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Temptation in Oz

By Dr. Charlie W. Starr   My expectations for a March movie are usually pretty low. All the really entertaining movies tend to come out in the summer or at Christmas. That’s a trend that may be changing, and a good example of it is last March’s Oz the Great and Powerful. The film was […]

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The Comic Rascal

By Dr. Charlie W. Starr   Have you ever wondered what Bilbo Baggins (from Tolkien’s The Hobbit) has in common with John McClane (Bruce Willis’s Die Hard character)? Neither did I, until last February. I was rereading The Hobbit in the same month the fifth Die Hard movie came out (worst film in the franchise, […]

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The Narnian order of things

By Dr. Charlie W. Starr   One of the great schisms of our time goes mostly unnoticed by the press, but it threatens the very foundation of the order of things—at least Narnian things. OK, it’s not threatening at all, and probably not very important, except to C. S. Lewis nerds like me.  Nevertheless, I’m […]

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Putting on an act

By Dr. Charlie W. Starr   I was dressing for work while watching Good Morning America. Tom Hanks was making a guest appearance to promote a movie. Elizabeth Vargas asked Hanks to step into character and say something about the film. Unfortunately, Hanks identified so completely with the sleazy character he portrayed that he cussed […]

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The problem with fundamentalists

By Dr. Charlie W. Starr    I’m writing this article two days after the September 2012 Prime Time Emmy awards. I didn’t watch the Emmys, and have given up on the Oscars as well. I keep up with nominees and winners because I believe it’s important for me to watch out for cultural trends as […]