I think there's a difference between a good director and a director who makes good movies. You can be one and not the other.

I know Peter Jackson pulled off the most ambitious movie-making effort I've ever heard of. That counts for a lot in my book.

On the subject of the special effects, I think we'll all probably agree that the compositing holds up much less well than the in-camera effects. But I heard something very interesting the other day that I hadn't thought of. The Hobbit is going to be filmed in stereo. That means forced perspective won't work.

The Mummy Returns changed the way the sun works to suit the plot. I found it pretty tough to buy that one.

Really? I hated that, because I'm damn sick of it. It's a neat piece, but this is the third time I've heard it used like that. It was so obvious that it just popped me right out of the scene.

The problem I have with zombie stories is always the ending. It always seems to boil down either to "everybody's dead" or "they think they're safe but … here we go again!"

I want to see some kind of victory over the zombies that doesn't involve a miraculous "cure" for the plague or whatever. I have no idea what shape that kind of ending would take. I also just might be sick to death of the turn-of-the-century nihilism that's dominated the past decade.

I believe it was at the end of the pilot episode. The action cut to the campers, then cut back to the protagonist in his car. He had a picture of his wife and son rubber-banded to the sun visor.

This movie had a guesstimated budget of $200 million.

Forty really good movies could have been made for that.

Or a hundred modest movies could have been made, probably eight or ten of which would have turned out truly great.

This movie isn't just bad. And it's not just stupid. It's both of those things, but it's also an infuriating waste of talent, creativity, time, labor and money.

The world would have been a better place if this movie had never existed.

I hate this movie. But more than that, I hate the fact that this movie exists.

Ha. I'd forgotten all about that. That's awesome.

"Rocky & Bullwinkle" doesn't get nearly the love and respect it deserves.

I enjoyed the second episode a lot less than the pilot, but I'm not canceling my season pass or anything just yet. I'm in wait-and-see mode with this one. If we don't get some actual character stuff next week, I'll be a bit let down.

I am so fucking sick of zombies.

But I enjoyed the premiere enough anyway to tune in next week.

Oh. Right. Shit. Never mind that, then.

None of that's unprecedented in the animal kingdom. There are species of toad in the genus Bufo that have psychotropic venom. The endoparasitoid fungus Cordyceps unilateralis alters the behavior of its host before the host dies from the infection. And Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan that's believed to be linked to a variety of behavior-affecting organic brain disorders. It's not much of a leap to say that a parasitic infection could cause pica-like symptoms.

(Pro tip: If you're squeamish, or just don't feel like being plagued by nightmares for several weeks, it might be best not to google any of the shit I just said.)

"Bug" is a really interesting movie. It's one of the few I know that made the jump from stage play to film while staying extremely faithful to the source material.

It's probably not what you think, though.

Late sixties. Hackman, Peck, Franciscus … hell of a cast, really. Three guys in an Apollo capsule get stuck in orbit when their main engine fails. Won the Oscar for best special effects, making it the only Oscar-winning film ever to be featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.