Netflix’s “Wednesday” (2022) paints it black…

*****SPOOKY SPOILERS!!***** “They’re creepy and they’re kooky…” In 1964, monsters and horror were increasingly mainstream on broadcast TV, as evidenced by the popularity of Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits.” CBS’s “The Munsters” and ABC’s “The Addams Family” attempted to cash in on this trend by upending traditional family sitcoms such as…

Rob Zombie’s “The Munsters” (2022) fails to reanimate…

*****SPOOKY SPOILERS!!***** The Munsters (1964-1966) The original TV series of “The Munsters” was a childhood staple of mine. I was a huge fan of the Universal Monsters (Wolf-man, Frankenstein’s monster, Mummy, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon) as a kid; I had the glow in the dark Aurora model kits, and Forry Ackerman’s “Famous Monsters…

Netflix’s “Lost in Space” reboot successfully ends its three-year run…

******JUPITER-2 SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!******* The final season of Netflix’s rebooted “Lost in Space” has successfully landed, and I’m pleased to say that the series’ third and final season is easily on a par with the confident storytelling of the second, and more importantly, the series ends well. On the whole, Netflix took a gamble with…

The ‘cold equations’ of Netflix’s “Stowaway” (2021)…

******SPACESHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!!******* 2021’s Space Odyssey. In a time where I’m still a bit pandemic-skittish about going back to cinemas, I decided to peruse my neglected Netflix queue when I came across “Stowaway”, a space flick released this past April. Starring Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”), Toni Colette (“The Sixth Sense”), Daniel Dae Kim (“Lost”)…

Zack Snyder returns to zombieland with “Army of the Dead” (2021)…

*****VAULT OF SPOILERS AHEAD!!***** Las Vegas and zombies. Sounds like a comedy-horror marriage made in an all-night chapel with an Elvis impersonator doing the ceremony. What could’ve been a witty zom-com like “Shaun of the Dead” or “Zombieland” goes for lower hanging action-movie fruit. The result feels more like a grounded “Con Air,” but with…

Closing argument on Netflix’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (2020)…

I’m taking a rare break from this column’s usual offerings of sci-fi/fantasy/horror content to cross examine writer/director Aaron (“The West Wing”) Sorkin’s latest courtroom drama based on the surreal “Trial of the “Chicago 7” (nearly eight, until unrepresented defendant Bobby Seale’s charge was nullified). This famed court case is a collision of establishment and counterculture,…

“Space Sweepers” (2021) scavenges familiar sci-fi elements into a colorful mix…

Sweeping Victory. Netflix is currently streaming the pandemic-delayed Korean space fantasy “Space Sweepers” (2021), originally known as “Seungriho” (“Starship Victory”). The film is a space-western action adventure with many familiar elements whose characters and heart keep it together when some of its other parts don’t quite add up. Directed and cowritten by Sung-hee Jo (“A…

Netflix’s “Project Power” shorts itself out…

Potential. When Netflix announced a new action movie starring Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (“Ray”), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Inception”) and interesting newcomer Dominque Fishback, my hungry-for-fresh-entertainment ears perked up a bit. The premise of the movie sounded intriguing; there is a new drug on the streets of New Orleans that, when ingested, gives a person superpowers for…