Video: 3
Audio: 2
Extras: 2
Augusten Burroughs’ memoir Running With Scissors (the memoir that Oprah didn’t put on her book club, then rip the author a new one after learning it was fake) finally makes its way to the screen courtesy of Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy. For those unfamiliar, Burroughs had quite a bizarre upbringing. His mother (wonderfully played by Annette Bening) is a narcissistic, delusional dreamer who thinks her poetry is amazing and that she is someone important. Sadly, she neglects her son (Joseph Cross) to pursue her dreams, leaving him under the care of her eccentric therapist, Dr. Finch (Brian Cox), and his twisted family (including Jill Clayburgh and Gwyneth Paltrow) in a house packed to the gills with knickknacks, clutter, and junk. To call this boy’s upbringing dysfunctional is an understatement.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 2 Trust the Man, Fox’s latest depiction of love in modern times, seems more of an anti-romance in that it focuses on the mundane realities of coupledom. Julianne Moore and David Duchovny are Rebecca and Tom, the film’s key married couple, and they’re headed for the inevitability of divorce. As an ambitious Broadway actress, Rebecca’s workaholic tendencies force her stay-at-home husband to stray into the dangers of infidelity. On the other side of town, Elaine (Maggie Gyllenhaal), now ready for marriage, struggles with her noncommittal boyfriend of seven years, Tobey (Billy Crudup). While Trust attempts to distinguish itself by focusing on reality over romance, the film is simply annoying, flat, and boring.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
They say that you have to reach your nadir before you can start to rebound. If that’s the case, then Ben Affleck’s career might very well be on the upswing following his portrayal of a tormented Hollywood agent in this bland movie that seems to defy genre classification. Not funny enough to be a comedy yet too light on its feet to be a drama or character study, Man About Town is simply a low-budget throwaway that probably rated too poorly to merit theatrical distribution in the United States.
General and Practical Rules Of Screen Size
The original rules of thumb on screen size were concocted during the era of CRTs and scan lines and have been massaged somewhat since, and will be massaged further in this era of 1080p.
They're both sexy slim, and can hang on the wall. But in spite of the similar physical profiles these two technologies are very different, and each has its strengths and weaknesses and they're not necessarily the ones the sales guy at the Big Box Store will tell you about.
•Sound & Vision CEDIA RoundtableS&V contributor Jim Willcox sat down with two expert installers - our own John Sciacca and John Chance of The Home Theater Connection in Staten Island, NY - at the recent CEDIA Expo to discuss issues confronting them and their custo
