*****SIMIAN SPOILERS!***** I’ve been a fan of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise for as long as I can remember. In fact, the original “Planet of the Apes” movies (1968-1973) were my first real sci-fi movie addictions before “Star Wars” came along. And while I wasn’t terribly thrilled with Tim Burton’s 2001’s reboot (save for…
Roger Corman (1926-2024); the B-movie filmmaker and mentor who changed movies forever…
I woke up this morning to the sad news that longtime producer/director/mentor Roger Corman had passed away at age 98, and everything I’d planned to write later on today immediately went on the back burner. While it is very hard to sum up such an incredible life and career, here goes… Corman began his career…
Retro-Musings: Remembering the 1979 “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” feature film…
******DRACONIA-SIZED SPOILERS!****** I did a column on 1979’s “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” TV series (1979-1981) five years ago for the series’ 40th anniversary, which included a quick synopsis of the film. The TV version of the movie, retitled “Awakening” for the series, included several scenes shot specifically for the TV version that were…
The Force Awaits: The anticipation of seeing “Star Wars”…
*****POSSIBLE STAR DESTROYER-SIZE SPOILERS***** Anticipation Back in the late 1970s, I saw “Star Wars” multiple times theatrically. This was back in those dark, primitive days before we watched movies on our phones and tablets three months or less after their theatrical runs. In those days, we then-young, future-oldsters learned the often difficult art of… But,…
Between HAL 9000 and Skynet, there was “Colossus: The Forbin Project” (1970)…
******MAINFRAME-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Two years after the homicidal HAL 9000 made its debut in “2001: A Space Odyssey” and 14 years before Skynet is mentioned in “The Terminator,” there was a lesser known but equally dangerous supercomputer-based artificial intelligence known as “Colossus: The Forbin Project” (1970). Based on the book “Colossus” by Dennis Feltham Jones (1918-1981),…
Defrosting “Iceman” (1984) after forty years…
******GLACIER-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Australian director Fred Schepisi is well known for dramas (“Six Degrees of Separation,” “The Russia House”), and a few comedies (“Roxanne”), but my favorite film of his was a little-known science fiction movie from 1984 shot in and around the snowy wilderness of British Columbia called “Iceman.” The movie stars American actors Timothy Hutton,…
Retro-Musings: Mario Bava’s “Planet of the Vampires” (1965) is a clunky yet stylish precursor to “ALIEN”…
******SPACESHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** In 1965, famed gothic horror filmmaker Mario Bava (1914-1980)—director of movies such as “Black Sunday,” “Blood and Black Lace,” and “Black Sabbath”—made a rare foray into science fiction. While “Planet of the Vampires” (original Italian title, “Terrore nello Spazio”) isn’t representative of Bava’s best work, it’s among his most visually creative, influencing generations…
“I.S.S.” (2023) presents a darker, more sobering kind of ‘star wars’…
*****SPACE STATION-SIZED SPOILERS!***** Shot on a shoestring budget of $13.8 million (the catering budget of an average Marvel movie these days), 2023’s “I.S.S.” was released with nary a notice in the US back in January, making very little in its domestic run, despite a dark and intriguing trailer that made me curious enough to plunk…
“The Abyss” finally surfaces on 4K Blu-Ray, and it was worth the wait…
*****SUBMERGED SPOILERS!***** Several years ago, I wrote a deep-dive review (the first of several puns to come) for James Cameron’s “The Abyss” (1989 & 1993 Director’s Cut), and in that review, I made a sincere wish for the film to make the transition to Blu-Ray. Well, after an intervening “Avatar” sequel that no one asked…
The plug is (sadly) pulled on the new “Quantum Leap” (2022-2024)…
*****SPACETIME SPOILERS!***** The Reboot With its second season ending on an intriguing cliffhanger, NBC has made the decision not to renew its previously on-the-bubble TV series “Quantum Leap” (QL), which was a soft-reboot/sequel to the original series (1989-1993), featuring a new cast who continue in the time-traveling footsteps of Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) and…
Star Trek: Discovery’s 5th and final season debuts, with “Red Directive” and “Under the Twin Moons”…
*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!****** Last weekend, I saw a sneak preview of the first part of Star Trek: Discovery’s 5th and final season’s two-part premiere, “Red Directive.” Though I was under an unofficial nondisclosure agreement with the entire audience not to reveal spoilers before the debut, I am no longer under that constraint, so here goes. Before…
WonderCon 2024 in Anaheim was a weekend of fantasy and imagination spent ‘under the weather’…
Welcome Back to WonderCon! The title of this column is both literal and metaphoric. The usually sunny spring weather of Southern California gave way to two days of near-nonstop rain, which forced a few last-minute changes to this year’s WonderCon 2024 in Anaheim (right across the road from Disneyland). The metaphoric aspect refers to my…