Happy Fourth of July weekend--the perfect time of the year for barbecues, burgers, and blockbusters. If you haven't seen War of the Worlds, I'd strongly encourage it. Forget any nattering you've read about the ending--if there's a better "big" movie this year, I'll be surprised.

I'm in South Jersey for the weekend and pretty limited by what's running at the local multiplexes (though, curiously, Walk on Water's playing). Looks like I might have the chance to catch up on Batman and Dead, though my mother and wife are threatening to drag us all to see some Travelling Pants .

Trapped in Massachusetts...conceivably I could catch YES or HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE if I travelled all the way to Newton or Waltham...I may just see WAR OF THE WORLDS again with my folks...nothing says 4th of July like a big steaming pile of aci-fi-inflected Holocaust recall. And this week, it's definitely time to rewatch A.I. so that I can revel in the much-reviled-but-actually-often-revelatory "compromised Spielberg ending."

really, reverse shot recommending "war of the worlds"? i'm shocked! :)