I don’t know if television audiences of the 20th century couldn’t handle more than one show about alien conspiracies at a time, but Dark Skies came along three years after The X-Files had gone away, and although it garnered a passionate audience and solid reviews, it just couldn’t make it out from under Mulder and…
Tag: 1996
The Arrival (1996) – David Twohy
David Twohy wrote and directed this sci-fi thriller starring Charlie Sheen which was lost in the summer of ’96 when Independence Day shook the world. Obviously a bit of a smaller film than Fox’s big-budget alien attack film, it doesn’t quite boast as big a cast, but has some great names, Richard Schiff, Lindsay Crouse,…
The Substitute (1996) – Robert Mandel
Its action sequences are flawed, and don’t look anywhere as near as cool, and sharp as they could, but 1996’s The Substitute (which spawned three increasingly bad direct-to-video sequels) is packed with familiar faces. The cast is led by Tom Berenger, and includes Raymond Cruz, Luis Guzman, William Forsythe, Rodney, A. Grant, Ernie Hudson, Marc…
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991) – Simon Wincer
I saw Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man the summer it opened in ’91, while I was working in Toronto. Something about it just clicked for me. I like the sense of history to the characters and the world they live in. Set five years down the road in 1996, the world is going to…
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Brian Henson, and David Lane
Tim Curry, Billy Connelly, Jennifer Saunders and Kevin Bishop joined the standard Muppet cast of characters in the film series follow-up to A Muppet Christmas Carol. This time they took on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale of Treasure Island which saw Tim Curry delightfully chewing scenery as Long John Silver. Kermit (Steven Whitmire) is…
Star Trek: Invasion! First Strike (1996) – Diane Carey
Diane Carey launched a cross-generational story that swept through all four of the then-existing series, The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. Each novel featured a standalone story that connected with the other tales, and the first featured Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise. Set a very short…
Star Trek: The Rings of Tautee (1996) – Dean Wesley Smith, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Rings of Tautee is a fast-paced Star Trek adventure that is set during the original five year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk. Responding to a subspace disruption, the Enterprise arrives in the Tautee system, followed quickly by the Farragut and four Klingon cruisers, to discover that the…
Star Trek: The Return (1996) – William Shatner with Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Judith Reeves-Stevens
William Shatner with the Reeves-Stevens at his side, pens the second volume of his Shatner-verse Star Trek novels, and while a little too self-indulgent in some aspects, it’s not a terrible tale, and hints at some cool Borg ideas that don’t wholly conflict with what was later established by Star Trek: First Contact, and events…
Star Trek: Twilight’s End (1996) – Jerry Oltion
It’s a lot of fun getting back into classic Star Trek books, check out the awesome library available from Simon & Schuster to feed that need. The next book in The Original Series run is Twilight’s End. The story feels like it’s set at some point during the third season of the series, it makes…
The Frighteners (1996) – Peter Jackson
Michael J. Fox takes the lead in what was Peter Jackson’s first big studio film, with Bob Zemeckis serving as executive producer. While some of the special effects have not stood the test of time, it remains a fun film, trying to walk that balance between horror and comedy. Frank Bannister (Fox) is a con…
