I'd Rather Be At The Movies: 2023 In Review

If you had told me a year ago that the movie I would watch most frequently this year would be White Christmas (1954), I would have said you were crazy, and you would have been, but here we are.   That I actually enjoyed it would have been a real I really would have thought that I would have been spending a good part of June on an endless cycle of The Flash, but instead I spent most of that month marveling that the state of Oklahoma has an economy entirely dependent on the energy industry, but still struggle to keep the lights on*.

Now, I could have seen White Christmas a lot more after helping to host nine screenings of the film at Circle Cinema, but that’s been the strange new delight of the year. I’ve not only been spending a lot more time there as my new theater of choice, but I also started volunteering at the theater, and vocationally there may not be a better joy than being an usher. Taking out their trash is a close second. Writing is still up there. And all of it wouldn’t even have occurred to me one year ago.

I did this not for Bing Crosby, or Irving Berlin, or even for Jesus Christ. I do it for my true savior, the moving picture and the smell of popcorn.

That’s what I hope for in 2024. That when I come back down to write the next end-of-year blog, the big theme of the year is something that hasn’t even occurred to me yet. I hope that for you as well. Let’s have a year of gently pleasant surprises if we can swing it.

Sure, there are a few stumbling blocks to that one. I have a very particular preference for how the presidential election should go, but there’s not a whole hell of a lot to be done about that from right here and now. Also, also: I’ll be turning 40. Not a lot I can do about that one, either.

Anywho, some stuff from the year: I managed to write 237,461 words. It didn’t feel like I was writing more than last year, but here we are. Once I can get this whole grad school monkey off my back, who knows how much I can get done?

I hesitated to make a top-five movies list last year, but now I feel like some movies need to be defended a little bit. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sat on the list for a while, I mentioned in my review of the film that I had a hard time not imagining it on the list this year, and even was on the list during the Beyond the Cabin in the Woods end-of-the-year episode, but then number 3 finished the year out strong.

1. Killers of the Flower Moon

2. Barbie

3. Godzilla Minus One

4. Tetris

5. Oppenheimer

You’ll notice The Flash didn’t make the list and I don’t want to talk about that anymore. I’m just as surprised as you are that Tetris was as good as it was.

Finally, I come to my reading list for the year. Wound up way short of last year’s miracle 100-book run, but I still hit my goal. (a) indicates an audiobook or books Lora might have read to me, because yes it does count, and (c) indicates a graphic novel, because, sure, they count too. Deal with it.

1. Ego and Other Tails (c)

2. Jacked (a)

3. A Beautiful Mind (a)

4. Batman: The Man Who Laughs (c)

5. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (a)

6. Bug Hunt (a)

7. Emissary - Novelization

8. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (a)

9. The Thin Man (a)

10. Cinema Speculation

11. The Lego Story (a)

12. Save the Cat (a)

13. Life, the Universe, and Everything (a)

14. Relics

15. So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish (a)

16. Interview with the Vampire

17. Mostly Harmless (a)

18. Zorro, Year One (c)

19. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (a)

20. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1 (a)

21. The Illyrian Enigma (c)

22. Twenty-six Seconds (a)

23. Good Omens (a)

24. American Prometheus (a)

25. The Last Ronin (c)

26. The Bat-Man of Gotham (c)

27. The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Vol. 1

28. Star Trek: Resurgence (c)

29. The High Country (a)

30. The Complete Frank Miller Robocop Omnibus (c)

31. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Book Store (a)

32. Flashpoint (c)

33. Batman 89 (c)

34. Ayoade on Ayoade (a)

35. 1984

36. This is a Book

37. The Death of Superman (c)

38. On 1984

39. 11-22-63 (a)

40. Halloween ‘78 (novelization)

41. A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length

42. The Last Action Heroes (a)

43. Essentials of Children’s Literature

44. The Primate Directive (c)

45. Avid Reader (a)

46. The Exorcist

47. Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed (a)

48. Rosemary’s Baby

49. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

50. Killers of the Flower Moon (a)

51. The Andromeda Strain (a)

52. Front Desk

53. Misery

54. Mister Orange

55. The Ocean at the End of the Lane (a)

56. Knights of the Kitchen Table

57. The Girl Who Drank The Moon

58. The Not-So-Jolly Roger

59. Black Brother, Black Brother

60. A Stitch in Time (a)

61. Where The Sidewalk Ends

62. MMPR, Vol. 1 (c)

63. Opposable Thumbs (a)

64. Superman ‘78 Vol. 1 (c)

65. A Wrinkle in Time (a)

66. The Wells Bequest (a)

67. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (a)

68. Dog Of War (c)

69. Godshock (c)

70. The Giggle

71. Legion (a)

72. An Unearthly Child

73. The Monster’s Bones (a)

*Also, Clooney. That footnote can fit almost anywhere in this blog, now that I think about it.

The Year of Three Batmen, Deferred: 2022 in Review

I’d be lying to say this wasn’t a trying year. I could go on and on but let’s just say we finally got COVID after bobbing and weaving for over two years, and then Warner Bros. decided to personally hurt me by canceling Batgirl, all within a couple of weeks. But let’s not dwell on that, if for no other reason than when was the last time any of us had a year that wasn’t trying.

