Excluding The Predator (what the hell was that?) Shane Black has been one of my favorite Hollywood writers, and I was super-excited when it was announced he was getting into the director’s chair for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Set, like most of Black’s tales, at Christmas, this one is a slice of modern noir. Robert…
The X-Files (2002) – Providence, and Audrey Pauley
Series creator Chris Carter directs this episode, Providence, that he co-wrote with Frank Spotnitz, that concludes the story begun next week, while pushing the mythology arc forward with the super-soldiers, baby William and the UFO cult that wants him. First airing on 10 March, 2002, the cult, who believes that the ship they have uncovered,…
Mission: Impossible (1970) – The Falcon: Part 2, and Part 3
Paul delivers the second part of his The Falcon trilogy on 11 January, 1970, and there is a lot going on as Phelps (Peter Graves) and his team work to free Nicolai (Noel Harrison) and his sister, Francesca (Diane Baker) and their imprisoned brother, from the grasp of General Sabbatini (John Vernon) and Colonel Vargas…
Star Trek: Discovery – Dead Endless (2019) – Dave Galanter
Set in 2257, the next novel in Simon & Schuster’s Star Trek: Discovery series, released under their Gallery Books imprint is an emotional tale that highlights one of my favorite characters in the series, Dr. Hugh Culber. Culber’s death in Season One of Discovery was a shock, and made me furious. But then as the…
The X-Files (2002) – Hellbound, and Provenance
Reyes (Annabeth Gish) brings an unusual case to Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) in Hellbound. She also has a strange connection to it that she can’t quite figure out. Written by David Amann and first airing on 27 January, 2002, the agents find themselves a series of deaths involving ex-cons who were skinned…
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) – Jun Fukuda
It’s time for another kaiju throwdown as I settle in for Ebirah, Horror of the Deep. Light, funny, and goofy, the story follows a young man, Ryota (Toru Watanabe) who sets out in search of his missing brother, Yata (Toru Ibuki), who has been lost at sea. He needs to find a boat to do…
Tank (1984) – Marvin J. Chomsky
1984. A few short months before my family would be posted to a new home in the middle of the ocean, I was of an age that I was allowed to go see movies in the theatre with my friends (despite the fact that the theatres were in the city proper and not on the…
M*A*S*H (1979) – Hot Lips is Back in Town, C*A*V*E, and Rally ‘Round the Flagg, Boys
Houlihan’s (Loretta Swit) final divorce papers come through, and she gets a new perspective on her life, and what she wants to do with it in Hot Lips is Back in Town. Written by Larry Balmagia and Bernard Dilbert from a story by Dilbert and Gary Markowitz, this episode first debuted on 29 January, 1979….
She’s Having a Baby (1988) – John Hughes
Kevin Bacon is Jake Briggs, in She’s Having a Baby, which was produced, written and directed by John Hughes, and is arguably one of his most personal projects, as Bacon plays a variation of an everyman, someone who is trying to find his way, trying to discover whether he’s happy in his life, if this…
The X-Files (2002) – Trust No 1, and John Doe
Series creator Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz pen Trust No 1, a mythology episode that first aired on 6 January, 2002. Scully (Gillian Anderson), Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Reyes (Annabeth Gish) find themselves being used in a plot to flush Mulder out of hiding. It seems there is a super-soldier element working within the NSA…
