“Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) is a better sequel than its predecessor deserves…

*****AIRCRAFT CARRIER-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** Danger Zone. 1986’s “Top Gun” isn’t exactly one of my favorite movies, to put it charitably.  Back in the late 1980s, I thought it was a dumb, jingoistic US Navy recruitment film smothered in a slick coat of Hollywood production values.  “Top Gun” wallowed in action movie cliches and shallow characters; ignoring…

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951): 70 years later, and still standing…

*****FLYING SAUCER-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** The Source Novella. The 1951 Robert Wise-directed sci-fi classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still” was based on a 1940 novella by Harry Bates. I first bought “Farewell to the Master” in a collection of other stories at a secondhand bookstore some 20-odd years ago. Already very familiar with the 1951 classic…