Change Your Image
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Served as Chairman, New York Film Critics Circle: 1993/94.
Favorite interviews were with: Michael Douglas, Sophia Loren, DeForest Kelley, Joan Chen, Joe Henderson, Ismail Merchant, Klaus Kinski, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Spike Lee, Malcolm McDowell, Zoe Lund, Melvin Van Peebles, Ultra Violet, Wolfgang Petersen, Claudia Cardinale, Serge Silberman, Margarethe von Trotta, Alec Guinness, Leonard Nimoy, Susan George, Joseph Losey, Gale Anne Hurd, Dennis Hopper, Peter Greenaway, Katt Shea, Ken Russell, Maggie Greenwald, Jim Jarmusch, Peter Brook, Jurgen Prochnow, Andy Warhol, Judy Davis, Chuck Vincent, Fred Zinnemann, Wim Wenders, Max Von Sydow, Michael Moore, Terry Gilliam, Rita Jenrette, Karen Lynn Gorney, Bruce Beresford, Jack Thompson, Russ Meyer, Sam Raimi, Abel Ferrara, John Sayles, William Greaves, Nino Manfredi, Lee Van Cleef, Michael Cuscuna, Bille August, Jewel Shepard, Andy Sidaris, Michel Deville, Claude Sautet, Claude Lelouch, Alfonso Arau, Alan Parker, Reinhard Hauff, Traci Lords, Jim Jarmusch, Martha Coolidge, Candida Royalle, Giuseppe Tornatore, Edward James Olmos, Paul Hogan, John Mackenzie, Peter Hyams, Jennifer Beals,, Adrian Lyne, Samuel Fuller, Dario Argento, James Toback, Lasse Hallstrom, Fred Williamson, Gabriel Axel, Joe Bastianich, Aaron Sanchez, Danny Meyer, Steve Hanson, Matthew Kenney, Douglas Rodriguez, Simon Oren, Stanley Donen, Lindsay Anderson, Helena Bonham Carter, Edward Pressman, Harold Becker, Larry Cohen, James Ivory, Jack O'Connell, Michael Phillips, Kevin McClory, Jackie Mason, Joan O'Brien, Stanley Donen, Joseph B. Vasquez, Don Bluth, William Lustig, Al Goldstein, Simon Wincer, Valeria Cavalli, Dave Fishelson, Lizzie Borden, Roberta Findlay, Rob Cohen, Doris Wishman, Robert Tapert, Bruce Campbell, Bill Cosby, Pasquale Squitieri, Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, Tim Kincaid, Joel M. Reed, Gregory Dark, T.L. Lankford, Fred Olen Ray, Victoria Paige Meyerink, Lawrence D. Foldes, Rick Marx & Ted V. Mikels
Reviews
Blonde Label 4 (2024)
The roots of pointlessness
This quartet of porn segments starring blondes, shot for the Deeper label by Kayden Kross and friends, is almost cryptic in terms of stories, each of which either makes no sense or amounts to nothing. Sort of thumbing one's nose at the need for a context, now that all-sex is the goal of most pornographers and their audiences.
For example, Amber Moore is quite beautiful in "Cucked", a segment where she enthusiastically humps big-cocked Jason Luv, while her nerdy white guy date, bearing a bouquet of roses, is left outside, his date with her ignored. That doesn't constitute cuckolding, but as long as the sex is hot...
Two of the blondes are featured emphasizing anal sex; Kenna James goes one step further in "Ministering More", having an interracial 3-way that features double penetration. Alex Grey also goes the backdoor route in "The System", a stupid scene where she gets Dan Damage to f*ck her in the school dean's office after he catches them handing in plagiarized school papers. Supposedly she is showing defiance but the scene makes no sense.
More stylish is a goofy segment from Kayden Kross titled "Iron Cord Kink", title referring to the cord for her electric iron as she does household chores. A bearded creep who appears uncredited in dozens of Deeper episodes plays her husband, a guy addicted to watching crap on TV rather than paying attention to BB. That's an absurd premise given how beautiful she looks traipsing around in sexy lingerie, but import Euro stud Christian Clay helps her retrieve her wedding ring after she loses it in the kitchen sink, and then he fulfills her B&D fantasy by fuc*ing her on a nearby couch. What does it all mean? You'll have to ask KK.
TS Girls Do It Best (2024)
Is this the best Ricky can deliver?
