close encounters of the third kind

Dark Skies (2013) – Scott Stewart

Keri Russell doesn’t often do genre films, and while I like the subject matter of Dark Skies, I wish she had chosen a slightly stronger film to be a part of. The last third of the film is just terrible and isn’t executed very well. And why are the Greys, which have been portrayed as…

No One Will Save You (2023) – Brian Duffield

Writer/director Brian Duffield delivers a lot to unpack thematically with his alien thriller No One Will Save You, which is delivered virtually silently with almost no dialogue at all. With obvious nods to films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Invasion of the Body Snatcher, the film is a tense, white-knuckle thriller that…

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Ultimate Visual History (2017) – Michael Klastorin

I remember the first time I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was 1984, it was my 13th birthday, I had read the fotonovel from the school library, was fascinated by the subject matter (I still am), and though I had seen the rubber toys in grocery stores when the film came out,…

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – 4K Steelbook

In 1981 the man who created Star Wars, George Lucas, paired with the director of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg, brought us an update of the action serials of the 1930s, a return of the grand adventure. Featuring the star of Star Wars, Harrison Ford, in the lead as globetrotting…

Star Wars: Rebels (2018) – Jedi Night, DUME, and Wolves and a Door

The end is closing in for the Rebels series, and the stakes have never been higher. Kanan (Freddie Prinze jr.) turns to Ezra (Taylor Gray) to concoct a plan to break Hera (Vanessa Marshall) out of the hands of the Imperials. Jedi Night, written by Dave Filoni and Henry Gilroy, first aired on 19 February,…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1996) – The Ascent, and Rapture

Station log: stardate unknown Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe pen The Ascent which first aired on 25 November, 1996. Three days after Star Trek: First Contact opened in theaters. Quark (Armin Shimerman) and Odo (Rene Auberjonois) have to wok together, setting aside their differences when they crash land, and must climb a mountain…

Midnight Special (2016) – Jeff Nichols

Owing its pedigree to films of the 80s like John Carpenter’s Starman and Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Nichols writes and directs this science fiction road movie that is best viewed with little to no plot knowledge. So suffice to say, I won’t be saying much about story points in my review….

Mirage Men (2013) – John Lundberg, Roland Denning & Kypros Kyprianou

This was an interesting documentary, based on the book by Mark Pilkington, no matter where you come down on the subject of UFOs. I like to stride the middle of the road, I really want to believe that they are out there, and they may very well have been here before. But there is…

Trailer Tracks: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – Steven Spielberg

I love the wonder and awe in this film, the gorgeous score by John Williams, and despite some scares of about the unknown, the idea that everything is going to be okay at that moment when we encounter an intelligence from out there somewhere… I love the fact that it has to give a…

Battlestar Galactica (1979) – War of the Gods Parts 1 & 2

Trouble comes to the fleet in two forms in this two-part episode written by series creator Glen A. Larson in the form of mysterious white orbs and some spectral looking beings, and the deceptive Count Iblis (Patrick Macnee). This of all the series so far, has the most religious overtones with mentions of good and…