One moment later, the young girl was completely devoured by the circus bear. | Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema Readers of The Golden Compass will find a book that severely questions religious authority, venerates childhood sexuality and virtually espouses atheism. Viewers of the film adaptation, however, will find none of these ideas in the movie. By stripping out the elements that made the book so compelling, director Chris Weitz and his partners at......

Photo courtesy of travelin librarian via flickr One of my favorite films of 2007 arrives to DVD today, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. I know what some of you are thinking--why would I want to watch a documentary about grown men competing at Donkey Kong? To that question I can only say, "Trust me. You won't be sorry." Like all great films, King of Kong is about much more than its......

Atonement hits theaters this weekend as one of the few, definite contenders for an Academy Award. It bears all the traditional hallmarks of an Oscar-caliber film: lavish period piece (check), excellent source novel (check), epic scope (check), high-powered English cast (check), nude scene from Keira Knightley (double check). Those critics who've already seen it have been generous with praise, so I'm expecting nothing less than a winner. It's virtually certain that The Golden Compass......

Let's get this out of the way immediately--if you are a fan of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, you will be disappointed by some of the elisions and excisions made in this movie. The degree to which it bothers you will largely determine how much you enjoy The Golden Compass. I won't get into the details too much since it would spoil the movie for those unfamiliar with the novels. Let's just say......

Our pals at Londonist are the first to jump on the orgy of Best Of lists, so heres what they have to say... A list for LA? Got to be film related, but because we don't have a film industry anymore I've had to alternate between a great flick of 2006 (with a British connection) and an associated great Brit. Don't worry you'll see what I mean. So in reverse order: 10 - Steve......

Thursday Night Lights Can you believe the powers-that-be let Emmitt take the disco ball last night? Awesome. "College Football" (PRIME 42, 4:00 p.m.) Oregon @ USC "NHL Hockey" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Flyers @ Kings "College Basketball (PRIME 42, 7:30 p.m.) South Carolina @ USC "Once Were Warriors" (IFC, 7:50 p.m.) Dysfunctional Maori family in this award-winner "Survivor: Cook Islands" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Survivor flirtations raise the ire of "the Others", oops, am suffering......

Veteran's Day Weekend Edition Today "The O'Reilly Factor/Hannity & Colmes/On the Record With Greta Van Susteren" (FOX, 5:00/6:00/7:00 p.m.) Watch Fox pundits continue to spin Tuesday's election results "NBA Basketball" (ESPN, 5:00 p.m.) Miami Heat @ New Jersey Nets "College Football" (ESPN2, 5:00 p.m.) Watch red-staters pour their anguish and disappointment into the Friday night lights: Texal-El Paso @ Alabama-Birmingham "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" (Nickelodeon, 5:00 p.m.) Toddlers and college stoners rejoice "College Basketball"......