Emma Thompson stars in this white-knuckle thriller that features a layered performance, and some stand-out moments. With Finland standing in for Minnesota, Thompson braves the cold as Barb who sets out for Lake Hilda for personal reasons. A goodbye needs to be made. Along the way, she has an unnerving encounter with a man in…
Tag: characters
The Woman in Green (1945) – Roy William Neill
Man, I really liked how this Sherlock Holmes adventure started out, but the second half kinda lost me. Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are back, and despite some goofy narration to set up the tale at the beginning, instead of letting the film tell the story, I was really engaged with the idea….
Smallville (2001) – Hothead, and X-Ray
Hothead takes onto the Smallville Crows, the highschool football team overseen by the arrogant Coach Arnold (Dan Lauria). And Arnold is going to be our freak of the week. Written by Greg Walker this episode, which is helping to continue setting the pace and style for the series, first aired on 30 October, 2001. Arnold…
The House of Fear (1945) – Roy William Neill
Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are back for their tenth outing together in The House of Fear. Based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Five Orange Pips, this one leans into using the Universal Monsters sets and, consequently has a very gothic feel to it. When a gathering of gentlemen, known as the…
The Pearl of Death (1944) – Roy William Neill
Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are deep in it again this week as the take on The Pearl of Death. Using Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Six Napoleons as its basis, this tale ends up being a lot of fun. After Holmes foils Naomi Drake’s (Evelyn Ankers) attempt to steal the famous Borgia…
Huxley (2025) – Ben Mauro
I was very fortunate to chat with Ben Mauro when he appeared at Toronto’s Fan Expo. And I have just finished the first installment in his Huxley saga. Filled with world-building and fantastic art, Mauro takes some familiar science fiction tropes, and incorporates them in a new way. The trade paperback is composed of the…
Clerks (1994) – Kevin Smith
I remember when Clerks came to VHS. I was working at a video store and it resonated with everyone of us. It was like someone had taken our lives and put it on the screen. We as a crew identified so much with the film that we’d printed up labels with our names on it…
TIFF 25: Eagles of the Republic dir. Tarek Salih
Fares Fares plays the Pharaoh of the Screen, George Fahmy. He is Egypt’s most popular actor, but he finds himself maneuvered into making a propaganda film for the country’s government. Soon, he finds himself enmeshed in political intrigue, all conducted under the watchful eye of the secretive and menacing, Dr. Mansour (Amr Waked). Despite disliking…
All Systems Red (2017) – Martha Wells
I absolutely loved Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. I will admit to be a little disappointed when I downloaded from the library to my e-reader and discovered it was only a novella, a preface if you will to the adventures to come. When I dug into the story, however, any doubts I had about it’s…
Farscape (2003) – We’re So Screwed: Part 3 – La Bomba, and Bad Timing
This is it, the final two episodes of the series. And for those of you who weren’t there, all we had were these two episodes. We didn’t know there was a wrap up mini-series coming. We just had everything that happened in these two episodes. So brace yourselves. The third part of We’re So Screwed…
