Was the concept of recreating a 70's double feature experience a bit "too cool for the room?"

The trouble is, it's too lame for the room. All these "let's revisit the trash we enjoyed but show what we think it was really all about" has been done and done and done. The Rocky Horror Picture Show ("Science Fiction Double Feature," remember?). Movie, Movie. Creepshow. And I think essentially Breathless, Band of Outsiders, Shoot the Piano Player and maybe even Night of the Living Dead belong in this category, too.

We get it, already. Cheap thrills. Ooh, the pleasures of the trashy movie. But we've not only seen the originals, we've seen the parodies of the originals, and the parodies of the parodies. Tarantino was astonishingly behind the curve this time. Essentially all his movies have been plying this schtick, anyway, even if they didn't specifically recreate a "trip to the movie theater" experience. In fact, his trash culture obsessions have always felt second hand to me. Like he read them in a book on movies rather than discovered them for himself as a kid. It's very studied. He needs to develop some new themes, and explore different obsessions. I think that's why people stayed away.

Depending on the movie, I like Tarantino. Loved Reservoir Dogs, though it hasn't held up on later viewings for me; hated Pulp Fiction, which as I said gave me the impression he'd picked up his references from textbooks rather than revival house showings; obsessed over Kill Bill, which is, I think reflects movies and genres he genuinely loves and can't get out of his system.

My point is both that Grindhouse doesn't cover new territory and that kind of parody/homage has been done over and over again. So to say it failed because it was too hip or too cool for most viewers is, I think, inaccurate.

They were history before he hit his teens, and as far as I know primarily a New York, not a California, phenomenon. I suspect he read about them, and rented Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! on video as a teen.

Of course, it's not the honeymooning couple you need to worry about at all. It's the best friend and his steady girl, who look on the verge on an engagement themselves, who are in for the wild night.

Don't know how, if you "love the show" you managed to miss that Xander, Giles, Oz, Wesley, Connor, and Riley all fail to be "mysogynist pigs that will eventually leaverape/screw you over totally." Every one of them is a hero, and a source of good. I'd put Angel in that category, too, though his occaisional loss of soul provides a loophole you'll probably grab at. There were plenty of malevolent women around (Drucilla, Glory, Lilah, the female politician joining forces with evil to maintain her power, etc.), so it wasn't a case of gender proving moral worth. Please return to your DVD collection and try to understand this series.

Can't believe I left out the characters on Firefly. I agree with everything you said.

You're confused on more than one point. I didn't say you couldn't love a show and be critical of it. I said, you missed the point of the male characters entirely. You still do. I don't have time to be your Watcher. I suggest you re-watch the series and discuss with people who have the time.

First of all, she didn't say she was a genius, she said she was the smartest person she knew. Considering where she's from, this might quite well be the case. But regardless, what 18 year old doesn't think they are the smartest person they know? I think all the attempts to "put her in her place" are as asinine as they claim she is.

If there weren't a pointless war with a frightening death toll that continues to roll up, I'd say stay in and do some growing up. But you can't grow up six feet under. Sounds like there's a way out. Not only Cary, but several letter writers have verified this. So get out of it.

But I agree that there are issues, and bipolar might be a factor. Maybe not, but at least talk to someone about it.

From CNN back in 2002

• Thirty-four percent of the young Americans knew that the island used on last season's "Survivor" show was located in the South Pacific, but only 30 percent could locate the state of New Jersey on a map. The "Survivor" show's location was the Marquesas Islands in the eastern South Pacific.

• When asked to find 10 specific states on a map of the United States, only California and Texas could be located by a large majority of those surveyed. Both states were correctly located by 89 percent of the participants. Only 51 percent could find New York, the nation's third most populous state.

• On a world map, Americans could find on average only seven of 16 countries in the quiz. Only 89 percent of the Americans surveyed could find their own country on the map.

• In the world map test, Swedes could find an average of 13 of the 16 countries. Germans and Italians were next, with an average of 12 each.

• Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate on the map the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water. Worldwide, three in 10 of those surveyed could not correctly locate the Pacific Ocean.

• Although 81 percent of the surveyed Americans knew that the Middle East is the Earth's largest oil exporter, only 24 percent could find Saudi Arabia on the map.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20/geography.quiz/

The sad fact is that Deneuve's question about locating Iran on a map is apt, if the question about whether they have newspapers deep in America is exaggerated. And not by much. Papers are dying out. It's not exactly, er, news.