William Gibson wrote the screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic based on one of his short stories, but you get the impression it changed a lot from what he had written to what ended up on the screen. A lot of the tech seems to be glossed over, and with an hour-and-a-half runtime, this film feels like…
Tag: preacher
Deep Blue Sea (1999) – Renny Harlin
This one is for my friend Lindsay, who insists this is a better shark movie than Jaws, and yet it can’t help but make a number of references to it, not the least of which is a familiar-looking licence plate. Director Renny Harlin does, for the most part, deliver a fairly solid thriller though even…
The Color Purple (1985) – Steven Spielberg
Was Steven Spielberg the right person to shoot the film adaptation of Alice Walker’s powerful novel? He was an interesting choice for the project, and it definitely wasn’t the dramatic material that he was associated with in the 80s, having delivered a number of blockbusters at that point. And while there were a number of…
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) – Brian Gibson
A number of cast and crew (including composer Jerry Goldsmith and visual effects artist Richard Edlund) return for Poltergeist II: The Other Side and while Julian Beck seems truly terrifying as Kane, the film doesn’t have the Spielberg or Hooper magic that made the first film such a hit. The Freeling family, Diane (JoBeth Williams),…
The X-Files (2000) – Orison, and The Amazing Maleeni
The possibly demonic, and definitely evil, Donnie Pfaster (Nick Chinlund), last seen in Irresistible, returns in Orison. Written by Chip Johannessen who had served as showrunner for Millennium’s final season, this episode debuted on 9 January, 2000. Pfaster, serving life in prison, somehow seems to magically walk out of a maximum security instituion, and Mulder…
Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953) – James Baldwin
This week sees me reading something a little different from my usual escapist fare. Recently LeVar Burton began a reading club on Fable, and while I can’t access it in Canada, they did list the first three books he was recommending, and Go Tell It on the Mountain was at the top of his list….
Star Trek: Voyager (2000) – Spirit Folk, and Ashes to Ashes
Captain’s log: stardate unknown The crew of the Voyager return to the holodeck and the restored Fair Haven program in this episode written by Bryan Fuller. It first aired on 23 February, 2007. The holograms that populate the program begin to become suspicious of the crew and begin to think they may be fairies or…
Coming to America – 30th Anniversary Edition: Blu-Ray Review
Coming to America, another classic pairing between Eddie Murphy and John Landis hits its 30th Anniversary with a blu-ray release from Paramount Pictures. Murphy created the story which Landis seems to delight in bringing to the screen. Basically a Cinderella story, the story follows Prince Akeem (Murphy) who objects to the idea of marrying someone…
Children of Dune (1976) – Frank Herbert
Thus week, I returned to the desert planet of Arrakis, also known as Dune. The third book in the series picks up some nine to ten years after the last novel, Dune Messiah. The last novel ended with Paul Atreides, Maud’Dib, wandering into the deep desert in the Fremen tradition of discarding the old and…
The Harder They Come (1972) – Perry Henzell
Featuring a fantastic 1970s reggae soundtrack, The Harder They Come, featuring Jimmy Cliff is the next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of Jailhouse Rock. Ivan Martin (Cliff) is trying to find a way to succeed, even survive, in Jamaica. He sets his sights on making it…
The Mind Reels 