The 21-Word Review: The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

Some books are literature from the moment they are written. Disturbing, entrancing, and definitely not bedtime reading material for the squeamish.

The 21-Word Review: Redbelt (In-Flight Movie)

Chuck Norris meets Othello. The best acted, written, and directed martial arts movie made in years. Even your wife will agree.

The 21-Word Review: The Machinist (DVD)

The insanity migrates from Christian, off of the screen and into your brain, causing the viewer to doubt their own faculties.

The 21-Word Review: The Kite Runner (DVD)

Faithful to the book, making this a very difficult film to watch. One imagines the reality to be even more tragic.

The 21-Word Review: God's Golden Acre by Dale le Va

The writing is poor and incoherent, but the character of Heather shines through the material. Saints, however imperfect, walk among us.

The 21-Word Review: Tropic Thunder (In-Flight Movie)

Proving that it is indeed possible to make a crude adult comedy that’s funny without it being yet another slacker flick.

The 21-Word Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Dickensian, with a mixture of Austen, Lewis, and Carroll. Maybe even a bit of Rowling magic, but more mature and complex.

The 21-Word Review: Bolt

You can expect to be purchasing truckloads of merchandise based on the overwhelmingly cute animals, complex vehicles, and deadly explosive devices.

The 21-Word Review: Munich (DVD)

Morally ambiguous actions? Perhaps. A defensible response? Arguably. Well acted? Certainly. Ultimately fulfilling, necessary, and compelling as a film? Probably not.

The 21-Word Review: Dark City: Director’s Cut (DVD)

The original was enthralling and original. The director’s cut is even more. The original Matrix, weirder, darker and with fewer wires.

The 21-Word Review: Days of Infamy by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen

In the days following the Pearl attack, a few brave men were all that stood between Hawaii and the West Coast.

The 21-Word Review: Pineapple Express (In-Flight Movie)

It’s like totally ... you know ... really ... you know ... and then there’s this one part .... I’m really hungry. Are those brownies?

The 21-Word Review: Mamma Mia (In-Flight Movie)

Admit it. ABBA is a guilty pleasure for everyone, in front of the mirror, in the privacy of their own bathroom.

The 21-Word Review: The Dark Knight (In-Flight Movie)

The words “Dark Knight” and “In Flight Movie” should never be written together. Let’s forget this happened and rent the DVD.

The 21-Word Review: Hancock (In-Flight Movie)

Someone pitched “Will Smith hero movie” and the money flowed. Big budgets have killed worse movies, but I expected more here.

The 21-Word Review: Jumper (In-Flight Movie)

The holes in the universe that are important to the movie are metaphors for the holes in the plot that aren’t.

The 21-Word Review: The Steel Wave by Michael Sharra

There have been so many movies and books about D-Day, it’s surprising to find how much more there is to learn.

The 21-Word Review: Drillbit Taylor (In-Flight Movie)

Bad even for an Owen Wilson movie. Bad even for a stereotypical bully movie. Just really, really, really, really, really bad.

The 21-Word Review: The Bank Job (In-Flight Movie)

The moral of the story is that you should never put pictures of yourself with royals in a safe deposit box.

The 21-Word Review: Married Life (In-Flight Movie)

If you take your wife to this movie, be sure to stay to the end or she might suspect your motives.

The 21-Word Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (In-Flight Movie)

The best part about watching this movie on an airplane is that the editors remove all of the male frontal nudity.

The 21-Word Review: In Bruges (In-Flight Movie)

Violent, gory, explicit, profane, hilarious, fascinating, architectural, clever, interesting, compelling. A magnificent mixture that your wife will hate and you’ll love.

The 21-Word Review: Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

If you read only one autobiography by a comedian known for white suites and arrow hats, let this be the one.

The 21-Word Review: Iron Man (In-Flight Movie)

Any movie that opens with AC/DC, ends with Black Sabbath, and has a lot of explosions in between cannot be beat.

The 21-Word Review: Leatherheads (In-Flight Movie)

George Clooney does a passable Frank Sinatra in the Ocean’s movies, but he’s less convincing as a Cary Grant stand in.

