articles written for the California Literary Review:

• Screw the Characters: Why ‘Lost’ Was Always About the Plot
  Posted on 25 May 2010 in Movies, Television, The Fourth Wall
  

  I’m sorry, writers of ‘Lost,’ but if you didn’t want us to care about the crazy plot points you introduced over the course of the series, then maybe you shouldn’t have introduced crazy plot points.

• Video Game Review: Red Dead Redemption
  Posted on 22 May 2010 in Games, Video Games
  

  And yet Red Dead Redemption is still a fantastic gaming experience, beautiful to look at and entertaining to play. All the little moments are full of excitement, from the way Marston slides dramatically into cover to the elegant Deadeye mechanics used for precision targeting or multiple opponents.

• The Weekly Listicle: The Worst Endings Ever EVER.
  Posted on 21 May 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  Six seasons have come and passed, but now this Sunday, May 23rd, ‘Lost’ finally comes to an end… and if this season has been any indication it’s probably going to be pretty disappointing. So, Julia Rhodes and I (William Bibbiani!) present to you our list of The Worst Endings Ever Ever, just to get into the spirit.

• miniBLOGS: Why “Lost” Sucked This Week, Why 3-D is Doomed, and Three Trailers You HAVE to See
  Posted on 17 May 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  The problem is that “Lost: The Science Fiction Series” was just okay, while “Lost: The Fantasy Series” SUCKS.

• Movie Review: Iron Man 2
  Posted on 07 May 2010 in Movies, Movies & TV
  

  Jon Favreau’s first Iron Man was a snazzy little number, cherry red and rocket-fueled and brimming with personality, even when it devolved a bit into action movie cliché right at the end. Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, out this weekend, should really be called Iron Man Too, since in many ways it’s the same thing only more so. More high tech fight scenes! More montages! More outlandish billionaires! And, alas, more flaws.

• The Weekly Listicle: The Finest Costumes in Film History
  Posted on 05 May 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  Excellent costume design is flattering, practical, thematically appropriate and iconic, and our choices for the Best Costumes Ever Designed are no exceptions.

• The Final Word: Is 3-D better than 2-D?
  Posted on 30 Apr 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  Oh sure, we’re probably going to be stuck with 3-D forever now that everyone flocked to Avatar like 5 year olds to McDonalds. You chipped in several extra bucks for the “experience” of wearing glasses while watching a movie – something those of us with glasses are less than enthused about (Have you ever tried wearing two pairs at the same time? It’s not comfortable) – and now the studios think you’ll do it every damned time. And you probably will, too, because you think it’s better. Well, guess what: It’s not. It’s just another illusion that you will inevitably get used to and take for granted, but by God you will shell out a lot more money for the privilege of getting bored with it.

• Movie Review: The Losers
  Posted on 24 Apr 2010 in Movies, Movies & TV
  

  Movies with titles like The Losers are a gift to film critics. The monikers may be intended ironically but are invariably fodder for such puns as “The Losers… most certainly are,” for example. Or, perhaps a little less obvious, “For these Losers it’s all about how you play the game… in this case, very, very badly.” So it’s pretty lucky for director Sylvain White this rip-snorting firecracker of an action film is a hoot and a half. Yes, The Losers is brazen, bullet-riddled, sexy and hilarious fun…

• The Weekly Listicle: Elite Teams of Elite-ness
  Posted on 22 Apr 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  Although the trope existed beforehand in literature (for what else, really, was “The Fellowship of the Ring?”), most film portrayals of elite teams in some way play off of the Seven Samurai dynamic, or at least Rififi’s, which in 1955 brought the concept into the world of the heist thriller. Since then there have been no shortage of classic teams, from Danny Ocean’s famous “11,” to the famed “Impossible Mission Force,” to the smooth-as-water space cowboys of the illustrious Bebop.

• William’s Weekly DVD Heist: 4-20-10
  Posted on 20 Apr 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  I’m not sure how much more I can say about how absolutely, 100% motherf***ing bad James Cameron’s Avatar really is…

• When Film Critics Lose a Bet, Part 2: Tommy Wiseau’s The Room!
  Posted on 16 Apr 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  My clearest thought while watching The Room was that the film plays like a screenplay Neil LaBute would have written when we was 10 years old, full of righteous anger at the sadism and victimization that the author has experienced, but none of the wit, character, or even punctuation that competent writers develop over time.

• William’s Weekly DVD Heist: 4-13-10
  Posted on 13 Apr 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  This week’s “That’s Barely A Movie!” award goes to Oh My God, a documentary dedicated to asking people all over the world what they think God is. It sounds like a film school project that got WAY out of hand.

• The Weekly Listicle: Worst. Dates. Ever.
  Posted on 08 Apr 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  From Travis Bickle’s unfortunate taste in movies in Taxi Driver, to history’s second most ill-fated prom night in There’s Something About Mary (see Julia’s picks for the absolute worst), there was no shortage of embarrassing and catastrophic dates to choose from.

• William’s Weekly DVD Heist: 4-6-10
  Posted on 06 Apr 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  For all the money thrown at Wolfgang Peterson’s remake of The Poseidon Adventure, I find myself unable to remember anything about the production other than the vague feeling that Kurt Russell was better than this. (And, of course, he is.)

• Why Clash of the Titans might be “The Worst Movie Ever Made”
  Posted on 05 Apr 2010 in Movies, The Fourth Wall
  

  Is Clash of the Titans one of the worst movies ever made? William Bibbiani makes an impassioned argument.