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'Salem's Lot -- a review

“You’ll enjoy Mr. Barlow. And he’ll enjoy you.” --Richard Straker (James Mason) from ‘Salem’s Lot 1979 ‘Salem’s Lot is one of my favorite novels by Stephen King. ‘Salem’s Lot is the locals’ name for their town, known officially as Jerusalem’s Lot, in Maine. King’s book describes the insidious and terrifying invasion of ’Salem’s Lot by vampires, led by Richard Straker and Kurt Barlow, two outsiders who have come to the town to disingenuously open an antiques store. They also bought the Martsen House, a creepy old abandoned mansion that sits overlooking the town, to serve as their home. Writer Ben Mears, who suffered a traumatic event in the Marsten House as a boy, returns to ’Salem’s Lot for research for his latest novel, only to find himself--along with several others--battling for the very souls of its townspeople. With this masterful book, only his second after Carrie, Stephen King updated the vampire myth to the then-modern day. Instead of lurking
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Kingdom of POTA -- a review

I had always been a huge fan of the Planet of the Apes movies, from the moment my father took me to see Beneath the Planet of the Apes at the theater when I was very young. Beneath was the sequel to the original, seminal POTA , and it was a horror show dealing with subterranean humans who peeled off their faces to better worship their “God,” which was a super thermonuclear bomb. Just a toddler at the time, I fondly remembered my father abruptly pulling me into a tight hug every so often in the theater, and loving it then. But I didn’t realize, until much later, that my dad was actually making sure that I wasn’t staring at the screen whenever some of the still-disturbing images in Beneath occurred. I was greatly impressed with the smartly done POTA remakes that were recently released, starting with Rise of the Planet of the Apes , and so I looked forward to seeing the latest, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes , and I wasn’t disappointed. Taking place s
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3 Horror Film Reviews (no waiting)

Halloween is coming. We’re still in the throes of summer right now, but not for long. It’s already getting cooler, and I’m seeing some slight color in the trees. I thought I’d give an early welcome to my favorite holiday by watching three new horror films that were released this year. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire -- I really enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife for two reasons: the introduction of a new, younger cast to the franchise, and the fact that it takes place in the completely different setting of Oklahoma. Frozen Empire takes place back in New York City, eliminating the freshness of having the story be in a new place, and the new cast is basically reduced to being guest stars. There are just too many people, here. The old Ghostbusters are shoehorned into the story, along with new characters who have been introduced in Frozen Empire. This doesn’t give the new cast much room to shine. And the nostalgia factor is getting very annoying; we have to see Slim
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Styrofoam Space Stations

I've been building models since I was very young, and when I was a kid, I would think about building a space station for my Star Trek model ships, using the Styrofoam packing pieces that came with various items. I tried building a space dock for one of my ships by gluing several Styrofoam pieces together, but I was stymied when the model glue literally started eating the Styrofoam. p> Recently, I wound up with some Styrofoam pieces after buying a new printer. I used them as a temporary space dock around one of my Star Trek ship models. Not bad. I had a good idea as a kid. I just need to work on the execution without the Styrofoam.
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The Primevals

I first heard of The Primevals when I was a kid. Back in the day, which was the 1970s, I received all of my movie news from magazines, which was where I first discovered the work in progress fantasy film that was being directed by special effects master David Allen. Using stop motion animation, a technique that was pioneered by Willis Harold O'Brien, Allen created a story of an expedition that travels to Nepal after an incident where a Yeti had been killed during a confrontation with a group of Sherpa. Having received the body of the Yeti (and it was promptly put on display in their museum), this expedition, led by Claire Collier (Juliet Mills, the daughter of actor John Mills, and the sister of Haley Mills), wants to see if they can find more Yeti and perhaps save them from extinction. Hiring a safari guide with the super heroic name of Rondo Montana (!!!), they go looking for more Yeti in the Himalayas, only to find a lost civilization. Don’t you hat
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Dune Parts 1&2 -- a review

Forty years ago, I saw DUNE in the theater with my father, who was a huge fan of the Frank Herbert book that the film was based on. The 1984 version of DUNE was directed by David Lynch, a surrealist filmmaker who was a true cinematic visionary, and I--a nineteen year old science fiction fanatic--was really looking forward to seeing what would be a new universe for me. My father, who had read all of the Frank Herbert Dune novels up to that point, was simply looking forward to seeing his all-time favorite SF novel brought to life on the big screen. And then we saw the damned movie. To say that the David Lynch version of DUNE was a disappointment was putting it mildly. The movie was a cringe-worthy affair with plenty of over the top performances, shoddy special effects, and plot holes so large you could ride a sand worm through them. I remember my father telling me, after we came out of the theater, to just read the book. “The book is so goo
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The Holdovers -- a review

It’s always a joy to watch someone who’s a master at their work, whether it’s a musician, an artist, or an actor. Most great actors make it look easy--which is not to say that I think acting is an easy job. I know from personal experience that acting is very hard. It’s a skill that the talented make look very easy, and one of the most talented actors working today is Paul Giamatti. If you’ve watched some movies over the past few years, chances are very good that you’ve already seen Paul Giamatti. He was the jittery earthquake expert in San Andreas , the sympathetic police chief in The Illusionist , and as the titular John Adams (a part that got him the Emmy and a Golden Globe) in the 2008 HBO series of the same name. Recently, I saw Paul Giamatti in the superb The Holdovers , a movie that I wasn’t planning on writing up, but I kept thinking about it--and all of its characters--long after I saw it. In The Holdovers , Giamatti plays Paul H
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