For reasons best left undisclosed in this forum, Cinema Sideshow spent the morning curled up on the couch with a mug of coffee and a cigarette, watching Last Holiday, the chick flick about Queen Latifah getting a brain tumor and spending all of her money at a fancy resort. And you know what? We liked it.

The thing about reviewing movies professionally that civilians don't understand is this: When you see every movie (or, at least, a much higher percentage than the average film-goer) and you watch with a critical eye, it erodes your ability to enjoy movies as mindless entertainment. You start to discern that 99 percent of Hollywood's output is created to an established template. All the constructs become transparent -- the three-act structure, the major plot point that comes every 20 minutes, the cute-meets and the predictable happy endings and the tertiary character who'll (surprise!) turn out to be the bad guy. You've already seen it all hundreds of times already, and this version is just more of the same. The Emperor is buck-ass nekkid, and your job is to point and laugh. (Read more...)