A few weeks ago writer/director Kevin Smith was thrown off of a Southwest Airlines flight for being too fat to fit into a single seat easily. He was on his way home from Northern California and had paid for two seats on his outbound flight but according to reports there weren’t two seats available on the return. This brings up a lot of questions, like why is Kevin Smith flying coach on Southwest. Doesn’t he have someone to book his flights for him?

I am ignorant of a lot of things but I try to hide that when I can. My dad told me that a lot of people might think you’re stupid but only you can open your mouth and show them they are right. Ms. Laura Washington, who writes for the Chicago Sun Times, a daily tabloid, might want to write that down. In a recent attack piece on writer/director Kevin Smith she starts by confessing that she has never heard of Mr. Smith. Now, that would be alright if she were a seventy year-old nun from Evanston but this woman is a writer for a major daily newspaper in a major American city! She should have asked her equally angry progressive colleague at the Sun Times, Roger Ebert.  We all laugh when Jay Leno or Sean Hannity do man-on-the-street interviews and someone doesn’t know Joe Biden or Lady Gaga, but how can a reporter on a major daily newspaper not know a major Hollywood figure? (more…)

“Who is watching the Watchmen?” Just about everyone…or so it seems.

The brand new film adaptation of the classic graphic comic Watchmen is a hit of monstrous proportions on its opening weekend, but not everyone loves it. In fact, not only is there a prominent character named Rohrschach (played by Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley), the film itself is serving as a Rohrschach Test for critics, fanboys and the broader public.

The Zack Snyder-directed $120M epic started with $4.5M in Thursday midnight business which is outstanding. There was no way for Watchmen to approach the $18.5M midnight start for lat summer’s The Dark Knight. First off, it is March and not the middle of summer blockbuster season. Kids have school. People are working. These are not the lazy days of July when it is easier for many to see a movie at midnight on Thursday, and hit the office late on Friday. The other factor is the movie’s rating. This is an R-rated movie, not PG-13 like The Dark Knight. (more…)