The Future Was Now (2024) – Chris Nashawaty

1982. What a summer at the movies. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, E.T the Extraterrestrial, The Thing, The Road Warrior, Tron, Poltergeist, Blade Runner and Conan the Barbarian. Eight movies, all opening within weeks of each other, some on the same day, and a summer that brought geek culture into the mainstream in…

The Beastmaster (1982) – Don Coscarelli

I remember seeing The Beastmaster back in the early 80s on one of the free First Choice/Super Channel weekends. I liked it a lot at ten years old, and hadn’t seen it since. So I was curious if I was going to enjoy it. The opening credits and title cards made me dubious, but over…

Tron: Ares (2025) – Joachim Ronning

I was there in 1982. I remember sitting in the Odeon in Kingston. It was me, my sister, and my father. It wasn’t my dad’s thing. I was gobsmacked by the idea of being able to go inside a computer, and live in this new world of video games, which, at the time, were just…

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) – Robert Mulligan

The moment I finished Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, I knew it was tome to check out the cinematic version, another hole in my viewing category. Gregory Peck headlines as Atticus, a role that garnered him an Academy Award. The film garnered two more wins, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Set/Art Dec. It received…

Deathtrap (1982) – Sidney Lumet

Ira Levin’s whip-smart stage play, Deathtrap, was adapted for the big-screen and saw Michael Caine square-off against Christopher Reeve in this captivating cat-and-mouse, twisting thriller. Micheal Caine is playwright, Sidney Bruhl. He’s just had his latest stage thriller flop on opening night. It’s his latest failure in a string of them. Things are exacerbated, when…

The Challenge (1982) – John Frankenheimer

Scott Glenn sports a truly horrific bowl cut in his first leading role, starring alongside Toshiro Mifune in the Frankenheimer-helmed The Challenge. Featuring a score by Jerry Goldsmith and a supporting cast that includes Sab Shimono and Clyde Kusatsu, the film is a pretty solid action entry though it wasn’t the film Glenn and Mifune…

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) – Tommy Lee Wallace

Halloween III surprised audiences when it came along. There was no Micheal Myers, which had already become synonymous with the holiday, and there was a strange combination of the supernatural and science fiction in the third entry in the franchise. A convoluted behind-the-scenes story affected the script and the filming, and with no Micheal, the…