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Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler: Celluloid Tirades and Escapades
In this wickedly funny book, Joe Queenan is back in the movie theater, heckling the stars, directors, producersand audiencesthat define todays film industry. Setting out to torment innocent moviegoers, Queenan is in top formand loving itin this fun-filled, hilarious new collection of tirades and escapades in the absurd world of celluloid.
272 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1999
102 people want to read
About the author
Joe Queenan
46 books90 followersJoe Queenan is a humorist, critic and author from Philadelphia who graduated from Saint Joseph's University. He has written for numerous publications, such as Spy Magazine, TV Guide, Movieline, The Guardian and the New York Times Book Review. He has written eight books, including Balsamic Dreams, a scathing critique of the Baby Boomers, Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon, a tour of low-brow American pop culture and Imperial Caddy, a fairly scathing view of Dan Quayle and the American Vice-Presidency.
Queenan's work is noted for his caustic wit.
Queenan's work is noted for his caustic wit.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 27, 2023
"Cinema goers are now being exposed to a veritable tidal wave of misfortune involving the male reproductive organ. The simple fact of the matter is this: The menacing of the malleable male member has now become as much a cinematic cliche as the cloying Motown soundtrack and the close-up shot of shoes descending from a parked car. The generic shot of the 1990's is somebody named Baldwin or Quaid dropping his feet out of a sedan and then getting kicked in the balls while Aretha sings 'Chain of Fools' in the background." -- the author, on now-routine crotch violence in 'For Members Only'
Ah, the 1990's - during my collegiate years ('93-'97) I eagerly awaited the (now-defunct) monthly periodical Movieline to arrive in my postal box. Unlike competition such as Premiere and a few other magazines, Movieline did not play it safe and seemed to have as much fun poking the proverbial eye of Tinseltown while also celebrating its film industry. (Its photography and pictorials were also dependably first-rate.) One of the things I recall specifically noticing early on was the regular column / essay put forth by Joe Queenan, who usually took aim at all sorts of ridiculousness in the movies with a usual dose of severe snarky humor. Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler assembles two dozen of those columns / essays that previously appeared in Movieline between 1992 and 2000. If you were / are a fan of Queenan's content this is a great collection. However, there are two possible drawbacks - 1.) much of the subject matter is severely dated, either with the movies name-dropped or discussed (think of almost any 90's blockbuster and/or critics' darling and it's mentioned) or the technology (one essay focuses on an ailing Queenan sending a hapless friend or family member to a video store to his rent VHS tapes - a once-standard weekend errand now positively sounds like ancient history!) and 2.) reading so much of his work between two covers can seem like caustic overload, especially if (or when?) his smart-ass style becomes a bit grating. Still, it was amusing to read Queenan's type of shotgun-blast sensitivity regarding movies vs. real-life (the multi-part 'Don't Try This at Home!'), Hollywood's weird fixation on celebrating brutal criminality ('The Kidnappers Are All Right'), or his general dislike of Barbra Streisand (too numerous to list). Somebody pass the popcorn . . .
Ah, the 1990's - during my collegiate years ('93-'97) I eagerly awaited the (now-defunct) monthly periodical Movieline to arrive in my postal box. Unlike competition such as Premiere and a few other magazines, Movieline did not play it safe and seemed to have as much fun poking the proverbial eye of Tinseltown while also celebrating its film industry. (Its photography and pictorials were also dependably first-rate.) One of the things I recall specifically noticing early on was the regular column / essay put forth by Joe Queenan, who usually took aim at all sorts of ridiculousness in the movies with a usual dose of severe snarky humor. Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler assembles two dozen of those columns / essays that previously appeared in Movieline between 1992 and 2000. If you were / are a fan of Queenan's content this is a great collection. However, there are two possible drawbacks - 1.) much of the subject matter is severely dated, either with the movies name-dropped or discussed (think of almost any 90's blockbuster and/or critics' darling and it's mentioned) or the technology (one essay focuses on an ailing Queenan sending a hapless friend or family member to a video store to his rent VHS tapes - a once-standard weekend errand now positively sounds like ancient history!) and 2.) reading so much of his work between two covers can seem like caustic overload, especially if (or when?) his smart-ass style becomes a bit grating. Still, it was amusing to read Queenan's type of shotgun-blast sensitivity regarding movies vs. real-life (the multi-part 'Don't Try This at Home!'), Hollywood's weird fixation on celebrating brutal criminality ('The Kidnappers Are All Right'), or his general dislike of Barbra Streisand (too numerous to list). Somebody pass the popcorn . . .