Ricky Greenwood took over directing Transsensual content several years ago, and lately has run the formerly trailblazing label into the ground.
This year, Transsensual features changed from four sex scenes to just three vignettes, parceled out on the website rather than DVDs (as the hardcopy format heads toward obsolescence). Quality is way down -basically all-sex rather than the label's original mandate of romantic storytelling when writer-director Nica Noelle was running the show.
The theme here is infidelity. Two scenes star a TS girl with a Gay stud and they cheat behind a Black guy's back. Steve Rickz humps his brother's girlfriend Amanda Riley, and Roman Todd has sex with his best friend's main squeeze Ember Fiera. The Black actors have only brief roles and are uncredited. Both segments are uneventful.
Included in this feature is an unrelated comedy vignette titled "Cum Always Does the Trick". It trots out an overused (and utterly stupid) porn trope of having sex just out of sight of a boyfriend (so the audience can see what's going on but the guy is clueless). Lovely Charlotte Sins flirts with TS star Kasey Kei, while two guys (again uncredited "actors") chat in male chauvinist fashion, one of them Charlotte's fiance.
The naughty girls have sex in the kitchen and the scene ends with Charlotte humiliating her fiance. It's not funny, just an asinine variation on porn's favorite humiliation genre, Cuckolding.
My Project (2024)
A decade ago
This Adult Time VOD resurrects lesbian scenes from DVDs released a decade ago.
From the 2015 DVD "Lessons in Anal & Other Stories" is a threeway scene starring Phoenix Marie, Halle Von and Dakota James. Phoenix Marie, improvising her dialog badly as is normal for this product, teaches her step daughter & the kid's BFF the joys of lesbian sex. The speed and skill with which these youngsters pick up on Sapphic technique is positively amazing, except when you recall that the secret handshake (analogous to how viewers watch a WWE TV wrestling show playing "let's pretend") of this genre is that young but vastly experienced sex performers are typecast as "underage" girls for the fantasy-life satisfaction of a presumably perverted audience.
The other scenes first appeared on the Web Young website. From the 2015 DVD "Lady Lessons", Charlotte Stokely seduced young Aubrey Star in a scene where Sierra Nevada has a cameo role as a tutor.
From the 2014 DVD "Studio Fun", the loveliest scene has the extremely petite blonde Odette Delacroix paired with Dakota Skye (who has since tragically died from a drug overdose, RIP) in a very well-shot staging of youthful Sapphic sex.
T Stretch (2024)
Mainly retreads
Two thirds of this Adult Time VOD consists of material already released in May 2024 on the DVD titled "Three Course Meal". That leaves one newish vignette to watch.
The fresh material is "Movie Night". Little Lulu Chu is watching a horror movie on TV with TS star Emma Rose, when the pizza girl (attractive TS newcomer Valeria Atreides) arrives at their door. In an overused porn gag, the pizza box opens and reveals Valeria's big dick inside instead of the pizza, and Lulu invites her in for a threesome on the couch.
This slapstick pantomime is the usual "Oopsie!" routine, with Lulu enjoying having two dicks simultaneously at her disposal. Its content is kinkier than usual, with Valeria delivering her lactating ability (already displayed in a recent scene from sister label Transfixed), while the two trans girls have anal sex together, and a sandwich for the trio with Valeria in the middle is also a highlight.
One oldie is titled "Three Course Meal", just like its old DVD. A high quality cast gives their all in this typically silly "Oopsie!" episode, and it's quite erotic for a while, but unfortunately overstays its welcome.
Not much of a story as TS lovelies Izzy Wilde and Ariel Demure horse around with bubbly and buxom Codi Vore, including an amusing sudden Glory Hole gimmick, so when the scene's token male, JJ Graves, discovers what's going on, he runs away.
The gonzo sex that quickly follows is quite promising as both chicks with dicks fawn over Vore's massive boobs, and soon get down to XXX antics, but despite the high energy of the performers, the sex is mechanical and about as spontaneous as Codi's familiar making faces and faking orgasms. Izzy is the top and Ariel the bottom in assuming anal sex chores.
Also from that DVD is "That's a Stretch". A silly all-sexer has three gals (one a cis-female) and an extraneous stud (Tony Sting, who flees after the first minute) doing yoga stretching exercises, before a lesbian threesome breaks out.
