Terminator Salvation (2009) Movie Review

As summer event films go, “Terminator Salvation” blows’em up real good. Lots and lots of times. Heck, sometimes the blowing up goes on for so long and is so excessive that it borders on the absurd. Alas, the film is missing heart, which is ironic since the human heart plays a very pivotal role...

May 21st, 2009 | Read More

Star Trek (2009) Movie Review

Let’s face it, Trek hasn’t been Trek these last few years, so it was probably a good idea to go back and re-invent the wheel. Which is exactly what J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman (“Transformers”) have done with the blessing of the studio. And what they have done,...

May 8th, 2009 | Read More

A Star Trek Review

Let me say with a complete lack of humility that I am uniquely qualified to review “Star Trek” for the following reason. It was the first television program I ever watched. “Star Trek” was imprinted on me like a baby duck gets imprinted on its mother. I watched the show during...

May 8th, 2009 | Read More

Push (2009) Movie Review

Paul McGuigan’s “Push” is like the X-Men without the goofy outfits and codenames. That’s really the best way to describe the film, a mixture of comic book action-adventure and crime caper. Written by David Bourla and directed by McGuigan (“Lucky Number Slevin”), I’ve been interested in...

May 4th, 2009 | Read More

Xmen Origins: Wolverine Review: Hugh Jackman Was Sufficiently Hairy

There are two recent schools of thought when it comes to films based on comic books. In one corner we have the recent Batman films, directed by Christopher Nolan, that attempt to reduce the story to it’s essence, aiming for as much realism as is physically possible. The Batman source material,...

May 2nd, 2009 | Read More

Lost Recap: 5.14 The Variable

Wednesday night’s 100th episode of “Lost” was exactly the kind of dramatic, action-packed roller coaster ride the show will be remembered for after its final season has ended. For what has been referred to by some fans as an uneven fifth season, “The Variable” was the creative...

April 30th, 2009 | Read More

Mutant Chronicles (2008) Movie Review

Produced in 2008 on what looks to be a rather sizeable budget (or at the very least, something out of the reach of your standard Sci Fi Channel Original Movie, which ironically is where the movie will probably end up after some extensive cuts), “Mutant Chronicles” by Simon Hunter (“Lighthouse”)...

April 26th, 2009 | Read More

Lost Recap: 5.13 Some Like It Hoth

I’m going to start off with a question: Is there any character on “Lost” who doesn’t have big issues with their father? I’ll give you a minute to try and think of someone. Kate doesn’t count, because as you’ll remember, she had some major problems with her stepfather,...

April 20th, 2009 | Read More

Screamers 2: The Hunting (2009) Movie Review

1995’s “Screamers” is one of those very cool sci-fi movies that didn’t get a whole lot of respect when it bowed 14 years ago, but thanks to the miracle of DVD, cable, and The Sci Fi Channel, it’s developed something of a cult following. That existing fanbase was enough to get a sequel greenlit...

April 12th, 2009 | Read More

Lost Recap: 5.12 Dead is Dead

Let me start by confessing that as someone who has seen every episode of “Lost” since Flight 815 crashed onto the island in 2004 (or was it?), I have characters that are my favorites and others that bore me to tears. For example, I loathe Jack and the whiney, put-upon way that Matthew Fox...

April 9th, 2009 | Read More

Knowing (2009) Movie Review

You don’t get more hit-and-miss than Nicolas Cage. The prolific actor seems to be in three or four movies a year, and it’s usually a good year if one of his films turns out to be a moderate hit. Nicolas Cage movies without the words “National” or “Treasure” in the title just don’t seem...

March 20th, 2009 | Read More

A Rainy Saturday Book Review: The Gone Away World By Nick Harkaway

I understand that it might not be raining wherever your iPhone’s GPS thinks you are. That’s ok. It’s rainy here and what better can there be to do than nurse your red-haired wife back from a ghastly, cringing stomach flu whilst firing together a nice positive review on a big release...

February 28th, 2009 | Read More

Alien Raiders (2008) Movie Review

For a genre that’s supposedly built on wild imagination, sci-fi movies about alien invasion tend to be a pretty generic and conformist bunch, both in premise as well as Act I’s. The originality gets progressively worst when it comes to the lower budgeted entries that usually show up as a Movie of...

February 4th, 2009 | Read More

TV Review: Stargate Atlantis Series Finale, Enemy at the Gate

“Enemy at the Gate”, the final Stargate: Atlantis episode, comes after a pretty strange episode in which we visited a parallel Earth where John Sheppard was a burnt out cop in Vegas chasing a serial killer that, as it turns out, is actually a Wraith soldier stranded on Earth during a failed invasion....

January 4th, 2009 | Read More

Eleventh Hour TV Pilot Episode Review

On the surface, CBS’ new medical tech/crime show Eleventh Hour doesn’t really appeal to me, in the same way that FOX’s Fringe doesn’t appeal to me. But I have to admit, my curiosity about Eleventh Hour was substantially piqued when they cast the gorgeous Marley Shelton as not just the female...

October 12th, 2008 | Read More

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) Movie Review

There’s just something about “Star Wars” that brings out the geek in people. When I recently attended an advanced screening of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” I kept seeing a blue light flashing out of the corner of my eye. Turning to look, I was surprised to see the source – a $119 light saber...

August 11th, 2008 | Read More

The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made (Revised 2008) Book Review

David Hughes is a master at describing the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” that is the Hollywood movie mill. It takes a certain amount of skill to discuss a blockbuster that might have been in a way that leaves you wanting to find a way to buy the rights, get funding and shoot...

August 4th, 2008 | Read More

The X-Files 2: I Want to Believe (2008) Movie Review

When David Lynch’s quirky and often surreal “Twin Peaks” ended after just two seasons in 1991, I didn’t think anything could take its place. But I was wrong. In 1993, Chris Carter unleashed “The X-Files” upon the world. It was the answer to my, and million of others’, prayers. Inspired...

July 28th, 2008 | Read More

Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) Movie Review

A quick search on the Internet Movie Database shows that Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” has been adapted for the screen (big and small) at least 10 times. There’s even a Filipino version! By Hollywood standards, this must not seem like overkill, because guess what? If you...

July 15th, 2008 | Read More

Stargate: Continuum (2008) Movie Review

Here’s a shocker: Jack O’Neill dies in the first few minutes of “Stargate: Continuum”. Now wait a minute, before you Stargate fans get all mad at me, let me say this: “Continuum” is a time travel story, so yes, Jack O’Neill dying, as well as Teal’C and Vala vanishing into thin air in...

July 5th, 2008 | Read More