I’ll be honest, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, available now from Orbit Books hit me like a sucker punch. I didn’t know what I expected from this whimsical, playful tale, but what I did not expect was a genre mash-up that at its heart (or Hart) riffed on the classic tale told in Shop…
Tag: love story
The X-Files (1999) – Terms of Endearment, and The Rain King
Bruce Campbell pops up in The X-Files this week with Terms of Endearment. Written by David Amann, this story first aired on 3 January, 1999, and sees Spender (Chris Owens) blowing off a potential x-files investigation, that Mulder (David Duchovny) recovers, and heads off to Virginia to investigate. While Scully (Gillian Anderson) covers for him,…
The Mysterious Mr. Quin (1930) – Agatha Christie
Long before DC introduced us to Harley Quinn, a variation of the traditional harlequin character, Agatha Christie created her own Harley Quin, and introduced him to the world in a collection of short stories first published in 1930. This Harley Quinn is a tall mysterious man who appears at prime opportunities in the story, and…
Ladyhawke (1985) – Richard Donner
I don’t think I’ve seen Ladyhawke since it came out in 1985, and re-watching it for the blog I was struck by a couple of things. With a few tweaks, this film could have been huge! The film looks gorgeous, and has a solid cast, led by Rutger Hauer, Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer, but…
The Secret of Chimneys (1925) – Agatha Christie
Christie’s fifth novel is a bit of a romp filled with double identities, a murder, political issues, an empty throne, a renowned criminal, a love story, a missing diamond, and a week away at a manor known as Chimneys. We are introduced to Anthony Cade when he is working as a travel guide in Africa,…
M*A*S*H (1972/1973) – Edwina, Love Story, and Tuttle
The first pair of episodes up this week have some similarities, especially when aired back to back, and I have to wonder if that was intentional, or just the way the series was made. Edwina was written by Hal Dresner and first debuted on 24 December, 1972. The story centres on a calamity-centric Edwina (Arlene…
Bull Durham (1988) – Ron Shelton
I love a good baseball movie, there’s something inherently joyful about them, whether it’s the game, itself, the sound of the crack of the bat, the tightly edited homages of games played, or the characters that step up to the plate, I love them, drama, comedy… is there a baseball musical? I’d probably dig that…
Wyrd Sisters (1988) – Terry Practhett
It’s back to Discworld for this week’s book shelf, as I dig into the next titles in the humorous fantasy series from Terry Pratchett. This time around we spend some time with witches. We revisit Granny Weatherwax, and are introduced to Nanny Ogg, and Magrat, collectively christened Wryd Sisters. The trio are concerning themselves with…
Black Sunday (1960) – Mario Bava
Mario Bava’s fantastic gothic feature, Black Sunday aka The Mask of Satan is the next title in Ten Bad Dates With De Niro. This brilliant film, which I had never seen before, has all the enjoyable gothic ambience of Corman’s takes on Poe like The Fall of the House of Usher, and some wonderful gore…
Shogun (1980) – Disc 2
The epic mini-series adaptation of James Clavell’s novel (he also served as one of the show’s producers), Shogun continues this week, as I dive into disc two, which includes episode two and parts of episode three which originally aired on the 16th and 17th September, 1980, following the airing of the three hour premiere on…
The Mind Reels 