Clint Eastwood stars, produces and directs this love letter to the United States Marine Corps. and while fairly engaging, the film embraces stereotypes almost to the extreme at both ends, consequently the characters and tone of the film isn’t as balanced as it could be. Eastwood plays the career marine, Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway. He’s…
Category: Did You See That?!? (Tv & Film)
Demolition Man (1993) – Marco Brambilla
Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes go head to head in this sci-fi actioner from the early 90s. It also features Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt, Denis Leary, Nigel Hawthorne, Bob Gunton and, sigh, Rob Schneider. Stallone plays a supercop, John Spartan, who has been tracking a psychotic maniac, Simon Phoenix (Snipes) and their confrontation at the…
M*A*S*H (1974) – There’s Nothing Like a Nurse, Adam’s Ribs, and A Full Rich Day
The Singing Doctor (Loudon Wainwright III) makes another appearance this week as all the nurses get shipped out of the 4077th when word comes down that the camp is targeted for an enemy attack. There’s Nothing Like a Nurse was penned by series developer Larry Gelbart, and first aired on 19 November,1974. With a deluge…
The Enforcer (1976) – James Fargo
Clint Eastwood returns as ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan for a third time in The Enforcer, the only film in the series not to have music by Lalo Schifrin (Jerry Fielding takes over giving us a jazzy sounding film score) and for the only time, pairs Callahan with a female homicide detective, Kate Moore, played by Tyne…
The X-Files (1997) – Detour, and The Post-Modern Prometheus
Detour, written by Frank Spotnitz gives us our first monster-of-the-week episode of season five of The X-Files. First airing on 23 November, 1997, the episode sees Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) in Florida on their way to a team-building/communication seminar held by the bureau, when a forest search and rescue holds up their…
Mission: Impossible (1967) – The Diamond, and The Legend
For the first time, to me, I feel like Mission: Impossible takes me on a joyful romp, as I accept another pair of assignments from Paramount Pictures as I explore The Complete Series on blu-ray. The Diamond, written by William Read Woodfield, and Allen Balter and first aired on 4 February, 1967. There are familiar…
Millennium (1997) – Sense and Antisense, and Monster
Sense and Antisense, written by Chip Johannessen, sends Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and the Millennium Group in a slightly different direction, when he gets drawn into the search for a missing man, known on the street as Zero (Clarence Williams III), who seems insane, spouting conspiracy theories, and seems to be infected with some sort…
A Few Good Men (1992) – Rob Reiner
Aaron Sorkin pens the screenplay for Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men from his stageplay of the same name, and like the best of Sorkin’s writing, the film draws an amazing wealth of talent. When a Marine dies during an off the book disciplinary action while serving at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the JAG corp…
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) – Amy Heckerling
Amy Heckerling directs from a Cameron Crowe screenplay, which he adapted from his own book, so you knew going on that with Heckerling and Crowe on board the film was in good hands. And then the cast was filled with up and comers, and an iconic scene which any teen boy who grew up in…
M*A*S*H (1974) – Check-Up, Life with Father, and Alcoholics Unanimous
Laurence Marks pens a great Trapper (Wayne Rogers) episode. First debuting on 22 October, 1974, the episode opens with the announcement that is time for the camp’s yearly physical, so everyone is getting checked out, but Trap is unwilling to let Frank Burns (Larry Linville) examine him. In a conversation with Hawkeye (Alan Alda) they…
The Mind Reels 