Preface. For those seeking a more in-depth analysis of this movie (as I normally do in this column), I’ve already done a retrospective of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” a few years back ( War and Remembrance: “The War of the Worlds”), so I won’t rehash Wells’ book, the various films, or the TV…
Star Trek going forward: ‘Tomorrow isn’t Yesterday’–nor should it be…
Not Yesterday’s Enterprise. This is one of those columns I wish I didn’t have to write, but I wanted to make a one-stop column addressing much of the simmering, seething anger I see online for just about any Star Trek made beyond 2005—or beyond 1987, for some. For as long as I can remember, each…
Seeing double with the riotously audacious “Face/Off” (1997)…
A Piece of the Action. One day, waaaay back in late summer or fall of 1996 (I can’t remember exactly when), a friend and I played a bit of ‘scheduled hooky’ from work and enjoyed what would now be called a ‘mental health day’ for both of us. One of the things on our unscheduled…
The long delayed release of “A Quiet Place: Part II” (2021) delivers the nerve juice…
Quiet Time. ******SHHHH! SPOILERS AHEAD****** A few years ago, a horror movie pal and I went to go see writer/director/star John Krasinski’s new horror flick “A Quiet Place”, and while the movie had some gaps in logic, I was surprised at how caught up we both became with the story’s simple premise: “Be quiet, or…
Experiencing “Black Widow” (2021) at our ad-hoc home movie theater…
Our Pandemic Movie Theater. As I already mentioned in a previous column I did last year (“At-home projection: How I learned to love my movie collection all over again…“), the COVID pandemic put the kibosh on movie attendance for me—and going to the movies was once a favorite pastime of mine. However, a safely-masked visit…
Wading deep into the waters of “JAWS 2” (1978)…
Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back In The Water… The unprecedented success of Steven Spielberg’s “JAWS” (1975) not only inaugurated the summer movie phenomenon, but it also guaranteed a sequel, despite the finality of JAWS’ conclusion. As I’ve said more than once on this site, JAWS is one of my favorite…
The man behind the modern superhero movie, Richard Donner (1930-2021)…
Making Us Believe A Man Could Fly. I still remember going to see “Superman: The Movie” back in the winter of 1978. I wasn’t a big superhero fan in those days, to be honest. Yes, I read some random Marvel comics (“Hulk,” “SpiderMan,” “Fantastic Four”), and I watched the occasional episode of “Wonder Woman” (primarily…
“The Incredible Hulk” (1977-1982); a look back at Marvel’s first successful TV adaptation…
Anger Management. As a 10 year old kid back in 1977, I remember watching the serious, somber TV-movie pilot of “The Incredible Hulk,” written, produced and directed by Kenneth Johnson (“The Bionic Woman,” “V,” “Alien Nation”). Unlike the primary colored “Hulk” comic books I read from the local drugstore, the TV movie pilot was horror…
“John Carter” (2012), the unfairly maligned adaptation of the original space hero…
Before Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Luke Skywalker… I was born about a half-century too late to have been among the first generation to read Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter of Mars” books, but my own first inklings of them came via Carl Sagan’s landmark 1980 PBS TV series, “COSMOS.” The late pop scientist reminisced…
Forever the “Commander”; Joanne Linville (1928-2021)…
You know her face. Long a mainstay of 1950s-1980s television, actress Joanne Linville passed away yesterday at age 93. She was one of those faces you’d recognize if you grew up plastered to the cathode ray tube, as so many of my generation were back in the day. While appearing on many mainstream TV series…
“You must face Darth Vader again”: Returning to “Return of the Jedi”…
“Help me take this mask off.” A few years ago, I wrote a somewhat snarky, old guy-perspective of “Return of the Jedi,” and while I still stand by most of my criticisms of the movie (unoriginal story beats, a second Death Star, etc), I think what I needed now was to see the movie again…
DisneyPlus’ “Loki” takes a time-traveling leap into Marvel’s mischievous prankster…
Caveats and Chaos. A couple of caveats to this column. First, to my regular readers (I’m grateful for each of you) I want to apologize for the slower influx of fresh content lately. My little house in the ‘burbs has been plagued with a solid month of plumbing/electrical issues, and has only returned to something…