December 10, 2011
Joe Queenan in the Studio with DJ Ian:
DJ Ian: Joe, you get away with a lot of shit in your Hollywood articles.
Joe Queenan: Hey, but that’s just me. A courageous, starry-eyed boy.
DJ Ian: I like the way you try to replicate the movies in real life.
Joe Queenan: Yeah, my favourite adventure from the screen trade was “Sliver”. Remember the scene where Sharon Stone goes to a restaurant in Manhattan and takes off her panties during lunch to impress her date?
DJ Ian: Sort of...
Joe Queenan: I went to three different lunches in midtown Manhattan with three different female friends, had three different nice conversations, ordered the angel hair pasta with arugula, then asked them to take off their panties.
DJ Ian: What happened?
Joe Queenan: Two refused outright, and one said she’d do it, but only at her apartment.
DJ Ian: That’s not a bad outcome. What did you think the odds of getting a woman to take off her panties in a crowded New York restaurant would be anyway?
Joe Queenan: About the same as getting a woman to fake an orgasm in a crowded New York diner.
DJ Ian: I guess that’s Manhattan for you.
Joe Queenan: On the other hand, the request would be gladly met in Los Angeles.
DJ Ian: Do your editors suggest what assignments you should take on?
Joe Queenan: Not really. On the rare occasions that they do, it’s not a lot of fun. Like watching every Merchant-Ivory film one after the other, or reading the collected interviews of Nicole Kidman.
DJ Ian: Speaking of red-headed overachievers, I noticed that you write fondly of Ireland and the occasional Irish film...
Joe Queenan: Very occasionally. I come from an Irish background via the Sorbonne. But I am saddened by the prospects for the Irish film industry. Nobody goes to Ireland to make a western, a sci-fi fantasy, an Adam Sandler movie, or a film about teetotallers. Apart from alcohol and violence (not necessarily in that order), there has never been a real lasting Eire dynamic.
DJ Ian: Which reminds me that you also have a special interest in the role of ears in cinema.
Joe Queenan: Yes. I first heard its siren call in 1994. I was impressed by the ear-piercing incident in “Speed”, which had followed so closely the scene in which a hired gun blows a hole through Gary Busey’s ear in “The Firm”. Both of which preceded by scant months the scene where Woody Harrelson blows off a part of Robert Downey Jr.’s ear in “Natural Born Killers”.
DJ Ian: So what do you think's behind this aural assault?
Joe Queenan: In years to come, ear-piercing, ear-chopping, ear-slicing, ear-filleting, ear-microwaving, and ear-masticating incidents may become so popular that they will replace head butts and kicks to the genitals as the single most popular cliché in the lexicon of popular cinema.
DJ Ian: Do you think we’ve reached that point now, where male genitals are safe in American cinema?
Joe Queenan: I don’t think so. I honestly think ball-busting, nut-cracking movies are here to stay.
DJ Ian: What does Hollywood’s obsession with the vulnerability of the penis say about our society?
Joe Queenan: Basically this: as long as there are men who have penises, there will be women who will want to cut them off. What’s more, many of these men will deserve to have them cut off.
DJ Ian: Is this fear just a Hollywood thing?
Joe Queenan: Good question. Is the fear of castration primarily a fear that is limited to the serially emasculated men who live and work in Hollywood?
DJ Ian: Or...
Joe Queenan: Or...does this veritable geyser of films involving crushed testicles, mandatory gelding, and groinocentric gunshot wounds reflect a wider, deeper fear on the part of all American men?
