CategoryFilm and TV

Back when I slogged through IMDB’s list of “sci-fi” film and TV to pick out my top 25 of the past 25 years, I noticed some stuff with high ratings that I hadn’t seen. Netflix ahoy! Just recently I finished one of these shows, Space: Above and Beyond. It didn’t take too long, because like some other worthies it was prematurely cancelled. S:AAB (as it’s abbreviated by fans) ran from 1995-1996 on...

This movie is a fascinating mess. It’s about a black television producer, Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans), who is put on the spot by his obnoxious white boss (Michael Rapaport) to come up with a hit show. In a sort of “screw you, go ahead and fire me” gesture, he develops an idea for a modern-day minstrel show, complete with watermelon patches and characters in blackface who can’t resist...

I just watched the 1979 animated movie Watership Down, based on the book by Richard Adams. When I was in my teens I read the novel somewhere between 10 and 15 times. It’s in my bones in a way that only, maybe, The Lord of the Rings can rival. Now that I think of it, these books might have appealed to me in similar ways. They’re long, and lumpy, and full of detail and landscape...

Opening this month — on my birthday, even! — is The Simpsons Movie. I’ve never considered myself a super fan of The Simpsons. I don’t go out of my way to watch it, or try to get other people to watch it. Yet I have seen a lot of it over the years and often find it to be hilarious. Mr. Burns is one of my favorite cartoon characters ever; I’ve had a little paper cut...

Entertainment Weekly made a splash lately by featuring a list of “The Sci-Fi 25: The Best Movies and TV from the Past 25 Years.” I thought it was a decent list, despite its inclusion of several weird items like Total Recall and Quantum Leap. No one is ever going to agree on all the items in a list like this, particularly if they are ranked in order of preference. The fact that I...

Were the movie and book enough? Hell, no! In the past couple of weeks I watched TWO more screen adaptations of Pride & Prejudice. The first was the five hour BBC miniseries that came out in 1995. The rapturous testimony of various friends as well the general opinion floating around AustenBlog had made it clear to me that in any RottenTomatoes style smackdown, this version would defeat the...

I was just reminded that Alan Tudyk (who played Wash in Firefly) is appearing in a movie coming out this summer that also stars… Matthew Macfadyen of Pride & Prejudice. It’s called Death at a Funeral, and based on this trailer, looks pretty damn funny.

Earlier this week the appointed time arrived, and Tim Minear’s new TV show Drive premiered. (I previously commented about it here.) Was it any good? Well… The premise is undeniably absurd, not only from a real world perspective, but also in the context of the show itself. Most of the characters don’t seem to have even wondered who the organizers of the race might be, what their...