Director John McTiernan returns for the third (and arguably the last real) Die Hard film that sees Bruce Willis reprise his role as New York Police Detective John McClane (Michael Kamen returns as well to deliver the score) in a story that, this time, is set in New York. Joining Willis on screen is Jeremy…
Month: January 2021
M*A*S*H (1973) – Major Fred C. Dobbs, Ceasefire, and Showtime
Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Trapper (Wayne Rogers) push Frank Burns (Larry Linville) just a little too far after he rails out a nurse in Major Fred C. Dobbs. Written by Sid Dorfman, this episode, with a nod to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in the title, first aired on 11 March, 1973. Burns goes…
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) – Guy Hamilton
Fred Ward and Joel Grey (who received a Golden Globe nomination for his supporting role, while his make up and prosthetics were nominated for an Oscar in the makeup category) bring the action novel series, The Destroyer to the big screen in a film directed by 007 alumni, Guy Hamilton with a script by another…
The X-Files (1996) – Unruhe, and The Field Where I Died
Vince Gilligan who would go on to create Breaking Bad, penned this episode, that gets Scully (Gillian Anderson) abducted (again, number five!) and was the first episode to be broadcast on a Sunday night after the series had it’s move there from Friday nights, where it had been a staple for three years. It was…
Chuck (2011) – Versus the Santa Suit, and Versus the Baby
The Omen Virus has been released, someone is breaking out of prison, and Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) is trying to throw together a perfect Xmas party and celebration for Baby Clara’s first Christmas in Chuck Versus the Santa Suit, which was written by Amanda Kate Shuman and first aired on 23 December, 2011. We learn pretty…
Star Trek: Crossroad (1994) – Barbara Hambley
Space, the final frontier… As mentioned in previous reviews of Trek books, they can’t all be winners. As much as I wanted to enjoy this one, it was definitely a bit of a slog to get through. Hambley penned a dense story that doesn’t have the flow of a Trek tale, though with some changes,…
The Secret of Chimneys (1925) – Agatha Christie
Christie’s fifth novel is a bit of a romp filled with double identities, a murder, political issues, an empty throne, a renowned criminal, a love story, a missing diamond, and a week away at a manor known as Chimneys. We are introduced to Anthony Cade when he is working as a travel guide in Africa,…
Millennium (1996) – Pilot, and Gehenna
On 25 October, 1996, the creator of The X-Files, Chris Carter (who brings along Mark Snow to deliver the score) introduced us to Frank Black, played by the incredible Lance Henriksen in Millennium, and despite the fact pilot episodes always have a lot to set up, this one gets all the pieces on the board…
Die Hard 2 (1990) – Renny Harlin
Bruce Willis returns as John McClane in the follow up to the blockbuster hit, Die Hard. Two years after the first film changed the action film game, Twentieth Century Fox delivered a sequel, one with just as solid a story as the first, something that started to slip after the the third entry. In this…
Deep Rising (1998) – Stephen Sommers
Writer/director Stephen Sommers delivers a fun creature feature romp that, even with some dated VFX, is still a lot of fun. Treat Williams leads a cast that includes Famke Janssen, Wes Studi, Jason Flemyng, Anthony Heald, and Kevin O’Connor. Williams plays Finnegan, a kind of Han Solo of the high seas. He and his crew…