DJ Ian: A primal dread?
Joe Queenan: Yes, a nagging fear that, when all is said and done, his balls are only out on loan and his dick can be repossessed at any time.
DJ Ian: So this fear of genital impairment, it's pervasive?
Joe Queenan: Deep down inside, every American man secretly fears that someday, somewhere, someone is going to stick a sawed-off shotgun down his jockey shorts and threaten to nuke the crown jewels.
DJ Ian: Compared with this, Spike Lee is hardly a menace to society?
Joe Queenan: Spike Lee descends from a long tradition, only a European tradition, not a Brooklyn one, of annoyingness.
DJ Ian: What do you mean “European”?
Joe Queenan: Generations ago, the French developed the concept of “epater la bourgeoisie”, which, loosely translated, means, “Do everything humanly possible to get on middle-class people’s nerves”.
DJ Ian: So Lee gets on your nerves?
Joe Queenan: I think that Lee honestly believes that artists have a sacred obligation to get under the public’s skin, to constantly rock the boat, to say and do unbelievably stupid things, to boldly don the mantle of annoyingness. It is a mantle he wears quite well.
DJ Ian: Yet you compare him with another Manhattan favourite, Woody Allen? What do they have in common?
Joe Queenan: Each one is a short, bespectacled, narcissistic New Yorker with Knicks courtside seats whose acting leaves something to be desired.
DJ Ian: And, I suppose, neither of them is particularly good-looking.
Joe Queenan: Fortunately for them, because if they were, the audience would take its ultimate revenge on them.
DJ Ian: ”The 4000 Blows”?
Joe Queenan: Yes. Though no one likes to speak about it, there is little that the movie-going public enjoys more than seeing terrific-looking guys getting their faces smashed in.
DJ Ian: Only then have you made it?
Joe Queenan: Unequivocally. The public will not confer its full blessing on an actor until they have seen him get bludgeoned, lacerated, pistol-whipped, filleted with razors, burned, flogged, splattered with acid, crucified, or beheaded. And generally speaking, they like to see plenty of abuse in the facial area.
DJ Ian: So actors have to suffer for our sins?
Joe Queenan: Suffer is an understatement.The American public, in this context, is best looked upon as 310 million sick fucks.
DJ Ian: I don't think I'd have the guts to piss off an entire nation.
Joe Queenan: Perhaps, you're not a real smart arse then.
DJ Ian: Maybe I'm just highly annoying? Like Spike Lee?
Joe Queenan: No, you're a smart alec.
DJ Ian: A what?
Joe Queenan: A smart arse on training wheels.
DJ Ian: Ha, yeah.
Add half a star for agreeing to do this interview. (The half-star being me;)
DJ Ian: Joe, you get away with a lot of shit in your Hollywood articles.
Joe Queenan: Hey, but that’s just me. A courageous, starry-eyed boy.
DJ Ian: I like the way you try to replicate the movies in real life.
Joe Queenan: Yeah, my favourite adventure from the screen trade was “Sliver”. Remember the scene where Sharon Stone goes to a restaurant in Manhattan and takes off her panties during lunch to impress her date?
DJ Ian: Sort of...
Joe Queenan: I went to three different lunches in midtown Manhattan with three different female friends, had three different nice conversations, ordered the angel hair pasta with arugula, then asked them to take off their panties.
DJ Ian: What happened?
Joe Queenan: Two refused outright, and one said she’d do it, but only at her apartment.
DJ Ian: That’s not a bad outcome. What did you think the odds of getting a woman to take off her panties in a crowded New York restaurant would be anyway?
Joe Queenan: About the same as getting a woman to fake an orgasm in a crowded New York diner.
DJ Ian: I guess that’s Manhattan for you.
Joe Queenan: On the other hand, the request would be gladly met in Los Angeles.
DJ Ian: Do your editors suggest what assignments you should take on?
Joe Queenan: Not really. On the rare occasions that they do, it’s not a lot of fun. Like watching every Merchant-Ivory film one after the other, or reading the collected interviews of Nicole Kidman.
