Paramount Pictures, in time for both Canadian and American Thanksgivings, released the 30th Anniversary edition of the John Hughes classic, Planes, Trains & Automobiles. John Candy and Steve Martin portray Del Griffith and Neal Page respectively; two travellers thrown together as they try to find their way home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Watching circumstance after…
Tag: pop culture
West Side Story (1961) – Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins
Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins direct the film that brings me back to the musical genre in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. Stephen Sondheim pens the lyrics for this Academy Award winning musical (including Best Picture) that is an updated retelling of Shakespeare’s beautiful tragedy Romeo & Juliet with Richard Beymer…
Shaun of the Dead (2004) – Edgar Wright
A return to the Horror/Sci-Fi chapter of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book brings me to Night of the Living Dead. Having previously written about it, I moved onto the recommendations. The only film I hadn’t written about before is now up, and any chance to rewatch this movie, I take. Because…
Dogma (1999) – Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith’s hilarious take on religion as two exiled (to Wisconsin) angels, Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck) find a loop hole in religious dogma that will allow them to return to Heaven. This is the final recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my screening of La Belle…
Donnie Darko (2001) – Richard Kelly
The final recommendation from this visit to the Family genre in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is Kelly’s cult film Donnie Darko. While not necessarily suitable for younger viewers, it does involve family and a young troubled boy. This one was one of those films that while I was in the…
The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series
Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone is one of those television titles that surpassed its small screen trappings to become something more, something bigger, iconic, finding its way into the very fabric of the cultural DNA. Even today, people make references to it, by humming the iconic opening theme by Marius Constant, (though Bernard Herrmann composed a…
Star Wars: Year by Year – A Visual History (Updated and Expanded Edition, 2016) – Ryder Windham
Oh DK books, you really do fire my imagination and allow me to wander the recollections of my youth. If there was book better suited to do that for me than the Star Wars: Year by Year coffee table book that I found myself enjoying this week (the updated version, as my Mom had previously given…
Quantum Leap (1990) – Animal Frat and Another Mother
Sam (Scott Bakula) is back in school, when he leaps into Knut ‘Wild Thing’ Wileton, in Animal Frat. This Animal House-like episode was penned by Chris Ruppenthal and aired 3 January, 1990. It’s 19 October, 1967, and Sam seems to be Big Man On Campus, but as always, he’s there to put something right,…
Issues Vol. 17
This week’s pull list has lots to entertain, so thanks to Kirk at West End Comics as always, and he had my new Orphan Black Rachael Duncan Funko figure for me! Captain America: White (Marvel) issue 1, written and art by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, colors by Dave Stewart and letters by Richard Starkings….
Armada (2015) – Ernest Cline
Cline has done it again. Crafting another fantastic novel that embraces and celebrates pop culture interwoven with a thrilling narrative. Embracing its inner Iron Eagle, Ender’s Game and The Last Starfighter, while in turn paying nods to Contact and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Cline has crafted a novel that revels and embraces…
The Mind Reels 