The DC Animation adaptation of Hush by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee is a solid piece of work and attempts to walk a balancing act between the established canon of the animated films, and the comics. There are also a lot of layers at work throughout the course of the film, something that doesn’t happen…
Tag: manipulate
The Equalizer (1986) – Torn, and Unnatural Causes
Robert McCall (Edward Woodward) is Torn in this episode written by Carleton Eastlake from a story by Maurice Hurley and Joel Surnow. It first aired on 5 February, 1986. McCall is asked by a young girl, Laura (Melissa Joan Hart) to help her and her mother, Jessie (Caitlin Clarke) from her abusive father, O’Toole (Robert…
Mission: Impossible (1970/1971) – The Hostage, and Takeover
Sometimes, your cover is just too good. Paris (Leonard Nimoy) finds that out in the first few minutes of The Hostage. Written by Harold Livingston, this episode first debuted on 19 December, 1970. The IMF is working south of the border again, and Paris has been posing as a hotel magnate that has agreed to…
Nightmare Alley (1946) – William Lindsay Gresham
Before I see del Toro’s new film, which is an adaptation of this novel, I wanted to visit the source material, because I do love me a good noir story, and this one is a classic. And perhaps because the beats and the tropes of the noir genre are so familiar it’s easy to suss…
Weird Science (1985) – John Hughes
John Hughes’ Weird Science is very much a male teen fantasy fulfillment. It riffs on Frankenstein while drawing in themes of self-confidence, and being who you are instead of worrying about what others think of you, because in the end, if they really like you, they’ll like you for you. Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and…
Mission: Impossible (1969) – Submarine, and Mastermind
Donald James pens an exceptional episode of Mission: Impossible, Submarine, which was first broadcast on 16 November, 1969. Phelps (Peter Graves) and his IMF team are working with a ticking clock. They have to kidnap former SS officer, Kruger Schetlman (Stephen McNally), and learn the location stolen Nazi funds, before the local military police track…
Mission: Impossible (1969) – Fool’s Gold, and The Commandante
Ken Pettus pens Fool’s Gold which first aired on 26 October, 1969, and sees the IMF team, led by Phelps (Peter Graves) to stop a counterfeiter, Igor Stravos (Nehemiah Persoff) who has enough printed cash to purchase the entire gold reserve of a country, which would allow him to topple the government. Paris (Leonard Nimoy)…
Mission: Impossible (1969) – The Exchange, and The Mind of Stefan Miklos
The first mission for the IMF team this week is a bit of a different one, and three seasons in, it’s a bit of a surprise that the idea hadn’t been explored before. The Exchange was penned by Laurence Heath, and had an original airdate of 5 January, 1969. Unlike other episodes, we join the…
TIFF 2021: Encounter dir. Michael Pearce
From the beginning of the film, thanks to the way the film is told, and the willing suspension of disbelief that is inherent with cinema, we believe Malik (Riz Ahmed) and his conviction that a microscopic parasitic alien organism has come to the planet and is slowly taking over, manipulating people to their own end….
Battlestar Galactica 5: Galactica Discovers Earth (1980) – Micheal Resnick and Glen A. Larson
The Battlestar Galactica jumps forward a ways, passing over a number of episodes (that will be visited in later books) to give us an adaptation of the three hour series opener for the ill-fated, Galactica 1980, which just didn’t have the oomph, mythos, production value or stories of the original, equally ill-fated, series, though it…
The Mind Reels 