******SAUCER-SHAPED SPOILERS!****** Inspired by a report of “flying saucers” as described by pilot Kenneth Nelson in June 1947, and followed by the infamous Roswell incident in New Mexico that same year, UFOs (UAPs now) were all the rage in mid-century America. That trend was amplified in the 1950s with prominent sci-fi films such as producer…
Tag: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
“Paul” (2011) is Simon Pegg & Nick Frost’s cheeky homage to Spielbergian sci-fi…
******UNIDENTIFIED FLYING SPOILERS!****** British actors/comedians/writers Simon Pegg and Nick Frost broke geek ground with their memorable, short-lived fandom comedy “Spaced” (1999-2001), which was cowritten and co-created with costars Edgar Wright and Jessica Hynes. Pegg, Frost and Wright would follow with a George Romero inspired horror-comedy “Shaun of the Dead” (2004), which is where they first…
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind”; introducing Steven Spielberg’s 1977 UFOpus to fresh eyes…
*****MOTHERSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!***** “If everything’s ready here on the dark side of the moon? Play the five tones…” When the COVID pandemic happened, my wife and I invested in a cheap Vankyo digital projector to keep up on our movies since movie theaters were shut down for months, and arguably, still haven’t fully recovered. Without the…
Hulu’s “No One Will Save You” (2023) is a well-crafted exercise in style over substance…
*****FLYING SAUCER-SIZED SPOILERS!***** Writer-director Brian Duffield has crafted a few sci-fi/horror movies where a protagonist is left to their own resources to deal with with a cataclysm or conspiracy (“Love and Monsters” “The Babysitter”). That template is used once again with his latest movie, “No One Will Save You,” which stars Kaitlyn Dever (“Last Man…
Revisiting Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” after 40 years…
40 Years Ago. When I was not-quite 11 years old, one of the most awe-inspiring movies I’d ever seen was Steven Spielberg’s brilliant “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”(1977). “Close Encounters” was life-changing, and propelled my current never-ending curiosity about the universe. Five years later, in 1982, I was a somewhat more cynical 15 years…
An architect of dreams: Douglas Trumbull, 1942-2022…
The Architect. The movie industry lost a true legend this week. Douglas Trumbull, a visual effects producer and film director who revolutionized the art of motion pictures over the past six decades, succumbed to complications from mesothelioma at age 79. Visual effects were literally in Trumpbull’s genes, as his father, Donald Trumbull, worked on the…