Articles written by Daniel Johnson - Page 3

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About me - Daniel Johnson

I am an avid fire watcher, poet and comedian. Also critic, lowly benefit MC, and soap user.

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Entertainment > TV Networks & Industry Evaluating the worth of Netflix: Readers share their experiences: 16 of 47
I recently received the 1st DVD of season 1 of the much buzzed about HBO show Flight Of The Conchords from NetFlix. The 6 episodes on the disc were very funny with crazily catchy songs and likably flawed characters - but trouble was that I had waited for it for 3 months! That's right - since it was released on December 17th,... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Juno: 15 of 41
Since it opened on Christmas Day JUNO, Jason Reitman's comedic drama about a teenage girl who gets pregnant, has been trouncing WALK HARD at my hometown theatre (where I work at part-time) with at most showtimes 3 times the audience in attendence. The critical response has been overwhelming - it has 94% rating on the Rotten ... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: WALL-E: 19 of 48
WALL-E (Dir. Andrew Stanton, 2008)Everybody (well, just about everybody - the film is at 96% at Rotten Tomatoes) is raving about WALL-E and it is well deserving of the acclaim. As the latest in the line of popular sophisticated animated Pixar films it is set in 2700 and involves a lonely rusty robot left behind to clean up t... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Leatherheads: 4 of 10
LEATHERHEADS (Dir. George Clooney, 2008) It's doubtful that anybody will ever mistake this for a comedy classic. George Clooney's period piece football follies opened last spring to mixed reviews and bad box office and it's immediately easy to see why. The first few scenes involving a comic contrast between college and profe... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Inland Empire: 2 of 5
INLAND EMPIRE (Dir. David Lynch, 2006) Writing about a David Lynch film can be one of the most intimidating tasks a critic can have. No straight plot description or analysis can be made and working out character motives or the real from the imaginary will leave one's mind tangled up in Jungian knots. But I'll roll up my slee... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Where The Wild Things Are (2009): 2 of 5
The long awaited live action movie adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book is a big boisterous production - a fetching and fiery piece of cinematic eye candy. To flesh out the original book, which was only 10 sentences long, Jonze and Dave Eggers gives us a believable back story for our ten year old hero Max (... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno): 20 of 47
At the end of this film (don't worry no spoilers) I heard someone in the audience say "WTF?" that's right they said the initials as the kids today are known to do and yeah I could see where they're coming from. This dark grotesque gothic tale is exhausting and weirded me out to the edge of my seat many times. Seen through th... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Doubt: 3 of 7
DOUBT (Dir. John Patrick Shanley, 2008) "Where's your compassion?" an exasperated Father Flynn (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) bellows at Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep). "Nowhere you can get at it" she sternly and coldly responds. The unflinching Principal at St. Nicholas in the Bronx is dead certain that the Priest, new ... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: The Butterfly Effect: 3 of 7
(Dir. Eric Bress & J. Mackye Gruber) First let me get this out of the way - it's not just that I find Ashton Kutcher to be untalented - he strikes me as obnoxiously untalented! But that's the least of our worries with this contrived derivative nonsense. The plot is to ridiculous to go into at any length so simply - it's a st... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Breach: 8 of 18
BREACH (Dir. Billy Ray, 2007) "He was trying to commit the intelligence equivalent of the perfect crime" says Paul Moore of his former collegue Robert Hanssen (from a MSNBC report enititled "Mole" included as a bonus feature on the just released DVD). Hanssen, who sold military secrets to Russia during the height of the cold... More..