DJ Ian: Speaking of red-headed overachievers, I noticed that you write fondly of Ireland and the occasional Irish film...
Joe Queenan: Very occasionally. I come from an Irish background via the Sorbonne. But I am saddened by the prospects for the Irish film industry. Nobody goes to Ireland to make a western, a sci-fi fantasy, an Adam Sandler movie, or a film about teetotallers. Apart from alcohol and violence (not necessarily in that order), there has never been a real lasting Eire dynamic.
DJ Ian: Which reminds me that you also have a special interest in the role of ears in cinema.
Joe Queenan: Yes. I first heard its siren call in 1994. I was impressed by the ear-piercing incident in “Speed”, which had followed so closely the scene in which a hired gun blows a hole through Gary Busey’s ear in “The Firm”. Both of which preceded by scant months the scene where Woody Harrelson blows off a part of Robert Downey Jr.’s ear in “Natural Born Killers”.
DJ Ian: So what do you think's behind this aural assault?
Joe Queenan: In years to come, ear-piercing, ear-chopping, ear-slicing, ear-filleting, ear-microwaving, and ear-masticating incidents may become so popular that they will replace head butts and kicks to the genitals as the single most popular cliché in the lexicon of popular cinema.
DJ Ian: Do you think we’ve reached that point now, where male genitals are safe in American cinema?
Joe Queenan: I don’t think so. I honestly think ball-busting, nut-cracking movies are here to stay.
DJ Ian: What does Hollywood’s obsession with the vulnerability of the penis say about our society?
Joe Queenan: Basically this: as long as there are men who have penises, there will be women who will want to cut them off. What’s more, many of these men will deserve to have them cut off.
DJ Ian: Is this fear just a Hollywood thing?
Joe Queenan: Good question. Is the fear of castration primarily a fear that is limited to the serially emasculated men who live and work in Hollywood?
DJ Ian: Or...
Joe Queenan: Or...does this veritable geyser of films involving crushed testicles, mandatory gelding, and groinocentric gunshot wounds reflect a wider, deeper fear on the part of all American men?
DJ Ian: A primal dread?
Joe Queenan: Yes, a nagging fear that, when all is said and done, his balls are only out on loan and his dick can be repossessed at any time.
DJ Ian: So this fear of genital impairment, it's pervasive?
Joe Queenan: Deep down inside, every American man secretly fears that someday, somewhere, someone is going to stick a sawed-off shotgun down his jockey shorts and threaten to nuke the crown jewels.
DJ Ian: Compared with this, Spike Lee is hardly a menace to society?
Joe Queenan: Spike Lee descends from a long tradition, only a European tradition, not a Brooklyn one, of annoyingness.
DJ Ian: What do you mean “European”?
Joe Queenan: Generations ago, the French developed the concept of “epater la bourgeoisie”, which, loosely translated, means, “Do everything humanly possible to get on middle-class people’s nerves”.
DJ Ian: So Lee gets on your nerves?
Joe Queenan: I think that Lee honestly believes that artists have a sacred obligation to get under the public’s skin, to constantly rock the boat, to say and do unbelievably stupid things, to boldly don the mantle of annoyingness. It is a mantle he wears quite well.
DJ Ian: Yet you compare him with another Manhattan favourite, Woody Allen? What do they have in common?
Joe Queenan: Each one is a short, bespectacled, narcissistic New Yorker with Knicks courtside seats whose acting leaves something to be desired.
DJ Ian: And, I suppose, neither of them is particularly good-looking.
Joe Queenan: Fortunately for them, because if they were, the audience would take its ultimate revenge on them.
DJ Ian: ”The 4000 Blows”?
Joe Queenan: Yes. Though no one likes to speak about it, there is little that the movie-going public enjoys more than seeing terrific-looking guys getting their faces smashed in.
DJ Ian: Only then have you made it?
Joe Queenan: Unequivocally. The public will not confer its full blessing on an actor until they have seen him get bludgeoned, lacerated, pistol-whipped, filleted with razors, burned, flogged, splattered with acid, crucified, or beheaded. And generally speaking, they like to see plenty of abuse in the facial area.
