There’s definitely something wrong with me. No matter how dazzlingly good I found The Incredibles to be, what’s left in my memory are the things that I reckon are flaws. And it’s hardly the film’s fault, because there’s nothing that doesn’t have flaws. It’s me. I measure things ...
It’s not the detail. We pretty soon forget all of that, and — if forced — have to go back to the manual or the text book or whoever taught us the damn thing in the first place. No, what we truly remember of things we learn consists of general principles wrapped up in phrases, ...
So much to write about. Kerry Conran’s (and by gum is it his) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is the best fun you’re likely to have at the movies (and by gum is it ‘at the movies’) this year, if you go into it with the right expectations. It’s not great art, but ...
One of the most useful ideas which spins off philosopher and cognitive scientist Margaret Boden’s categorisation of human creativity into the ‘P-creative’ and the ‘H-creative’, is that it asks us to value the P-creative far more than we might otherwise. P-creativity (the ‘P’ stands ...
Paul Grice’s analysis of the pragmatics of conversation, which concludes that conversation is a cooperative act which, if it’s to be effective, should follow certain maxims, defines informal protocols for getting the message across effectively. It applies to both speaker and listener. To the speaker it says: ...
There’s a short scene towards the end of Star Wars which, despite being shot carelessly, as if it were just tedious but necessary exposition, is hugely important to the film. Luke, Han, Leia and the droids have just escaped from the Death Star with its plans, and have done the hyperspace thing back to the ...
There’s something ineffably sad about the May 11th cast-and-crew photograph on the new blog documenting the filming of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s such a cheery, optimistic scene, and yet the occasion was the third anniversary of Douglas Adams’s sudden death. More than that, ...
Van Helsing is a terrible film, but in a particularly modern way. It’s not that it spends all its time at the top of its voice. It’s not that it’s a monster movie in which the monsters aren’t remotely scary. It’s not that the special effects aren’t all that good. It’s not that the ...