Robin Williams headlines the next film recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Apocalypse Now. After the previous recommendations Good Morning, Vietnam comes across as a little too light and clean a depiction of Vietnam. It is also heavily fictionalised, as Williams’ portrayal of real life Adrian…
Tag: conflict
Platoon (1986) – Oliver Stone
Walking away with Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Sound, Platoon is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film following my screening of Apocalypse Now. The film serves as a commentary on the horrors of war, even as two sergeants seem to be fighting for the…
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1991) – Data’s Day, and The Wounded
Captain’s log: stardate 44390.1 Airing on 7 January, 1991, this Data (Brent Spiner)- centric episode did something that hadn’t been done in Star Trek before. It gave us a ‘day in the life’ episode. It also further cemented Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) in the Trek Universe. Written by Harold Apter and Ronald D. Moore, the…
MASH (1970) – Robert Altman
“And then there was Korea…” Robert Altman’s classic war comedy, MASH, is the first recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Apocalypse Now. The movie remains very funny, and it’s anti-war commentary is just as important today. That being said, this is not the MASH I grew…
Toronto After Dark 2017: Trench 11 – Leo Scherman
Zombie Night at the Toronto After Dark film festival continues at the Scotiabank Theatre with the Toronto Premiere of the Canadian biological horror film, Trench 11. Without putting too fine a point on it, this has been my favourite film of the festival so far. It’s not overly zombie-filled, but the story is captivating, it’s…
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1988) – Arsenal of Freedom, and Symbiosis
Captain’s log: stardate 41798.2 Arsenal of Freedom written by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler from a story by Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin with an original airdate of 11 April, 1988 is a bit of a mixed bag. The Enterprise arrives at a desolate planet, with no life forms detected Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the…
The Book of the Dead (2007) – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Pendergast is back! Picking up where the previous novel Dance of Death ended, Preston and Child plunge us back into the world of Aloysius, D’Agosta, Smithback, Kelly, Hayward, Constance and Pendergast’s villainous and genius brother, Diogenes. This novel serves as a climax of the previous two books, wrapping up the storyline of the two brothers,…
Star Trek: The Original Series (1968) – By Any Other Name and The Omega Glory
Captain’s log: stardate 4657.5 By Any Other Name was written by D.C. Fontana and Jerome Bixby and had an original airdate of 23 February, 1968. The Enterprise is seized by alien life forms known as the Kelvans, and may be the beachhead for a galactic invasion! Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), McCoy (DeForest…
Star Trek: Voyager – The Complete Series
Getting a re-release from Paramount Pictures today, in a fantastic new slipcase package, Star Trek: Voyager – The Complete Series comes home. Premiering in January of 1995, half way through the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and half a year following the conclusion of The Next Generation, the series got away from…
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Complete Series
Just over 24 years ago, Paramount expanded the Star Trek universe again, and for the first time ever, as the sixth season of The Next Generation continued, there were two Star Trek series running on television concurrently. And what a different manner of series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was. Instead of exploring the galaxy,…
The Mind Reels 