Peter Hyams writes and directs this galactic update of the classic western, High Noon, that sees Sean Connery stepping into the Gary Cooper role of a lone marshall awaiting the arrival of men who are coming to kill him. With a visual look that seems to marry it with the universe of Alien (aided by…
Author: TD Rideout
48 Hrs. (1982) – Walter Hill
It has been a number of decades since I watched 48 Hrs. In fact I remember watching it on videotape after I had put some kid, who I was babysitting, to bed. Watching it now, in 2021, I was stunned at how harsh, homophobic and racist the film comes across as. It also has a…
M*A*S*H (1976) – Margaret’s Engagement, Out of Sight, Out of Mind, and Lt. Radar O’Reilly
Alan Alda directs the second episode of season five, Margaret’s Engagement, which was written by Gary Markowitz and first aired on 28 September, 1976. Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit) calls the 4077th while she’s attending a medical conference, and confides in Potter (Harry Morgan) that she has big news to share when she gets back to…
Full Metal Jacket (1987) – Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick’s look at the Vietnam War isn’t only a commentary on the war itself, but the dissolution of the self, and the soul of humanity to be replaced by an animal nature that restrains us a species and diminishes who we are. From the introduction to the Marine Corps on Parris Island, South Carolina,…
A Quiet Place Part II (2020) -4K Review
For those of you who may not have Amazon’s Prime streaming service, or like me, and love physical media, Paramount Pictures has released the much anticipated follow-up to the horror thriller A Quiet Place directed by John Krasinski. The sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, written and directed by Krasinski, is now available on 4K,…
The X-Files (1999) – S.R. 819, and Tithonus
John Shiban pens an episode that brushes up against the mythology episodes as it sees the return of Mulder’s (David Duchovny) ‘ally,’ Senator Matheson (Raymond J. Barry) and the villainous, Krycek (Nicholas Lea). First airing on 17 January, 1999, S.R. 819 sees Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) falling deathly ill after being infected with some strange virus….
Jungle Cruise (2021) – Jaume Collet-Serra
Disney’s latest film, is definitely an E-ticket ride to joy! Owing as much to the 1999 update of The Mummy and 1951’s The African Queen as it does the adventure serials of yesteryear, not to mention the ride that preceded it to the theatre, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise is a capital ‘S’…
Mission: Impossible (1968) – The Condemned, and The Counterfeiter
Laurence Heath sends the boys of the IMF team on a personal mission with his script for The Condemned which first aired on 28 January, 1968, and is the first assignment this week as I delve into another two episodes of Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible – The Complete Series on blu-ray. Jim Phelps (Peter Graves)…
Battlestar Galactica 7: War of the Gods (1982) – Nicholas Yermakov, and Glen A. Larson
The next novel in the Galactica series, War of the Gods, seems to have eschewed the Galactica 1980 tie-in, and simply gone back to the Adama Journals intercut with chapters detailing the action of this adaptation of the epic two-parter that gave us a hint at a deeper mythology working in the series. After a…
Map of Bones (2005) – James Rollins
James Rollins second novel in his Sigma Force series continues the highly enjoyable combination of science, mythology, history and high adventure. This time, Sigma Force’s Grey Pierce is assigned with his team to investigate a massacre at a church in Germany, and the subsequent theft of ancient Catholic relics. Relics that have some strange properties,…
