An ancient Greek poet named Hesiod listed the five ages of the world: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and Iron. The Golden Age was under the rule of a Titan named Cronus. He created humans, who had a very good life. They lived among the gods and didn’t have to work. There was food in abundance […]

I’ve been referring to this movie as “Hunger Game of Thrones.” It’s a prequel to “The Hunger Games,” but the influence of a certain HBO fantasy series is pretty apparent with the casting of Peter Dinklage and the “Song of Ice and Fire” – like subheading. I’ve seen it as little more than an attempt […]

The fall from glory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues with “The Marvels.” This is not to say that this movie is the “worst” the MCU has ever put out (for one thing, there’s no M.O.D.O.K. in sight), but the franchise has seen better days, both commercially and creatively. I think the problem lies with […]

The container that is me only has so much room. I have to be careful not to allow the good parts of myself to be overcome by an influx of things I have no control over. This would leave me with no strength for the important roles I have dedicated myself to: spouse, parent, homeowner, […]

Last month, I wrote about “The Exorcist: Believer” actually working pretty well as a taut kidnapping thriller until the requisite demon possession stuff kicked in. Now comes “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which has the opposite problem: the kidnapping-thriller elements get in the way of the supernatural stuff. I think the difference is that I wasn’t […]

We have an electric fly swatter—a fly zapper, if you will—that looks like a tennis racket. There’s a button on the handle that feeds the mesh part with enough juice to execute a fly with a satisfying crackle. I’m sure it works great, but there is a small problem. As soon as I put my […]