Thanks for noticing my under-publicized yet valiant attempts to go against the machine and ignore studio release dates when I select a movie to write about. That was a tremendous compliment. If you like what you’re reading, tell a friend!

Pat: I recalled reading your article comparing The Game to A Christmas Carol and was looking forward to referencing it. You did what all good critics should do from time to time, which is provoke your readers to reexamine a movie from a fresh perspective.

Patricia: Thanks! I enjoyed this movie in terms of its style, which I felt was more about creating atmosphere than it was about being realistic. That said, I believe there is substance here. I love the moment Douglas enters the CRS cafeteria and encounters all these characters we’ve glimpsed in the last hour, all in the same place. The movie is a real trip.

Janell: I wish people like you wrote Pop-Up Video or the descriptions on DVDs. The Korean bootleg rental store could definitely use someone with your abilities. Not only have you seen everything, but you never abandon your ribald wit. If you’re interested in writing a guest column about a movie you feel especially passionate about, let me know and I will print it.

This is one of those rare movies you can watch over and over while, knowing the ending yet still just as excited and caught up in “WTF?” moments along with Michael Douglas’s character.

To know Jodie Foster’s name was attached to this movie makes me want to say “Whew!” and do the back of the hand forehead swipe like the Yahoo IM emoticon. God help this movie if she had been cast. Not to say she isn’t a good actress, but her tough angsty characters seem to be quite similar. Picture her running through and airplane, picture her stuck in a safe room. You get the idea.

I love trivia like this. Try finding that on IMDB.com. Man, I would LOVE a special edition of this dvd. Can you imagine having a pop-up video type feature for this film?

A person commented earlier that visiting the Distracted Globe is like a visit to the video store. Honey, I don’t know what video store you go to but my neighborhood video store is Blockbuster which has the personality of a vending machine and a Korean store where I go in and say “Have you seen this?” and unfailing they have never seen anything I hold up.” Never. Not even the Korean movie with the Godzilla 2000 water creature.

So for me, I love visiting The Distracted Globe. This guy’s seen stuff I won’t even rent at the Korean video store for a dollar. Sometimes it confirms my rental choices and sometimes he even persuades me to pick one up. Thanks Distracted Globe!

Thanks Joe.

I am a pessimist. But if a movie works, I am like butter in its hands. This movie worked because it takes its subject matter so seriously. And in the end, I was on the brink of crying because I felt like I had been through so much.

I suppose I felt guilty for liking it so much because it ultimately asks you to suspend so much, but that’s what great movies do. In time, I have learned not to apologize for it, but instead embrace it.

As you say it requires the suspension of much disbelief, but unlike so many movies that ask the same, it rewards you for your efforts.

As a sidenote, I really like your ecclectic and no-nonsense approach to blogging Joe. I wish that I did more reviews of stuff that’s not in theaters but I always seem to lack the motivation. Your reviews kind of fulfill that need. It’s like a trip to the video store.