Return of the Jedi. Twice delayed, understandably, due to the COVID pandemic, the Star Wars Celebration finally arrived at Anaheim, California, for the first time since 2015. When my wife Julia and I attended the 2015 show, we were only able to get tickets for one day (Saturday) of the four-day event, which felt like…
Tag: StarWars
Comic Con Revolution 2021 in Ontario, California brings holiday cheer to SoCal fandom…
Comic Con Revolution Returns! While the COVID pandemic essentially cancelled last year for everyone (including myself), the sci-fi/comic book convention circuit has been slowly returning to something resembling normal (well, as ‘normal’ as we fans get, anyway). Just this year, I’ve already attended a couple of favorite conventions; the Las Vegas’ “55 Year Mission‘ convention…
San Diego Comic Con returned for an in-person Special Edition over Thanksgiving weekend…
San Diego Comic Con: The Special Edition. After two years and four months, San Diego Comic Con has finally returned as an in-person event–but not quite at full blast. In the thick of the ongoing COVID pandemic, San Diego Comic Con was turned into an online-only event, which meant that panels were held via Zoom…
“Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales” is a horror anthology spoof from a galaxy far, far away…
*****STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** Like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather III,” just when I thought I was done with new Star Wars content for awhile, DisneyPlus “pulls me back in!” However, Disney’s latest offering falls somewhat in line with a subject near and dear to my heart–Halloween. Star Wars isn’t exactly the sort of franchise you’d…
A brief sampling of Disney’s “Star Wars: Visions” (2021)…
*****STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!***** With the recent avalanche of Star Wars product on DisneyPlus since “The Mandalorian” opened the floodgates to the Disney streaming service in November of 2019, there has been an almost nonstop menagerie of new Star Wars content, with a lot more on the way (“The Book of Boba Fett,” “Kenobi” etc)….
Jonathan W. Rinzler (1962-2021), a fine chronicler of great movies…
The Sacred Texts. As a lifelong fan of sci-fi movies, I’ve long collected books, magazines and, more recently, videos all about the making-of sci-fi and other movies. My first magazine I remember collecting was Forry Ackerman’s “Famous Monsters of Filmland,” and I would later graduate to Starlog, Cinemafantastique, Sci-Fi Universe, and others, including several British…
Star Trek going forward: ‘Tomorrow isn’t Yesterday’–nor should it be…
Not Yesterday’s Enterprise. This is one of those columns I wish I didn’t have to write, but I wanted to make a one-stop column addressing much of the simmering, seething anger I see online for just about any Star Trek made beyond 2005—or beyond 1987, for some. For as long as I can remember, each…
A personal Star Wars celebration for an early “May the 4th”…
How I first saw “The Empire Strikes Back.” For this “May the 4th” day, I’d like to share a personal Star Wars story. When I was all of 13 in the summer of 1980, my family and I went to see “The Empire Strikes Back”, with my dad driving the hour and a half freeway…
The Mandalorian, Chapter 16: “The Rescue” is strong with the Force…
****WARNING! DEATH STAR-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!**** Chapter 16 of “The Mandalorian” closes out the 2nd season of this wildly successful DisneyPlus series, and “The Rescue” offers some massive surprises to both longtime and casual fans alike. I deliberately held off publishing this column for a few hours later than usual, because the spoilers are that big….
Remembering Dave Prowse, the ‘force’ behind Darth Vader (1935-2020)…
The summer of 1977 was my first introduction to actor Dave Prowse. Not in person, of course, but when he (in character) boarded a captured Rebel starship in the opening scenes of “Star Wars” (pre-New Hope). I can never forget Prowse’s embodiment of that awesome black-clad villain. What an entrance! In fact, I still remember…
The Mandalorian, Chapter 13: “The Jedi” returns…
****CORUSCANT-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!**** The Mandalorian Chapter 13, written and directed by series’ co-creator/producer Dave Filoni (“The Clone Wars” “Rebels”) is now available for streaming on DisneyPlus. Titled “The Jedi,” this episode reintroduces another fan favorite from the animated Star Wars into live-action, and Baby Yoda has a name… “The Jedi.” On the planet Corvus, the…
“Lego Star Wars Holiday Special” (2020) is not your father’s Life Day…
If At First You Don’t Succeed… 42 years ago, there was a great disturbance in the Force… CBS aired “The Star Wars Holiday Special” and it was arguably the worst thing to happen to the Star Wars universe before Jar Jar Binks. CBS and Lucasfilm created a shot-on-videotape variety special (which were insanely popular in…