Michael J. Fox takes the lead in what was Peter Jackson’s first big studio film, with Bob Zemeckis serving as executive producer. While some of the special effects have not stood the test of time, it remains a fun film, trying to walk that balance between horror and comedy. Frank Bannister (Fox) is a con…
Category: Did You See That?!? (Tv & Film)
Terror Train (1980) – Roger Spottiswoode
In the early 80s, poor Jamie Lee Curtis seemed to be in constant trouble with slashers. I remember seeing the fairly generic poster when I was a kid, and the masked face and the knife really bothered me. As mentioned previously it took me a long time to come around to horror films. So until…
M*A*S*H (1981/1982) – Snappier Judgement, ‘Twas the Day After Christmas, and Follies of the Living – Concerns of the Dead
Klinger (Jamie Farr) faces his court-martial with Charles (David Ogden Stiers) defending him in Snappier Judgement. The two-parter comes to its conclusion this week in a story written by Paul Perlove. It first aired on 14 December, 1981. While Charles smugly (and wrongly) thinks he will be able to properly defend Klinger during his day…
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) – Wes Craven
Two years before he would perfect the meta meditation on horror films with Scream, director Wes Craven gave it a test-drive with the final film in the Nighmare on Elm Street series, revisiting an idea he’d wanted to incorporate into one of the earlier sequels of the franchise. The tenth anniversary of the original Nightmare…
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981) – The Dorian Secret
The final episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was written by Stephen McPherson and is a bit of rumination on guilt, justice, and terrorism. The series surprised me one last time by delivering a story on 16 April, 1981, that had a lot to say, but surprise, surprise, wasn’t allowed to thrive the…
Mission: Impossible (1971) – Mindbend, and Shape-Up
Barney (Greg Morris) gets a fair dose of the spotlight in this episode, and that’s a good thing. Where he may not have been used enough in earlier seasons it’s very nice to see him doing more and more as the series progresses. In Mindbend, an episode written by James D. Buchanan and Ronald Austin…
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981) – The Hand of the Goral, and Testimony of a Traitor
Francis Moss pens The Hand of the Goral, which first aired on 26 March, 1981. Buck (Gil Gerard) who still looks a little rough around the edges, but not so bad as the last episode, Hawk (Thom Christopher), and Wilma (Erin Gray) arrive on a far distant world known commonly as the Planet of Death….
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) – 4K Review
Tony Scott came off the success of Top Gun with this follow-up to the 1984 hit Beverly Hills Cop, Beverly Hills Cop II, which is somehow thirty-five years old. To celebrate, Paramount Pictures delivers the high-octane sequel on a vibrant 4K disc. Let’s get this out of the way up front, there are no extras…
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) – 4K Review
I had never seen John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance before Paramount Canada offered me a copy of the new 4K version of the classic western. I had no idea it was such a political film and while I have always enjoyed performances by Jimmy Stewart, I’ve never really been a John Wayne…
Battle Royale II (2003) – Kenta Fukasaku and Kinji Fukasaku
Battle Royale II is very much a different creation from its predecessor. Set three years after the events of the first movie this film moves the film mythology forward. Shuya (Tatsuya Fujiwara) and Noriko (Aki Maeda) have made their escape, and Shuya has now started what the rest of the world calls a terrorist organization,…
The Mind Reels 