Drug of Choice (1970) – Micheal Crichton

Micheal Crichton writing as his alter-ego John Lange delivers a fast-paced, odd, and occasionally uneven tale with Drug of Choice. I think the biggest problem with the story is that its too short. A number of the sequences could have been expanded on to unnerve the reader and immerse them into the mystery of what…

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…

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) – Roy William Neill

Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are back, and this time out, their story takes its inspiration from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual.’ They left behind some of the World War II storylines, though it still has an influence. Watson is voluneering at a convalescence home housed on the…

Darkman (1990) – Sam Raimi

I enjoyed Darkman when it first came out. I had it on VHS. But it has been years since I watched it. And I’ll be honest, I liked it much more this time through. I love Raimi as a filmmaker and you can see his always moving camera at work here, as well as his…

CutThroat Island (1995) – Renny Harlin

Frequent problems on set, a production company that filed for bankruptcy before the film even opened, and a public that wasn’t quite ready yet for a pirate movie all caused Cutthroat Island to garner a but of a reputation as a horrible movie. So I decided to check it out. I hadn’t seen it since…

The Visitor (1979) – Giulio Paradisi

The Visitor is a bizarre, so bad it comes around to be good sci-fi/horror film that is just bizarre. Its happenings are so strange, you can’t take your eyes off the screen, and like I said, it’s so bad, it’s actually good, in a really bad way. Aliens are fighting on the planet Earth. At…

With a Mind to Kill (2022) – Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz delivers one last 007 adventure, this one set after the last novel in the Ian Fleming series, The Man with the Golden Gun. James Bond had been brainwashed by the Russians and sent to kill M, something he almost did. But after some rehabilitation, 007 proved himself once again by going after Scaramanga….

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (2014) – Becky Chambers

When I get into a book that I’m really enjoying reading it gets to the point that I see it all in my mind’s eye. Some books not only get the theater of the mind rolling, but make me feel at home and comfortable with the characters and the environment within pages of starting and…

The Cannonball Run (1981) – Hal Needham

They don’t make cast-packed comedies like The Cannonball Run anymore. That doesn’t mean it’s all good, but it is damned enjoyable. Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds were coming off Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper, and this road movie was a fun next step. Originally designed as an action film for Steve McQueen, when the…

Northern Exposure (1991) – A Hunting We Will Go, and Get Real

To try to understand the concept, and what drives people to do it, Joel (Rob Morrow) joins Holling (John Cullum) and Chris (John Corbett) on their annual hunting trip. Holling no longer carries a gun, he shoots with a camera, but Chris and Joel, the New York doctor, are armed and ready to go. After…