Star Trek: The Trial of Captain Kirk (1974)

The Human Adventure continued in May of 1974 with issue 24 of Gold Keys’ Star Trek comic. Featuring a story by Arnold Drake, with art by Alberto Giolitti nd a cover painting by George Wilson, the series gave us The Trial of Captain Kirk; spoiler – there really isn’t much of a trial. The splash…

The Stuntman (1980) – Richard Rush

Steve Railsback, Peter O’Toole and Barbara Hershey headline the genre-defying film, The Stuntman, that sees a fugitive finding a place to hide… on a film set. Railsback is Cameron who is on the run from the police, seen in a wonderfully extended opening sequence that lays out a whole bunch of narrative threads before tying…

Mad God (2021) – Phil Tippett

I first learned Phil Tippet’s name in 1983 when I was reading a behind-the-scenes magazine about the making of The Return of the Jedi, and there was a discussion on the stop-motion and go-motion techniques used to create the movement of the Scout walkers in the Star Wars sequel. I was fascinated by what I…

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) – 4K Review

There’s something about kaiju and apex predators that fires up the imagination, and the movie magic that helps create them, if done right, can transport the viewer. The idea that there are beings, titans by another name, out there that have dominance over the planet, that could wipe us out with barely a thought is…

Mission: Impossible (1967) – Action!, and The Train

Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) is missing from this week’s first mission (apparently he was written out of the script as punishment for observing his religious beliefs), so Cinnamon (Barbara Bain) picks up the mission while Rollin (Martin Landau) concocts the plan in Action! written by Robert Lewin. This episode first hit the airwaves on 4…

Hot Docs 2016: Operation Avalanche – Matt Johnson

  It’s right there in the title, Operation Avalanche, it’s a snow job. This faux documentary is played straight, pretending to be a film edited together from film shot by a pair of agents (Matt Johnson and Owen Williams) posing as filmmakers, working on a documentary about the Apollo program at the height of the…

The Martian (2015) – Ridley Scott

  A fantastic book, a top-notch actor, and one of the best technical directors working, what wasn’t to like about The Martian? Clocking in at 141 minutes, my only real issue with the film was that despite the fact that it gave you the number of sols Mark Watney (Matt Damon) spent alone on Mars…