Phelps (Peter Graves) and his IMF team are back out in the field this week as I dive into another pair of assignments in Paramount Canada’s Mission: Impossible – The Complete Series on blu-ray. The Phoenix written by John D.F. Black from a story he created alongside Edward DeBlasio is first up, originally broadcast on…
Tag: assassination
Mission: Impossible (1967) – Operation ‘Heart,’ and The Money Machine
Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) and his IMF team attempt to flush out a villain intent on assassinating a head of state, Rurich (Pernell Roberts) so that his country’s Western flavoured government will fall and give way to a rule under his name. To take him down, Phelps, Rollin (Martin Landau), Cinnamon (Barbara Bain), Barney (Greg…
Never Send Flowers (1993) – John Gardner
James Bond is back, and while I’ve enjoyed Gardner’s efforts with Ian Fleming’s 007, with the minor exception of The Man From Barbarossa, this entry, his thirteenth (of sixteen) feels like a real stumble. It seems to want to be more in line with the cinematic 007, but without a solid story, or set pieces…
F/X (1986) – Robert Mandel
Bryan Brown plays Roland Tyler, one of the top special effects people working in the business. He’s built a name for himself as well as a brand, but he’s just been approached for a special kind of gig in Robert Mandel’s F/X. He’s approached by a member of the Justice Department to help out on…
The X-Files (1996) – Sanguinarium, and Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man
Valerie Mayhew and Vivian Mayhew pen Sanguinarium,an episode that combines witchcraft and dark magics against the backdrop of a cosmetic surgery clinic. First airing on 10 November, 1996, this episode sees agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) called in to investigate a violent death during a run of the mill plastic surgery operation,…
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) – Alfred Hitchcock
James Stewart and Doris Day find themselves caught up in international intrigue and a political assassination in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, a remake of his own film from 1934. While on a working holiday that takes the family to Paris, Casablanca and Marrakesh, Dr. Benjamin McKenna (Stewart), his wife, Jo (Day)…
Chuck (2010) – Versus the Three Words, and Versus the Angel de la Muerte
Chuck (Zachary Levi) has a lot on his plate this week when Carina (Mini Anden) returns in Chuck Versus the Three Words. Written by Ali Adler and Scott Rosenbaum, this episode first aired on 10 January, 2010. Carina returns for the first time since Chuck Versus the Wookie, and Sarah’s (Yvonne Strahovski) old frenemy hauls…
Mort (1987) – Terry Pratchett
This week, I dug into another Discworld novel for the Book Shelf. And I’ve said it before, but I’m glad I waited until now to read them, I wouldn’t have appreciated them, and their wonderful humour when they were originally released. And now, I also don’t have to wait a year or two for the…
Foreign Correspondent (1940) – Alfred Hitchcock
It’s not often that I come across an Alfred Hitchcock film that I haven’t seen, but Philip Kemp’s Movies book, but Foreign Correspondent was one of them. I was completely delighted with this one, and loved how the story played out as an American reporter heads to Europe and the UK to investigate the brewing…
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2010/2011) – Senate Murders, Nightsisters, and Monster
“Searching for the truth is easy. Accepting the truth is hard.” Senate Murders opens up the trio of episodes this week. Originally airing in Season Two, the chronology of the Clone Wars places it squarely during the events of Season Three. Written by Drew Z. Greenberg, it originally aired on 5 March, 2010. Tying in…
Moonlighting (1986) – The Man Who Cried Wife, and Symphony in Knocked Flat
Kerry Ehrin pens this week’s first episode, The Man Who Cried Wife, which aired on 30 September, 1986. When James Bower (Stephen Godwin) kills his cheating wife, Melissa (Patricia Duff) in a moment of rage, he buries her in the forest, in an unmarked grave. But when he starts receiving phone calls from her he…
Moonlighting (1986) – Camille, and The Son Also Rises
Camille, the end of Moonlighting’s second season was written by Roger Director, and debuted on 13 May, 1986. Camille Brand (Whoopi Goldberg) is a con woman, who inadvertently stops the assassination of a senator when she escapes from a crooked police detective (Judd Nelson). David (Bruce Willis) sees Camille as a chance to raise the…
