No, not this kind of piracy.
For those not familiar with WordPress, the site tracks a variety of stats for my blog, including what search terms led people here. After a few months on WordPress, I’ve realized that having the word “Pirate” in my movie-related blog title leads some people here who might be searching for pirated movies. I get a lot of searches like “iron man 3 pirate” or “life of pi from the pirate way,” presumably a misspelling of The Pirate Bay, the popular torrent site. (I also randomly get people who click over to my Tomb Raider videogame review, looking for a walkthrough of the pirate ship section of the game. To those people I apologize, and recommend they check IGN.) So with the number of people who come looking for pirated movies, I feel like I should tell you: I am strongly opposed to media piracy.
I know many people who regularly pirate movies and tv shows. Continue reading
If I’m in a situation where I’m being completely honest, my answer is usually that Hook is my favorite film. It’s my de facto favorite movie, as it were. It’s the movie that means the most to me, and that I connect with in a way that surpasses all others. I think it’s a brilliant and remarkable movie, with some of the best sets ever created for the screen. I could (and probably will) write an essay about Hook’s brilliance, but I’ll save that for another time. I feel like Hook has been unfairly maligned through the years (it has a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes), though it does have a cult following. Even Spielberg has said critical things of it. I’m pretty defensive when it comes to Hook, because it does mean so much to me, so I often will name something else if I feel like there’s going to be an argument about it. On the other hand, I like defying expectations, and for a film buff to pick a critical flop from the 90’s as his favorite film often surprises people. I give this answer a lot when people who know that I’m a film buff ask me the question. But it is, in fact, my favorite film, even if it’s not always my answer. 
I feel like most people’s ability to enjoy The Great Gatsby will depend on how they respond to Baz Luhrmann’s style as a director. In the interest of full disclosure I should say that I’m a huge Luhrmann fan (I even loved Australia), and I think he was the perfect choice to direct the first truly great adaptation of The Great Gatsby. He manages to capture the feeling of the book and to make the story compelling in a way that the last attempt at adapting the book, in 1974, failed to do, despite its stellar cast.
I wish Hollywood would make more movies like Oblivion. That’s not to say that Oblivion is great, but just that it’s the sort of film that feels like it has been abandoned lately. The current state of the science fiction film genre consists of either indie dramas like Moon or Another Earth, or big budget spectacles that turn out to be pretentious messes like Prometheus or Inception, with a special category set aside for superhero movies. (One of the few exceptions is Super 8.) However, Oblivion is the sort of sci-fi movie I love. It’s got an interesting plot and setting, great effects, a good cast and stellar visuals. It may fail somewhat on the execution, but I have to give them full credit for the attempt.
The Love Pirate 