******UNIDENTIFIED FLYING SPOILERS!****** I’ve been a fan of director Steven Spielberg since my family and I waited hours parked outside a drive-in theater waiting for the filled parking lot to clear so we could squeeze in and see “JAWS” back in 1975. Two years later, seeing “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (CE3K) at the…
Tag: John Williams
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…
“You’re gonna need a bigger display”: JAWS: The Exhibition opens at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles…
To any longtime readers, I swear that barring any unforeseen circumstances, this should be my final word on the 50th anniversary of “JAWS,” which happens to be one of my favorite films of all time. I’ve already published prior columns on my personal “JAWS” 50th anniversary celebrations and of recently revisiting the movie in 2D-IMAX,…
“This shark…swallow you whole!” Seeing “JAWS” (1975) in 2D-IMAX…
******THREE BARRELS OF SPOILERS!****** From Drive-In to IMAX For clarity, this will not be a review of “JAWS” (1975), which I reviewed the hell out of five years ago, and revisited again earlier this year for the movie’s official 50th anniversary celebration back in June. This column is about rewatching a movie I’ve seen countless…
James Gunn’s “Superman” (2025) is a superhero movie for this age, though I wish it were more timeless…
******SUPER-SPOILERS!****** My wife and I just saw “Superman” (2025), and I’m going to try to keep this review a lot shorter than most, because it’s too early, and too many have yet to see the movie for one of this column’s usual deep-dives. That said, there will be some spoilers, so with that, let’s get…
“Smile, you son of a bitch!”: Celebrating a half-century of “JAWS”…
******GREAT WHITE SPOILERS!****** Fifty years ago, in that long ago summer of 1975, eight-year old me was piled along with my siblings and parents into our family’s Volkswagen bus, headed to a local SoCal drive-in to see “JAWS”; the blockbuster flick from the as-yet-unkown Steven Spielberg (hard to remember a time when he wasn’t a…
Mixed emotions regarding the trailer for “Superman” (2025)…
******KRYTONITE-LADEN SPOILERS!****** Warner Bros recently dropped the latest three minute trailer for “Guardians of the Galaxy” writer-director James Gunn’s new “Superman” reboot movie (arriving in theaters July 11th), and while there were a number of elements that piqued my interest, the trailer had many of the same issues plaguing the current superhero movie sub-genre, as…
20 years later, “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” (2005) remains a deeply flawed, yet uncannily prescient movie…
******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** I want to begin by saying this will not be a conventional review (the kind normally found on this site), but rather a look at how “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” impacted me after a recent anniversary rewatch. I first saw the film on opening weekend in 2005 on an…
The Force goes FM: NPR’s Star Wars Radio Plays (1981-1996)…
*****STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS!***** In early 1981, within the pages of Starlog magazine (the internet before the internet), my then-14 year old self read about an upcoming series on National Public Radio (NPR) that was going to adapt 1977’s “Star Wars” into a 13-part radio play (pre-“A New Hope,” which was added for the movie’s 1981…
Watching 1975’s “JAWS” with a young first-timer…
******THREE BARRELS OF SPOILERS!****** Last night, we had our friend Kathy and her 12-year old son Joshua over for another ‘garage theater’ movie night at our humble abode. Continuing young Joshua’s ongoing film education into “the classics” (“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Jurassic Park,” “The Princess Bride,” the “Star Wars” & “Back to the…
“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…
“Superman: The Movie” (1978) made my generation believe a man could fly…
****SUPER-SPOILERS AHEAD!***** Having written a retrospective on “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut” a couple years ago, I recently realized I’d never tackled my personal favorite of the Superman (and superhero) movie canon. In December of 1978, I’d just turned a precocious 12 years old when a new movie was released that everyone at school…