****NO SPOILERS!***** This particular entry of “Musings…” is going to be a challenge for me, as I’m not writing a plot synopsis, and I will resist the temptation to drop any spoilers (which would be impossible if I wrote a synopsis). Instead, I will try to give you the overall gestalt of the movie through…
Month: April 2019
The Orville, S2.14: “The Road Not Taken” offers a familiar yet enjoyable ride…
****BLACK-HOLE SIZED SPOILERS!!**** The Orville continues to revisit ‘roads not taken’ with various Star Trek story elements, while executing them with enough panache, humor and entertainment value to make them well worth revisiting. Last week’s episode, “Tomorrow…” was a nearly scene-specific remake of Star Trek: The Next Gen’s “Second Chances” (both saw First Officers dealing…
The Twilight Zone, S1.5: “Wunderkind” is not a hole in one…
****THE SPOILER ZONE!**** ~ sigh~ I need to preface this by saying that few people were more excited for Jordan Peele’s new version of “The Twilight Zone” than myself. The original TZ was my first television love (even before Star Trek), and I am also a huge fan of Peele’s “Get Out” (2017) and “Us”…
“The Black Hole”: Disney’s first big space epic turns 40…
December of 1979 saw two competing space epics trying to steal some of Star Wars’ juggernaut mojo. One of them was Paramount’s big budgeted revival of its cult TV property “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, and the other saw Disney throw its mouse-eared hat into the big budget space epic arena with “The Black Hole”;…
The Orville, S2.13, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is a blast from Kelly’s past…
****PLANETARY RING-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!**** The Orville’s latest, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” (a title alluding to Shakespeare’s “MacBeth”) is, in many ways, another Star Trek: The Next Generation remake. In this case, the Commander Riker-centered “Second Chances”, which saw Riker facing a transporter-created doppelgänger unknowingly left behind on an away mission. The Orville comes at…
Star Trek: Discovery S2.14: “Such Sweet Sorrow,” part 2 is a season finale with the soul of a series finale…
Just finished watching the series–er, second season finale of “Star Trek: Discovery”; it was epic, sweeping, emotional and (as usual) a bit overstuffed, but damn, it was gorgeous, too. ****QUANTUM SINGULARITY-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!**** The Story. Review of Star Trek: Discovery, S2.13; “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 1” Part 2 picks up at the very end of…
The Twilight Zone S1.4: “A Traveler” stops along a few familiar paths…
****AT THE SIGNPOST UP AHEAD: THE SPOILER ZONE!**** Story. An indigenous Alaskan policewoman, Sgt. Yuka (Marinka Sila) is taking her own drunkard brother Jack (Patrick Gallagher) to jail on Christmas Eve on a drunk & disorderly charge. There, he is expected to get some turkey, a slice of pumpkin pie, and the annual Christmas Eve…
“Shazam!” (2019) infuses its superhero story with loving homages to 1980s cinema…
My wife and I saw “Shazam!” yesterday after a week-long delay (technical issues with the theater’s digital copy) and I have to say, it was well worth the wait. “Shazam” turned out to be surprisingly witty, and a lot more nostalgic than I originally anticipated… ****SUPER-SPOILERS!!**** Without ruining a great big spoiler near the end…
The Orville, S2.12: “Sanctuary” tackles gender inequality…
“The Orville” continues to explore Star Trek-style allegory but with its own unique brand of humor, and this week was another quality entry that managed that delicate juggling act, delivering scathing commentary on international gender inequality with…Dolly Parton. The Story. Capt. Ed Mercer (writer/creator/producer/star Seth MacFarlane) and his first and second officers, Kelly Grayson (Adrianne…
Star Trek: Discovery, S2.13; “Such Sweet Sorrow” opens the floodgates…
The latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, “Such Sweet Sorrow,” may be best remembered as the “The Big Goodbye 2.0.” The crew truly coheres as a family, which has been an ongoing struggle with the show. Many characters have been maddeningly underdeveloped, such as the supporting bridge crew, who were little more than faces in…
“The Twilight Zone” realizes its potential with “Replay”…
Jordan Peele’s newest incarnation of Rod Serling’s classic TV series “The Twilight Zone” got off to an uneven start last week with a two episode debut. The first was a solid offering (“The Comedian”) and the second was a haphazard mess (a miscalculated reimagining of the classic “Nightmare at 20,000 [30,000] Feet”). This week’s entry,…
“Pet Sematary” (1989/2019), a postmortem of both versions…
Stephen King’s 1983 novel, “Pet Sematary” (sic, sic, sic…), arguably one of his best books (certainly a favorite of mine) has been adapted twice into film; first in 1989, a version directed by Mary Lambert (Black List TV series, Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video), and now a just-released 2019 version, directed by Kevin Kolsch and…