Blogcritics Author: Cindy Collins Smith

Technology Review: iPhone 3G

Cindy Collins Smith — Mon, 4 Aug 2008 19:32:20 EDT

The second-generation iPhone comes with performance enhancements, added functionality, and a more robust network.
Some people call me an “early adopter” — a term that does not universally apply. Unlike my father and brother, I’ve never gone after new stuff for the sake of new stuff. I still don’t have a Blu-ray player or an HDTV. (My older models still work.) But when it comes to a gadget of desire, I’m right there. Maybe...

Movie Review: WarGames 25th Anniversary Event, July 24

Cindy Collins Smith — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:31:17 EDT

The seminal hacker film WarGames returned to the big screen July 24 for a one night, nationwide, 25th Anniversary tribute.
It was the coolest movie trailer in the summer of 1983. A robotic synthetic voice asked "SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?" as the words themselves spooled out across a computer screen. And David Lightman (played by a nearly unknown Matthew Broderick) answered back: "How about 'GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR'?"... unleashing a phantom...

The Third of Michael Emerson's Five Creepiest Characters of All Time: Johan Borg in Hour of the Wolf

Cindy Collins Smith — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:56:09 EDT

Emmy-nominated "Lost" actor Michael Emerson goes to the art house to find the third of his favorite creepy characters.
In his "creepiest performances" video, Michael Emerson (Ben Linus on Lost) gives a nod to Max von Sydow and Ingmar Bergman: Another great one is, if you watch Ingmar Bergman movies... Max von Sydow did a movie for Bergman called The Hour of the Wolf, where he plays a sort of standard tortured Swedish artist who just can't stop killing...

DVD Review: VeggieTales - Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue

Cindy Collins Smith — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:25:06 EDT

In this new installment of VeggieTales, Tom and Huck learn the value of helping others, even if it costs them.
VeggieTales is back, this time putting a vegetable spin on the American big river classic Huckleberry Finn.It's 1904, the year of the St. Louis World's Fair. Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry (a.k.a. Tom and Huck) are homesteading along the banks of the mighty Mississippi River and are within days of owning their own land. As they dream...

The Second of Michael Emerson's Five Creepiest Characters of All Time: Kaspar Gutman in The Maltese Falcon

Cindy Collins Smith — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:16:30 EDT

"Lost" actor Michael Emerson makes the non-intuitive choice of "The Maltese Falcon's" Sidney Greenstreet as his next favorite creepy character.
In his EW video on the creepiest performances of all time, Michael Emerson (Ben Linus on Lost) reveals that Sidney Greenstreet creeps him out:Another über creepy performance, I think, is Sidney Greenstreet's in The Maltese Falcon. He's one of those characters who's so civilized on the surface, and yet you hope you're never left...

One of Michael Emerson's Five Creepiest Characters of All Time: Nosferatu

Cindy Collins Smith — Mon, 7 Jul 2008 06:22:51 EDT

"Lost" actor Michael Emerson reveals his top five creepy characters in an Entertainment Weekly video.
"Creepy" is the first word viewers use to describe Ben Linus, former leader of The Others on Lost. Some time back, Entertainment Weekly got Michael Emerson, the actor who plays Ben, to reveal who he credits with giving the five creepiest performances in film and television history. EW later posted the video on YouTube.So who creeps...

Movie Review: Why The Happening Doesn't

Cindy Collins Smith — Sat, 5 Jul 2008 18:54:48 EDT

In The Happening, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan takes on Alfred Hitchcock and George Romero but gets tangled up instead.
Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan is known for creating twist endings. What he should be known for is twisting conventional genres. Sometimes it works, as it did in The Sixth Sense, Signs, and Unbreakable. And sometimes it just falls flat. In The Happening, Shyamalan plays off a couple of different genres, but most obviously he works with...

DVD Review: The Crown Jewels of Ripper Cinema - The Lodger (1944)

Cindy Collins Smith — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:47:10 EDT

One of the greatest Jack the Ripper movies finally comes to DVD in a classy studio edition.
Not many movies are in contention for being among the Ripper cinema’s “crown jewels.” Perhaps Pandora’s Box. Probably Murder by Decree. And definitely the John Brahm/Laird Cregar Lodger. My film geek friends have always been split over whether the 1944 Lodger or Murder by Decree is the best Ripper film of all time. There is...