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Spider-Noir -- a review

Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse (2018) was a fantastic superhero film that just happened to be an animated feature. Starring Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as Spider-Man, the film dealt with the multi-verse—which is a scientific theory that states there are a multitude of universes out there, each existing on its own plane of reality. This idea isn’t new to comics; I’ve read countless stories about superheroes dealing with denizens from other universes—and it’s also an idea that’s been used often in science fiction, like the In A Mirror Darkly episode of the original Star Trek . Recently, the MCU has used this theory in the last ten or so of its films. Into the Spider-Verse has Morales dealing with several different Spider-Men, and Spider-Women, from alternate Earths—one of whom is Spider-Man Noir, voiced by Nicolas Cage. The Spider (as he’s known in the TV series) is the Spider-Man from a 1930s era New York City. He’s a private eye named Ben Reilly (played on screen by ...
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Logan's Run -- a review

I first saw Logan’s Run in a New Jersey movie theater fifty years ago, when I was a boy. The theater, somewhere in the suburban wilds of the Garden State, was packed to the gills with people. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the movie back then—all I cared about that it was a brand new science fiction film, in an age when big budget SF properties on both TV and the big screen was very rare (of course, Star Wars , which would be released the very next year, would change all of that). Based on the 1967 novel of the same name by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, Logan’s Run is a futuristic tale about a man named Logan 5 (Michael York) who has a special job in a place filled with hedonistic leisure. Logan lives within the splendor of a Utopian society whose population dwells within large domes. The interior is presented as a vast, upscale shopping mall where its citizens want for nothing. Every need, every whim, and every fantasy is met. Of course, there’s a catc...
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Founder's Day -- a review

The town of Fairwood, located in New England, is undergoing an intense mayoral election, which is coming just a few days after it celebrates its 300th anniversary. Harold Faulkner (Jayce Bartok) is running for mayor against the incumbent Blair Gladwell (Amy Hargreaves), and the campaign is already a fierce one. Tensions among the townsfolk are so thick you could cut it with a knife. And somebody’s been busy cutting up the townsfolk with an actual knife, along with whatever other weapon that’s lying around. An assailant clad in a judge’s mask and robe is slaughtering people in the town, starting with Allison’s (Naomi Grace) girlfriend, Melissa (Olivia Nikkanen—The Society). Is he just another wacky slasher, or something much more? Founder’s Day is an almost halfway decent slasher movie that tries to be more than the usual slash fest, and it’s for that reason alone that I really wanted to like it. Naomi Grace ( Gridiron Grid ) is superb as Allison, who is hit with one traged...
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The Housemaid

The Housemaid (from 2025—not to be confused with the 2010 film of the same name) is based on the first book in a psychological thriller series by author Freida McFadden. Sydney Sweeney stars as Millie Calloway. a young woman down on her luck who’s struggling after being released on parole from jail. While living in her car, Millie applies for a live-in maid position with a wealthy family, Nina (Amanda Seyfried) & Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) Winchester, and their young daughter, Cecelia (Indiana Elle) and—to her delight—she gets the job. But, of course, once Millie starts working her maid gig, that’s when the real horror show begins. Despite acting like she was in Millie’s corner in the beginning, Nina deliberately creates problems for Millie that make her look bad. It turns out that Nina is a whack-job who’s served time at a mental facility for trying to kill her own daughter when she was a baby, and now Nina’s got Millie in her sights. If The Housemaid sounds like some ...
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Avatar: Fire & Ash -- a review

I was halfway through Avatar: Fire and Ash when a thought struck me: Did director James Cameron basically remake the Tarzan movies as a science fiction epic? I’m not suggesting that Cameron stole anything from Edgar Rice Burroughs. But the basic themes are present in both sagas. Young John Clayton is a nobleman who is left to fend for himself as a child in the jungles of Africa, only to become Tarzan, the Lord of the Jungle. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a disabled vet sent to Pandora, a moon in orbit of a Jupiter-like gas giant, where he becomes that planet’s version of the Lord of the Jungles, thanks to a technology that enables him to possess the body of a Na’vi, one of its native peoples. The Avatar saga is an otherworldly tale that chronicles the efforts of a low-tech society—the Na’vi—battling high-tech invaders—evil Earthlings—who try to possess the planet Pandora, much like how they have possessed the bodies of Na’vi clones. Although I wasn’t really a...
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Predator: Badlands -- a review

Film director Dan Trachtenberg, who revived the previously moribund Predator franchise with the surprise Hulu hit Prey , and then continued the Predator revival with the superb animated film Predator: Killer of Killers , continues to redefine the alien hunter/killers with his latest, Predator: Badlands . Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is a young Predator—whose race have been identified in this film for the first time as the Yautja—who has been considered the useless runt of his clan and is about to be killed because of it by his own father, until his brother saves him at the cost of his own life. Dek escapes in his brother’s spaceship to an alien world, where he must regain his status within his clan by bringing them the head of the Kalisk, a supreme apex predator who has never been defeated by any of the Yautja that were sent to hunt it. When he arrives (more like crash-lands) on the planet, Dek finds an unlikely ally in the form of Thia (Elle Fann...
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King Kong 1976 -- a review

When I was a kid, the original King Kong was a Thanksgiving Day staple in New York City. I visited my grandmother, who still lived in the City then, for turkey day. One of the local NYC channels would run King Kong , often with Mighty Joe Young , on the holiday. When the remake of King Kong , starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange, was released in 1976, I was taken to see it in the movie theater by my mother’s then-boyfriend. The three of us had plans to go Christmas shopping, but my mother had to work a night shift at her job in the city. It was her idea for us guys to see a movie to pass the time until she could meet up with us after work. It's hard to believe all of this took place almost fifty years ago now. I don’t remember the name of the NYC theater where I saw the ‘76 Kong , but it was very large and ornate, a real temple of the cinema. It was just too bad the movie didn’t match the majestic setting that I saw it in. I was eleven at the time, and was something o...
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