The basics - 29 years old, married with one child, currently residing in Woodland Hills, CA. Aside from my day job (kind of a secret, but it’s independent contracting), I dabble in voice over and occasionally play around on the Improv scene.

I am simply a longtime film critic and pundit of sorts, especially in the realm of box office punditry. I also syndicate myself at The Huffington Post and Open Salon. Aside from the usual film gossip (not the US Weekly or Nikki Finke variety), I’ll be dealing with box office analysis and comparison and criticism of film criticism and journalism (watching the watchmen, as it were). I will dabble in politics here and there, but I'm sure there are many people on this site who can do that better than I.

For an archive of all of my work, go to Mendelson’s Memos (http://scottalanmendelson.blogspot.com). That site also contains pretty much every film review I have ever written, yes even some of the garbage I wrote when I was sixteen.

I will update as often as my schedule allows. Yes, I'm on Facebook/MySpace/Twitter, so feel free to find me there. All comments are appreciated, just be civil and try to keep a level discourse, as I will make every effort to do the same. Thank you.

Scott Mendelson

Blog Entries by Scott Mendelson

Huff Post Review- Avatar: The 3D IMAX Experience (2009)

1 Comments | Posted December 15, 2009 | 01:51 PM (EST)


Avatar: The 3D IMAX Experience
2009
160 minutes
Rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

I don't know if Avatar is...

Read Post

HuffPost Weekend Box Office Review: Princess and the Frog Puts Disney 2D Animation on Top

15 Comments | Posted December 13, 2009 | 07:03 PM (EST)


In what was neither a blast-off nor a crash, The Princess and the Frog marked Disney's return to 2D animation with $25 million in...

Read Post

Avatar screens to critical raves (but why I chose not to see it first...)

3 Comments | Posted December 11, 2009 | 11:13 AM (EST)


The good news is that Avatar screened in America and London today, and the critics are confirming everybody's best hopes. The bad news... we were here...

Read Post

Huff Post Review: The Lovely Bones (2009)

Posted December 9, 2009 | 11:19 PM (EST)


The Lovely Bones
2009
130 minutes
Rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

The Lovely...

Read Post

Dumpster Diving: Deleted Scenes That Should Have Stayed in the Final Film

22 Comments | Posted December 8, 2009 | 01:31 AM (EST)


One of the common threads that has come out of the recent DVD/Blu Ray release of Star Trek, aside from the video/audio scores and the quantity of extras, is the unexpected quality of the deleted scenes. While most deleted scenes reels simply show how on-target the filmmakers were...
Read Post

HuffPost Weekend Box Office in Review: Blind Side Finally Takes the Top Spot

4 Comments | Posted December 6, 2009 | 06:56 PM (EST)


For years on end, the weekend after Thanksgiving has been an unusually ghastly one for box office. And this year was no exception. We had...

Read Post

HuffPost Review: Up in the Air

1 Comments | Posted December 2, 2009 | 06:25 PM (EST)


Up in the Air
2009
109 minutes
rated R (language and sexual content)


On the surface, Jason Reitman's

Read Post

The Mask of Zorro (one of the best superhero movies ever made) finally arrives on Blu Ray.

1 Comments | Posted December 1, 2009 | 05:40 PM (EST)


Nearly two years after the Blu Ray release of the less-successful (but still pretty darn good) sequel, The Legend of Zorro, Sony finally feels fit to release the original...
Read Post

Thanksgiving Weekend Box Office Review: Sandra Bullock Blind Sides New Moon

6 Comments | Posted November 29, 2009 | 05:36 PM (EST)


It was just seven-and-a-half years ago that Spider-Man became the first film to gross over $100 million in a single weekend. Now, we have...

Read Post

Bella Is a Lousy Role Model, but Do We Only Care Because She's a Girl?

34 Comments | Posted November 24, 2009 | 01:44 AM (EST)


As I've written before, whenever any movie not primarily involving white males and/or geek-friendly genres becomes a big hit, the moralizers come out in full...

Read Post

Weekend Box Office Review: Cedric Diggory Crushes Harry Potter -- Twilight Saga: New Moon Opens With $142 Million

13 Comments | Posted November 22, 2009 | 06:18 PM (EST)


If you're a Batman fan or a general guy-centric geek, you're probably thinking "That was close... too close". If you're a Twi-fanatic, you're thinking something along...

Read Post

Twilight Saga: New Moon Shatters Single-Day Record

10 Comments | Posted November 21, 2009 | 09:20 PM (EST)


Twilight Saga: New Moon grossed $72.7 million on its first full day of release. This is the biggest single day of all time, besting...

Read Post

The Super-Awesome, Astoundingly Mathematical Weekend Box Office Prediction for Twilight Saga: New Moon!

3 Comments | Posted November 20, 2009 | 02:27 AM (EST)


Based on my top-secret, patented box office estimation formula, I hereby state that Twilight Saga: New Moon will gross $81 million over its first...

Read Post

The official Twilight Saga New Moon weekend box office comparison chart.

1 Comments | Posted November 18, 2009 | 12:32 PM (EST)


There will be no predictions, no guesses, and no analysis for the moment. We're just taking a second to do the cold math, using...

Read Post

2012 destroys the global box office as Precious expands and continues to impress. Weekend box office in review (11/15/09)

121 Comments | Posted November 15, 2009 | 07:07 PM (EST)


Roland Emmerich's 2012 almost made back its $260 million budget in just three days. The domestic opening weekend was a whopping $65.2...

Read Post

HuffPost Review: 2012 (2009)

20 Comments | Posted November 14, 2009 | 06:17 PM (EST)


2012
2009
158 minutes
Rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

Shock of shocks, Roland Emmerich's 2012 is actually a relatively...

Read Post

HuffPost Review: Precious (2009)

9 Comments | Posted November 10, 2009 | 12:56 PM (EST)


Precious
2009
109 minutes
Rated R


Precious, based on Sapphire's novel Push, is a uniquely...

Read Post

I'll Analyze It... With Science!

Posted November 9, 2009 | 11:22 AM (EST)


Thank you Roger Ebert for finding this thing.
Read Post

HuffPost Weekend Box Office in Review

Posted November 8, 2009 | 07:02 PM (EST)


As expected, Disney's A Christmas Carol opened at number one over the weekend. If the opening weekend number of $30 million feels...

Read Post

HuffPost Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

43 Comments | Posted November 6, 2009 | 05:28 PM (EST)


The Men Who Stare At Goats
2009
90 minutes
Rated R


The Men Who Stare at Goats...

Read Post