Michael J. Fox takes the lead in what was Peter Jackson’s first big studio film, with Bob Zemeckis serving as executive producer. While some of the special effects have not stood the test of time, it remains a fun film, trying to walk that balance between horror and comedy. Frank Bannister (Fox) is a con…
Tag: practical
Cliffhanger (1993) – Renny Harlin
Somehow I feel this actioner from the early 90s doesn’t get enough love. In fact I think it can honestly be looked at and said it has improved with age, while some 90s action flicks should be better left forgotten. Directed by Renny Harlin, who had two big successes already at the time, Nightmare on…
Star Trek: Enterprise (2002) – Minefield, and Dead Stop
Captain’s log: date unknown John Shiban pens this episode that first debuted on 2 October, 2002. The Enterprise triggers a cloaked mine, planted by Romulans, and it’s up to Reed (Dominic Keating) to work another one free of the hull plating. The explosion causes a number of injuries, and it all seems a bit of…
Toronto After Dark 2019: The Furies (2019) – Tony D’Aquino
Australia brings their horror game to the Toronto After Dark film festival tonight with their bloody and violent The Furies. A riff on the Final Girl trope as well as a mash-up of Battle Royale and Halloween the film is deliciously gory and excitingly paced. When Kayla (Airlie Dodds) is abducted and wakes up in…
Miami Vice (1988) – Baseballs of Death, and Indian Wars
Vice detectives Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Micheal Thomas) have more cases to investigate this week, as season four of Miami Vice continues. Written by Peter Lance, Baseballs of Death first aired on 19 February, 1988. The vice squad is investigating a series of murders, and find out their prime suspect is…
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Blu-Ray Review
Hitting blu-ray and DVD today from Disney is the latest instalment in the Skywalker Saga, The Last Jedi, director/writer Rian Johnson’s follow-up to 2015’s The Force Awakens. Johnson delivers a strong film that has proven divisive with some fans, but for yours truly, it’s up there with The Empire Strikes Back, it sends characters in…
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) – Denis Villeneuve
Villeneuve’s stunningly beautiful sequel to the seminal, and iconic, 1982 Ridley Scott film is released to blu-ray and DVD today from Warner Brothers. With Scott serving as executive producer, and a story by original film scribe Hampton Fancher (joined by Michael Green), Villeneuve working with cinematographer Roger Deakins brings us another tale set in the…
Virus (1999) – John Bruno
Gale Anne Hurd serves as the producer on my next stop in the Sci-Fi Chronicles, 1999’s Virus. Once again, the film is packed with a fairly solid cast, Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin, Joanna Pacula, and Marshall Bell, and once again, most of it is poorly executed. Based on the Dark Horse Comic…
Jurassic Park III (2001) – Joe Johnston
It’s back to the Park again with the Sci-Fi Chronicles. This one, honestly, feels like a rehash, which is way too bad, because it has so many people involved in it that I like. Director Joe Johnston directed one of my favourite superhero movies, The Rocketeer, and following this would go on to direct Captain…
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) – Steven Spielberg
The next stop for me in the Sci-Fi Chronicles is the dinosaur franchise that began with a novel, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and became a blockbuster film by Steven Spielberg. He followed up that first film from 1993, with The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997. While it lacks the discovery and the sense…
The Mind Reels 