I remember being completely enchanted when I realized the movie, Hugo, was not only about a boy who lived in a train station, but about Georges Melies, the famed French director, and his wonderful collection of films. It absolutely swept me up in it’s narrative. But I had never read Brian Selznick’s original book, which…
Tag: mystery
Shutter Island (2010) – Martin Scorsese
I remember when Shutter Island hit the cinemas, and then hit home video, everyone was raving about it. When I finally had a chance to watch it, I had the mystery figured out pretty quickly, though I will say it was wonderfully executed. Scorsese delivers a gorgeous looking film, and makes great use of visual…
Gorky Park (1983) – Michael Apted
I remember seeing the book cover for Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith everywhere in the early 80s. I suppose had I wanted to I could have read it then. My parents were pretty liberal with letting me read whatever I wanted, and I had just started delving into mysteries, I read a couple of…
The Maid (2022) – Nita Prose
The Maid is a fantastic engaging read that introduces the character Molly Gray, a young woman who is on the spectrum and finds herself caught up as the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Molly, who is recovering from the death of her beloved Gran, the only caretaker she has in her life, struggles to…
Star Trek: Lower Decks – Season 4 Blu-Ray
The U.S.S. Cerritos returns to the screen with Paramount Canada’s release of Star Trek: Lower Decks – Season 4 on Blu-ray. Filled with great stories, deep cuts of Trek trivia, and lots of laughs as well as answering the decades-old question, does Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) look like Nick Locarno? There are promotions, roommates,…
Magnum P.I. (2019) – The Man in the Secret Room, and He Came By Night
Magnum (Jay Hernandez) is still smarting and sulking after the break-up with Abby and takes some temporary work as the head of security for a hotel taking over for a former p.i., Russ (Lee Majors!). It’s not too long before he finds himself embroiled in another mystery, with The Man in the Secret Room. Written…
Star Trek: Heart of the Sun (1997) – Pamela Sargent, and George Zebrowski
Set during Kirk’s original five year mission as portrayed in The Original Series, Heart of the Sun is an interesting exploration of isolationism and its effect, combining two story threads that end up having more in common than you initially realize. The Enterprise has arrived in a remote system, helping restore a planetary database that…
The Long Goodbye (1973) – Robert Altman
I’m probably stepping into a minefield here, but I’m not the biggest Robert Altman fan. Who doesn’t love The Player? And as great as M*A*S*H is, I came to it by way of the television series, so it never resonated with me as much as I would have liked. That being said, I really liked…
The Name of the Rose (1986) – Jean-Jacques Annaud
Jean-Jacques Annaud’s adaptation of Umberto Eco’s novel, The Name of the Rose, is an engaging tour-de-force with a fantastic cast, an intriguing mystery, and a fantastic setting. Amazingly, Sean Connery’s career was in a bit of a lull when he lobbied for the part, one which, it seems, much like Bond, and Indy’s father, he…
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Survivors (1989) – Jean Lorrah
The fourth novel in The Next Generation series from Pocket Books is set between the events Arsenal of Freedom and Skin of Evil and gives Tasha Yar more story time than she received in her only season on the show. It also fills out some of her backstory, and while nothing contradicts the established canon,…
The Mind Reels 