Denis Dutton on Peter Jackson and Lord of the Rings: “Personally, I think the New Zealand government should bring back knighthoods just to give him one. So when I add that the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is, as a work of cinematic art, ham-fisted, shallow, bombastic, and laughably overrated, don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking Jackson and his hard-working team. The larger issue is Hollywood and the degraded state of big-budget movies.” — Los Angeles Times