The Equalizer (1987) – Inner View, and The Rehearsal

McCall (Edward Woodward) and Harley (Richard Jordan) – and again this could have been Keith Szarabajka’s Mickey – find themselves helping Karen Alden (Katherine Cortez), who may or may not be psychic. It seems she’s being haunted by visions of the Shadow Man (Terrence Mann) who is stalking New York City for his next victim….

The Dark and The Wicked (2020) – Bryan Bertino

Bryan Bertino who wrote and directed the now iconic horror film, The Strangers, delves into supernatural territory with this unnerving little film that occasionally misses the mark by leaning too heavily into its scares while presenting the idea of a demonic presence as more of a hunting animal, preying on the weakest, separating them from…

The Equalizer (1986) – A Community of Civilized Men, and Joyride

McCall (Edward Woodward) loses a potential romantic partner after resolving her issues at the beginning of A Community of Civilized Men when she’s murdered and McCall has to help her daughter, Valerie (Jennifer Grey) survive and elude a professional agent, and killer. Written by Daniel Pyne and Scott Shepherd this episode was first broadcast on…

Rambo (2008) – Sylvester Stallone

Stallone not only returns in one of his most iconic roles, but he also settles into the director’s chair to bring the grittiest incarnation of Vietnam vet to the screen. Continuity is key, and Rambo (Stallone) is still in the Far East, attempting to live a quiet life as best as he can, when, like…

Three Men and a Baby (1987) – Leonard Nimoy

Outside of a drug dealer plotline that really doesn’t do anything for the film at all, director Leonard Nimoy’s adaptation of the French film, Trois Hommes et un Couffin, is light, fun, and full of heart. Three bachelors, Peter (Tom Selleck), Michael (Steve Guttenberg), and Jack (Ted Danson) are living their best lives, parties, girls,…

The Witch (2015) – Richard Eggers

Eggers’ atmospheric The Witch, is always an enjoyable Halloween watch, it’s beautifully executed, wonderfully scripted, and has everything you would expect in a classical telling of an 17th century new world fairy tale. A devout family in New England, whose father, Will (Ralph Ineson) has been deemed by the local village to be too extreme…

Phantasm: Ravager (2016) – David Hartman

For the first time, Don Coscarelli lets someone else in the director’s chair for an entry in the Phantasm series (could you imagine a reboot, or a television series rework of this?) though he had his hand in the script as well as producing. Reggie (Reggie Bannister), Michael (A. Michael Baldwin), Jody (Bill Thornbury) and…

Star Trek: Discovery (2019) – Brother, and New Eden

Captain’s log: stardate 1025.19 Ted Sullivan, Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts pen the season two opener of Star Trek: Discovery, which launched on 17 January, 2019. If the first season proved divisive to Trek fans, the second season upped that ante. Not only is the Enterprise on hand, but it is under command of…

The Deer Hunter (1978) – Micheal Cimino

Micheal Cimino’s examination of the effects of war, framed around the Vietnam conflict and a small industrial town in Pennsylvania is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Apocalypse Now. Laying out the scars, physical, mental and unseen that affected those who fought in it,…