In 2003, Jack Black was still something of a novelty act that had not yet worn thin, a careening amalgam of Belushi and Shatner that...

I devoured Greek mythology as a boy, in whatever form I could find it. Doris Gates' Penguin versions, Barbara Picard's outstanding...

A nod to here to the opening of the 2016 Olympic Games with a detour back into guilty pleasure territory. 1992's romcom The Cutting Edge...

I have enjoyed James Thurber's fables since I was a boy, as well as his perfectly simple sketched illustrations. (His depiction of...

Smaug wasn't the first dragon I knew by name - that would have been Tiamat, the many-headed antagonist from the classic and awesome D&D...

For those of my vintage, it's hard to overstate what a big deal E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was. It was 1982, a vastly simpler time, with...

I've never been a huge Tom Hanks fan. I don't get what all the fuss is about, frankly. He was fine and all as a goofy comic actor in fare...

I've never walked out of a movie theater, but the closest I ever came was during the first ten minutes of Moulin Rouge! It was so...

I've mentioned before that it took Star Trek: The Next Generation a while to find its stride, and nowhere is that more evident than in...

Hagar the Horrible was a beloved comic strip in my family while I was growing up. Hagar's Gleason-esque Viking warrior and his sitcom...

I love my wizards. Gandalf, Merlin, Dumbledore. I love the gravitas, the familiarity, the tradition. But sometimes you need a witch. And...

I don't care if Blue Steel, El Tigre, and Magnum are all the same look. All I know is that Zoolander is so hot right now. Just really,...