No year that saw a 778-point single-day stock market drop, the price of oil fluctuate by more than $100 a barrel and the death of Irvine Robbins - the inventor of Jamoca Almond Fudge ice cream - can be called good. But the election of Barack Obama as president made 2008 important. ...more

January 4, 2009

It's a total goof, of course. A lark, a one-off. "Burn After Reading," the latest offering in the eclectic filmography of Joel and Ethan Coen, is not to be taken seriously - one look at Brad Pitt's blond-streaked pouf of hair tells you that - and it's certainly not to be compared to their starkly violent Academy Award winner from last year, "No Country for Old Men." ...more

September 12, 2008

They are called "Raulistas" - top military men who manage much of Cuba's economy and populate the upper reaches of power. Today, these men likely will ensure that Raul Castro not only succeeds his brother Fidel as president, but also remains in firm control. ...more

February 24, 2008

Hackers literally turned out the lights in multiple cities after breaking into electrical utilities and demanding extortion payments before disrupting the power, a senior CIA analyst told utility engineers at a trade conference. ...more

January 19, 2008

'Rendition' focuses on the U.S. government's policy of transporting captured terror suspects to foreign countries for detention, interrogation and perhaps torture - a topic that's prime for debate and more than worthy for exploration in a film. ...more

October 19, 2007

OPENING The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford *** Notorious outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt) contends with his hero-worshipping "pal" (Casey Affleck) who wants to be like him so much that he kills him. 160 minutes (R; strong violence and brief sexual references) ...more

October 19, 2007