Captain’s log: stardate 47988.0 After seven seasons (and just over a year of posts on the blog) Star Trek: The Next Generation came to its series finale with this feature-length episode that was penned by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga (who were also deep into the writing of the first Next Gen feature film…
Life of the Party (2018) – Blu-Ray Review
With a recycled plot that is straight out of an 80s film, the Melissa McCarthy vehicle, Life of the Party hits blu-ray and DVD this week from Warner Brothers. Despite using all of the university and college tropes that have been in play since National Lampoon’s Animal House, the film arguably takes the story and…
Mark of the Vampire (1935) – Tod Browning
Eight years after the release of London After Midnight, Tod Browning remade the film as Mark of the Vampire with Lionel Barrymore as Professor Zelin, a variation on Chaney’s inspector from the original film. It is also the next film up in John Landis’ Monsters in the Movies, a coffee table tome that I am…
Death Takes a Holiday (1934) – Mitchell Leisen
I continue my exploration of classic cinema with DK Canada’s The Movie Book, as I dive into the What Else to Watch list following my screening of the brilliant, The Seventh Seal. Death Takes a Holiday (remade in 1998 as Meet Joe Black) stars Fredric March as Prince Sirki, a man who comes to visit…
Space: 1999 (1975) – Guardian of Piri, and End of Eternity
Computer is causing problems, and Moonbase Alpha has drawn close to a strange planet which is having adverse effects on the Alphans. Guardian of Piri was written by Christopher Penfold, and first debuted on 13 November, 1975. As the moon draws closer to a odd world, computer’s data, and mechanical instruments become increasingly unreliable, Eagle…
London After Midnight (1927) – Tod Browning
Tod Browning’s London After Midnight has been lost, burned in a fire that cleared out a percentage of the MGM vault in 1965. That doesn’t stop it from making it into John Landis’ brilliantly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies, available from DK Canada. A reconstructed version, created from film stills, and a script was released…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1994) – Crossover, and The Collaborator
Station log: stardate unknown The Mirror Universe gets another look this week, the first time since The Original Series, in this episode penned by Peter Allan Fields and Micheal Piller. The episode first aired on 15 May, 1994. Major Kira (Nana Visitor) and Doctor Bashir (Alexander Siddig) end up in the mirror universe when something…
Miami Vice (1984) – Give a Little, Take a Little, and Little Prince
Crockett (Don Johnson) spends time in a cell this week, when he is held in contempt for not identifying one of his informants in a case he’s working on with Tubbs (Philip Micheal Thomas). Give a Little, Take a Little was written by Chuck Adamson and first debuted on 7 December, 1984. The cops are…
The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands (1991) – Stephen King
This week I continue my journey with Roland of Gilead’s ka-tet as they continue their journey to the Dark Tower. He, Eddie and Susannah travel onwards, and things start to get really good. They discover one of the twelve legendary guardians, the Path of the Beam, they recite the catechism that becomes ingrained in the…
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1994) – Emergence, and Preemptive Strike
Captain’s log: stardate 47869.2 Joe Menosky pens the teleplay for this episode from a story by Brannon Braga, and it first aired on 9 May, 1994. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), Data (Brent Spiner) and the rest of the crew, are troubled, and surprised to learn that the Enterprise’s A.I. is becoming self-aware and may in…
The Seventh Seal (1957) – Ingmar Bergman
I love Max Von Sydow, and thanks to DK Canada’s The Movie Book, it was high time for me to dig into one of his most iconic roles in Bergman’s classic The Seventh Seal. This was the first time I had sat down to watch it, and I won’t lie, it also put me in…
Dracula’s Daughter (1936) – Lambert Hillyer
John Landis Monsters in the Movies, available from DK Canada, keeps the fangs coming with this next title from the Vampire section of his book. This 1936 film is supposed to pick up shortly after the close of 1931’s Dracula (despite the fact that it was set in the 19th century, and this film is…