There was good stuff to look to for the year as well. While I’ve spent the last couple of months giving my metabolism a bit of a reset (I’m off my diet, that’s what I’m trying to say), I can still fit into skinny pants, and if that’s not a win, then I don’t know what is. (I may, in fact, not know what winning is.) Burnout hovered over me like a rainstorm over Truman Burbank, but I played through. Grad school proceeds apace, with grades which would leave a younger me thinking I had been replaced by some kind of pod person. I’ve even managed to find a career path amidst this crazy exercise which is more than a little bit impractical, and really the kind of thing I should have been chasing down decades* ago.

Lora, Eris, Z, and I have continued our journey through the final frontier on The Holodeck is Broken, and we’ve even tweaked the format a little bit, so we’re not obligated to do the show for the next eighteen years. Eris and I did a complete run of Friendibals from beginning to end, from one Red Dragon to… the last time they did a version of Red Dragon. And the strangest, most surprising development in the podcast world is that not only after a two-year hiatus did I rejoin Donna and Kenzi on Beyond the Cabin in the Woods, but the show made its new home here on the site.

I published The Once and Future Orson Welles. Which, given the years full of false starts on that one, is a thoroughly weird reality in which to live. I started a new novel, got about 32,000 words into a draft before I realized it was a) boring, b) convoluted, and c) entirely too derivative of The Last Starfighter (1984) for its own good. It was only after I realized that Starfighter thing that I decided to throw in the towel. C’es la vie. I’m now about 9000 words into another novel, and its coming together nicely. Considering how long TOAFOW took, I’d definitely jinx myself if I tried to explain it any further. All in all, I wrote 213,341 words this year, a record to be sure, even if most of those words are destined to wither on the vine of OU’s Canvas servers.

Plus, I spent most of the summer watching old episodes of Siskel & Ebert, and enjoying it far more than I should have had any right to.

I usually hate best-of lists at the end of the year (although watching Gene and Roger duke it out over their annual lists remains a delight), but here are, in no particular order my top five favorite new movies of the year.

1. Everything Everywhere All At Once

2. Prey

3. The Fabelmans

4. The Batman

5. Nope

Again, in no particular order, save for the fact that EEAAO takes the number one spot. It was hard to whittle it down that far. Admitting that movie like Confess, Fletch or even Halloween Ends weren’t quite top five material. It also ignores the fact that on New Year’s Eve I watched Glass Onion, loved it, and haven’t yet written a review of it. I had half a mind for a moment to rank every new movie I saw this year, but the prospect threatened to bring me to the brink of madness. But, yes Firestarter—for all its improvement over the original—would have been dead last.

And, finally, we come to the books I’ve read this year. I finally did it, getting to 100 books read for the entire year (I got so close in 2021). Yes, some of them (c) are comic books, ahem, graphic novels. Yes, (several) some of them are (a) are audio books, or books Lora read to me. Yes, some (several) of them are based on media franchises with either the word “Star” in them.  How I managed to finish the novelizations for both Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends this year, I’ll never know.

1. Raise the Dawn

2. Managerial Leadership for Librarians

3. Executive Orders (a)

4. All About Me (a)

5. Halloween Kills (novelization)

6. Legends of the Dark Knight Vol. 1 (c)

7. Superman 78 (c)

8. All the King's Men (a)

9. Live and Let Die

10. The Last Picture Show

11. The Passage of Power (a)

12. The Once and Future Orson Welles

13. Jim Henson - The Biography (a)

14. Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Dracula (c)

15. Silence of the Lambs

16. Imzadi

17. Sphere (a)

18. Revenant (a)

19. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (a)

20. Batgirl Vol. 1 The Darkest Reflection (c)

21. Street Gang (a)

22. Living Memory (a)

23. Twice Upon A Time (a)

24. The Untold Legend of the Batman (c)

25. The Outsiders

26. The Path to Power (a)

27. Macbeth

28. Hannibal

29. Moonshot (a)

30. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli (a)

31. 2001: A Space Odyssey

32. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (a)

33. Brinksmanship

34. The Dark Side of Genius (a)

35. The Organization of Information

36. The Hunger Games (a)

37. Hocus Pocus (a)

38. Hannibal Rising

39. First Blood (a)

40. Moonraker (a)

41. Bubba Ho-Tep

42. Catching Fire (a)

43. Four Screenplays

44. Means of Ascent (a)

45. Diamonds are Forever (a)

46. Batman: The Golden Age, Vol. 1 (c)

47. The Catcher in the Rye

48. 2010: Odyssey Two

49. The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite (c)

50. The Godfather (a)

51. Batgirl - Vol. 2 (c)

52. Life Itself (a)

53. Dragon's Honor

54. Batman 1989 Comic Adaptation (c)

55. Batman Returns (c)

56. Batman '89 (c)

57. Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol 3 (c)

