As longtime readers of this column might’ve guessed, I’m a longtime fan of innovative sci-fi/action director James Cameron’s work. “The Terminator,” “ALIENS,” “The Abyss,”. “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” and “Titanic” are all favorites of mine. Of the James Cameron canon, I’d say that 2009’s “Avatar,” Cameron’s groundbreaking study in CGI and motion capture, is probably…
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“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…
San Diego Comic Con 2020 has been cancelled. Here’s to Comic Cons past…
San Diego Comic Con 2020 is cancelled. It’s only been a little over a month since my state went on self-isolation status during the pandemic, and remembering things like going to the movies or going out to eat are beginning to look like grainy silent footage of flapper parties and speakeasies from the 1920s. As…
The legacy of a beloved satire is explored in “Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary” (2019)…
Never Give Up… I’ll admit that in the wake of the seemingly never-ending bad news regarding the global COVID-19 pandemic, my urge to write about sci-fi entertainment has been somewhat diminished lately. But while perusing social media, I ran across a video recommendation from Mike Okuda (who, along with wife Denise, was Star Trek’s…
For its 40th anniversary, “ALIEN” lands in New Jersey as a high school play!
Way back when I was in high school (right around the time of the first cave paintings) I was in our school’s drama club. Even though I had no real intention of ever becoming an actor (though one of my classmates did), it helped me build a little self-confidence and overcome a fear of public…
By Grabthar’s Hammer, 1999’s “Galaxy Quest” salutes sci-fi fandom…
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the 1999 sci-fi comedy “Galaxy Quest”, written by David Howard & Ron Gordon and directed by Dean Parisot, is quite possibly the greatest Star Trek movie never made. “Galaxy Quest” really is “Star Trek,” as much as “The Orville” is also Star Trek by any other name. But unlike…
“ALIEN” (1979) is still a ‘perfect organism’ after 40 years…
Spring of 1979. A new, post-Star Wars, R-rated science fiction movie was in theatrical release, and it is to my great regret that, as then-12 year old kid, I didn’t see it in those days. Don’t get me wrong; I really really wanted to see it. I eagerly read every article about Ridley Scott’s scary…
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…