Retired astronaut and national treasure Chris Hadfield delivers a fast-paced thriller with The Apollo Murders. It’s a look at an all too believable reality as the story follows the training, launch, and mission of Apollo 18. It’s made all the more believable because Hadfield not only knows his subject matter, emotionally and technically, using an…
Tag: 1970s
The Jaws Log: Expanded Edition (1975/2005) – Carl Gottlieb
Anyone who has even visited the blog knows what my favourite movie is. I mean, it’s right there in the banner. Jaws has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, I have very few memories that would have occurred before I saw it, I mean I was three going…
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988) – The Child, and Where Silence Has Lease
Captain’s log: stardate 42073.1 Season 2 got underway on 21 November, 1988 with The Child a re-purposed script from the 1970s proposed Phase 2 series that eventually became The Motion Picture. It was an Ilia and Decker story, with Ilia being switched to Troi (Marina Sirtis). Written by Jaron Summers, Jon Povill and Maurice Hurley,…
The Harder They Come (1972) – Perry Henzell
Featuring a fantastic 1970s reggae soundtrack, The Harder They Come, featuring Jimmy Cliff is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Jailhouse Rock. Ivan Martin (Cliff) is trying to find a way to succeed, even survive, in Jamaica. He sets his sights on making it…
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) – Chad Stahelski
When Keanu Reeves stepped onto the screen in the 2014 film, John Wick, cinema lovers and critics met the film with joy and accolades, as it boldly, bloodily and brilliantly updated the revenge films of the 1970s for the 21st century The screen was filled with top drawer stars, and the simplest of revenge stories…
Duel (1971) – Steven Spielberg
Before Richard Dreyfuss was Steven Spielberg’s every man, there was Dennis Weaver, and I hit the road with him, in the very thrilling Duel, which is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my viewing (oh, so long ago) of Wages of Fear. Written by Richard Matheson,…
Magnum, p.i. (1987) – Tigers Fan and Forever in Time
Loss hits private investigator, Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck), pretty hard this week, as we continue our travels in Hawaii in the show’s final season. Tigers Fan was written by Bruce Cervi, and originally aired on 4 November, 1987. When his friend, and fellow Detroit Tigers fan, Lt. Yoshi Tanaka (Kwan Hi Lim) is murdered,…
Doctor Who (Tom Baker) – The Sontaran Experiment
This week we take on the shortest Doctor Who story in the 1970s. This two-parter was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin and aired from 22 February to 1 March, 1975. Tying in with the previous story, The Ark in Space, the Doctor (Tom Baker), Sarah-Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry (Ian Marter) transmit down to the Earth…
Crimes of the Heart
In the tiny, intimate space of The Theatre Machine, Toronto’s Sterling Theatre Company is presenting a production of Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart. Under the able direction of Miriam Laurence, the audience is transported back to the 1970s, and the lives of the Mississippi born and raised MacGrath sisters. We were interested in…
The Atticus Institute (2015) – Chris Sparling
Available from Anchor Bay today on DVD and Blu-Ray is this horror film that takes us inside paranormal research in the 1970s. Made to resemble a documentary, I ended up being a little divided on this title. In terms of horror and scares, there is nothing new here, all the beats are measured out into…
The Mind Reels 