*****A SLEIGH FULL OF SPOILERS AHEAD!***** “A Christmas Story” (1983) Confession time; I never saw the late Bob Clark’s “A Christmas Story” (1983) in theatrical release. It opened sans fanfare back in 1983, and stayed off my personal radar until the mid-1990s. On Christmas Day of 1993, I’d worked myself into a nasty flu, and…
Seeing 1987’s “The Princess Bride” for the first time … again
*****SHRIEKING EEL-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!****** Last weekend, my wife and I hosted two of our best friends and their 11 year-old son Joshua for a ‘garage theater’ movie night. The movie we chose beforehand was “The Princess Bride”, which, coincidentally turns 35 this year. I have to admit; I’ve always been more a casual fan of…
Retro-Musings: Gene Roddenberry’s failed dystopian pilot, “Genesis II” (1973)…
*****SUB-SHUTTLE SIZED SPOILERS!!****** Back to the Future After the cancellation of NBC’s “Star Trek” (1966-1969), the show began to develop an even stronger cult following through the magic of syndication, when it was sold to local stations and began to broaden its audience (which was how I fell in love with it, in fact). To…
Star Trek: Prodigy: “All the World’s a Stage” is an affectionate ode to fandom…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** On the Good Ship… I’ve touched on my admiration for Star Trek: Prodigy (PRO) in this column before, and while I can’t promise episode-by-episode reviews, every now and then an episode might come along that prompts me to take a closer look. Most installments of this freshman Star Trek series (created by Dan…
“Tales of the Jedi” sheds more light and color on the Star Wars prequels…
*****STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!***** “A Long Time Ago…” As I may have said once or twice in this column, I make no secret of the fact that the Star Wars prequels are not really my cup of blue milk. Don’t get me wrong; seeing “Star Wars” at age 10 in 1977 was a transformative cinematic…
The new “Quantum Leap” (2022) is worth the time…
*****ZIGGY-SIZE SPOILERS!***** The Best of Both. I’ve recently reviewed the pilot episode of the “Quantum Leap” (2022) soft-reboot in an earlier column, and even though the series hasn’t yet reached its midseason break (as of this writing), I feel it already warrants a closer look. I also hope to reach a few reluctant old-school ‘Leapers’,…
“The Power of the Doctor” relies heavily upon Doctor Who’s history and lore…
*****TARDIS-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** I just watched the latest Doctor Who special, “The Power of the Doctor,” and I’m not entirely sure what is that I just saw. I’m aware of a 90-minute story involving Daleks and CyberMasters (that name sounds like hi-tech exercise equipment) teaming up with the Master himself to activate all of Earth’s volcanoes…
“Halloween Ends” (2022) sees the franchise taking an overdue dirt nap…
*****SPOOKY SPOILERS!!***** Halloween Wanes. In 1978, writer/director/musician John Carpenter (“Assault on Precinct 13”) unleashed his micro-budget thriller “Halloween” into theaters, and the movie became a runaway hit. I still remember seeing another movie at a multiplex around that time, and hearing screams from the “Halloween” screening in the next auditorium. I would eventually see “Halloween”…
“Trick ‘r Treat” (2007) is an underrated, yet definitive Halloween horror flick…
******SPOOKY SPOILERS!!****** Tricked From Theaters. Written and directed by Michael Dougherty and produced by Bryan Singer (the team behind “X-Men 2”, “Superman Returns”), 2007’s low-budget horror anthology “Trick ‘r Treat” took time to find an audience; several years after plans for its theatrical release were unceremoniously scrapped in 2007. A hit at film festivals, the…
Three new Star Trek trailers beamed down to New York Comic Con 2022…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!!****** Until last week’s New York Comic Con, there wasn’t a lot of solid news on the Star Trek front, beyond rumors floated on “Star Trek Day,” (September 8th). Then, suddenly, we got three new trailers for upcoming Star Trek. While two of the trailers are little more than teasers, the trailer for season…
“The Night That Panicked America” (1975) is a little-seen TV-movie about the greatest Halloween prank ever played…
“The War of the Worlds“ In 1897, the seminal sci-fi classic “The War of the Worlds,” by H. G. Wells, was serialized in Pearson’s and Cosmopolitan magazines, before being published as a novel a year later. The story concerned an invasion of Earth by Martians piloting massive tripod machines. This invading vanguard ravages the English…
“Hocus Pocus 2” (2022) brings home the Halloween treats…
*****SUPERNATURAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!***** “Hocus Pocus” (1993) As longtime readers of this column might glean, I am a huge Halloween geek. Even into my golden years, it’s still my favorite holiday. This has been the case for as long as I can remember. That said, I never caught the original “Hocus Pocus” in theatrical release. As…