The X-Files – Season One
Nov05

The X-Files – Season One

The X-Files Season One     I’m currently catching up with a couple of ‘90s shows that I inexplicably missed at the time.  It’s odd, because they are both very much my kind of thing:  one is David Lynch’s cult show Twin Peaks; the other is the item at hand, The X-Files, created by Chris Carter. Of course, I would occasionally see an episode here or there but this is the first time that I’ve had the opportunity (thanks, Anne!) to...

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The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
Oct22

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three   The late, great film critic Roger Ebert began his review of Sam Peckinpah’s 1983 film The Osterman Weekend in the following way: “I do not understand this movie.  I sat before the screen, quiet, attentive and alert, and gradually a certain anger began to stir inside me, because the movie was not holding up its side of the bargain.  It was making no sense. “I don’t demand that all movies...

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The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger
Oct06

The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger

The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger     “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” Isn’t that just an excellent tease of a beginning, beautiful in its simplicity?  Well, I think so.  It is the introduction to the The Gunslinger, which is the introduction to the long tale of The Dark Tower and is also in turn my introduction to Stephen King’s mighty epic, some 35 years in the making. Well, that’s not...

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Even a Man Who is Pure in Heart: The Wolf Man (1941)
Jan13

Even a Man Who is Pure in Heart: The Wolf Man (1941)

Even a Man Who is Pure in Heart: The Wolf Man (1941)   “A gentleman is simply a patient wolf.”                                                                         Lana Turner   Over the course of the ‘thirties—that Golden Age for we lovers of classic horror movies—Universal Studios had established a solid base for a Mythos that gave us several iconic creatures.  To this day they remain archetypes of what has become the traditional...

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A Steve McQueen Double: The Getaway & Papillon
Oct12

A Steve McQueen Double: The Getaway & Papillon

A Steve McQueen Double: The Getaway & Papillon     By the mid-seventies Steve McQueen had become, along with Clint Eastwood, the very embodiment of laid-back heroes and antiheroes.  He was a major star and in fact so efficient was he in the persona that he created for himself that it was only following his death from cancer at the age of 50 that film fans sat up, re-evaluated him and slowly let it dawn on them that he...

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I Need More Parts: May (2002)
Sep19

I Need More Parts: May (2002)

I Need More Parts: May (2002)     “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out…” —-Matthew 5:  29   Polly (talking about her pet cat):  ‘My landlady’s a real bitch.  I have to get rid of her.’ May:  ‘The landlady?’ Polly:  ‘No, dummy; the cat.’   In the years since May was first released, writer-director Lucky McKee’s debut film has crossed that invisible line and become a cult horror film classic.  And rightly...

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