books
Rowling Along on Mystery Novel

J. K. Rowling, author of the mega-bestselling Harry Potter books, is writing a detective n...

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Greatest Action Movies of All Time

Coincidentally timed to align with today's premiere of Live Free or Die Hard, the magazine...

books
The 1930s Nancy Drew Films

Our friend Mike Tooney called our attention to the following passage in William K. Everson...

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Movies for Good Girls

A new wave of movies aimed at young girls is coming, starting this Friday with the theatri...

commerce
What TV Networks Owe Loyal Viewers

Do producers and TV networks have an obligation to their viewers?Producers and networks ar...

genres
The Politics of Jerry Falwell

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, a televison evangelist and moral activist, died today at the age o...

comic-books-graphic-novels
Batman Begins . . . Again

[I ran across a DVD of the movie Batman Begins recently and was reminded of how representa...

genres
A Month of Mysteries

Turner Classic Movies is featuring mystery films this month, on Tuesday and Wednesday nigh...

genres
“Inside Man” and the Perils of “Transcending the Genre”

 I recently got around to viewing Spike Lee's bank robbery hostage drama Inside Man. ...

genres
Billy Wilder’s “Witness” and the Pleasures of Genre Fiction

A commenter going by the cybernom of Pascal Fervor has made some interesting and  pro...

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A Tribute to John Dickson Carr

This is the last day in which I can decently mark the centennial of the birth of the truly...

comic-books-graphic-novels
Conan the Influential Barbarian

John J. Miller of National Review has put together a nice overview of Robert E. Howard's &...

genres
Fox’s 24 to Go Even Darker

I've mentioned on several occasions the turn toward "darker" programming on netw...

books
Can We Judge Literature?

I stirred up some concerns among PKD fans with my Philip K. Dick article, which was cross-...

books
Philip K. Dick Canonized

It's official: Philip K. Dick is a great writer, according to the Library of America. As t...

genres
Deja Vu and Time Travel Fiction

 Two time travel movies are premiering today, and a none of those astounding mysterie...

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New Primetime TV Serials Floundering—Here’s Why

Except for a couple of big successes—NBC's Heroes and ABC's Ugly Betty—this ye...

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The Future of Christian Cinema

In commenting on our discussion of Christian cinema (see posts immediately below), some vi...

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A Bad Sign for Christian Cinema

Screenwriter and script analyst Barbara Nicolosi is extremely disappointed by the Christia...

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Vote for Banacek!

One of the best television programs ever was actually three or four programs in one. The N...

books
“Transcending the Genre”

 The one thing most certain to destroy a work of genre fiction is for the author to t...

books
“Golden Age” Detection Fiction

Looking for something to read over the three-day weekend? I have some writers for you to i...

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People on a Plane—with Snakes

The box office performance of a "high concept" film such as Snakes on a Plane is...