I have been too busy with more important topics to write movie reviews. So here are a few mini reviews (reviewlets?) of movies I have seen recently. I wanted to like both Looper and Skyfall but didn’t really. Conversely, my expectations for Lincoln and Life of Pi were lower and I wound up enjoying both immensely. Maybe there is a theory about the impact of expectations on actual enjoyment here (trying to remember if Daniel Kahneman or Dan Ariely have written about this). Looper’s basic time t...

I have been too busy with more important topics to write movie reviews. So here are a few mini reviews (reviewlets?) of movies I have seen recently. I wanted to like both Looper and Skyfall but didn’t really. Conversely, my expectations for Lincoln and Life of Pi were lower and I wound up enjoying both immensely. Maybe there is a theory about the impact of expectations on actual enjoyment here (trying to remember if Daniel Kahneman or Dan Ariely have written about this). Looper’s basic time t...