Hope and courage. They can sometimes be found in the most unlikely of places. Who would have dreamed that a character created ninety years ago would still be such a powerful presence in the realm of pop culture and perhaps the most recognisable Amazon ever? And who, in this time of great upheaval as the…
Octaman (1971) – Harry Essex
Harry Essex who wrote the Universal Monster classic, Creature From the Black Lagoon, goes back to the well with this tale that he wrote and directed, and also features some early work by Rick Baker, who had his hand in the design and build of the monster costume. Octaman is the next title up in…
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) – James Foley
The star-power in this film! Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris… love it! David Mamet adapts his award winning play to the big screen, and though I’ve never seen the stage version, I imagine the punch of it is very similar, as the dialogue are crisp and sharp as we dive…
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2014) – The Lost One, Voices, Destiny, and Sacrifice
“What is lost is often found.” The final episodes of season six begin, and the season itself comes to a conclusion this week, as I continue my exploration of The Clone War. The final episodes of the season work very hard to tie the series in as completely with The Prequel Trilogy as they can,…
Heat (1995) – Micheal Mann
I continue my time with Ten Bad Dates With De Niro, as I explore a list of Ten Scenes Where Shouty Al Shows Up, and yes, Pacino does yell a lot in this movie, but it is also a masterful epic that, for the first time, saw Al Pacino and Robert De Niro sharing scenes…
Star Trek: Enterprise (2004) – Hatchery, and Azati Prime
Captain’s log: 8 January, 2154 Andres Bormanis pens the teleplay for this episode from a story he developed with Micheal Sussman. It first debuted on 25 January, 2004. The Enterprise finds a derelict insectoid Xindi ship in crashed on a planet within the expanse, and things become a little troubling for the crew when Archer…
Chuck (2008) – Verus the Marlin, and Versus the First Date
Chuck Versus the Marlin ends the first season with a story written by Matthew Lau. It aired on 24 January, 2008. Chuck (Zachary Levi) finds a bug in the Buy More, but neither Casey (Adam Baldwin) or Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) planted it. Everyone is worried that Chuck’s cover has been blown, and may have to…
Star Trek: The Rift (1991) – Peter David
This week’s Trek entry to the Book Shelf is fun, combining the Pike era, with that of Kirk to give us one big story. I liked a lot of it, there’s some stuff in something referred to as the World Mind with Kirk at the climax that felt a little hokey, but the rest of…
Sawkill Girls (2018) – Claire Legrand
So I needed to try something different this week, to break up the cycle of books I’ve been reading, but obviously, I had to find it interesting and enjoyable. Claire Legrand’s Sawkill Girls is just that. I came across the title in a list of books to fill that Stranger Things craving, and was duly…
Star Trek: Enterprise (2004) – Harbinger, and Doctor’s Orders
Captain’s log: 27 December, 2153 Manny Coto pens the teleplay for this episode from a story by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, and it first aired on 11 February, 2004. The episode has a lot going on crew story wise, Trip (Connor Trinneer) is apparently making T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) as he is sharing some of…
Tom Cruise 4K Triple Threat Tuesday
Tom Cruise comes home in the 4K treatment from Paramount this week with three remastered titles, a double Tiny Scott feature, Days of Thunder and Top Gun, and the Steven Spielberg 21st century take on the classic tale of War of the Worlds. Of the three films I was most eager to dig into Top…
The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) – Irvin Berwick
I continue my journey through the chapter called Nature’s Revenge in DK Canada’s exceptional Monsters in the Movies book. This time around I’m delivered another seaside monster story, and I settled in hoping for some fun. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t come near the sheer so bad it’s good flair of The Beach Girls and the…
