Once again, dear readers, I have to begin a column by apologizing for an unplanned absence. I’ve been very busy with work and family stuff lately, and I didn’t have the time to deliver the quality columns you’ve com...

Hollywood is being good to us this December, dear readers. This past weekend brought us The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – which is a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend it – and this week sees the release of American Hus...

The film opens with a slow-motion reminder of the bodies piled as carrion in the dark final days of the American Civil War; it will be the only moment of strict battlefield action as Steven Spielberg’s intimate, swelling epic L...