Star Trek: The Trial of Captain Kirk (1974)

The Human Adventure continued in May of 1974 with issue 24 of Gold Keys’ Star Trek comic. Featuring a story by Arnold Drake, with art by Alberto Giolitti nd a cover painting by George Wilson, the series gave us The Trial of Captain Kirk; spoiler – there really isn’t much of a trial. The splash…

Star Trek: A World Gone Mad (1973)

Gold Key Comics continued to boldly go with their Star Trek comics. Issue 20, A World Gone Mad, hit comic spinners for September, 1973. It featured a story by Arnold Drake, art by Alberto Giolitti, and a cover painting by George Wilson. The splash page suggests that a passing comet has not only driven a…

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…

The Package (1989) – Andrew Davis

Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy and Tommy Lee Jones headline another Andrew Davis chase movie that counts among its cast, Pam Grier, Kevin Heard, and Dennis Franz. It’s a fairly well-crafted military thriller that seems to have the recurring themes of chases, Chicago and conspiracies running through it. This time out, Gene Hackman plays Master Sergeant…

Chain Reaction (1996) – Andrew Davis

Following his success with The Fugitive, Andrew Davis tried to tap once again into the conspiracy and chase that rocketed that film to success (not to mention its incredible star power. This time out, with Chain Reaction, he stacks the cast with Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman and Rachel Weisz. In fact, Davis pulls out all…

Gorky Park (1983) – Michael Apted

I remember seeing the book cover for Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith everywhere in the early 80s. I suppose had I wanted to I could have read it then. My parents were pretty liberal with letting me read whatever I wanted, and I had just started delving into mysteries, I read a couple of…

Blow Out (1981) – Brian De Palma

With a film like Blow Out it is very easy to see why comparisons to Hitchcock were made throughout De Palma’s career. A fantastic thriller that makes unique use of camera angles, framing, shots and the all important sound aspect of film. John Travolta headlines as Jack a soundman for low-budget horror movies who is…

Capricorn One (1977) – Peter Hyams

Moon landing conspiracies didn’t really have any traction until Peter Hyams wrote and directed Capricorn One. Citing the fact that the most important event in mankind’s history had taken place, and the only witness was a television camera sparked his imagination about what could and couldn’t be done with that idea. The Apollo missions were…

TIFF ’23: Poolman

Chris Pine stars, directs and co-wrote Poolman, a sun-baked film noir that never quite finds its tone in spite of its best efforts, and feels like the love child of Chinatown and The Big Lewbowski. A pastiche of the eccentricities and lifestyles of LA, Pine populates his film with characters you could only find in…

Three Miles Down (2022) – Harry Turtledove

I hadn’t picked up a Turtledove book before. He’s made a name for himself telling tales of alternate histories, picking a historical event and letting it play out differently. I was never too worried about those things, though I do like a good alternate timeline. This time, however, I was intrigued as it set a…