At the recent D23 Disney convention in Anaheim, the seemingly inevitable news finally dropped; Disney/Lucasfilm is finally releasing the original, unaltered “Star Wars” (1977) to theaters next year (without the “A New Hope” subtitle added to the film in 1981 for rerelease) for the movie’s 50th anniversary in a limited release beginning February 19th. Lucasfilm…
Tag: Harrison Ford
The Force is strong with the graphic making-of book, “Lucas Wars” (“Les Guerres de Lucas”)…
******DEATH STAR-SIZED SPOILERS!****** As a “Star Wars” fan for the past 49 years or so, I’ve read innumerable accounts of the making of this movie–which drew me in like a tractor beam at age ten, back in that summer of 1977. To that end, there are several books I consider must-reads about the life and…
Revisiting “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ten years later…
******STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS!****** I make no secret of the fact that I, my wife, and other Gen Xers we know found writer/director George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005) disappointing. While they offered some interesting ideas, they lacked the heart, passion and grit of the original trilogy; replacing them with clunky scripting, soulless performances, and…
How 1973’s “American Graffiti” created a ripple effect still felt over 50 years later…
*****TWIN BARREL-CARB SPOILERS!***** After the arguably unjust box office failure of his arthouse-dystopian sci-fi film “THX-1138” (1971), George Lucas was challenged by his mentor and American Zoetrope producing partner Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather” trilogy, “Apocalypse Now”) to do something challenging to his own avant-garde sensibilities, which, for young George Lucas, meant creating a warm,…
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is one final hurrah for old times’ sake…
*****ARK OF THE COVENANT-SIZED SPOILERS!***** 42 Years of Jonesing for Indiana Like “Star Wars,” the Indiana Jones franchise has paralleled my own life ‘adventure’ from adolescence well into middle-age. In the summer of 1981, I was a middle-schooler with most of my life ahead of me, eagerly going to see a new summer ‘event movie’…
The trailer for 2023’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” whips it good…
The Trailer. Lucasfilm/Disney has released the first trailer for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which is due to arrive in theaters on June 30th, 2023. While star Harrison Ford returns, this marks the first Indiana Jones movie to not be directed by longtime series director Steven Spielberg. Taking the reins for this adventure…
Tour de Force; the long-delayed Star Wars Celebration 2022 returned to Anaheim with a vengeance…
Return of the Jedi. Twice delayed, understandably, due to the COVID pandemic, the Star Wars Celebration finally arrived at Anaheim, California, for the first time since 2015. When my wife Julia and I attended the 2015 show, we were only able to get tickets for one day (Saturday) of the four-day event, which felt like…
Does “Blade Runner” actually ‘Dream of Electric Sheep’…?
****SPOILERS FOR “BLADE RUNNER”***** ****SPOILERS FOR “DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?”**** The Book Like many sci-fi movie fans of my generation, I came into the late Philip K. Dick’s work ass-backward; from the movie adaptations of his works to the books themselves. One movie I’d become increasingly fond of, especially after its 1991 “Director’s…