Critically Pan-ned. *****SPIELBERGIAN SPOILERS AHEAD!!***** In December of 1991, I remember going to see “Hook” about a week or so after it’d opened. I was not the greatest fan of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan stories, though I was familiar enough with the 1953 Disney animated feature, which I saw as a kid. As a fan…
Is Star Trek’s transporter room a chamber of horrors…?
Trauma of the G-rated “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” When I was a kid, some million and a half years ago, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979) made its big screen debut. The film took the low-budget spartan sci-fi TV series and upgraded it into an A-list Hollywood feature…even going so far as to hire…
The novels of Andy Weir: “The Martian,” “Artemis” and “Project Hail Mary”…
New Voice. As a lifelong fan of science fiction, I’m not embarrassed to admit that sometimes the genre can fall a bit short in a couple of areas; humor and actual science. Much of the early literary sci-fi I’ve read in my life came from greats like Ray Bradbury (my all-time favorite author), H.G. Wells,…
The ‘cold equations’ of Netflix’s “Stowaway” (2021)…
******SPACESHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!!******* 2021’s Space Odyssey. In a time where I’m still a bit pandemic-skittish about going back to cinemas, I decided to peruse my neglected Netflix queue when I came across “Stowaway”, a space flick released this past April. Starring Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”), Toni Colette (“The Sixth Sense”), Daniel Dae Kim (“Lost”)…
Zack Snyder returns to zombieland with “Army of the Dead” (2021)…
*****VAULT OF SPOILERS AHEAD!!***** Las Vegas and zombies. Sounds like a comedy-horror marriage made in an all-night chapel with an Elvis impersonator doing the ceremony. What could’ve been a witty zom-com like “Shaun of the Dead” or “Zombieland” goes for lower hanging action-movie fruit. The result feels more like a grounded “Con Air,” but with…
AppleTV’s “For All Mankind” imagines a space race set on a more ambitious track…
I’d been meaning to write about AppleTV’s “For All Mankind” for awhile now, but frankly, it’s a daunting challenge, because (and I try not to say this too much) this is my favorite TV show on at the moment. How to put my love for it into words without gushing or fanboying is my challenge….
Why I still watch (and enjoy) the CW’s “Supergirl”…
*****SUPER-SPOILERS!!***** “Supergirl” on the scene. In October of 2015, I decided to watch CBS’ new TV series “Supergirl”, and to my surprise I enjoyed it very much. It was less of a typical superhero show and more of a young woman making her way in the big (National) City story (more like “The Devil Wears…
Rejudging “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” 30 years later…
Pre-Judgment (1984). *****TERMINAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!***** Way back in late fall of 1984, I remember my sister coming home to tell us about a movie she just saw called “The Terminator” (1984). The title didn’t impress me at all, because it sounded like a million other cheapie action-exploitation movies on shelves of video stores at that…
Disney bakes “The Bad Batch” and other Star Wars treats for May…
May the 4th was strong with the Force. While my own household celebrated “May the 4th” in our own way, Disney+ also offered a slew of new Star Wars-related content for this unofficial Star Wars holiday, which is really a thing now. First up was the launch of a new post-“Clone Wars” Star Wars cartoon…
A personal Star Wars celebration for an early “May the 4th”…
How I first saw “The Empire Strikes Back.” For this “May the 4th” day, I’d like to share a personal Star Wars story. When I was all of 13 in the summer of 1980, my family and I went to see “The Empire Strikes Back”, with my dad driving the hour and a half freeway…
Effectively dreaming “The Lathe of Heaven” (1980) into reality…
1980 was a heady time to be a teenaged sci-fi fan. It was the year that ushered in a diverse range of sci-fi movies like “The Empire Strikes Back” “Battle Beyond The Stars”, “Flash Gordon” “The Final Countdown,” and “Altered States.” My parents’ old 25″ Zenith TV set practically exploded with sci-fi related content as…
Reflecting on the reimagined 2003 “Battlestar Galactica” miniseries, Part 2…
Previously, on Battlestar Galactica… In my previous column, I did a write-up/review of the first half of the 2003 reimagined “Battlestar Galactica” miniseries. Part 1 of the rebooted miniseries is definitely the more action-packed of the two, while Part 2 establishes the direction for the series going forward. Without further ado, let’s get right into…
