The 1976 creepy house tale of Burnt Offerings didn’t engage me as much as the novel did. It has a fairly solid cast, but honestly, it didn’t quite have the eeriness that seemed to permeate the book. The film features Oliver Reed, Karen Black, Bette Davis, Burgess Meredith and the always-menacing Anthony James. The Rolf…
Author: TD Rideout
Hill Street Blues (1985) – Blues in the Night, and Hacked to Pieces
Season six of Hill Street Blues starts completely differently. In fact, viewers may think they are in the wrong place, Jablonski (Robert Prosky) isn’t running roll call, it’s Jenkins (Lawrence Tierney) and we don’t recognize anyone around the precinct, though someone is looking for Belker (Bruce Weitz). Where are we? We’re on the hill, but…
Southern Comfort (1981) – Walter Hill
Powers Boothe and Keith Carradine star alongside Peter Coyote, Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales, Alan Autry, T.K. Carter, Les Lannom, Lewis Smith and Brion James in this gritty action thriller that finds a squad of nine National Guardsmen fighting for their lives in the Louisiana Bayou in what was supposed to be just a training exercise….
Batman (1966) – The Impractical Joker, and The Joker’s Provokers
The Joker (Cesar Romero) is back to test Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) yet again as he returns to menace Gotham City with a series of key-related crimes. He also seems to have learned a bit of hypnotism and mesmerism, in fact, Batman says he used to be a stage hypnotist before turning…
Family Ties (1983) – Sherry Baby, The Fugitive Part 1, and Part 2
Mallory (Justine Bateman) and Alex (Micheal J. Fox) find themselves manipulated and used in Sherry Baby. Written by Barbara Hall, it first aired on 12 January, 1983. Mallory is intent on getting into a sorority and her classmate, Sherry (Lisa Lucas) may be the key. But Sherry has her eye on Alex. So Mallory attempts…
The Last Action Heroes (2023) – Nick de Semlyen
If you were wandering the aisles of the video stores in the 80s like I was, you were always looking for something fun and exciting to watch and a good percentage of the time one of the films that found its way home with me, or passed to me by a friend at school would…
The Hollow Places (2020) – T. Kingfisher
The Hollow Places is a wonderfully creepy novel, laced with humour and pop culture references, and less than three chapters in I decided that I definitely needed to read more of T. Kingfisher, aka Ursula Vernon. We’re introduced to Kara, 34, newly divorced, and moving in with her Uncle Earl, taking up residence in a…
Batman (1966) – Green Ice, and Deep Freeze
We are introduced to a new Mr. Freeze (Otto Preminger) in this week’s story which was written by Max Hodge. The first part, Green Ice, debuted on 9 November, 1966. But the most interesting thing to watch is Burt Ward as Robin. His right arm spends most of the two part-story in a bandage having…
Dave Made a Maze (2017) – Bill Watterson
I was delightfully surprised when I came across Dave Made a Maze. It’s a film that is so quirky, charming and off-beat while remembering to keep characters you care about at is heart. Featuring some fantastic puppetry, animation, and just a sense of fun, I was completely taken in by this one. Dave (Nich Thune)…
Muppets From Space (1999) – Tim Hill
I’m not going to lie, I was pleasantly surprised by Muppets From Space. I remember seeing some of the trailers when it was first coming out, and to me it looked like a big silly misstep. The muppets had really figured something out by interpreting literary classics with a Henson twist, but this seemed like…
The Mind Reels 