However ridiculous it is as a franchise, can we all agree that it is somewhat delightful that a mincing one-off outlasted the purported and bland hero and heroine of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and that the series has now become a showcase for exceedingly talented actors to have an enormous amount of silly fun? I mean, come on, how drunk do you think Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush... 

I feel sort of horrible about the fact that I’ll end up watching the second half of the Real Housewives of Washington, DC reunion show tonight. I watched the show religiously for work this season, but it wasn’t nearly as entertaining as the other installments of the franchise that I’ve followed (mostly New York, a little Atlanta). I tend to think it’s because the show was... 

I have absolutely no idea what the plot of an Emily the Strange movie might be, or whether it’s a good idea to make a movie of the baby-goth merchandise franchise at all. But given that such a project is going forward, I’m delighted that Chloe Moretz is playing the title role. She’s building up quite the little portfolio: preteen sidekick to a hipster, pint-sized killer, vampire neighbor... 

Well, it’s about time that a Pixar movie got a female writer and director, and perhaps even more importantly, a feisty female heroine, in this case, a princess who would rather be an archer. I have no objections to original storytelling for the Disney Princess franchise. But I do wonder if it might make sense to start adapting a second generation of classic princess stories. The Grimms’... 

Perhaps only the news that Jeremy Renner will co-star with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 4 as a way of handing off the franchise from the older man to the younger could compel me to see the movie. I love me some Jeremy Renner, but I find Cruise almost impossible to stomach these days, both because of the bombast of his acting (Julia Roberts juts her chin when she’s angry and tenses up... 

At least, Jeff Goldblum’s leaving the show amidst questions about its renewal. I think this is for the best. The show doesn’t have a vibe right now, and much more so than any of the other entries in the franchise, it was character-dependent. With the show moving to Los Angeles, and across the pond, I think it’s okay if there’s a serious refresh. I wouldn’t object if they... 

I’ve been thinking a ton about the Real Housewives franchise recently, since covering it, or at least the DC iteration, has suddenly become part of my day job. And so I think it’s interesting, but not surprising, that the show is going international. In its own melodramatic, class-insensitive, shallow way, Real Housewives speaks to very real anxieties about balancing family and work... 

In what sounds like completely awesome casting move, Gary Oldman is apparently set to play George Smiley. The Karla trilogy is an amazing story, and while I think it might work better as a premium cable show, I’d take a great Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy movie, and even a trilogy of movies if it works out, if that’s what’s on offer. The timing seems right, too. The recent arrest... 

Is the existence of the Fockers franchise the most depressing indicator of American cultural decline today? The evidence is at least nominally persuasive: Everything about these flicks is just poisonously unfunny—there isn’t even guilty, dumb pleasure, a “I can’t believe I laughed at that, but man was it funny” element to the proceedings. And yet, it’s here. It’s... 

So, my new job at Washingtonian is awesome. I hope you guys have been satisfied with the pace of blogging as I’m adjusting.  I’ll do my best to keep it up.  But, among other things, it’s really kind of mindblowing that part of my portfolio involves writing about the (hopefully) upcoming Real Housewives of DC. I was thinking a little bit about how the franchise, which is...