Star Trek: The Motion Picture is not as bad as you think

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is not as bad as you think

Posted inFilms, Geek Stuff
Time has not been kind to the reputation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first big screen journey taken by Captain Kirk and the Enterprise. Though it got fairly positive reviews in its day, some audiences found it slow and plodding. Once The Wrath of Khan came out and became an instant classic, The Motion Picture was treated like that boring cousin you only think about when you see him at weddings, ignored all year long until you're forced to think about him. That's too bad, because the cousin is far more interesting than he's given credit for. The…
Should I do a Star Trek movie marathon? Yes. Yes, I should …

Should I do a Star Trek movie marathon? Yes. Yes, I should …

Posted inFilms, Geek Stuff
And it starts in five minutes. Something came over me the other day. It might have been Netflix suddenly throwing Trek in my face. Maybe it's the result of a space slug crawling into my ear. Don't know. Whatever it was, it resulted in a feeling I've pretty much never had in my life: "I should watch some Star Tek - and a LOT of it!" If that sounds like a knock on Star Trek, it's not. Rather, it's just to say that I've never been anything more than a vaguely casual Star Trek fan. I watched most of the…
REVIEW: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

REVIEW: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Posted inFilms
Technically, I wrote this review 10 years ago for a site called DVDinmyPants.com. That site is long gone, though (you can only find it on the Wayback Machine), and since this is the greatest review in the history of film reviews (and also because of Star Wars mania right now), I'm reposting it here. It's purposely over the top, but also completely  sincere: The Empire Strikes Back Let’s cut right to the chase: I fall into the camp that declares The Empire Strikes Back the best of the Star Wars films. Which means I also fall into the camp of people…
George Lucas is the Internet’s most undeserving punching bag

George Lucas is the Internet’s most undeserving punching bag

Posted inFilms, Rants, Uncategorized
A movie comes out today, a small little thing that may have slipped past your notice. A few people might go and see it. The release of the first new Star Wars movie in many years makes today something of a geek holiday, but amid all the glee and celebrating the movie is going to be something else. Something far less positive: incessant bitching about what an awful person George Lucas is. Because on the Internet, no mention of Star Wars is complete without also mentioning how George Lucas, the man who created Star Wars, ruined everything you hold dear…
Do Golden Age sci-fi authors still matter?

Do Golden Age sci-fi authors still matter?

Posted inBooks & Authors, Geek Stuff
Science fiction is great, a genre associated with lasers and spaceships by the general populace but which historically has done a remarkable job of exploring big questions about who we are, why we're here, and what we can accomplish as a species. The "science" part of the equation can be pesky, though. As our scientific understanding of the universe advances, stories that once seemed rooted in a potential reality -- say, the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in our solar system -- can now seem dated, quaint, or downright silly. So with that in mind, this blog post poses an…