Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) – Gore Verbinski

The third volume of Disney’s theme park attraction turned tentpole franchise is the next selection in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book as I explore the chapter on Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales. I’ll admit this instalment in the series is a little top heavy with a convoluted plot, but as showcased in the…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1996) – Hard Time, and Shattered Mirror

Station log: stardate unknown Robert Hewitt Wolfe writes the teleplay for this episode from a story by Daniel Keys Moran and Lynn Barker. It first aired on 15 April, 1996. This Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) story is exemplary, and stunning, The Chief tries to integrate back to station life, and deal with implanted memories of…

Star Trek: Voyager (1995) – Non Sequiter, and Twisted

Captain’s log: stardate 49011 Brannon Braga pens this Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) -centric episode that first aired on 25 September, 1995. Harry wakes up in San Francisco, never having been assigned to U.S.S. Voyager which is listed by Starfleet as missing and presumed lost. In San Francisco, Harry has been working on starship designs, but…

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) -Tony Richardson

The angry young British man films continues with the iconic The Loneliness of the Longd Distance Runner, a title from the What Else to Watch list of DK Canada’s The Movie Book following its recommendation of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay) is a young offender, busted for robbing a bakery, ends…

Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky (1987) – Margaret Wander Bonanno

This week’s visit to the Book Shelf brings me the second Giant Star Trek novel from Pocket Books, and gives us a a different look at the first contact between Humans and Vulcans, a plot point that would later be visited in Star Trek: First Contact, though it could be argued that this book complements…

The Great Escape (1963) – John Sturges

The next stop in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book sees me back in the war genre, watching one of my all-time favourite WWII films, The Great Escape. Based loosely on actual events there is a lot to love in this film, not only in the movie itself, but for the nostalgia…

Kameradschaft (1931) -G.W. Pabst

  The next title up for review in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is one I’d previously covered as I return to the Action & Adventure genre, the fantastic Wages of Fear, so I dove right into the few recommendations for this one that I hadn’t covered yet, starting with this French-German…

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004) – Susanna Clarke

  I’d always been intrigued by the cover of this book, and the idea of magicians in England in the 19th century tweaked my interest as well. I was never put off by the rather gargantuan size of the book, I just knew I had to be in the right frame of mind to take…