Movies can stay with you. I remember seeing Sideways when it hit theatres, laughing with my friends as Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church tried to figure out their lives, loves, and wine. The characters and moments stayed with me, not to mention the talented female leads of the film, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh….
Tag: California
Midsummer Night’s Doom (1999) – Raymond Benson
Jame Bond has had a long history with Playboy and for the magazine’s 45th anniversary, novelist Raymond Benson penned a short story to be featured in the celebratory issue. In fact, this time around 007 interacts not only with some Playmates from the previous years but also with Hugh Hefner himself. It seems there’s going…
TIFF ’22: The Fabelmans
I have been a Spielberg fan for as long as I can remember. The first film he saw was The Greatest Show On Earth, which affected him. Mine was Jaws, and I can say the same thing. Over the decades I have followed him on his storytelling journey, embracing each new film that came along,…
Fletch and the Widow Bradley (1980) – Gregory McDonald
Though written after the original Fletch novel, this novel takes place before the events of that story, and finds investigative reporter I.M. Fletcher in sunny California, filing his stories, and romancing (again) a lovely young actress, Moxie. Fletch has just filed a story for the business section, not his usual beat, but taking an assignment…
The X-Files (1999) – Hungry, and Millennium
Vince Gilligan delivers the first monster-of-the-week episode of the seventh season with Hungry, an episode that first aired on 21 November, 1999. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are investigating a strange murder in California, a body is recovered with no brain matter, and a strange hole that Mulder thinks may have been a…
Beverly Hills 90210 – The Ultimate Collection
Teen drama. The words are synonomous whether you watch television or not, because every teen is drama, whether they admit or not. And Darren Star knew he had struck gold when he took typical teen stories, filled with angst, love, heartbreak and social issues and placed them in what, thanks to the show, has become…
Fletch (1974) – Gregory McDonald
I first read Fletch back in the 80s when the Chevy Chase movie was coming along, and for some reason I had problems keeping the story threads straight, as most of the text in the novel is dialogue, not action, so I would lose who said what and would have to go back, and back…
Parable of the Sower (1993) – Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction tale, that follows a young woman of colour on her quest to understand herself, the ideas of god, and the destiny of humanity. Within pages of this novel, I was completely swept up in Butler’s storytelling style, her characters, and the world she created. And here’s the thing, the world…
The X-Files (1998) – The Beginning, and Drive
The X-Files have been re-opened following the events of the movie, Fight The Future, and with the production moving from Vancouver to Los Angeles, there’s a change in the look of the show. The season six opener was written by series creator, Chris Carter, and launched on 8 November, 1998. Sure, the files have been…
Brokenclaw (1990) – John Gardner
James Bond is back in action this week in John Gardner’s tenth 007 book, and probably my least favourite of the series at the moment. This one took me too long to get into, and then I felt not a lot really happened in the story to begin with until the climax. Bond is in…
The Mind Reels 