Nothing of any interest occurs, as the "Oopsie!" series has settled down into generic transsexual scenes, usually structured as threesomes. Petite but ultra-curvy Summer Hart is the center of attention, as two TS stars (Eva Maxim and Izzy Wilde) whomp away on her, with Eva also topping Izzy on the bottom.
Single Minded: Episode Three (2024)
Outdoor sex
Codi Vore and Sinatra Monroe have more bachelorette night sex in a short segment of little interest. Basically, they suffer car trouble and seduce a pair of corrupt cops to have sex on the cop car hood with them, thus averting getting arrested (it's not their car and Sinatra doesn't have her driving license with her).
Codi overacts in ridiculous fashion, and the scene's intended comical quality falls flat. Overall, this content is on the level of say, a Brazzers or Reality Kings vignette, hardly up to the traditional level of Digital Playground. Since fans have already seen these ladies humping studs in Episode One, this segment is utterly superfluous.
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Crowd-pleasing sci-fi movie
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Fred M. Wilcox; Produced by Nicholas Nayfack for MGM. Screenplay by Cyril Hume; Photography by George Folsey; Edited by Ferris Webster; Music by Bebe and Louis Barron; Special Effects by Irving Ries, Warren Newcombe, Joshua Meador and A. Arnold Gillespie. Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Lelie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Richard Anderson, Earl Holliman, James Drury, James Best and Robby the Robot.
MGM's big-budget science-fiction movie: Planet Altair-4's futuristic technology, monster of the id, and Robby the Robot make for entertaining light sci-fi.
Halo: Transcendence (2022)
Solid climax
A tightly-written script brings the conflicts between the main characters to head in the season finale of "Halo". John leads his Spartans to a big showdown on the Covenant's holy planet, with the ascent to the Halo in the balance.
Solid action scenes and the otherworldly design of the planet highlight this bang-up and rousing drama, with plenty of motivation for these video game characters to act upon. It all leads to an exciting and mysterious finale, leaving plenty of suspense for Season Two.
The actors do a fine job in both their interactions and the intensity required to punch across the series' main themes. That's important in differentiating it as a motion picture (for TV), not just a video game.
Star Trek: Picard: Hide and Seek (2022)
Pretentious and unconvincing
It's fun to watch Alison Pill (possessed by the Borg queen) as a ruthless villainess in this edition of "Picard". The action, as our heroes desperately strive to fight off Pill's minions and recapture there spaceship La Sirena, is silly -resembling a game of laser tag, but at least the fans are treated to some action scenes and not just verbiage.
James Callis appears in flashback as Picard's erudite dad, and the moments from Picard's youth add little to the story. Our heroes are pivotal to saving the time-line and their future, but the screenplay reduces such lofty goals to rather mundane dramatics.
The pretentious screenplay includes Picarfd reliving a terrible trauma in flashback and a ridiculous Pill spouting claptrap humanistic philosophy to the Borg Queen as they battle for control of her body. The "Picard" team trying to make hay off of nostalgic fan memories of Seven of Nine and even a villainous character played by Brent Spiner are way too gimmicky to be convincing.
Movie Night with Daisy (2024)
You must stay quiet
Daisy Phoenix is a delectable stepdaughter in this MissaX vignette -she's named Charlotte and misbehaves on the living room couch while watching and old movie with her parents.
The thrill here is that Daisy seduces stepdad Donnie Rock (who maintains a sheepish, somewhat fearful look on his face throughout the taboo scene) while her mother (Kelly Caprice) is fast asleep on the couch right next to them. This sort of "fearful lovemaking" is a porn trope that adds a touch of danger to a sex scene, and provides a very different attitude for the viewer compared to the more conventional (and humiliating) cuckold scene where some doofus is forced to watch as his wife f*cks some stud right before his eyes.
Phoenix is a very lovely new starlet, quite alluring here. The only thing missing is that MILF Kelly Caprice doesn't get into the action, but that would be another story entirely.
It's Time to Thank Me (2024)
Dumb as a brick
This pair of Pure Taboo segments on a DVD assumes the viewer will sit through any old story, as long as it leads to explicit sex.
Seth Gamble is convincingly sleazy in an utterly predictable and pointless scene. It does check one box to qualify for this website -a mean-spirited tone.
Seth shows up at Anna Maria Clouds' house, informing her that he was the donor of the kidney that saved her life. She thanks him and as they chat he hints that he deserves a reward, and somehow convinces that she owes him sex in return. She barely resists, and of course (via porn logic) enjoys the mechanical humping on the couch.
