Borders Line: Farewell To Michael Scott, The World’s Best Bad Boss

Tonight marks Steve Carrell’s departure from The Office after seven seasons of making us cringe, flinch, wince and laugh as the bumbling Michael Scott. For the Dunder Mifflinites, Michael’s move to Colorado with Holly Flax (Amy Ryan) will surely be bittersweet. As tenderly and tearfully as his employees serenaded him last week, I have to imagine that in reality, the change would be more sweet than bitter. Michael Scott can be well-meaning and loyal, true. He can also be ignorant, small-minded, petty and often cruel. He’s the boss you’d hate to have but love to watch. He has reached moderate heights of surprising competence, and far more often, staggering depths of humiliating ineptitude. In honor of Steve Carrell’s brilliant, hilarious, painful performance, I offer you several of Michael Scott’s most excruciating moments–and a precious few moments of triumph.

Forgot to post this last week–check it out over at Badass Digest!

Pondering Casting WTFery of Yore

Jennifer Garner will play Agatha Christie’s elderly detective Miss Marple in Disney’s new series. In honor of this baffling decision, today I celebrate the ten most inappropriately cast characters ever! Check it out over at Badass Digest.

The 12 Best Film Adaptations of Beloved Books

The latest adaptation of one of my favorite novels, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, opens next week. Mia Wasikowska is ideally cast as the solemn governess, and Sin Nombre‘s Cary Fukunaga is an intriguing choice of director. I’d like to believe this adaptation will do justice to the dark, creepy, romantic-yet-feminist novel that I love so well. Here’s hoping, and in the meantime, here are twelve feature films that certainly did live up to the kick-ass novels from which they were adapted.

Check ’em out over at Badass Digest!

Netflix Streaming Is The Reason I Hate Outside

Oh, Netflix, you sly minx. The company is now catering to the utterly lackadaisical among us by adding a Netflix button to remote controls that operate TVs, blu-ray players and gaming systems offering the instant Netflix streaming service. No longer must we degrade ourselves by pushing, like, three different buttons to get our Netflix fix! Long gone are the dark days of walking to our mailboxes in the tyrannical outdoors. Today, my friends, is our Independence Day!

I’m celebrating this advance in Technology For The Inert And Agoraphobic by cataloguing some of the best that Netflix streaming currently has to offer over at Badass Digest. Check it out!

2011 Will Be A Very Good Year

2011 is nearly upon us and with it, the anticipation of a whole mess of thrilling new genre releases. Many of these movies will disappoint us, enrage us, bore us–but for now, our hopes are high and our curiosity piqued. Head over to Badass Digest for a list of the 30 titles I’m most looking forward to in the coming year!

The 10 Most Badass Fictional Characters of 2010

I’m kinda over 2010, you guys. So I think I’m going to skip the final News Day Tuesday of 2010 and start afresh with all the news you can use on our first Tuesday of 2011!

 

In the meantime, it’s the end of the year, and you know what that means! The arbitrary ranking of things! So head on over to Badass Digest for my Top 10 list: The 10 Most Badass Fictional Characters of 2010! It’s super fun, promise. Leave your picks in the comments!

Top 50 Horror Movies of the Decade

Well, my friends, we’re nearing the end of that venerable era known to some as the Naughty Aughties. As the 2000s dwindle, it’s a time for introspection, reminiscence, contemplation, and my favorite of all year-end rituals, the arbitrary ranking of things! Therefore, I give you:

Marla’s Top 50 Horror Movies of the 2000s: The Definitive List!

Okay, if I’m going to go and call it The Definitive List, I suppose that means I need a disclaimer or two. This list may seem to you to have some glaring omissions, but that is mostly due to the fact that I have not actually seen every horror movie that came out in the past ten years. Believe it or not! I did my damnedest, but if you’re all ‘WHY THE HELL ISN’T ___ ON HERE?!”, I’m not trying to provoke anyone. I just probably haven’t seen that movie yet. Or maybe I thought your favorite movie was stupid. Either way, stop yelling! This is supposed to be fun!

Top 10 Halloween Must-See Movies This Year

Welcome, all! Want to look like these kids?

Then you’re in luck! Welcome to my totally unofficial and hastily crafted list of what I want to watch and most likely will watch this Halloween season! Halloween’s sadly getting a late start for me this year, an unprecedented occurance, so I’m totally going to make my scary movie-watching creep into November. Which is a hilarious thing to say, because ’round these parts, it’s always scary movie season.

Anyway! In alphabetical order, I present to you: MARLA’S TOP 10 HALLOWEEN MUST-SEE MOVIES THIS YEAR!

Top 5 Horror Movies That Aren’t Scary

Generally, the best horror movies are the scary ones. I love horror movies because I love a good nervous giggle, the gratifying giddiness of a pounding pulse and an audible gasp—I love that the useless act of shrinking down into my seat and peering between my fingers actually makes me feel safer. But some of my favorite horror movies aren’t scary at all, and their frightlessness doesn’t take away from how fantastically cool they are.

So here are my Top 5 Horror Movies That Aren’t Even a Little Scary:

5. Motel Hell (1980)