Passengers, a classic love story disguised as science fiction

Usually when I write about science fiction movies on this site, it is to complain about how bad they are. Today will be different. Today I am going to rave about Passengers, starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. While this film is categorized as science fiction, it is really a classic love story. The futuristic …

Star Trek Beyond leaves the Enterprise in smoldering ruins

Amy and I watched the latest Star Trek film tonight on disk from Netflix. I can say that this is easily the worst Star Trek film ever. It may be one of the worst big budget films ever. That the Enterprise is completely destroyed in the first 20 minutes serves as the perfect metaphor for …

The Revenant – my reactions

[Revised version.] I finally got to see The Revenant this weekend on a DVD disk from Netflix. There is much to admire about this movie. Great performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. Breathtaking imagery. And the scene in which DiCaprio's character, Hugh Glass, is mauled by a grizzly bear is stunning filmmaking. SPOILERS AHEAD All …

The Martian Rocks

[Updated - see second paragraph] Amy and I joined my good friend Lou this weekend to see The Martian. This isn't a review. Let me just say it is a wonderful movie, which I enjoyed greatly. What this post is about is a quick comparison between The Martian and last year's science fiction film Interstellar. …

Top 10 Holiday Movies

I stumbled upon this feature at boston.com listing the 50 best holiday movies. As you'll see if you peruse the films on their list, picking the top 50 holiday movies of all time is like selecting the top dozen three stooges. Expanding some lists beyond a certain point just doesn't make sense. Home Alone 2? …

Screen view: the latest Star Trek

With my afternoon free yesterday, I decided to attend the early matinee showing of Star Trek: Into Darkness, the second installment of J.J. Abrams re-boot of the science fiction classic. The last film I saw at the theater was Prometheus about a year ago. I guess I like to see big-budget science fiction films on …

We’ll see you at the movies! Rest in peace Roger Ebert.

Just yesterday I read the most recent posting by Roger Ebert on his web site. He titled this post "A leave of presence." In it he listed all the things that he was planning to do in the coming months. Oh, and by the way, he disclosed that his cancer had returned, so he was …

Screen view: Prometheus

I took a day off from work yesterday to attend to some other business. But I had the afternoon to myself, so I decided to go to our local theater to see Prometheus, the new film by Ridley Scott and kinda prequel to his classic work, Alien. I went in with high expectations due to …

Screen view: Camelot

Over the course of the past two nights I watched the ten episodes of Camelot, the Starz Network's version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I guess I'm like most people, having a fondness for this epic story, which is one of the foundation myths of western civilization. Nevertheless I'm open …

Screen View: True Grit

I was finally able to see the remake of True Grit via a Netflix DVD. I am glad that two of our more popular and well-regarded filmmakers, Joel and Ethan Coen, turned their attention to the western. This has been a sadly overlooked movie genre of the last 30 years. It is strange, however, that they …