By:
On:
In: Fandom, Life, On Memories, On Movies
Tagged: , , , ,

Today marks the 47th anniversary of the release of George Lucas’s “little space movie”, which wasn’t even 20th Century Fox’s projected “Big Movie” of that year. Little did the world know what was about to happen…and certainly a five-year-old kid in LaCrosse, Wisconsin had no idea how his world was about to be shaped forever. I wrote this post in 2017 for the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, and I wouldn’t change anything. I’ll probably write something completely new for the 50th, though…my God, we’re almost at fifty years of Star Wars…. I didn’t see Star Wars on opening day. In truthDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: On Movies, Passages
Tagged: , , ,

Filmmaker Roger Corman died the other day. It was always easy to poke fun at Corman’s films, but he strove to make them as good as he could, and on his own terms. Corman’s studio was not only prolific but also a starting point for many filmmakers who later went on to great careers of their own. Below is the text of a post I wrote a number of years ago, praising my favorite Corman film, the 1980 obviously-STAR WARS-inspired “Magnificent Seven In Space” flick, Battle Beyond the Stars. I stand by every word of this. Is the movie good? Yes,Down the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Fandom, On Movies, On Teevee
Tagged: , , ,

I first wrote this on the old blog six years ago, on the 50th anniversary of STAR TREK’s first airing. Today that anniversary rolls around again, now the 56th, and all these words still apply, so here they are! And you people, you’re all astronauts on…some kind of star trek? –Zefram Cochrane, Star Trek First Contact Wow. Star Trek made its official US debut fifty years ago today. That’s…amazing. (The show aired for the first time anywhere on September 6, 1966, in Canada.) Star Trek came and went and was already in syndication when I was born, but my sisterDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , ,

 A couple weeks ago, we finished watching Season Two of The Mandalorian, so here are my thoughts on the show, including thoughts on Season One. None of this is in any particular order. In fact, it’s pretty damned random, because that’s how I blog. This is the way. (Note: I know that his name is actually “Din Djarin”, but I’m going to refer to him as either “The Mandalorian” or “Mando”, as he is dubbed by the Carl Weathers character.) ITEM the ZEROTH: OK, before I begin talking specifically about The Mandalorian, I have to once again complain about howDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , , ,

 A few more books I’ve read of late: ::  I can’t possibly keep up with the eternal flood of new books that is Star Wars publishing, but I do try to pick and choose the ones that sound good or come with good referrals. Last year, Lucasfilm announced a new project in their Star Wars publishing empire: a new series within the larger overall tale that focuses on life in our favorite galaxy far, far away two hundred years before the rise of the Sith, the fall of the Republic, and the arrival on the scene of a couple generations of Skywalkers.Down the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , ,

OK, so now that I’m done cranking out the words every day in a final push to complete a novel draft, what should we talk about? Why…how about the teaser trailer to Star Wars Episode IX that dropped a few weeks ago? If you haven’t seen it, here it is: As with all teasers, there’s simultaneously a lot to unpack there and…there’s nothing to unpack there. Teaser trailers are designed to tantalize in any of a hundred different ways, and since this thing showed up online during the Star Wars Celebration fan festival, the Interwebs have been all a-tizzy asDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , ,

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8 part 9 So here we are, at long last: the last installment of my longform review of The Last Jedi! Huzzah!! We have now reached the “Random Observations and Thoughts” part of the review, so here’s a bunch of stuff in no particular order or with any particular logical through-line. Here we go: ::  The Last Jedi may well be the most beautiful Star Wars film ever made. This is a series that has always amazed on the visual level, but this movie goes above andDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , ,

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8 Ye Gods, there’s a lot of failure in this movie, on all sides. Nearly everybody fails in this movie at least once. I don’t recall a story so completely full of capital-F FAIL in quite some time. Let’s take a photographic tour of all the FAIL in The Last Jedi!!! Seriously, that is a lot of screwing up, across the board. What gives? For me, all the failure in TLJ is one of the most interesting things about its story. Over the course of the movieDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , ,

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 Hey! Hey guys! If Kylo gets together with a bunch of his buddies, is that a Ren-fest? OK, fine. But let’s talk about Kylo Ren anyway. I keep getting this feeling in these two movies that Kylo Ren should be a really interesting character. Adam Driver gives it his all, and he almost single-handedly elevates the character, but the problem with Kylo Ren that TFA had is the same one that TLJ continues. The basics just aren’t there, and TLJ doesn’t really do much to correct the issue likeDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: , , , ,

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 If the main heroes were underdrawn in TFA, the villains were doubly so. The First Order’s origins were completely unexplained, as was its power differential: was it the Empire reborn, or was it some insurgent effort? How did it have the means to build a superweapon over twice as large and powerful as either Death Star, which the Galactic Empire could only manage to build twice? How was the First Order managing to stockpile its armies with troopers kidnapped apparently as kids, and yet managing to do thisDown the rabbit hole….