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Being in the Room and Witnessing Creativity
I love to know how things are made. It’s one of the main reasons why I buy the DVDs of my favorite movies—other than, you know, ownership—because there are behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews with the creators. I think this started back in the Star Wars days of the 1970s when I would read all about how George Lucas and company created the movie that changed the trajectory of so many lives. I loved how they raided model shops to create the Death Star and used miniatures, models, and matte paintings to create the galaxy far, far away. How many of us picked up our own cameras to make our own…
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The 1970s Come Alive in the Highly Entertaining Lowdown Road
Look at that cover. Hard Case Crime might be the only publisher in this century who remembers how great painted covers used to be. This cover looks like a long-lost book you’d have found on the paperback spinner rack at the 7-Eleven in 1975 as you clutched a Slurpee in your hand, your favorite hero painted on the white, plastic cup. Or its the novelization to a 1970s movie you’d see at the drive-in. The cover was pretty much all I needed to see to know this was a book I wanted to read. The plot was just icing on the cake. Let me see if I can boil it…
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The Saturday Night Ghost Club and the Nature of Memory
Sometimes the perfect arrives at the best possible time. I love summer. I love the heat (yeah, really). I love rolling down the windows of my car and blasting loud music (well, I do that all year round…). I love the movies that are associated with summer.But most of all, I love the looser vibe. By the end of summer, however, while I may not be ready to shift into an autumnal mindset, it approaches nonetheless. I always take stock of seasons as they end, and I was in that mood during the last week of summer 2023 as I started to listen to Craig Davidson’s Saturday Night Ghost Club.…
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The Great “Friends” Rewatch: How Does It Hold Up?
Like many a GenX-er, I watched “Friends” in real time and had multiple discussions as to which Friend we were most like. Also like many folks my age, I rewatched one of the quintessential 1990s sitcoms because my son wanted to see it. So, how does it hold up? The Early Years We started the show in February 2022 via HBOMax, watching an episode a night over dinner. My son continued watching after he moved out of the house last July. He completed the show’s run this past February. My wife and I finished that last episode this past weekend. Ten years of “Friends” condensed down to a year and…
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Is It Really That Bad? A Reevaluation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls
Let’s not bury the lead: given the five Indiana Jones films, Crystal Skulls still ranks last. But a “bad” Indiana Jones movie is still better than a lot of other films. And you know what? It’s not as bad as you remember. The Connection With the Dial of Destiny When it came time to write the final Indy film, the screenwriters could go one of two ways: acknowledge the events of Crystal Skull or retcon them. Thankfully for all of us, they took the former route. And the end results in the new movie are ultimately quite moving. In fact, there is one scene in the new movie that reminds…
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A Brooding, Darker Hero: A Review of Indiana Jones and the Philosopher’s Stone
Leading up to the final Indiana Jones movie, The Dial of Destiny, I knew I would be in an Indiana Jones mood. As a result, I reached back to the 1990s and the novels written by a trio of writers: Rob MacGregor, Martin Caidin, and Max McCoy. I had read the first novel, The Peril at Delphi, back when it was released in 1991. But that Indy was younger and, for whatever reason, I kept buying the books but not reading them. After a cursory bit of research in 2023, I discovered that McCoy was hired to write stories more like the Indy we meet in the original trilogy and…
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Growing Up and Older With Indiana Jones: A Dial of Destiny Review
Indiana Jones and the Dial of destiny is a chance to reconnect with an old friend for one last adventure before we have to say good-bye. In that framework, the new film works quite well.
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I Finally Watched Masters of the Universe: Revelation
By the power of geekdom, how can folks not like Masters of the Universe: Revelation? I’m not sure, because it is an epic, summer blockbuster movie in five episodes with one massive cliffhanger. My (Lack of) Background with MOTU I have none. Zero. While showrunner, Kevin Smith, and I are both from Generation X, I’m two years older than he is. As such, back in 1983 when the original cartoon debuted, I had just aged out of the target audience for He-Man and his toy line. I was a Star Wars kid who owned a ton of those toys, but I was just not interested in MOTU. Even when Return…