58. Mockingjay (a)

59. From Russia With Love

60. DS9: Too Long a Sacrifice (c)

61. Looking for Information

62. Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management

63. Your Movie Sucks

64. Gone With The Wind (a)

65. Confess, Fletch (a)

66. FADE IN: The Making of Star Trek Insurrection

67. Ayoade on Ayoade (a)

68. Captain Proton: Defender of Earth

69. Dr. No (a)

70. Believe Me (a)

71. The Lost World

72. A Man on the Moon (a)

73. Timequake (a)

74. Second Self (a)

75. Ready Player One (a)

76. Directed by James Burrows (a)

77. Fletch (a)

78. I Must Say (a)

79. The Persistence of Memory

80. Queen of the World (a)

81. The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History (a)

82. Star Trek Picard - Stargazer (c)

83. Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin (a)

84. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (a)

85. Octopussy and The Living Daylights (a)

86. Halloween Ends (novelization)

87. Post Office (a)

88. Fan Fiction (a)

89. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (a)

90. Embrace Your Weird (a)

91. Bluebeard (a)

92. Pinball Wizards

93. Jaws (a)

94. Carioca Fletch (a)

95. Star Trek (09) (novelization) (a)

96. Nitrate Won’t Wait

97. Star Trek: Lower Decks (c)

98. A Long Time Ago, In a Cutting Room Far, Far Away (a)

99. Introducing RDA - Volume 2

100. 100.Fletch and the Man Who (a)

I guess that’s objectively not a bad year, despite any setbacks. I suppose if we can get only one film next year in which Michael Keaton is Batman, I’d be willing to dare thinking this decade isn’t a complete lost cause. I was promised at least three Batmen this year, and instead only got one for my troubles.

* I disappeared into a column of dust a la Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) typing that particular word.

Movie Reviews through 06/15/22

Whew. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these updates. Grad school. Novel publishings. Novel startings. It’s a big world out there, and so I offer this, the special post celebrating Party Now, Apocalypse Later Industries’ 20th birthday (see the above picture, and the review at the bottom of the list).

But let’s not dwell on it all. Live the Party Now, Apocalypse Later spirit and go out and make something fun for everybody else. I’ll wait right here.

• Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

• Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020)

• Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

• Fletch (1985)

• The French Dispatch (2021)

• The Muppet Movie (1979)

• The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

• Donnie Darko (2001)

• Labyrinth (1986)

• The Batman (2022)

• Bond: You Only Live Twice (1967)

• Scream 2 (1997)

• Scream 3 (2000)

• Scream 4 (2011)

• Scream (2022)

• Red Dragon (2002)

• Firestarter (1984)

• The Night House (2021)

• Thelma & Louise (1991)

• Last Night in Soho (2021)

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

• The X-Files (1998)

• Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

• Firestarter (2022)

• Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

• Dances with Wolves (1990)

• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

• Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)

• District 9 (2009)

• Defending Your Life (1991)

• Batman: Year One (2011)

• Romeo + Juliet (1996)

• Minority Report (2002)

• Rope (1948)

• The Adventures of Really Good Man (2002)

The Orson Welles Movie List

The Once and Future Orson Welles is available now! It’s the culmination of decades of work. I was fifteen when I started cobbling together a screenplay version of what would eventually become Orson Welles of Mars.

It has been ten years since I was trying to figure out what my next novel would be, and imagined not just an alternate version of what happened during The War of the Worlds incident, but an entire saga in which the biography of the man who made Citizen Kane becomes skewed via a pulpy prism. He didn’t merely conquer the martians. He faced an ancient evil at the height of the red scare. Finally, he would ensure his legacy at the hilt of King Arthur’s sword. Throw in an ongoing feud with Charlie Chaplin* for good measure.

But if you’ve never seen the films of Welles (or for that matter, the other figures who appear in the series), you’re missing out. The image of Welles in the folklore of cinema is that he was unable to ever wield his filmmaking gifts after the controversy over Kane. For my money, there are few filmmakers who shoot and edit with such a consistently unpredictable energy, even after his budgets were completely obliterated. His Macbeth (1948) is truly great—especially for it’s micro budget—and F for Fake (1973) never fails to entertain or fascinate, and it is essentially made out of scraps.

• Citizen Kane (1941)

• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

• The Stranger (1946)

• The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

• Macbeth (1948)

• Othello (1951)

• Mr. Arkadin (AKA Confidental Report) (1955)

• Touch of Evil (1958)

• The Trial (1962)

• Chimes at Midnight (1965)

• The Immortal Story (1968)

• F for Fake (1973)

• Filming Othello (1978)

• Don Quixote (1992)**

• The Other Side of the Wind (2018)**

As much as his films continue to fascinate, Welles himself is a constant subject, both of narrative and documentary films. Who played him best? That would have to be Vincent D’Onofrio (dubbed over by the great Maurice LaMarche) as the “Wolfman Jack” of Ed Wood (1994) and the worst is Danny Huston trying to mumble his way through the nominally clever, but ultimately bland Fade to Black (2006).

