I like to think I'm generally accessible, but I give readers the benefit of the doubt of being reasonably culturally-literate.

Proving that the best villains have the charisma of a hero, (Jason) Statham makes a strong impression, supplying the kind of menace that permeates the movie even when he's not on screen. His fight with (Dwayne) Johnson doesn't have the bang you'd expect from a The Transporter versus The Rock match-up, but the climactic Statham-(Vin)Diesel battle more than delivers.

If film critics could destroy a movie, Michael Bay and Adam Sandler would be working at Starbucks. If film critics could make a movie a hit, the Dardenne brothers would be courted by every studio in town.

I like to think I'm generally accessible, but I give readers the benefit of the doubt of being reasonably culturally-literate.

Obviously the Internet has become something of a leveler; it was once a luxury to be able to reach a mass audience, and now anybody can do it, to some extent.

Even before I started going to movies, I loved the idea of them. When I started learning to read as a kid, I started reading the movie pages in the paper and I could tell you what was showing at every theater within a ten mile radius of our house.

I hate to see great writers like Ringel and Ansen and Jan Stuart (among many others) being put out to pastures because print media is suffering.