Star Trek: Discovery (2018) – Will You Take My Hand?

Captain’s log: 2257 Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts write the teleplay for the first season finale of Star Trek: Discovery from a story by Berg, Harberts and Akiva Goldsman, who also directs. It first aired on 11 February, 2018, and ended with a moment that excited some fans, and infuriated others. With Georgiou (Michelle…

Diamonds Are Forever (1956) – Ian Fleming

The fourth James Bond adventure by Ian Fleming is on my book shelf this week, and I dug into it eagerly. Despite some troubling moments of racism, 007’s literary adventure in this book is damned enjoyable, and you can see a number of themes and locales survived the jump to the big screen with Sean…

Star Trek: Voyager (2000) – Flesh and Blood

Captain’s log: stardate 54315.3 The Hirogen return in this feature length episode that first debuted on 29 November, 2000 and was written by Bryan Fuller, Raf Green and Kenneth Biller from a story by Fuller, Green and Jack Monaco. The Voyager answers a distress signal from a Hirogen station only to find death and destruction,…

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

A space age fairy tale. No matter the themes, social commentary or underpinnings we wish to assign the Skywalker Saga, culminating with the release of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars has always been a space age fairy tale – there are princesses (turned general), knights (both good and bad), evil lords, fortresses,…

The White Ribbon (2009) – Micheal Haneke

I’m finishing up the main body of DK Canada’s exceptional The Movie Book, and Haneke’s The White Ribbon is a fantastic film to wrap up the main section of the book. Set a few short years before the First World War, this Golden Globe winning film is a somber, thoughtful affair on sins, youth, tradition,…

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) – Chan-wook Park

The What Else to Watch list of DK Canada’s The Movie Book continues to serve me well. Following my screening of Oldboy I dug into the list and was very happy to see another of Park’s Vengeance Trilogy in there. I have seen this movie only once before, when it first came to home video,…

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) – Don Coscarelli

Mummies! A fairly short chapter in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book, this fun chapter is actually filled with films I have already reviewed for the blog, so I was delighted to be able to revisit a cult favorite that I hadn’t written up before. Ash, from the Evil Dead films may be Bruce…

Dawn of the Dead (2004) – Zack Snyder

It takes guts to want to remake a Romero zombie classic, but that’s where we are with the next zombie film featured in DK Canada’s highly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book. Zack Snyder, a wonderfully visual director, who never actually seems to be able to handle story and character (or any measure of subtlety)…