Bonus list:

• Ed Wood (1994)

• The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996)

• RKO 281 (1999)

• Fade to Black (2006)

• Me and Orson Welles (2008)

• They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (2018)

• Mank (2020)

Speaking of Wolfman Jack and Welles’ long beef with the Little Tramp, Welles’ fingerprints are all over films by other directors as well. He embraced (more out of necessity than anything else) the independent streak that came to dominate Hollywood in the late 60s and early 70s. These are just a few of the films where Welles legacy can be felt (and sometimes disputed). You may notice a few names who play a large role in the plot of The Once and Future Orson Welles. Get it now from Amazon!

Bonus Bonus list:

• The Last Picture Show (1971)

• Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

• THX 1138 (1971)

• American Graffiti (1973)

• Easy Rider (1969)

  And so, that is probably my final word on Mr. Welles. It’s a strange moment for me, to be sure. An end of an era. My memory of what life was like before the era is hazy at best. Check back in with the website to see what’s next. More podcasts. More books, and I think I may even try to write one that isn’t about Orson Welles. We’ll see how that goes.

  *Both referred to each other with barely-contained exasperation in both Chaplin’s My Autobiography and Welles’ conversations with Peter Bogdanovich in This is Orson Welles.

  **Released posthumously.

Movie Reviews Through 02/08/22

It’s been a while since the last list, and somehow I’m actually writing more reviews than I have in months past. I’d say I was surprised that my 500th review on the site was about a thriller where Orson Welles becomes embroiled in international intrigue, but Freud would probably say it was inevitable. Keep tuned to the site and our feeds over the next couple of days. Lots of stuff coming down the pike. In the meantime, pre-order you Kindle copy of The Once and Future Orson Welles, why don’t you?

• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

• French Kiss (1995)

• The Matrix (1999)

• The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

• The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

• The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

• Gremlins (1984)

• Citizen Kane (1941)

• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

• My Favorite Year (1982)

• Mermaids (1990)

• The Howling (1981)

• Mank (2020)

• Easy Rider (1969)

• Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

• RKO 281 (1999)

• The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

• A Night at the Opera (1935)

• Me and Orson Welles (2008)

• The Hunt for Red October (1990)

• You’ve Got Mail (1998)

• Easy A (2010)

• Coco (2017)

• The Wolf Man (1941)

• Macbeth (1948)

• The Trial (1962)

• The Immortal Story (1968)

• Don Quixote (1992)

• Ed Wood (1994)

• Othello (1951)

• Filming Othello (1978)

• An American Werewolf in London (1981)

• The Last Picture Show (1971)

• Chimes at Midnight (1965)

• Fade to Black (2006)

Bookin’ It: 2021 In Review

I feel a bit guilty. The world lurches back and forth toward the abyss, but I’ve had a pretty good 2021. The things I have control over have panned out pretty well. After a few rounds of Moderna (you should get yours, too), I’ve been able to largely return to something resembling life in the before times (yes, I’m still wearing masks, and so should you). Omicron hovers around us all, but with any luck 2022 will (give or take a midterm election) be even better still. On average. Moment-to-moment, things are still going to be occasionally rough. Let’s be kind to each other. Although, at this point it has become abundantly clear some of you are not interested in that.

I started grad school. There have been times when I’ve felt particularly silly being in my late-thirties trying to play at being a college student again, and there have been other moments where I’ve felt like I was a fish finally returning to water after a prolonged period of gasping and flopping about on land. I managed to get all As this semester, which will mark the first time I’ve been able to pull off that feat since the 6th grade. So take that, 1996!

I published a volume of flash fiction, including an audiobook available on Audible. Check it out, if you like. I’m pretty proud of it.

Podcasts continue to grow. The Holodeck is Broken has moved on to Star Trek: The Next Generation and we’re having a pretty good time of it, even if we’re only in season 1. Dear friends Z and Eris have concluded their run on As The Myth Turns, but the show will live on forever at partyapocalypse.com. New shows will be announced very rapidly after the first of the year, including the return of something I thought I might never come back to…

No. No spoilers. Not just yet, anyway.

I’ve written 119,660 words. A goodly portion of those may never be seen by the public, but a lot those were zeroed in on one big, persistent item on the to-do list. I started the trilogy-capping The Once and Future Orson Welles six years ago, and as I type this it is almost, so very, incredibly, astonishingly (the book will have fewer adverbs, I assure you) close to being in your hands. This time I mean it. Hell, just to make good on the promise, here’s the world premiere of the cover, from Bill Fisher:

Yes, I think it’s pretty great, too. You can pre-order your Kindle edition :checks notes: right now! Here in just a few weeks, I’ll have a whole trilogy under my belt.

And finally, we come to my reading list for the year. Yes, I’m still counting audio books (a) (including books Lora has read to me), and yes, after last year, I’m still counting graphic novels (c). If those don’t count for you, then… I dunno. Good for you. I might have read more (this is just how my mind works) but I got it into my head to read every issue of The New Yorker released this year. I started reading every issue cover-to-cover, and when that turned out to be a madman’s quest, I mainly stuck to the letters-to-the-editor, fiction, comments, film, and then any other articles which struck my fancy. I wound up the year listening to more than a few Tom Clancy audiobooks… And I just hate them, so, so much. But I can’t stop listening. Even now, with a whole new year well under way, I’m about an hour into Executive Orders and… I’m just lucky I can find them on Overdrive and I’m not having to pay for them. Libraries are magic, people. If anything, that’s the big takeaway from 2021.

