Author Archives: Dennis Toth

Three things are certain in life. Death and taxes are two of them. The other is the recurrence of the bogus claim that a public service can be fairly managed for the greater public good by private business. The whole theory is as harsh as taxes and more finite than death, and despite its long ... Read more

If you give an award and nobody comes, does it still make any sense? This ancient philosophical question is about to be tested by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as they attempt to give Jean-Luc Godard an award on Nov. 13. The problem is that Godard is refusing to answer their phone ... Read more

Want to make a movie? Great! Just send me money and I’ll “produce” it for you. Maybe I’m being too obvious with the scam, but there may already be several people anxious to know how much and where to send it. So let me right off make it clear that the opening sentence is not ... Read more

What connects Sylvester Stallone, Paranormal Activity 2 and a Swiss brand of condoms? Not much, since the Harry Popper condom brand is the one Hollywood-related item that seems to be actually making money. OK, the Swiss company claims that the name has nothing to do with Harry Potter, and they will keep making this claim ... Read more

Whoever said you shouldn’t beat a dead horse was obviously never in the DVD business. After all, you don’t expect people to keep buying the same lousy version of the same crappy film over and over again, do you? Which is why we now have multiple versions of such films as Blade Runner (five and ... Read more

If this were France, we all would be on vacation. But it isn’t, and the citizens of the U.S. are expected to trudge away through stifling heat and the umpteenth Will Farrell movie like dutiful workers in a redo of Metropolis. It all sounds just slightly dreadful, but it also sums up the strange feeling ... Read more

Life was simpler before the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system. Americans were all married, had 2.5 children, and nobody engaged in sex. Yep, those were the days. But in 1966, the MPAA created the first version of the rating system and thereby opened the floodgates of Hell. Well, that is sort of the ... Read more

Friends, fan boys and countrymen, I come not to praise Comic-Con but to bury it. Oops, don’t need to because Hollywood has beaten me to it. Now that the recently completed 41st Comic-Con Festival in San Diego has become a celebration of everything that has gone completely warped at the movies, it may be time ... Read more

The cicadas have already begun their seasonal dirge, and despite the unprecedented heat, summer is moving into its final, sultry stage. Sultry, however, is not the word to describe the summer box office. Words like limp, mediocre and just plain dismal would seem more appropriate. But before the boys of Hollywood are forced to refudiate ... Read more

Whenever I feel lonely, I just remember that I have friends. Lots and lots of friends. People whom I have never met, never talked to and could never pick out of a line-up. Yep, they are almost like family. The social network revolution has become the major historical marker for the first quarter of the ... Read more