A very different era. In order to understand and appreciate this series I’m about to get into, modern readers should understand that the 1970s were a very different era; we’re talking nearly a half-century ago. When watching many shows of that time today, there are many casually sexist/racist terms, cultural appropriations and other unwitting offenses…
“ALIENS” (1986) took a lone monster and turned it into an army…
Haunted House In Space. Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece “ALIEN” took a simple, 1950s ‘monster on a spaceship’ B-movie story and wrapped it in glossy, A-movie production design and quality. Its status among fans has since become legendary, on a par with horror films such as “The Exorcist” and “Psycho” as well as sci-fi…
Netflix’s “Away” (2020) is all about family drama, not the final frontier…
Martian Melodrama. Bit of quick preamble; anyone who’s read this site for awhile probably knows that I am an irredeemable Mars-geek, and a sizable chunk of my book and DVD library relates to Mars, either through real-life probe findings or fictional Mars exploits. For me, the gold standard of fictional Mars missions in this past…
“Mulan” (2020) is a Disneyfied, but timely tale of gender equality…
Another At-Home Movie Night. With theaters remaining closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the hunger for fresh entertainment more keen than ever, my wife and I decided to check out Disney’s new adaptation of its own 1998 animated feature “Mulan” which, for full disclosure, I have never seen but I was familiar with the broad…
Re-assimilating “Star Trek: First Contact” (1996)…
Making Contact. In late November of 1996, I took my non-Trekkie sister with me to see the new Star Trek movie, “First Contact.” I salute my sister for her open-mindedness since 1994’s “Star Trek: Generations” received a lukewarm response, despite my own fondness for it ( In defense of “Star Trek: Generations”). For “First Contact,”…
“Bill & Ted Face the Music” (2020) and it’s not at all heinous, dude…
History Exam. ****MAJOR SPOILERS, DUDE!!**** Way back in the fall of 1989, on a Friday night with a good friend of mine, we decided to take in what looked to be a very guilty pleasure sorta movie… “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” Turned out to be a fun little flick, too; think “Back to the…
“Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986); the ‘one with the whales’ is still seaworthy…
34 years ago this November, I went to see “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” with my Trekkie sister over Thanksgiving weekend. I was a month shy of my 20th birthday, and still filled with much of the optimism for the years ahead that is often reflected in the Star Trek universe. Star Trek III…
“Zardoz”(1974) is “The Time Machine”on acid by way of Monty Python…
*****STONEHEAD-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** 1974’s “Zardoz”, written, produced and directed by John Boorman (“Deliverance” “Excalibur” “Exorcist II: The Heretic”) is, without a doubt, one of the single weirdest pieces of cinema sci-fi fans are likely to see. The movie first came on my personal radar at the tender age of 8, when I read about it in…
Star Trek: Lower Decks, S1.3: “Temporal Edict” buffers…
CBS-All Access has just released the third episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks for streaming, and “Temporal Edict” (written by Dave Ihlenfeld and David Wright) has nothing to do with time travel, despite the title. Instead, this week’s story is all about that unwritten rule of USS Enterprise former Chief Engineer, Montgomery Scott; always leave…
Netflix’s “Project Power” shorts itself out…
Potential. When Netflix announced a new action movie starring Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (“Ray”), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Inception”) and interesting newcomer Dominque Fishback, my hungry-for-fresh-entertainment ears perked up a bit. The premise of the movie sounded intriguing; there is a new drug on the streets of New Orleans that, when ingested, gives a person superpowers for…
Star Trek: Lower Decks, S1.2: “Envoys” embark…
The 2nd episode of CBS-All Access’ latest Star Trek series (three, for anyone who’s counting) is now available to stream, and it’s a marginal improvement over last week’s overstuffed, overly-busy pilot. I was glad to see a better delineation of the characters, as well as more coherent ‘A and B’ stories. That said, I still…
Sequencing the DNA of “Gattaca” (1997)…
Back in 1997, there was buzz about a new sci-fi film called “Gattaca” which caught my eye; it was written and directed by Andrew Niccol, who would later be credited with writing 1998’s “The Truman Show” as well as directing “SimOne” (2002) and other innovative, underrated movies (2005’s “Lords of War” is another). Danny De…
