You might have heard of this movie. You might also have heard of its director, someone named Steven Spielberg. Watch it for free by clicking here.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
You might have heard of this movie. You might also have heard of its director, someone named Steven Spielberg. Watch it for free by clicking here.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
by Thomas Harris
I suppose this is an example of why you should always read the book before you see the movie. Harris’s Lambs is intelligent, suspenseful, and clearly one of the better serial-killer novels. Yet in my Hollywood-influenced mind’s eye, F.B.I. trainee Clarice Starling has morphed into Jodie Foster, malevolent Hannibal Lecter is Anthony Hopkins, and every dramatic chapter is accompanied by images from the film. But kudos to Harris, because even though the book holds no surprises for anyone familiar with the movie, it’s still a gripping read.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
*****
At times, I have trouble taking Ted Baxter … er, Scott Pelley, seriously. It doesn’t help when Pelley wears jackets that, at a glance, seem to reveal his tiny yellow arms.
*****
Airheaded Anchor Comment of the Week:
“I’m supposed to say nude, but I’m going to say naked.” — HLN’s Richelle Carey, pictured above, discussing rumors about the emergence of more Prince Harry pictures.
Yes, because your viewers might struggle with the definition of a big word like “nude.”
*****
Michael Moore was on a Huffington Post podcast the other day. Michael Moore should really think twice before wearing shorts on national podcasts.
*****
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Sometimes the title of a show tells you everything that you need to know.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
It’s a David Lynch movie, so yes, it’s weird. If you don’t want weird, the Republican National Convention is on television. Oh, wait ….
Click here to watch.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Good job, TMZ, for placing that little red star over Prince Harry’s arse. It does so much to preserve his modesty.
*****
Back in May, some idiot on this Web site ridiculed CNN for speculating about a hurricane striking Florida during the Republican National Convention. Idiots do not get fired at The Grouchy Editor, they get promoted, so yes, he’s still here.
*****
Come on, voters. Can’t we show Richie Rich that, at least this one time, money can’t buy everything?
*****
Animal-rights activists are up in the air … er, up in arms because someone duct-taped a turtle to helium balloons and then launched the little fellow. I don’t know, I think if I were a turtle, I might enjoy the change of scenery.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
by Jess Walter
Pasquale is an insecure young man drifting dreamily through life in his small, Italian fishing village. Dee Moray is an up-and-coming starlet on the set of Hollywood’s infamous epic, the Richard Burton and Liz Taylor vehicle, Cleopatra. Pasquale and Dee would seem to have little in common, but in author Jess Walter’s capable hands, their journey from 1962 to the present is a fanciful treat. Ruins isn’t perfect; there are passages that resemble an old Doris Day-Rock Hudson farce with contrived situations, but Walter’s hopscotching, time-traveling story is mostly funny, bittersweet, and wise.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
“They’re coming to get you, Barbara.” It’s been awhile since you last creeped out to George Romero’s zombie classic, so watch it free of charge by clicking here for Hulu, or here for YouTube. The YouTube version has better picture quality, although it was a bit of a slow load on my computer.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Someone is always trying to cut funding for poor PBS. And frankly, with so many great science shows on cable, it’s getting harder to justify public broadcasting.
Maybe it’s a sign of (my) old age, but I’m digging the programming on channels like Discovery, Nat Geo, and Science, which is often jaw-dropping stuff. Who needs MTV?
*****
“I think the vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late-night television.”
Coming from the clown pictured above and below, should we take this quote from Rudy Giuliani as an endorsement of Joe Biden?
*****
I’m still waiting for Bernie Goldberg’s angry denunciation of media bias as it pertains to the birthday cake that Fox’s Chris Wallace presented to Paul Ryan (above).
*****
I’m tired of hearing about what a “nice guy” Ryan is. We also hear how nice Mitt Romney is, and how nice President Obama is. These guys are politicians — if they came off as snarling, sniveling jackanapes, what chance would they have of getting elected?
*****
This is why some journalists eschew television and go into print media, where they cannot be seen.
*****
We began this week’s review with a picture of the sun. We end with a picture of the moon, courtesy of Katy Perry at a California water park.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Veronica Lake stars as a witch, burned at the stake in the 17th century, who returns to haunt the descendant (Fredric March) of her persecutor. Somehow, Hollywood was able to make this kind of hokum work in the 1940s. Watch it for free by clicking here.
© 2010-2026 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Great Minds Think Alike
*****
I can’t be bothered to read The Huffington Post commenting “guidelines,” because they are so obvious. They must go something like this:
“It does not matter if your post is obscenity-free, threat-free, and libel-free. If we don’t like it, we will censor it.”
I suspect that the Post dislikes me because I have the temerity to point out its typographical screw-ups. Like this one:
So what did I post that caused “MotorcycleBoy” and the Huff Post editors to throw a tanrum? This:

*****
And finally, odd post of the week, courtesy of Gawker:
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