Email Author Jim Ridley

Awards

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published March 24, 2005

  "Blown Opportunity"

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published May 19, 2005

  "Lost in the Stars"

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published September 1, 2005

  "Pulling Punch Lines"

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2007 Stories by Jim Ridley

• Best Movies of 2007

  published December 27, 2007

  1. There Will Be Blood: The Texas tea bubbles up from the ground like primordial blood at the beginning of Paul Thomas Anderson's... More >>

• Missed Opportunities

  published December 27, 2007

  How tough is it for a movie to find its audience, above the din of blockbuster marketing and beyond the clogged distribution pipeline? Tsai... More >>

• Hock the Line

  published December 20, 2007

  As an actor, John C. Reilly is the opposite of Mr. Cellophane. He doesn't disappear into a role; roles disappear onto him — the... More >>

• With Relatives Like These ...

  published December 13, 2007

  There are comedies of discomfort, and then there's Margot at the Wedding, Noah Baumbach's scalding followup to The Squid and... More >>

• Cellar Beware

  published December 6, 2007

  The Girl Next Door (Anchor Bay) If the horror of Saw were a poblano pepper, this here is a... More >>

• Once upon a Time ...

  published November 15, 2007

  The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Edition (MGM) As far as anniversary-edition DVDs go, The Princess... More >>

• The Boys Are Back

  published October 25, 2007

  Directors Series: Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros.) Most of the old Kubrick DVDs were crap: full-screen... More >>

• Genuine Fake Robots

  published October 18, 2007

  Transformers (DreamWorks) No doubt, Michael Bay's slam-bang action-figure commercial doesn't play nearly... More >>

• You'll Laugh Dying

  published October 11, 2007

  You Kill Me (Genius) Funny thing seeing Philip Baker Hall in You Kill Me, because he's already... More >>

• Fist Things First

  published October 4, 2007

  Caligula: Imperial Edition (Penthouse) (Spoiler alert: Fisting!) One day back in the swingin' Seventies,... More >>

• Rocket Men

  published September 27, 2007

  Four decades ago, the American space program was synonymous with the pinnacle of human achievement. Thirty-eight years later, the program that... More >>

• Keeping the Meter Running

  published August 16, 2007

  Taxi Driver: Collector's Edition (Sony) "Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads: Here is a man who would not... More >>

• Now Playing

  published August 9, 2007

  Poor Underdog, ending up Disney's bitch and working for the folks who snuffed Old Yeller. The pill-popping canine crime-fighter from the 1960s... More >>

• Chow Time Again

  published July 26, 2007

  Hard Boiled: Two-Disc Ultimate Edition (Weinstein) The Criterion version of John Woo's masterpiece, about... More >>

• Cold War Reheated

  published July 19, 2007

  Red Dawn: Collector's Edition (MGM) John Milius's 1984 war pic was a mighty bonkers release even back... More >>

• Now Playing

  published July 19, 2007

  Napoleon Dynamite looks like Cary Grant next to the hero of this Kiwi quirk-a-thon: a hulking, sullen creep named Jarrod (Jemaine Clement,... More >>

• When He Was Small

  published July 5, 2007

  Chancer: Series 1 (Acorn) Available solely in the U.K. for years, this is a small-time release featuring a modestly... More >>

• Crackers and Cheese

  published June 28, 2007

  Black Snake Moan (Paramount) The best place to see Craig Brewer's mash-up of blood-boiling exploitation elements would... More >>

• Maybe too Hard

  published June 21, 2007

  You don't need to watch the included preview of Live Free or Die Hard to know it's going to blow; as this set proves, only odd-numbered... More >>

• Sagebrush & Spaghetti

  published June 7, 2007

  The Sergio Leone Anthology (MGM) Sergio Leone made westerns like Wagner made ditties. This essential box set -- four films with... More >>

• What Garry Didn't Know

  published April 19, 2007

  Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show (Sony) The greatest boxed set ever -- not so much for the made-up irritainment... More >>

• The Hills Have Eyes II

  published March 29, 2007

  War movie, horror movie — the difference is negligible in the grim sequel to last year's hit remake of Wes Craven's 1977 mutant thriller.... More >>

• Franchise Player

  published March 15, 2007

  Casino Royale (Sony) James Bond gets a stirring shake-up in the best -- yeah, Goldfinger fans, the best --... More >>

• Message Bored

  published February 8, 2007

  What could be scarier than yet another PG-13 creepfest serving up pasty, staggering ghouls with stringy hair? Why, the same PG-13 creepfest set... More >>

• Epic Movie

  published February 8, 2007

  Epic Movie The speeds of sound and light remain constants, but the speed of crap accelerates like a... More >>