Nursing Ratched. ***** SPOILERS AHEAD! ***** 1975 saw the release of director Milos Forman’s adaptation of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” The movie went several Oscars, including Best Picture (beating “JAWS”–blasphemy!) and a well-deserved Best Actress award for Louise Fletcher for her iconic performance as the cold, dominating Nurse Mildred…
Month: September 2020
Why Mr. Spock truly is the center of the Star Trek universe…
“Spock, Serial number S179-276SP. Verified.” The following is not just the opinion of a huge fan of the character of Mr. Spock (I am, but that’s another story). It is intended to be a quite logical analysis of Mr. Spock’s very central role in the Star Trek universe, and how he has a splay-fingered hand…
“Kolchak: The Night Stalker” (1974-5) was a pulpy mix of Columbo and Scooby Doo…
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,”…