The Old Days One of my favorite pastimes as a kid was going to the movies. It was a safe trip into a darkened realm of imagination, where larger-than-life stories shadow-played before my eyes and ears. I even remember taping newspaper ads for my favorite movies to my bedroom wall. As the late film critic…
Retro-Musings: “Rocketship X-M” (1950); a funny thing happened on the way to the moon…
******SPACESHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** The 1950s saw a wave of ambitious space adventure films, inspired by the heady optimism of post-World War 2 prosperity in the United States, as well as a brain trust of science and engineering (a brain trust in serious danger of extinction these days). Full-color space epics such as “Destination Moon” (1950) and…
Class is dismissed for “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,” after wrapping season 2…
******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Debuting on Paramount+ streaming this past January, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was created by Gaia Violo under Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman, and was recently cancelled just after its as-yet-unreleased second season wrapped. Kurtzman himself might be stepping down after this year. For the first time since the cancellation of Star Trek:…
The Force is strong with the graphic making-of book, “Lucas Wars” (“Les Guerres de Lucas”)…
******DEATH STAR-SIZED SPOILERS!****** As a “Star Wars” fan for the past 49 years or so, I’ve read innumerable accounts of the making of this movie–which drew me in like a tractor beam at age ten, back in that summer of 1977. To that end, there are several books I consider must-reads about the life and…
Retro-Musings: “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” blew audiences away 70 years ago…
******SAUCER-SHAPED SPOILERS!****** Inspired by a report of “flying saucers” as described by pilot Kenneth Nelson in June 1947, and followed by the infamous Roswell incident in New Mexico that same year, UFOs (UAPs now) were all the rage in mid-century America. That trend was amplified in the 1950s with prominent sci-fi films such as producer…
Retro-Musings: Robert Altman’s “Countdown” (1967) puts James Caan and Robert Duvall in a race to the moon…
******SPACE RACE SPOILERS!****** I’m still feeling a bit of moon fever after the success of the recent Artemis 2 flight, so this column will examine a relatively obscure moonshot movie from the late 1960s called “Countdown.” Directed by the late iconic filmmaker Robert Altman (“M*A*S*H,” “Nashville,” “The Player”) and produced by actor Willam Conrad (“Ironside”),…
The Artemis 2 flight is the moonshot we really needed right now…
The world is a dumpster fire at the moment. Fuel prices are continually rising due to increasing global instability. Climate change is clearly and undeniably manifesting, as a sweeping far-right movement in key countries is stripping civil liberties from its citizens. Meanwhile, an unstable US president has alienated key allies as he engages Iran in…
The trans-themed sci-fi “Robo Waitress Assassins” debuts as a live script reading…
******CYBERNETIC SPOILERS!****** Recently, at WonderCon 2026 I saw a panel for a trans-themed sci-fi short film called “Long Away,” which sees a young trans woman named Victoria (Griffin Kelly) from the year 2050 using a janky, rented time-travel wristwatch to return to the year 2025 in order to (briefly) meet the comic books-loving dad (Justin…
50 years ago, “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976) landed on our planet…
******COSMIC SPOILERS!****** A couple of weeks ago, I was shopping a nearby Barnes & Noble when I came across a reissue paperback of Walter Tevis‘ 1963 sci-fi novel (and partial autobiography) “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” I’d seen British filmmaker Nicholas Roeg’s 1976 film of it several times (most recently for this retrospective), but…
A reduced WonderCon 2026 returns to Anaheim with fewer attractions, but with nooks of interest…
Down, but not out… As with WonderCon 2025, this year’s WonderCon was scaled-down even further, with no ‘big ticket’ panels or new movies or TV shows to promote. I expected at least one behind-the-scenes panel for this spring’s newest blockbuster, “Project Hail Mary,” but sadly, there was nothing. Not even a Rocky plushie. Even on…
“Project Hail Mary” (2026) is an odyssey of friendship across the stars…
******SUN-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Few movies lately have filled me with as much anticipation as “Project Hail Mary” (2026), which I’ve waited nearly five years to see on the big screen, after devouring the 2021 novel by Andy Weir (“The Martian,” “Artemis”). The movie is being adapted by Drew Goddard, who previously adapted Weir’s “The Martian” for…
“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” season 1 report card…
******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Paramount+’s latest Star Trek series, “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” (STSA) has finished its freshman year. Created by showrunners Alex Kurtzman & Gaia Viola, STSA is a mix of old and new elements; with A-list actors, Star Trek veterans and a fresh-faced cast of cadets tossed together in a 32nd century, post-Burn Federation seeking…