Movie Review: Sex and the City (2008)

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Brian Wright

Appreciated yet flawed homage to original (4/10)

“Never try to relive the past: the fire will have become ashes.”
— General Douglas MacArthur

Like many moviegoers and Sex and the City series fans, I desperately wanted to fall in love with this movie as much as I had fallen in love with practically everything about the TV show. Alas, my subtitle speaks with kid gloves only because of the enormous respect I had for that groundbreaking creative enterprise on HBO, Sunday nights—running from 1998 to 2004 with a total of 94 episodes. But if I’m Ebert and/or Roeper, all honesty requires a thumbs down on the movie… even a ‘way down:’

An obvious ringer right off the top: “What in the holy hallelujah is Jennifer Hudson doing in this movie?!” Continue reading →

Book Review: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2001)

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Brian Wright

A funloving English contrarian roasts the pretensions of
New York’s Magazine Avenue
by Toby Young

Someone must have loaned me this book from Toby Young when I wasn’t looking. A week or two ago, I was scrounging thru my top bookshelf for some lighter reading to accompany me on a trip up north, when I see How to Lose Friends peeking out from between a dog-eared road atlas and a software manual. I read a couple of pages and said this is just right.

Continue reading →