My own Vampire Diaries. I have to admit, when the film adaptation of “Interview With The Vampire” first came out in 1994, I had little interest. I hadn’t yet read any of author Ann Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles” books, and I wasn’t much of a vampire buff (save for a handful of movies). I loved the…
NostalgiaCon80s in Anaheim was a blast from the past…
“Always Something There To Remind Me…” On Saturday, September 28th, at the Anaheim Convention Center (future site of Starfleet HQ, according to the new “Star Trek: Picard” trailer), my wife and I attended an interesting little event that took us back in time a bit to our own ‘wonder years’… a new convention called “NostalgiaCon80s.”…
“Ad Astra” (2019) carries a ‘heart of darkness’ to the stars…
****ROCKET-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!**** Before I begin, I should warn a reader and/or prospective viewer that the trailers for “Ad Astra” are a tad deceptive. If one is looking for for the action-packed late summer thrill ride hinted at in the trailer? You’re outta luck. “Ad Astra” is much more languidly paced and introverted; more “2001/Solaris”…
The Star Trek family loses a beloved brother: Aron Eisenberg, 1969-2019.
Unlike other obituaries I’ve written for this site, I’m truly saddened to say this one is personal. In the last two years, I’d come to know Aron Eisenberg… he was an actor, photographer, husband and father. Aron first joined the Star Trek family in 1993 when he played the wily Ferengi “Nog” on “Star Trek:…
Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood”: Knocking on Wood for 25 years…
“I just want to tell stories…” The real Edward D. Wood Jr. was already well-known to me in 1994, because I’d long been a devotee of crappy cinema. I still remember renting “Plan Nine From Outer Space” (1956) on laserdisc back in the mid 1980s and just about crying with laughter. I later sought some…
“Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979), back on the main viewer…
Return to Tomorrow… Sunday, September 15th, 2019. A few months shy of the 40th anniversary of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”’s debut (Dec. 7th), and my local AMC Theatre chain in coordination with Fathom Events had a special weekend screening of this film that I last saw theatrically about 37th years ago (on a double-bill…
A personal tour of Rod Serling’s “The Night Gallery”…
When I was a little boy (far too little to watch horror, anyway), I was madly in love with monsters and the supernatural. I used to build monster model kits with loving patience. “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine was my first magazine subscription and monthly bible (rest in peace, Forry Ackerman). The late Rod Serling’s…
Time has been kind to “Star Trek: Enterprise” (2001-2005)…
“Let’s go.” In September of 2001 (that month that lives in infamy) a new Star Trek series debuted called “Enterprise”. It was also released minus the Star Trek brand name (at first…it was reinstated by Season 2). Produced by longtime Star Trek writer/producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, the series was a prequel to TOS…
The enduring legacy, and ongoing relevance of Kenneth Johnson’s “V”…
****MOTHERSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** 1983’s “V.” In 1983, writer/director/producer Kenneth Johnson (“Six Million Dollar Man” “Bionic Woman” “The Incredible Hulk”), the man responsible for much of the TV that made up my childhood, released an epic two-night miniseries about a fleet of manned, giant flying saucers that come to Earth “in peace.” The onboard alien ‘Visitors’ appear…
Retro-Musings: 1972’s “Silent Running” is a space odyssey rooted in the earth…
Nearly half a century ago, special effects pioneer Doug Trumbull (“2001: A Space Odyssey” “Blade Runner” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) took the director’s chair (at the tender age of 28) to make a low budget ecological sci-fi called “Silent Running.” The movie came from a script by writers Derek Washburn, Michael Cimino (both…
“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” is a fanciful collision between fact and pulp fiction…
**** 70MM SPOILERS!**** Imagine if Jack and Rose had somehow saved the Titanic. Or if Kevin Costner’s Jim Garrison managed to stop Oswald before he shot JFK. What if Marvel’s Captain America put Hitler behind bars and prematurely ended World War 2? If any of these scenarios are too much to imagine, let alone enjoy,…
Retro-Musings: “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963) is still sea-worthy today…
Waaaay back in my childhood back in the 1970s and 1980s, I was a huge fan of the stop-motion animated films of cinematic FX maestro Ray Harryhausen. Harryhausen was, from the 1950s through the mid-1970s, a one man “Industrial Light & Magic.” Usually working without assistance, Harryhausen would build his armatured puppets and carefully shift…
