Xander ,'End of Days'
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Make no mistake, as emperor, Palpatine is a dictator--but a relatively benign one, like Pinochet.
Well, any credibility the author might have had with me just went out the window when he called Augusto Pinochet "relatively benign." Because that's....well, that's fucking insane.
V For Vendetta could tip the scale.
X-posted with Minearverse:
Extremely mixed review (spoilery) of THE INSIDE from The New Yorker: [link]
There are also seriously negative reviews of BATMAN BEGINS and MR. AND MRS. SMITH, but Denby's always been a bit of a prig: [link]
That caught my eye too, Steph.
Well it's the Weekly Standard, which makes the National Review look like the Village Voice.
Now here, I would have said it was a joke, down to the Palpatine = Pinochet comparison. Because, yeah, Pinochet and "relatively benign" don't belong in the same sentence unless the phrase "rectal tumor" is also in the mix.
But I'll take your word for it.
V For Vendetta could tip the scale.
We can hope!
but Denby's always been a bit of a prig
I have to ask (and I'm not just picking on you) -- why does Denby get this response where Anthony Lane is worshipped like a god? I find them more or less equally pompous, but at least Denby's reviews talk about the films.
Watchmen came under heavy scrutiny in the wake of Paramount chief Brad Grey's surprise move to replace Donald De Line with Gail Berman as studio president in late March, the trade paper reported.
Fine. She takes away our shows and now she takes away our movies! Brat.
Whatever the case, the important thing to recognize is that the Empire is not committing random acts of terror. It is engaged in a fight for the survival of its regime against a violent group of rebels who are committed to its destruction.
I'd like to think the Star Wars essay is a joke, but the snippet quoted above reads to me like nothing more than a justification for invading Iraq.
I am not very film-oriented. I like to read Anthony Lane's reviews because he is so very funnily pissy about things. David Denby is a little blah. I like both of them fine. But then, I don't read film reviews to actually know about the films.