The next big title in DK Canada’s highly enjoyable The Movie Book is the Oscar winning German film Das Boot from prolific director Wolfgang Petersen. This has always been a great film, and I love that I got to settle in and watch this film play out on my screen (again). Set during World War…
Tag: 1981
The Monster Club (1981) – Roy Ward Baker
Boy is this one a doozy, coming on the coat tails of The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, the next werewolf title up for review in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies is a rather lackluster affair. An anthology film whose only werewolf is the secretary of the club, the Monster club in the title. Despite…
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark & More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981 & 1984) – Alvin Schwartz
Scary stories are always a delight to take part in, wrapped oneself in darkness and trying to laugh the chill that the scares gives us, while enjoying the fright and perceived danger of it, like whistling past a graveyard, seems to be ingrained in our DNA. I never read these young adult collections when they…
Cujo (1981) – Stephen King
This week’s visit to the Book Shelf brings me another early King classic. Apparently he wrote this one quickly, and was under the influence while he did, and doesn’t even remember it. Unlike some of his other earlier works, this one didn’t wow me, and for the first time I came across a King story…
Superman: Miracle Monday (1981) – Elliot S. Maggin
Superman has always been a hero of mine, and when Christopher Reeve brought the character to the big screen back in 1978, I was a fan for life. At that age, I was completely enchanted by the first film, and it’s follow up in 1980, Superman II. I had the Superman: The Movie Book, I…
Time Bandits (1981) – Terry Gilliam
Back in 1981 or 1982, on a free Super Channel or First Choice weekend I received my first introduction to the cinematic stylings of Terry Gilliam with Time Bandits. An odd, decidedly British science fiction adventure film, it is also one of the recommendations (following T2) as I return to the Action genre of the…
Galaxy of Terror (1981) – Bruce D. Clark
The next stop for me in the Sci-Fi Chronicles book is the works of James Cameron, and this is where he got some of his start (and where a behind the scenes worker, Bill Paxton, also did some work) as the film’s production designer. Cameron did some special effects work for this Roger Corman produced B-movie (something…
Heavy Metal (1981) – Gerald Potterton
I remember seeing issues of Heavy Metal on the magazine rack when I would buy my Starlog and movie magazines growing up on CFB Kingston. I was young, I was there when I was ten and eleven, but I remember being intrigued by the covers I saw. They were appealing, fantastic art, beautiful women, and…
Looker (1981) – Michael Crichton
I love when a movie I’ve never heard of at all comes along on the lists I am working through, and as I dove into the Sci-Fi Chronicles book today, I learned Michael Crichton’s films were next on the list. He only wrote and directed a few and this one is one of them,…
Star Trek: The Klingon Gambit (1981) – Robert E. Vardeman
It’s time for another journey where no one has gone before, with another non-canon adventure with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Though written before the previous novel, The Entropy Effect was released first, which is probably a good thing, because this one just didn’t feel like it was executed properly. It is a…
Star Trek: The Entropy Effect (1981) – Vonda N. McIntyre
It’s time to continue exploring the non-canon adventures of the crew of the starship Enterprise. This is going to be fun, as some of these I haven’t read since I was a kid (reading them as they were published) and some I have never read. So going in order of publication, the first book…
Chariots of Fire (1981) – Hugh Hudson
Today, I dive into the recommendations from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my screening of Raging Bull. This four time Oscar winner (Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Score, and Best Costume Design) had never before graced my screen, so I was looking forward to settling in and watching…
