Whip it good. This week, my wife and I took in a screening of the 1981 Steven Spielberg/George Lucas classic “Raiders of the Lost Ark” at our local cinema. I hadn’t seen “Raiders” theatrically since the summer of 1981, when I was all of 14. This time, nearly four decades later, I was a…
My personal Martian chronicles…
Discovery. A few days ago, I turned on the news to finally hear something other than scandals, angry tweets, and a world increasingly going to hell in a hand basket. There was a headline story about the planet Mars. The Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars almost 6 years ago, had discovered organic material on…
HUMANS: TV’s no-frills cybernetic revolution…
It’s unfortunate that “HUMANS,” a terrific British cyber-revolt series (based on a Swedish series) has to share an era with HBO’s “Westworld.” Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I enjoy Westworld very much; it’s a beautiful piece of science-fiction television, and arguably the best mindf–k TV series since 1967’s “The Prisoner.” It’s that HUMANS…
“Deadpool 2”: Electric Boogaloo…
“Deadpool”, the unapologetically R-rated clown prince of superheroes, has spawned a sequel that’s even more outrageously meta (and perversely funny) than its parent. “Deadpool 2” is the second in cowriter/producer/star Ryan Reynolds’ series of passion project-atonements for the grotesque misfire of 2011’s “Green Lantern” (words can’t convey my loathing of that movie) and his much maligned…
So be it, Jedi: “Return of the Jedi”, 35 years later…
Time flies like the Millennium Falcon through hyperspace. Looking back 35 years (gasp!), I still tend to regard “Return of the Jedi” as the first genuine misstep of cinematic Star Wars (the runt of the original trilogy litter). I realize it is a favorite for some, and I’m not trying to challenge or argue anyone else’s opinion…
Retro-Musings: 1971’s “The Omega Man”…
Between the late 1960s and early 1970s, a slew of post-apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction movies appeared in movie theatres…and it seemed like every other one of them starred Charlton Heston. There were Heston’s two “Planet of the Apes” movies (the 1968 original and its 1970 sequel, “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”), and an adaptation of Harry…
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” is no scruffy-looking nerf-herder…
Like many Star Wars fans of ‘a certain age’, I’ve weathered my share of Star Wars disappointments; substandard paperback tie-in novels (“Han Solo at Star’s End” “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye”), the dreaded “Star Wars Holiday Special”, as well as the long-anticipated but soul-crushingly disappointing prequels. What’s kept me going as a fan was an unshakable…
“Deep Space Nine”’s Chase Masterson Trekcore interview…
In March of this year, I had the genuine pleasure of doing an interview for Trekcore.com with Deep Space Nine’s Chase Masterson, who plays Leeta; former Dabo girl and now wife of the Ferengi Grand Nagus. In Star Trek Online, she also plays the Mirror Universe’s ‘Admiral Leeta’; the savage ruler of the Terran Empire….
Comic Con Revolution, Ontario, California 2018; the little convention that grew…
In its second year now, Comic Con Revolution at Ontario, California (not the Canadian province, just to be clear) has seen its attendance numbers grow in leaps and bounds over last year. In 2017, my wife and I tried this local convention (only 20-odd minutes away by freeway) in its inaugural year. It was charming….
Amazon Prime saves “The Expanse”….
Today, I heard some truly terrific news that I’d like to take this opportunity to share wi– — um, yes, er, of course, Madame Undersecretary. * ahem * A couple weeks ago, I had the intense displeasure of writing this post: SyFy cancels “The Expanse,” and the grieving begins… Then today, I heard this: Via cinemablend.com…
The “ongoing mission” of Star Trek’s pilot episodes, part 2
In part one of this two-part post, I took a look at the first four Star Trek series pilots; The Original Series’ pilots “The Cage”(1964)/“Where No Man Has Gone Before”(1965), The Next Generation’s (TNG) “Encounter at Farpoint” (1987) and Deep Space Nine’s (DS9) “The Emissary.”(1993). For this entry, I want to take a look at the last…
“Have you ever piloted a Star Trek out of spacedock?” Taking a look at the Star Trek TV pilots, Part 1….
“Star Trek” is a television phenomenon that, like legendary Vulcan Surak’s katra, refuses to die. It’s seen many incarnations. It constantly changes, yet remains somewhat familiar. The mythology/history of the Star Trek universe has, over the course of 50-plus years, become dense enough to make newcomers more than a bit wary. This is…
