Re-making Star Wars?Everything old is new again, and there are no sacred cows. Those are precepts upon which the current film industry is built. If it has been made, it's fair game for a re-make. It's not hard to explain Hollywood's fetish for re-...
It has been noted that Star Trek set a new first-weekend record for gross receipts in IMAX theaters. This should come as no surprise, since the number of "IMAX" venues has increased dramatically during the past year. This is the result of ...
A couple of months ago, I wrote a column providing a superficial analysis of the rhythm of the 2009 box office. More than one reader questioned why the revenue accrued by any motion picture should be of interest to movie-goers. After all, there is ...
Hardly a day passed in 1984 without someone mentioning George Orwell's novel. For me, the year was less about whether we were inching nearer to a society monitored by Big Brother than of the freedoms afforded by turning 17. Beginning September 25, ...
June 9, 1989 should have been a special day, or at least a more special one than it was. My life was in flux at the time. I had just completed four years of undergraduate study and had entered the working force (my new place of employment would be ...
"Beyond the darkness, beyond the human evolution, is Khan - a genetically superior tyrant. Exiled to a barren planet, banished by a starship commander he is destined to destroy, left for dead, he has survived."With those words, Star Trek II: The ...
Backslider (n): One who slides back or falls away; one who abandons gradually the faith and practice of a religion that has been professed.When it comes to Star Trek, I must admit to being a backslider. Some might think the use of a term normally ...
Note: This should not be misconstrued as a plea for help. I'm far too anal to cede control of any part of my main website to someone else. These are merely reflections about how much more is involved in the management side of running the site than ...
In general, it is not my way to feel great sorrow when someone dies with whom I do not have a personal relationship. A case in point: movie actors. With Heath Ledger and Natasha Richardson, there was a sense of shock and sympathetic sadness for ...
Let me start with a disclaimer: In no way do I condone or support the illegal downloading of copies of the Wolverine work print. Although I am fully cognizant of where and how to download it, I have not done so nor will I do so in the future. ...
In the northern hemisphere, when does spring begin? Is it based on what the groundhog decrees? Is it when the first robin shows off its red breast? Is it the day of the vernal equinox? Is it when the Easter Bunny hops from house-to-house doing ...
In Oliver Stone's Wall Street, Gordon Gecko famously said, "Greed is Good." It's a mantra we in the United States have been living by for the better part of three decades, and it's part of the reason the current recession is as deep as it is. ...
For me, 1983 was an "off" year as far as movies were concerned. The reason? No new Star Trek films. In fact, when I think of that year, the first thing that comes to mind is the snowstorm of February 11, which dumped nearly two feet on Southern ...
As has been widely reported, movie theater attendance is up about 10% in 2009 over a similar period in early 2008. A paradoxical aspect of this stat is that the spike in attendance comes at a time when excitement about films is at a low ebb. People...
SPOILERS!!! For the final episode of Battlestar GalacticaFor about five years, on-and-off as a result of the Sci Fi Channel's irregular first run schedule (the cable network converted four seasons into the equivalent of six by breaking two of them - ...
It's all about the green - could there be a better subject for today?I recently read an article in which the author referred to the early 2009 box office as "inexplicable." I must challenge that description. Confusing? Perhaps. Surprising? ...
After seeing Coraline, I was hopeful that the hype emerging from the major studios about 3-D being the "wave of the future" might have a basis in reality. Granted, 3-D wasn't used perfectly in Coraline, but it seemed to be at best an enhancement and...