DJ Ian: So actors have to suffer for our sins?
Joe Queenan: Suffer is an understatement.The American public, in this context, is best looked upon as 310 million sick fucks.
DJ Ian: I don't think I'd have the guts to piss off an entire nation.
Joe Queenan: Perhaps, you're not a real smart arse then.
DJ Ian: Maybe I'm just highly annoying? Like Spike Lee?
Joe Queenan: No, you're a smart alec.
DJ Ian: A what?
Joe Queenan: A smart arse on training wheels.
DJ Ian: Ha, yeah.
Add half a star for agreeing to do this interview. (The half-star being me;)
January 13, 2023
“If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody come sit next to me.” ― Alice Roosevelt Longworth
It's been too long since I've experienced the simple, snarky joys of a Joe Queenan book!
Here, our intrepid writer sets out to reenact famous scenes from some of your favorite movies. Watch as Queenan fearlessly flings himself into the frigid waters of the Atlantic, ala DiCaprio in Titanic. He risks permanent brain damage by watching every single Merchant /Ivory film, and braves bodily harm by chortling loudly at Woody Harrelson's intelligence during a matinee of Indecent Proposal.
Sure there are better, and more well known film critics out there. BUT, have you ever known Pauline Kael, or Vincent Canby, or even Roger Ebert to write an essay on how a performer can sport a hairstyle that cuts a movie adrift from the port of plausibility and reduces the audience to tears of laughter ?
Psst - he's talking about you, Barton. And, you, too, Jeff Bridges in The Vanishing, where it appears that a dead otter has been glued onto the right side of your head.
Has Ebert ever devoted pages and pages to the analysis of cinematic nuns, even going so far as to present awards?
Best performance by an actress playing a nun riding a very small burro. Debra Kerr in Black Narcissus.
Best performance by an actress playing a whore masquerading as a nun riding a very small burro. Shirley MacLaine in Two Mules for Sister Sarah.
And what are your thoughts on cannibalism and animal attacks in movies, Ms. Kael? Not your cup of tea, eh? Well, Queenan has plenty of them.
In discussing films in which the consumer becomes the consumed, it is imperative that we distinguish between films in which the people who get eaten deserve to get eaten and films in which they do not.
Example - the Uruguayan rugby players in Alive did not deserve to be eaten and were unfortunate victims of circumstances.
But, then there is - Lorraine Gray's youngest son in Jaws the Revenge , who did deserve to have his arm torn off for having her for a mother, but who probably didn't deserve to have his entire body ripped to shreds just because he had Roy Scheider for a father.
Queenan can find something nasty to say about pretty much every actor and actress. If it will make you sad to see your favorite celeb skewered, then stay far away from this book. But, I heartily recommend this to all movie fans who appreciate a little less star worship and a little more sharp-tongued criticism from a film reviewer.
It's been too long since I've experienced the simple, snarky joys of a Joe Queenan book!
Here, our intrepid writer sets out to reenact famous scenes from some of your favorite movies. Watch as Queenan fearlessly flings himself into the frigid waters of the Atlantic, ala DiCaprio in Titanic. He risks permanent brain damage by watching every single Merchant /Ivory film, and braves bodily harm by chortling loudly at Woody Harrelson's intelligence during a matinee of Indecent Proposal.
Sure there are better, and more well known film critics out there. BUT, have you ever known Pauline Kael, or Vincent Canby, or even Roger Ebert to write an essay on how a performer can sport a hairstyle that cuts a movie adrift from the port of plausibility and reduces the audience to tears of laughter ?
Psst - he's talking about you, Barton. And, you, too, Jeff Bridges in The Vanishing, where it appears that a dead otter has been glued onto the right side of your head.
Has Ebert ever devoted pages and pages to the analysis of cinematic nuns, even going so far as to present awards?
Best performance by an actress playing a nun riding a very small burro. Debra Kerr in Black Narcissus.
