Screamers is a bit of a mess. It has a solid pedigree but somewhere between its origin and its filming, I imagine a number of things went wrong, culminating in the disappointing movie it became. The film stars Peter Weller and is originally based on a story by Philip K. Dick and Dan O’Bannon had…
Tag: 1995
Star Trek: First Frontier (1995) – Diane Carey and Dr. James I. Kirkland
It has been a while since I’ve explored the final frontier as documented in Simon & Schusters’ Star Trek novels. I’ve been craving lots of Trek recently, so it seemed like a perfect time to dive back into the adventures of Kirk and company. This time around Diane Carey, who has written several Trek novels,…
Lord of Illusions (1995) – Clive Barker
I remember discovering the writings of Clive Barker, and how his writing actually got under my skin, and freaked me out a bit. He definitely won a fan in me, and then the film, Hellraiser, wow! And while Nightbreed garnered itself a bit of a cult following, Lord of Illusions never seemed to, which bums…
TIFF 2021: Jagged dir. Alison Klayman
Alanis Morissette. Heralbum Jagged Little Pill is practically synonymous with the 90s. And so many of us can’t help but remember where we were when we heard it, bought it, played it over and over. Critics talked about how angry it sounded, while I remember thinking how human it sounded, how relatable, and how it…
Mortal Kombat (1995) – Paul W.S. Anderson
Paul W.S. Anderson loves his video game properties it seems, and in 1995, he delivered the first version that tried to create a narrative around an incredibly popular fighting game, and his first ‘big’ film. Some would argue that this was incredibly stupid idea, and yet, there are people who love this iteration. While the…
Congo (1995) – Frank Marshall
A script based on a Micheal Crichton novel, creature effects by Stan Winston, directed by Frank Marshall who has a long association with Spielberg and Amblin, an all-star cast including Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Bruce Campbell, Dylan Walsh and Adewale Akkinuoye-Agbaje. Seems like a sure-fire win right? I hadn’t watched this one since…
The Prophecy (1995) – Gregory Widen
There are a number of movies that seemed tied inextricably with my memories of working at Jumbo Video in the mid-90s, and The Prophecy is one of them. No one I know saw it in the theatre, but once we received a screener copy for it in the store, it made the rounds, and I…
Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden (1995) – William Shatner, with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
This week, I take my first step into what became known as the Shatner-verse, a series of Star Trek novels written by Captain Kirk himself, with the aid of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Set some months after the events of The Undiscovered Country but before the opening of Generations, Kirk isn’t doing to well with…
GoldenEye (1995) – John Gardner
John Gardner’s penultimate 007 novel is a short, uninspired adaptation of the 1995 film, GoldenEye which saw Pierce Brosnan finally step into the shoes of James Bond. I’m not sure if Gardner was simply tired of writing Bond books at this point, or if he was less than impressed with the film’s script and was…
Star Trek: The Fearful Summons (1995) – Denny Martin Flinn
Space, the final frontier… I take up the journey with Kirk and company again this week, and was delighted in how most of The Fearful Summons read. It’s a fast read, and has the pacing of a screenplay, and even reading it, you can tell what things would be edited out of the film, or…
The Mind Reels 