******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…
Tag: Mark Hamill
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…
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…
“The Book of Boba Fett”: The good, the bad and the ugly…
*****SPOILERS FOR “THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT!!***** Whose Book? Like many Star Wars fans, I was looking forward to DisneyPlus’ premiere of “The Book of Boba Fett” on December 29th of last year, and while “Stranger in a Strange Land” was a decent opening chapter for the series, it didn’t exactly ignite my rocket pack….
“You must face Darth Vader again”: Returning to “Return of the Jedi”…
“Help me take this mask off.” A few years ago, I wrote a somewhat snarky, old guy-perspective of “Return of the Jedi,” and while I still stand by most of my criticisms of the movie (unoriginal story beats, a second Death Star, etc), I think what I needed now was to see the movie again…