Best performance by an actress playing a whore masquerading as a nun riding a very small burro. Shirley MacLaine in Two Mules for Sister Sarah.
And what are your thoughts on cannibalism and animal attacks in movies, Ms. Kael? Not your cup of tea, eh? Well, Queenan has plenty of them.
In discussing films in which the consumer becomes the consumed, it is imperative that we distinguish between films in which the people who get eaten deserve to get eaten and films in which they do not.
Example - the Uruguayan rugby players in Alive did not deserve to be eaten and were unfortunate victims of circumstances.
But, then there is - Lorraine Gray's youngest son in Jaws the Revenge , who did deserve to have his arm torn off for having her for a mother, but who probably didn't deserve to have his entire body ripped to shreds just because he had Roy Scheider for a father.
Queenan can find something nasty to say about pretty much every actor and actress. If it will make you sad to see your favorite celeb skewered, then stay far away from this book. But, I heartily recommend this to all movie fans who appreciate a little less star worship and a little more sharp-tongued criticism from a film reviewer.
November 7, 2007
Joe Queenan's writing makes me laugh until I can't breathe. In this book he rants about various aspects of movies, including the phenomenon of depressing Irish films, and how difficult it is to watch anything by Merchant Ivory. He also attempts several things that he's seen in the movies, in order to prove how far they've strayed from reality. He pours wax on his bare chest to prove that it isn't sexy, the way Madonna makes it look in Body of Evidence, and plunges into the Atlantic Ocean in March to prove that Leonardo DiCaprio would have died a lot faster and less romantically in Titantic. Some of the essays drag a bit, but others are howlingly funny. I particularly appreciate his commentary on nuns in film, "None of them are ever ugly, and they don't carry around rulers to slap children with."
May 9, 2011
Joe Queenan has a sharp-edged smart-aleckiness that I like a great deal. He's caustic, snobby, well-informed, and often absurd. This collection of essays on film, all dating from the mid- to late-90s showcases the qualities and his many idiosyncrasies. The only drawback to the book is that it has dated seriously--films are produced in such volume and pop culture is so rapidly changing that only real film aficionados will appreciate some of his analyses. In some ways it's like watching Dennis Miller's stand up from the '90s: if you lived it or loved it, the cultural references are hilarious. If not, you'll be left scratching your head.
September 24, 2013
A last minute find at work tonight.. Already 24 pages in and laughing the whole way.. Funny funny stuff if you're a film buff and don't buy into all of the amazing crap you can supposedly do in movies and 'should' be able to get away with in reality. Glad I saw this, think it's going to be a really easy read.
Update- 7/27/13-
Having been overcome by the excess of new books to my library, I put this gem aside in favor of the aforementioned.
Mistake.
In picking this up again, I'm finding it to be as amusing if not moreso than the first attempt. Pretty great read, looking forward to finishing it this time out.
Update- 7/27/13-
Having been overcome by the excess of new books to my library, I put this gem aside in favor of the aforementioned.
Mistake.
In picking this up again, I'm finding it to be as amusing if not moreso than the first attempt. Pretty great read, looking forward to finishing it this time out.
March 12, 2010
This book had me laughing out loud at some points. Although I do admit that I am not a big film-buff and I hadn't seen a lot of the movies referenced in the book, so I probably missed out on a lot of the humor. I did find it entertaining to read and I'd definitely recommend it to people who have seen the movies he talks about. I did love the stunts he did that were in some of the movies - just to see if they were accurate.
September 17, 2011
There's an essay in this book where the author starts giving refunds to people who've gone to execrable movies and sat through them all. Having gone cover to cover on this book, I kinda wish he'd do the same for readers, though admittedly not only did I just borrow this from my boyfriend's shelves, he had it from his father, so neither of us is actually out of pocket. Except for the waste of time... but I probably deserve that, for not just walking away.
May 30, 2019
I read straight through to p. 45, at which point I stopped mid-chapter. Then I jumped around chapters, reading what interested me, & skipping what didn't. That's the kind of book this is. I think a lot of people will find that is how they consume this. Parts of it are quite interesting, & other parts are really best left to certain types of cinephiles.
