The Superman mythos got the teen drama remix with Smallville. Perfectly cast and solidly scripted, the series ran for ten seasons, and while I did enjoy it, I never got past season five originally. We’re going to fix that this time out. The show launched with its Pilot on 16 October, 2001. Written by Alfred…
Tag: tropes
Huxley (2025) – Ben Mauro
I was very fortunate to chat with Ben Mauro when he appeared at Toronto’s Fan Expo. And I have just finished the first installment in his Huxley saga. Filled with world-building and fantastic art, Mauro takes some familiar science fiction tropes, and incorporates them in a new way. The trade paperback is composed of the…
Casino Royale (1967) – Val Guest, Ken Hughes, Robert Parrish, Joe McGrath, and John Huston
It’s been a long time since I watched Casino Royale, a spoof of 007 films, which had originally been developed as a serious adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel. When the Bond filmmakers, and Sean Connery didn’t want to be involved, the producers held onto the rights and went with a comedy instead. With five…
If Looks Could Kill (1991) – William Dear
Richard Grieco takes on the super-spy genre in this teen action comedy. There are nods to the established tropes of the genre, filled with lots of teen humor. Grieco is Michael Corben. An almost high school graduate. He’s receives an incomplete. The only impossible way for him to get the missing credits… join the French…
They Call Me Trinity (1970) – Enzo Barboni
They Call Me Trinity is a spaghetti western that riffs slightly on the classic Seven Samurai story, but is filled with lots of comedic moments, and is led by a pair of charming actors, Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer. It gently pokes fun at the tropes of the genre, plays to them, and enjoys them,…
Pirate Latitudes (2009) – Micheal Crichton
By the time this post appears on the blog I will have read this book about a month and a half ago while I was on a vacation in the Caribbean. Consequently, surrounded by an environment Crichton’s characters inhabit, the ride was an adventuresome delight. In the year 1665, Captain Charles Hunter is in Port…
Anyone But You (2023) – Will Gluck
Using Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing as a template (there are quotes and references littered throughout), Will Gluck directs this delightful, and sexy rom-com that stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney. Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney) have a lovely little meet-cute, and have an amazing first date. One that is brought to an abrupt end,…
Top Secret! (1984) – Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, and Jim Abrahams
It’s been a couple of decades since I last watched Top Secret! I remember from my time working in a video store that it was a perennial favourite of my friend Ted. And with the passing of Val Kilmer, I felt it was definitely time to take it in again. And wow, did I laugh….
Stargate SG-1 (2002) – Fail Safe, and The Warrior
SG-1 take on Deep Impact and Armageddon in Fail Safe. Written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, this episode was first broadcast on 5 April, 2002. A large asteroid is discovered in the solar system, it’s path is determined to be on a direct line for Earth which may cause an extinction level event. O’Neill…
Stargate SG-1 (2001) – Desperate Measures, and Wormhole X-Treme!
Carter (Amanda Tapping) is kidnapped by a medical team that has recovered a Goa’uld from the Russians, and O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), Daniel (Micheal Shanks) and Teal’c (Christopher Judge) are racing against the clock to find her. Desperate Measures was written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie and it first debuted on 7 September, 2001….
The Mind Reels 