James Cameron’s “The Abyss: Special Edition” (1989) deserves reappraisal …and a Blu-ray release.

******SUBMERGED SPOILERS AHEAD!!****** Lost in the Abyss. 1989 was unquestionably the Summer of “Batman”. Everywhere you looked there was Batman-product; Batman cereal, a resurgence of comic book sales, toys, collectibles, and the late (great) Prince’s “Batdance” dominated the air waves. There were other big movies that summer; “Ghostbusters 2,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,”…

Rejudging “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” 30 years later…

Pre-Judgment (1984). *****TERMINAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!***** Way back in late fall of 1984, I remember my sister coming home to tell us about a movie she just saw called “The Terminator” (1984). The title didn’t impress me at all, because it sounded like a million other cheapie action-exploitation movies on shelves of video stores at that…

“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…

Where did the once-brilliant ALIEN franchise go so wrong?

With the imminent release of “ALIEN: Covenant” (coming in May) I wanted to discuss the ALIEN franchise in general.  But I became more intrigued by this question: at what point did this once brilliant franchise go so wrong? The first two films are unabashed classics.  As ALIENS director James Cameron has said, ‘the first movie…