I’d say I’ll completely steer clear of both Clancy and The New Yorker in 2022, but I think we all know better.

1. 1602 (c)

2. Burr (a)

3. The Groucho Letters

4. Rough Beasts of Empire

5. Rose

6. Hollywood Hellraisers (a)

7. The Day of the Doctor (a)

8. The Dark Veil (a)

9. Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 1 (c)

10. Batman - Knightfall Vol. 1 (c)

11. Yes, Please (a)

12. Tales from Development Hell

13. The Seige

14. Robocop vs. Terminator (c)

15. Van Gogh - The Life (a)

16. Master and Apprentice

17. Consider This (a)

18. The Trouble With Tribbles

19. The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway (a)

20. Bag Man

21. Iron Man - Season 1 (c)

22. The Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks - Vol. 1 (c)

23. Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (c)

24. Welcome to the Monkey House (a)

25. Forged in Fire

26. Who Censored Roger Rabbit?

27. Letters From A Nut

28. Uncanny X-Men Masterworks, Vol. 2 (c)

29. Batman: The Adventures Continue, Season One (c)

30. Batman '66 meets The Green Hornet (c)

31. Batman '66 meets Wonder Woman '77 (c)

32. Assignment: Earth (c)

33. The Fellowship of the Ring

34. Paths of Disharmony

35. The Struggle Within

36. The Bully Pulpit (a)

37. The view from the bridge (a)

38. The Sirens of Titan (a)

39. Superman: A Celebration of 75 years (c)

40. The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor (c)

41. Jurassic Park

42. The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain (a)

43. The Two Towers (a)

44. Slaughterhouse Five

45. Batman: Epilogue (c)

46. Batman (c)

47. Batman Returns (c)

48. Secrets of the Force (a)

49. Foundations of Library and Information Science

50. The Library Book (a)

51. The One (c)

52. Slaughterhouse Five (c)

53. The Actor's Life (a)

54. Forgotten History

55. Dark Night (c)

56. Batman: Prelude to the Wedding (c)

57. Pity the Reader (a)

58. Batman: The Wedding (c)

59. Superman: The High-Flying History of the Man of Steel (a)

60. Taking Shape (a)

61. Contact (a)

62. Star Trek Movie Memories

63. Return of the King (a)

64. Bind, Torture, Kill (a)

65. Suicide Squad: The Final Mission (c)

66. If Any Of These Stories Goes Over 1000 Words, This Entire Book Will Explode

67. Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse (a)

68. Batgirl: A Celebration of 50 Years (c)

69. Taking Shape II (a)

70. Q-Squared

71. Star Wars Novelization

72. Mary Shelley (a)

73. Wonder Woman, Vol. 2 (c)

74. Star Trek, Vol. 1 (c)

75. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood

76. IT (a)

77. Trigger Mortis (a)

78. What We See When We Read

79. Just Mercy (a)

80. The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay (a)

81. Library: An Unquiet History

82. Rogue Elements (a)

83. My Thoughts Be Bloody (a)

84. Clear and Present Danger (a)

85. Batgirl Vol 1 (c)

86. Congo (a)

87. Plagues of Night

88. The Return of the Pharoah (a)

89. From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

90. Red at the Bone

91. Postmortem (a)

92. The Sum of All Fears (a)

93. Red Dragon

94. The Organization of Information

95. Debt of Honor (a)

Movie Reviews Through 12/12/21

With other projects (more on that later) dominating my time, I had put all blogging on a brief moratorium, but now I’m back with a vengeance! After this marathon session catching up with a backlog of movie reviews, a quick stop off at The Holodeck is Broken, and a end-of-year blog and I just may reach nirvana.

• IT - Chapter One (2017)

• Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015)

• The Addams Family (1991)

• Young Frankenstein (1974)

• Addams Family Values (1993)

• Touch of Evil (1958)

• The Breakfast Club (1985)

• A Knight’s Tale (2001)

• Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

• The Seventh Seal (1957)

• Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Movie Reviews Through 10/17/21

A big list, and it’s been a while. Started grad school, published a book and getting ready to publish another. These updates might be few and far between for a while, but the reviews will still keep coming, especially as I’m done with screening season for the festival.

• Enemy Mine (1985)

• Batman: The Long Halloween (Part One) (2021)

• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

• Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016)

• Batman vs. Two-Face (2017)

• Company Business (1991)

• Mary Shelley (2017)

• Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

• Son of Dracula (1943)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

• Halloween II (1981)

• House of Frankenstein (1944)

• House of Dracula (1945)

• Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983)

• Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

• Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

• Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

• Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998)

• Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

• Halloween (2007)

• Halloween II (2009)

• Bond: No Time To Die (2021)

• Halloween Kills (2021)

• Night at the Museum (2006)

Movie Reviews Through 08/13/21

No, my review of Jurassic Park (1993) isn’t in this list, but with Delta on the rise, I do feel like we just got out of the tree, only to find ourselves back in the car again. Who knows when movie theaters will be back to normal. Not I, in any event.

While I’ll still be producing these review, I would imagine that these updates may be fewer and further between. Started a new blog for The Holodeck is Broken and I’ll be starting grad school here in a moment.

Also, we’ve got a few new books coming out in the next few months. Keep tuned to the site, and there will be plenty of fun still to be had.

• The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

• In the Heights (2021)

• Speed (1994)

• Twister (1996)

• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

• Holmes & Watson (2018)

• Lethal Weapon (1987)

• Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

• The Suicide Squad (2021)

Movie Reviews Through 06/27/21

That picture is all you need, really.

• Batman (1966)

• Gung Ho (1986)

• The Two Jakes (1990)

• No Way Out (1987)

• Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

• This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

• The Lego Movie (2014)

• The Rock (1996)

• Finding Forrester (2000)

Movie Reviews Through 05/24/21

Quite a bit of Superman here for you, including the stultifying bad Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987). Oh, and here’s the really good part: My 400th review on the site was for Fargo (1996), and it was my first film back in the theater post-vaccination. I can’t imagine a better movie to go back on. At least it wasn’t Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.

• Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

• Thomas Jefferson (1997)

• Fargo (1996)

• Legally Blonde (2001)

• Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)

• Supergirl (1984)

• Superman III (1983)

• Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987)

• Johnny Dangerously (1984)

• The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014)

• Superman Returns (2006)

• Joe Versus The Volcano (1990)

Movie Reviews Through 04/22/21

As I write this, I’ve had my second dose of the jab for over two weeks now. It’s been over a year since I’ve been inside a theater, but now I could, theoretically go.

It leaves me with a hard choice. How? When?

I could walk away from this keyboard right now and fit in a screening of Godilla vs. Kong or Nobody right away… I’m not sure if either of them will do it for me, though, and this needs to be a special movie, as it will be a trip to the theater right up there with the first time I saw Batman Returns (1992) or Back to the Future Part III (1990). I could pay 100-ish bucks to make one of the big chains play some movie for me, and that feels… off, somehow. Maybe it’s because in each of those scenarios, I’m watching a movie I could very easily watch at home.

If only I could find some truly great movie I’ve never seen (or at least, never reviewed here on the site) on the big screen and make that my first trip. That would be the ticket. Twenty-fifth anniversary screenings of Fargo (1996) are coming up weekend after next. That just might be the ticket.

At any rate, I hope to see my friend again. I hope to sit in its chairs and eat popcorn in the dark. I hope to see a film the way it was intended to be viewed again.

I hope.

I know. Wrong movie.

• Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

• True Lies (1994)

• The Mummy (1999)

• Babylon 5: The River of Souls (1998)

• Independence Day (1996)

• Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (1999)

• Hemingway (2021)

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

• Chasing Liberty (2004)

• Kong: Skull Island (2017)

• North by Northwest (1959)

• Misery (1990)

• Memento (2000)

Movie Reviews Through 03/20/21

I was going to write a review of Zack Synder’s Justice League. Honestly I was. But there is nothing in that four hour movie that you can’t glean from just hearing about the parameters of its existence. Love-of-my-life Lora, however, had a lot of thoughts on the subject, so for the first time in two and a half years, I’ve a got a guest reviewer.

• Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

• Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

• Bond: From Russia With Love (1963)

• Scream (1996)

• Man of Steel (2013)

• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

• Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) (Guest review by Lora)

Movie Reviews Through 02/14/21

Like some kind of chump, I started my re-watch of the Babylon 5 a few months ago. I’m nearly done now, and HBOMax decides to start running remastered versions of the show. One can only wonder if the special effects work better now, and I’ve only got two of the TV Movies and the back half of Season 5 (the wheel spinning of fire, if you ask me, don’t @ me) to find out.

This is all to say that now more than any other time is a good one to start your own re-watch of Babylon 5. All of the more dramatic political machinations of that universe seem oddly quaint to the stormy present.

Speaking of HBOMax… There’s a better than even chance that by the time I do another one of these updates, I will have endured Zack Synder’s Justice League. I’m relatively sure it won’t be any better than the theatrical cut. I’m not even terribly sure I want to watch it. But it’s there, and it’s inevitable, and I should just start preparing myself now.

Oh, one more HBOMax note: I kinda liked Wonder Woman (1984) more than most people. Shrug. What can you do?

• Babylon 5: The Gathering (1993)

• Psycho (1960)

• Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001)

• Bond: Spectre (2015)

• Babylon 5: In The Beginning (1998)

• Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

• Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998)

• Selma (2014)

• Lincoln (2012)

• Shakespeare in Love (1998)

• Total Recall (1990)

• Batman: Death in the Family (2020)

• Tenet (2020)

• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Why? What Else Happened This Year? - Thoughts on 2020

With The Fourth Wall coming to an “end”* in 2019, I needed to look for the next big thing to conquer. I dropped some things that weren’t working anymore, and took on some new things. I wrote—by my own estimation—191,810 words this year, a new record, even if some of those words aren’t ever intended for public consumption. You’ll be reading some of them soon. Honestly, there’s a better than even chance that The Once and Future Orson Welles might even see the light of day in 2021. 

I lost 66 pounds, and am therefore, always hungry. It’s helped that for some reason, I haven’t been able to go to a movie theater and lose myself in a bucket of popcorn since February.

I’ve also found that next big thing. Shortly before the end of the year I applied for Grad School. Real talk, despite all the things I’ve done here on the site over the last several years, there have been far too many times I’ve felt like I’ve been hiding out in a day job that has always been the occupational equivalent of a blind date that has now lasted for over a decade. Time to end all of that.

Is it possible 2020 has been the best, most productive year of my life? :checks notes: That can’t be right...

Started a new podcast with Lora and friends Eris and Z. We’re rewatching all of the various Star Treks from the very beginning. There are plenty of good reasons to not podcast, and only a few good reasons to podcast. Among the latter, the fact that it’s been a lot of fun is one of the better reasons. That being said, leave it to me to start a Star Trek rewatch podcast in the year we get the most new Star Trek since the 1990s. Don’t tell my fellow podcasters, but The Holodeck is Broken is actually further away from the end of Star Trek than we were when we recorded our first episode about a year ago. Something about this year had the feeling of being on a treadmill, although I can’t quite put my finger on why...

On that note, my only political thought for the year (that I’m going to share) is this: I’m thinking I’m going to have to join the Republican Party indefinitely. Many of us are wondering/promising what we can do to prevent all of :gestures wildly: this never happens again. I’ll still vote the way I like in general elections, but I’ve always been able to live with whoever the Democratic Party nominates, and the Republican Party has long since showed us that it can’t make decisions for itself anymore. So, welcome me, Republicans. You’re going to love me. Hope you like typewriters, pinball, and an unhealthy fixation on the films of Michael Keaton. We’re going to get along great.

And so we all head to 2021. I have no predictions for the year, as those who reign from Olympus have made it very clear how they feel about our collective hubris.

Why? What else happened this year?

P.S. Here is my reading list for the year. I went a little light on myself this year, and decided to count graphic novels in the count. It definitely helped me reach my goal of 66 books this year, and I only managed to feel a little bit guilty about it, as I definitely had a more thorough literary experience with From Hell than I did with “real” books like the novelizations of Batman Forever  or Ghostbusters II, which I read this summer for reasons which have since become murky to me. I probably read more Star Trek books than I should/would have normally, but something about this year needed a little more escapism than most. More than my usual load of screenplays, too... But I finally found time (again, no idea why) to get through that Aaron Sorkin masterclass I bought a lifetime ago, and the workbook associated with it recommended a lot screenplay reading. Graphic novels are denoted with a (c), while, as usual, audiobooks are noted with an (a).

1. Doctor Strange Masterworks, Volume 1 (c)

2. Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays

3. Benjamin Franklin (a)

4. Darth Vader, Vol. 1 (c)

5. DC New Frontier, Vol. 1 (c)

6. Star Trek Picard - Countdown (c)

7. The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols (a)

8. DC New Frontier, Vol. 2 (c)

9. Khan: Ruling In Hell (c)

10. Millennium Falcon (a)

11. The Last Best Hope (a)

12. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

13. Zen In the Art of Writing (a)

14. Batgirl: Year One (c)

15. Loyalties

16. Nobody Does It Better (a)

17. The Office (a)

18. The Fifty Year Mission: The First Twenty-Five Years (a)

19. The Sky's The Limit

20. Cruel Shoes

21. Worf's First Adventure

22. Process (a)

23. Doc Savage: Man of Bronze

24. Pure Drivel

25. Doomsday Clock Vol. 1 (c)

26. The Q Conflict (c)

27. The Big Goodbye (a)

28. Get Thee Back to the Future

29. Catalyst of Sorrows

30. Batman Forever

31. Casino Royale

32. The Tower of the Elephant

33. The Fifty Year Mission: The Next Twenty-Five Years (a)

34. Galaxy Quest - The Journey Continues (c)

35. Batman: Knightfall: Knightquest (c)

36. Forever and a Day (a)

37. The Rocketeer - The Complete Adventures (c)

38. From Hell (c)

39. Watching the Clock

40. Rogues in the House

41. Masks (c)

42. Fletch and the Widow Bradley

43. The Fall of Terok Nor 

44. iWoz (a)

45. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 (c)

46. Darth Vader, Vol. 3: The Shu-Torun War (c)

47. Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life

48. Shadows in the Moonlight

49. Ghostbusters II

50. The Martian Chronicles (a)

51. Zero Sum Game

52. Dead Endless (a)

53. The Royal Tenenbaums - Screenplay

54. Cast No Shadow

55. Poetics

56. Black Colossus

57. The Dark Knight Trilogy Scriptbook

58. Fletch's Moxie

59. Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire (a)

60. Wet Hot American Summer Annotated Screenplay

61. Batman: Dark Victory (c)

62. My Dinner With André - Screenplay

63. Die Standing (a)

64. Rodham

65. Queen of the Black Coast

66. The War of the Prophets

67. So We Read On (a)

68. Bossypants (a)

69. The Witches

70. The Bassoon King (a)

71. A Magnificent Catastrophe

72. Becoming Superman (a)

73. Slayers and Vampires (a)

74. The Rocketeer at War (c)

75. City on the Edge of Forever

76. City on the Edge of Forever (c)

77. Seize the Fire

78. A Promised Land (a)

*No, I’m not going to explain the quotes there, but I might one day.

Movie Reviews Through 12/13/20

I might break down this list a bit further, but there’s really only one thing I could add to this that wouldn’t be covered in the reviews themselves.

Unbreakable is twenty years old.

Oy.

• Drag Me to Hell (2009)

• Unbreakable (2000)

• Demons (1985)

• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

• The Warriors (1979)

• Contact (1997)

• City Lights (1931)

• Cinema Paradiso (1988)

• Gosford Park (2001)

• Logan (2017)

• Manhunter (1986)

• The Godfather: Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (2020)

• Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Movie Reviews Through 11/09/20

A long list, with a little something for everyone…

But what I really came here to say was this:

You can all unclench now.

I’ll have more on that later, probably with my annual end-of-year blog post.

Anyway, heres Wonderwall…

• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

• Mission: Impossible II (2006)

• Salem’s Lot (2004)

• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

• Diner (1982)

• The Ward (2010)

• Jackie Brown (1997)

• Death Proof (2007)

• Casablanca (1942)

• Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

• Say Anything… (1989)

• Mr. Holmes (2015)

• Hocus Pocus (1993)

• Get Carter (1971)

• Limelight (1952)

• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

• Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)

• Heat (1995)

• The Witches (2020)

• The Stepford Wives (1975)

• The Legend of Zorro (2005)

• Dunkirk (2017)

Reviews through 10/06/20

A longer than normal list, with more than enough variety. Some I am surprised it has taken this long to get around to review (Duck Soup) and more than a few where I’m surprised I ever talked myself into watching time (mostly the Momoa-led Conan the Barbarian.

I had some mild hope I would get things together enough to catch Tenet at a local drive in, but sadly they too have seen the writing on the wall and started showing older movies, and I’m not going all the way out there to watch Hocus Pocus (1993). And I’m certainly not going to go to a real theater to see the movie. None of you should be going to a traditional theater at the moment. We’re never going to get through any of this if we don’t take, like, the bare minimum of precautions. if I haven’t been in a movie theater in over six months, you can stay away, too.

• Conan the Barbarian (2011)

• The Right Stuff (1983)

• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1993)

• Jurassic Park III (2001)

• Clash of the Titans (1981)

• Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

• Amadeus (1984)

• Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

• War of the Worlds (2005)

• The Social Network (2010)

• A Few Good Men (1992)

• The Witches (1990)

• My Dinner with Andre (1981)

• Cloverfield (2008)

• Pacific Rim (2013)

• Duck Soup (1933)

• Animal Crackers (1930)

• Mean Girls (2004)

Reviews through 08/31/20

I am totally okay with my 300th review being The American President (1995). I am totally okay with my favorite movie of this year being Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020). I’m totally okay with kind of liking The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and being completely bewildered by The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). For the moment, it would appear I am totally okay.

• Paul (2011)

• Superman (1978)

• The American President (1995)

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

• The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

• Clue (1985)

• Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020)

Reviews through 08/05/20

Well, here we are again. These updates have been few and far between, but they may pick back up again. Since quarantine became the core experience of the year, I’ve been sublimating my desire to go to the movie theater by serving on the screening committee for a film festival. I won’t say which festival it was, as decisions are still being made about what films to feature, but I did end up watching 160 additional films over the last four months. It was daunting, but it’s done now! I may end up going to the festival in the fall (assuming it actually ends up happening in the traditional sense, which is assuming a lot.)

On the topic of going to see movies at theaters, even though I’ve got local theaters who are up and running, I’m not particularly interested in going back into that world until there’s a reliable vaccine out in the world, which feels like its going to be a while. My local theaters have taken to running older movies to fill in the gap left by an essentially abandoned release schedule. Normally, that would be the kind of thing I would love to go do, but now I see many films being featured that I already own on physical media, and it feels like the height of recklessness. Now, if one of my local movie houses decides to show the Back to the Future films, I’m going to have to white-knuckle my way through the exhibition.

As far as new movies are concerned, those are a thing of the past, largely. The only looming film I’m interested in seeing is Bill and Ted Face The Music, and I’m quite relieved that is going to on-demand distribution. Tenet will be a far off fantasy, as I would imagine that Nolan would ultimately rather delay than impede a theatrical distribution, and I think I’ve even come around to the idea of No Time To Die being delayed further, as I would like to see that on the biggest screen possible.

• Titanic (1997)

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

• Robocop (1987)

• Apocalypse Now (1979)

• King Kong (1933)

• Robocop 2 (1990)

• Hearts of Darkness (1991)

• The Time Machine (1960)