The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) – Agatha Christie

Before Hercule Poirot took the Orient Express, he found himself on the Blue Train, sans Hastings, in a mystery that has a murder, missing jewels, stagecraft, thieves, divorces, a love story, rich Americans, and devious criminals. While not quite the romp of Poirot’s previous tales, this story was fun, and while most of the clues…

Millennium (1996) – 5-2-2-6-6-6, and Kingdom Come

Writers James Wong and Glen Morgan pit Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and the Millennium Group against a serial bomber in 5-2-2-6-6-6 (which entered into a phone pad spells K-A-B-O-O-M), which first aired on 22 November, 1996. Raymond Dees (Joe Chrest) is a bomber, there is sexual transference involved, as well as the desire to be…

Millennium (1996) – Dead Letters, and The Judge

Glen Morgan and James Wong pen Dead Letters, an episode that doesn’t deal with any arcs of the season, but gives us a look at the procedure and the strain of hunting a serial killer. Dead Letters first aired on 8 November, 1996, and sees Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) teaming up with a profiler that…

The X-Files (1996) – Apocrypha, and Pusher

Series creator Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz continue the mythology arc story they began in Piper Maru with Apocrypha, which first aired on 16 February, 1996. While Scully (Gillian Anderson) runs down leads on the man who killed her sister, something that has caused AD Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) to end up in the hospital with…

The X-Files (1995) – 731, and Revelations

Apology is policy replaces The Truth Is Out There statement of the opening credits as we are thrown right into the conclusion of the two-parter started with Nisei. Written by Frank Spotnitz this one debuted on 1 December, 1995. Mulder (David Duchovny) has his hands full as he is thrown into confrontation with the Red-Haired…

The X-Files (1995) – Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, and The List

Darin Morgan who was first cast as the Fluke-Man, then penned the season two classic Humbug, joined the crew of The X-Files as a story editor at the beginning of the third season, and he turned in another instant classic scipt with Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose. First airing on 13 October, 1995 the story is…

Frenzy (1972) – Alfred Hitchcock

I slipped into another Alfred Hitchcock film I hadn’t seen today. Frenzy, from 1972. I knew next to nothing about it but was delighted to see both Jean Marsh and Bernard Cribbins in supporting roles. Set in England, this is a bit of a thriller with some dark humour thrown in for good measure. Based…

From Russia With Love (1957) – Ian Fleming

This week I dove into Ian Fleming’s fifth James Bond novel, and the one that was most closely adapted for the big screen, though SPECTRE is slipped into the film version, whereas in this tale it is simply east versus west as SMERSH, the Russian spy organisation comes up with a plan to humiliate the…

Beverly Hills Cop: 3 Movie Collection – Blu-Ray Review

Axel Foley as brought to the screen by Eddie Murphy just celebrated the 35th Anniversary of the release of the original Beverly Hills Cop. And what better way to celebrate than with an all new blu-ray edition of all three films from Paramount Canada? One of the best fish out of water, and action comedies…