July 23, 2007
Joe Queenan is hysterically funny, but MEAN -- and he has nothing good to say about ANY movie. I am curious to see HIS movie (which, admittedly, does sound pretty fun). This book is worth reading just for the essay on nuns.
June 21, 2016
For the most part this is delightfully bitchy stuff, although the scorn being poured on pretty much everything and everyone does get wearying before the end. A few more pieces like the surprisingly even-handed Spike Lee interview and career appraisal wouldn't have gone amiss.
July 19, 2007
this guy is so funny, but so mean sometimes i think he should be locked up. i don't trust his actual movie reviews but i laughed so hard at his biting wit that i had tears in my eyes.
January 8, 2008
At times he is witty and other times, its a mindless read. But you'll laugh.
June 8, 2008
I was pretty disappointed by this one. Queenan's lost a bit of his edge, and where he's good here, he's traveling the same paths he's trod before.
November 16, 2008
Don't go to the movies with this guy! It's a little dated, but still entertaining.
April 29, 2010
Seriously, dude, enough with the self-fellating.
November 21, 2012
Read this if only for 1) Queenan's Mickey Rourke obsession, and 2) the Merchant/Ivory piece.
December 23, 2012
I wanted to like this book and I did laugh a little but I couldn't make it past the first 30 pages. Perhaps if I had read it 10 years ago...
February 8, 2013
Fun book for movie buffs.
January 25, 2014
Ok, but not as enjoyable as some of his other offerings...
September 13, 2014
I really like Queenan's writing. Very intelligent and funny with a nice sarcastic edge. It struck me as funny how dated mentions of video rental stores seem.
February 9, 2019
This fucking guy.
January 12, 2023
"Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country" (2004) was one of the funniest and most entertaining collection of travel essays I've ever read. Likewise, "Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler," published in 2001, is easily one of the smartest and most amusing books on movies that I've ever come across.
The book, a collection of essays that appeared in Movieline and other magazines and newspapers, has the veteran journalist/satirist focusing a jaundiced eye or two on the movies he was paid to write about during his stint as a film critic.
No Hollywood -- or foreign -- cows are too sacred to escape his well-aimed humorous attacks. Queenan makes a highly entertaining sport of moviegoing, frequently taking aim at the pretentiousness and shallowness of silver-screen productions while simultaneously revealing his deep affection for all things movieland. Well, at least I THINK he likes movies.
Each of these 25 essays, largely focusing on movies from the '90s and '80s, but frequently touching on those from earlier decades, comes with a sort of theme -- including “Don't Try This at Home" (in three parts) on his efforts to recreate scenes from movies like "White Men Can't Jump" and "Body of Evidence, "Blarney Stoned" on Irish-themed films, "Spike Lee Does Not Bite" on the obvious, and "The Drilling Fields" on movies featuring dentists.
And Queenan's throwaway lines are funnier than entire seasons of "SNL."
The book, a collection of essays that appeared in Movieline and other magazines and newspapers, has the veteran journalist/satirist focusing a jaundiced eye or two on the movies he was paid to write about during his stint as a film critic.
No Hollywood -- or foreign -- cows are too sacred to escape his well-aimed humorous attacks. Queenan makes a highly entertaining sport of moviegoing, frequently taking aim at the pretentiousness and shallowness of silver-screen productions while simultaneously revealing his deep affection for all things movieland. Well, at least I THINK he likes movies.
Each of these 25 essays, largely focusing on movies from the '90s and '80s, but frequently touching on those from earlier decades, comes with a sort of theme -- including “Don't Try This at Home" (in three parts) on his efforts to recreate scenes from movies like "White Men Can't Jump" and "Body of Evidence, "Blarney Stoned" on Irish-themed films, "Spike Lee Does Not Bite" on the obvious, and "The Drilling Fields" on movies featuring dentists.
And Queenan's throwaway lines are funnier than entire seasons of "SNL."
November 5, 2008
Often funny but too often crude.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews