The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982) – Stephen King

Stephen King’s fantastic epic adventure gets underway with this stellar, yet surprising short entry into what will be a massive tome, The Gunslinger. Starting with the iconic line. “the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed” one can’t help but be swept up in the epic western style fantasy.  The Man…

Throne of Blood (1957) – Akira Kurosawa

The next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Kurosawa’s Ran is another classic film from the legendary director, Throne of Blood. Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kubo and Isuzu Yamada star in this action-fantasy-drama. Mifune stars as Taketoki Washizo, while Kubo stars as his childhood friend, and fellow…

The NeverEnding Story (1984) – Wolfgang Petersen

The first recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of The Fellowship of the Ring is Wolfgang Petersen’s 1984 adaptation of only a small part of Micheal Ende’s fantasy novel, The NeverEnding Story. It has been more than thirty years since I watched this one, so I was…

That Lady in Ermine (1948) – Ernst Lubitsch & Otto Preminger

The final title from the What Else To Watch list as featured in DK Canada’s The Movie Book following its recommendation of To Be Or Not To Be is this fantasy/musical/comedy starring Betty Grable, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Cesar Romero. Grable is Angelina, a ruling countess, who just go married to Count Mario (Romeo). It…

A Wrinkle in Time (1963) – Madeleine L’Engle

Somehow this was a book that slipped though the cracks of my childhood, and it never found its way home from the school library with me. I figured I am long overdue to review this one, and considering it’s considered a classic of both the science fiction and fantasy genres it was time to dig…

The Warded Man (2008) – Peter V. Brett

My sweetie recommended this one for me. She was so adamant that I read it, and so convinced that I would enjoy it that she went out and bought me a copy, and I moved it to the top the pile. And, no surprise, she was right! A wonderful combination of fantasy and horror elements,…

The Truman Show (1998) – Peter Weir

I return to the science fiction and fantasy genre in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for the last time. The final film in this chapter is the previously reviewed The Matrix, and so, moving onto the list of recommendations following that, The Truman Show is the first one listed I hadn’t…

The Talisman (1984) – Stephen King and Peter Straub

There are very few Stephen King novels I haven’t read, and even as I revisit the occasional one, I realised that I had never finished The Talisman. A copy of this book was a Christmas gift to my Mom the year it came out. She read it first, and I was next in line to…

The Devil’s Castle (1896) – Georges Melies

I dig into a new book this week, DK Canada’s The Movie Book. It will take us through a gamut of decades and titles, and there is so much to watch. There are titles I’ve seen, and those I haven’t – so it’s going to be a fun ride. Since I’ve seen the first film…