The 21-Word Review: Nim’s Island (In-Flight Video)

I imagine even children targeted by this film would question the plausibility of the plot. (Shame on U2 for “Beautiful Day”.)

The 21-Word Review: Music and Lyrics (Hotel HBO)

This time he's a washed up ... athlete? No. Musician! And she's his maid? No. Plant waterer? Yes!

Who keeps paying for these?

The 21-Word Review: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Always entertaining, occasionally inexplicably profane, often hilarious, somewhat informative. I hope my first book is half as good as Bryson's worst.

The 21-Word Review: The Forbidden Kingdom (DVD)

The Jet Li / Jackie Chan fight comes about 30 minutes in. That's what you're watching for, isn't it? (It's a draw.)

The 21-Word Review: The Fantastic 4, Rise of the Silver Surfer (DVD)

Have you ever watched something entertaining, but then later discovered that you learned nothing? A Barack-Obama-speech kind of movie.

The 21-Word Review: Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton

Among others, there's a photograph of an engagement that's not in the text. A great autobiography crying for a great biography.

The 21-Word Review: Bee Movie (DVD)

Ignore the buzz, it isn't not a honey of a movie. Why could it not bee funnier or more entertaining? Hives.

The 21-Word Review: A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe

The man has done his homework on geography of my city, but why must all of these books start with race?

The 21-Word Review: Meet the Robinsons (DVD)

My son is absolutely convinced that this movie is a prediction of his future life (except the orphan part, I assume).

The 21-Word Review: Flight Plan (DVD)

Three fourths of a great movie. Over an hour of riveting plot and intense acting blown by a gigantic implausible ending.

The 21-Word Review: Cloverfield (DVD)

An old fashioned monster movie. No cheap scares, no gratuitous gore. Add some bad Japanese lip-synch and it's a classic.

The 21-Word Review: World Without End by Ken Follett

If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. If you found the first one simplistic and pedantic, same here.

The 21-Word Review: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (DVD)

Affleck the younger is terrific, but surely a group of professional writers could come up with a shorter title (and film).

The 21-Word Review: Into the Wild (DVD)

In his haste to canonize Saint Christopher, Spiccoli neglected to include the passages where Chris was willfully ignorant and criminally selfish.

The 21-Word Review: Prince Caspian (In-Flight Movie)

The Peter Jackson version was better. The Ents were more interesting, Gimli was funnier, and lusting after Arwen wasn't considered creepy.

The 21-Word Review: Bridge to Terabithia (DVD)

She died? You’ve got to be kidding me! I was going to let my kids watch that! What were you thinking!

The 21-Word Review: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (DVD)

Such hideous people, but for some reason you can’t stop watching. Possibly it is due to the ubiquitous Marisa Tomei nudity?

The 21-Word Review: The Storyteller's Daughter - One Woman's Return To Her Lost Homeland by Saira Shah

Attention bloviators, before pontificating, add this to your Afghanistan reading list along with the Tea and Bookseller books and Tom’s movie.

The 21-Word Review: Charlie Wilson's War (DVD)

That Tom Hanks can do anything - survive on a desert island, dress in drag convincingly. Now he’s won the cold war.

The 21-Word Review: Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler

It’s hard to criticize a book that the author clearly enjoyed writing. Not logical or realistic, but a fun time waster.

The 21-Word Review: Abduction by Robin Cook

This book was purchased for ten cents at a church fair. I overpaid. I hope Cook still has some “Coma” money.

The 21-Word Review: 1e4 BC (In-Flight Movie)

If I’m going to endure an anachronistic disaster, I expect at a minimum to see Raquel Welch in a fur bikini.

The 21-Word Review: Hot Fuzz (In-Flight Movie)

Not as good as their first movie, but the last 15 minutes are worth the effort. Shaun of the dead Englishmen.

The 21-Word Review: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

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The 21-Word Review: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

This Mother's Day thank your Mom for at least not being as crazy as the author's mom in this stunning memoir.

The 21-Word Review: Enchanted (In-Flight Movie)

How can a reviewer by cynical about such a cute, sweet, cuddly, syrupy, beautiful, simple,