In 2009 Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers (who own New Line Cinema) working with the production company Platinum Dunes gave us a soft reset on the Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears) story and did their best to up the gore and nudity. The script seems to want to be a combination of the first three films,…
The X-Files (1998) – Dreamland II, and How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
The body swap two parter with guest star Michael McKean comes to a conclusion this week with Dreamland II. Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz this episode was first broadcast on 6 December, 1998. With Mulder (David Duchovny) still stuck in Fletcher’s (McKean) body, and Fletcher in his, Scully (Gillian Anderson) finally…
Mission: Impossible (1967/1968) – The Photographer, and The Spy
I explore more of Paramount Pictures’ fantastic blu-ray edition of Mission: Impossible – The Complete Series this week with another pair of well-crafted episodes featuring some familiar looking guest stars. Anthony Zerbe plays the titular photographer of the episode’s title, in this story penned by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter. It first aired on…
The Hard Boys: The Tower Treasure (1927/1959) – Franklin W. Dixon
When I was a young boy in the late 70s, early 80s, I was devouring books at a variety of reading levels, and was delighted with the blue border hard cover editions of The Hardy Boys, I didn’t have them all, but I had a collection that would grow whenever I lacked anything else to…
A Darker Shade of Magic (2015) – V.E. Schwab
I dug excitedly into V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Side of Magic, I’d heard good things about it, and I like the idea of connected worlds, all sharing a city called London, one filled with magic, one destroyed by it, one fading, and one without any idea of magic (the closest to our own), and those…
Millennium (1998) – …Thirteen Years Later, and Skull and Bones
Micheal R. Perry pens the fiftieth episode of Millennium that feels like it riffs a bit on the whole meta horror movie serial killer theme revolutionised a few years earlier by Wes Craven’s film Scream. Airing on 30 October, 1998, the episode was another Halloween episode. This time around, Frank (Lance Henriksen) finds himself mired…
The Snoopy Collection – Blu-Ray Review
Snoopy and the entire Peanuts gang have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can recall reading the paperback compilations of Charles M. Schulze classic strips. The Charlie Brown Christmas is one of the only holiday specials that I must watch every year. I imagined my childhood was…
Almost Famous (2000) – 4K Review
I don’t know why I am constantly stunned by how sharp and beautiful a 4K picture is, but everytime I throw on a 4K disc I am completely gobsmacked, and Paramount Picture’s new release of Cameron Crowe’s brilliant, and partly autobiographical film, Almost Famous, left me absolutely gobsmacked. When I put it on, with the…
Saturn 3 (1980) – Stanley Donen, and John Barry
Gorgeous set and production design can’t save a film with a number of top drawer stars (Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, and Harvey Keitel) thanks to a heavily edited final cut, and flawed story. Not to mention some miniature and model work that may have worked in the 50s but looks incredibly bad in the 80s,…
Spaceballs (1987) – Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is hit and miss with me, I love Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, but Spaceballs, no matter how quotable it is, and how much it delightfully skewers the Star Wars universe (with George Lucas’ blessing, and some special effects by ILM) has never done it for me. There are moments I like, but…
The Mind Reels 