Gary Nelson, who directed my beloved The Black Hole, directed the sequel to 1985’s King Solomon’s Mines, Allan Quatermain & The Lost City of Gold, which was filmed back to back with the first film. In fact, it steals a large portion of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for the first film as a way to save…
Tag: africa
Family Ties (1982) – Have Gun, Will Unravel, A Christmas Story, and Oops
The Keaton household is burglarized and Steven (Micheal Gross) and Elyse (Meredith Baxter) have to find a way to reconcile their beliefs with the need to protect their family. Have Gun, Will Travel was written by Ruth Bennett and originally aired on 8 December, 1982. I did like the fact that the movie the family…
Amistad (1997) – Steven Spielberg
Spielberg returns to another examination of humanity and history with his 1997 film Amistad. Based on an actual event in 1839, the film explores a revolt of Mende captives aboard the Spanish ship La Amistad. When the captives take over the ship they demand that the surviving crew take them back to Africa, but instead,…
Mission: Impossible (1971) – The Catafalque, and Kitara
Paul Playdon wrote Catafalque, which first aired on 6 February, 1971, and features John Vernon as Ramone Fuego, who gets manipulated by the IMF in an attempt to get sensitive information into the hands of the American government. And while most of the story is really engaging, as Phelps (Peter Graves) and his team set…
Mission: Impossible (1970) – The Amateur, and Hunted
Hey look! Sam Elliott is back as Doug (yay!). And Anthony Zerbe returns as a guest star (yet again) in The Amateur. Written by Ed Adamson, this episode first aired on 14 November, 1970. Working undercover in an East European country, the IMF team have unexpected trouble when a bar owner, Eric Schilling (Zerbe) with…
Black Order (2006) – James Rollins
Sigma Force is back in their bext adventure from author James Rollins, who once again combines high adventure, with science, technology, and little known corners of history to deliver another rollicking adventure. This time out, both Painter and Gray find themselves out in the field and caught up in the action in a tale that…
The X-Files (1999) – Field Trip, and Biogenesis
Frank Spotnitz created the story which Vince Gilligan and John Shiban wrote the teleplay for the sixth season’s penultimate episode, Field Trip, which first aired on 9 May, 1999. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) head to Brown Mountain, home of the Brown Mountain Lights, which Mulder believes may be UFO related, to investigate…
Mission: Impossible (1968) – The Mercenaries, and The Execution
The IMF head down to Central Africa to bring down a mercenary and his army for hire in The Mercenaries, written by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter. This episode first aired on 27 October, 1968, and is the first episode up this week as I continue to explore The Complete Series on blu-ray from…
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 Secret of Chimneys (1925) – Agatha Christie
Christie’s fifth novel is a bit of a romp filled with double identities, a murder, political issues, an empty throne, a renowned criminal, a love story, a missing diamond, and a week away at a manor known as Chimneys. We are introduced to Anthony Cade when he is working as a travel guide in Africa,…
The Mind Reels 