Hitting DVD and Blu-Ray last week was this found footage film that I missed at Toronto After Dark last year. As a slow-burning, low-budget horror film, this one works, and is wonderfully creepy and troubling. Don’t go in expecting big budget thrills, think Blair Witch, but replaced, possibly, by Bigfoot. Jim (Bryce Johnson) is…
Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013) – Shinji Aramaki
I never saw the original Harlock series growing up, I was all about Battle of the Planets and Starblazers (when I could find it), but every now and again I would come across an image of this pirate captain, scarred face, patch on his right eye, black cloak billowing, with an enormous skull and…
Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) – The Macra Terror
This time, the Doctor (Troughton) is in some serious trouble, as he encounters the Macra for the first time! Think Giant Crabs! This four-parter aired from March 11 to 1 April, 1967, and was written by Ian Stuart Black. Arriving on an Earth colony sometime in the distant future, the Doctor, Jamie (Frazer Hines),…
Wizards (1977) – Ralph Bakshi
Sometimes you just want to watch something different… and Ralph Bakshi’s films have always been that, and this one is no exception. Set in a far distant future when humanity has blown itself from the face of the Earth, and any survivors have become radiated mutants, constantly devolving into new nightmares, the fairies and…
Magnum, P.I. (1981) – All Roads Lead to Floyd & Adelaide
Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck) has a lot of fun this week, and I, as always, was happy to go along for the ride. First up, we have All Roads Lead to Floyd, which aired 12 March, 1981, and featured Rockford Files’ Noah Beery Jr. as the titular Floyd. Babs Grehosky wrote the teleplay alongside…
Interworld (2007) – Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
Continuing my exploration of Neil Gaiman’s work, I came across another title I hadn’t read yet, and dug happily into it! While perhaps not as magical as some of his solo writing, this one still entertained and introduced me to the worlds of Joey Harker. It seems Harker, despite a seemingly terrible sense of…
The Rockford Files (1977) – To Protect and Serve Parts 1 & 2
A cop groupie causes all manner of trouble in the two-parter I look at this week. David Chase wrote this episode, which originally aired 11 March, 1977 with the second part following a week later on 18 March. The phone gag for the first episode featured a female friend of Rocky’s (Noah Beery Jr.)…
The Book Thief (2013) – Brian Percival
I read the book for this one some time ago, and had forgotten enough of it so that I was coming in to the story fresh, and wow did I enjoy this one. Great performances, a stirring score, thank you John Williams and an emotional and human tale from a script by Michael Petroni,…
Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013) – Frank Pavich
The most influential science fiction never made. There’s no other way to put it. The names involved with this film resonate across all of pop culture, and specifically the sci-fi films that followed this film, that never shot a single frame… I wanted to see this one as soon as I heard about it,…
Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) – The Moonbase
The Doctor (Troughton) encounters the Cybermen for the second time, when the TARDIS lands on the earth’s moon. This story was written by Kit Pedler and aired in four parts from 11 February to 4 March, 1967. Arriving in the year 2070, the TARDIS lands on the moon, and there’s a fun sequence, that only…
The Mind Reels 