del Toro’s latest film, The Shape of Water is very much a fairy tale for adults, as well as sharing a kinship with the horror films of the 1950s, specifically, 1954’s The Creature From the Black Lagoon (as well as to Abe Sapien as seen in del Toro’s own Hellboy series). But in this film,…
Tag: cold war
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965) – Martin Ritt
Richard Burton turns in a solid, and believable performance in this adaptation of John le Carre’s classic thriller novel. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Dr. Strangelove. Burton is Alec Leamas, a spy in charge…
Quantum Leap (1991) – Heart of a Champion, and Nuclear Family
Sam is one part of a wrestling team, when he leaps into Terry Sammis in Heart of a Champion. With an airdate of 8 May, 1991, Sam finds himself in all manner of trouble in this script by Tommy Thompson. It’s 23 July, 1955 and Terry and his brother Ronny (Jerry Bossard) are professional wrestlers,…
Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) -The Conscience of the King and Balance of Terror
Captain’s Log: Stardate 2817.6 The Conscience of the King, taken from a line in Hamlet (the series has a wonderful relationship with the Bard), was a bit of a murder mystery that didn’t quite engage with me when I was younger, but has grown on me since. Written by Barry Trivers, this had an original…
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) – Nicholas Meyer
It’s time for one final cruise with the original crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, as I continue my journeys with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. This time around the Klingons are in trouble, when one of their moons, Praxis, which was one of their key energy reserves, blows up. Unable to maintain the cost of…
Toronto After Dark: The Machine (2013) – Caradog W. James
Sci-Fi night at Toronto After Dark, graciously hosted at Scotiabank Theatre this year, continued with a late night screening of the UK science fiction flick, The Machine, starring Toby Stephens, Caity Lotz, and Denis Lawson. Using Blade Runner, Terminator and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica as its launching point, a number of the festival organizers were chatting…
Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) – J.J. Abrams
This is a summer blockbuster first and foremost. Since Trek made the leap to the bug screen, they’ve had to eschew some of the material that inherently made Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek what is was when it was a weekly television show. After The Motion Picture, which I still love, the series began to shift…
Doctor Who S07E10 – Cold War
Mark Gatiss reintroduces the ice warriors of Mars to the world of Doctor Who as The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) find themselves aboard a Soviet Sub in 1983. This is probably the strongest of the stories since Clara became The Doctor’s companion, although David Warner seems completely wasted in his ole…
Doctor Who S07E08 – The Rings of Akhaten
Neil Cross pens this week’s episode which sees Clara the impossible girl (Jenna-Louise Coleman) leaving the planet for the first time, having decided to go with the Doctor (Matt Smith). It’s a story of lullabies, memories, stories and the lives of those we miss and lost. While still not the strongest episode of this…
Fantastic Voyage (1966) – Richard Fleischer
Just over 20 years before Dennis Quaid was miniaturized and found himself inside Martin Short, in Joe Dante’s escapist adventure Innerspace, Richard Fleischer last seen on the 101 Sci-Fi Movies list with 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, returns with Fantastic Voyage. Amidst the Cold War, America and Russia aren’t only in a nuclear race, they are in a…
The Mind Reels 