After his cum shot, the scene just ends, gonzo porn preceded by a dumb set-up.
"Playing Step-Doctor" is as stupid as its title. This mindless version of the childhood game of "let's play doctor" doesn't pass the smell test: it's just a lousy script, par for the course for a Pure Taboo vignette.
Holly Day doesn't fit the part of a teen who asks her new stepbrother (Lucky Fate) to play a make-believe game with her while their newly-married parents are away on their honeymoon. I suppose sex is one way for the siblings to get to know each other, but even Lucky's character, named Kyle, thinks it's a dumb idea.
But after going through the motions of using a stethoscope and taking her blood pressure, he soon is f*cking her on the couch, and both of them enjoy themselves. The entire scene is a corny cliche, replete with such hoary content as her remark after his money shot: "Oh my God, that's a lot of cum!", as well as his reminder not to tell their parents.
Pure Taboo: Playing Step-Doctor (2024)
Infantile porn
This mindless version of the childhood game of "let's play doctor" doesn't pass the smell test: it's just a lousy script, par for the course for a Pure Taboo vignette.
Holly Day doesn't fit the part of a teen who asks her new stepbrother (Lucky Fate) to play a make-believe game with her while their newly-married parents are away on their honeymoon. I suppose sex is one way for the siblings to get to know each other, but even Lucky's character, named Kyle, thinks it's a dumb idea.
But after going through the motions of using a stethoscope and taking her blood pressure, he soon is f*cking her on the couch, and both of them enjoy themselves. The entire scene is a corny cliche, replete with such hoary content as her remark after his money shot: "Oh my God, that's a lot of cum!", as well as his reminder not to tell their parents.
Pure Taboo: It's Time to Thank Me (2024)
Stupid premise
Seth Gamble is convincingly sleazy in this very poor excuse for a Pure Taboo scene, utterly predictable and pointless. It does check one box to qualify for this website -a mean-spirited tone.
Seth shows up at Anna Maria Clouds' house, informing her that he was the donor of the kidney that saved her life. She thanks him and as they chat he hints that he deserves a reward, and somehow convinces that she owes him sex in return. She barely resists, and of course (via porn logic) enjoys the mechanical humping on the couch.
After his cum shot, the scene just ends, gonzo porn preceded by a dumb set-up.
Matlock: Sixteen Steps (2024)
An off-day
An awkward structure detracts from the effectiveness of this Matlock segment. Throughout the hour, there are many flashbacks showing a civil case's first trial contrasting with the team's readying for a new trial. Matty's in danger because an old friend has surfaced, and he could easily blow her cover.
With Beau Bridges again absent from the screen, the married other two suspects Olympia and Julian dominate the show, but there's no advancement or even hint as to which one of them might be responsible for Matty's daughter's death. Bates is excellent as always bringing her character to life, but otherwise the case and the episode is not very involving, until the still-grieving mom on the witness stand breaks down talking about her child who died (from contaminated baby formula). A surprise plot twist returning the focus of the show to Bates.
Dance of the Vampires (1967)
Goofy Polanski comedy
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Roman Polanski; Produced by Gene Gutowski; Executive Producer: Martin Ransohoff, for Filmways; released by MGM. Screenplay by Gerard Brach and Polanski; Photography by Douglas Slocombe; Edited by Alastair McIntyre; Music by Krzysztof Komeda; Choreography by Tutte Lemkow. Starring: Jack MacGowran, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, Alfie Bass, Ferdy Mayne, Ian Quarrier, Fiona Lewis and Ronald Lacey.
Roman Polanski directing himself in an off-the-cuff spoof is a horror film takeoff featuring bumbling good guys, grisly vampires and tasteless comedy.
First Men in the Moon (1964)
Quality, fanciful sci-fi
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Nathan Juran; Produced by Charles Schneer for Columbia Pictures. Screenplay by Nigel Kneale and Jan Read, from H. G. Wells's story; Photography by Wilkie Cooper; Edited by Maurice Rootes; Music by Laurie Johnson; Special Visual Effects by Ray Harryhausen. Starring: Edward Judd, Martha Hyer, Lionel Jeffries, Miles Malleson, Norman Bird, Gladys Henson, Hugh McDermott, Marne Maitland and Peter Finch.
Period science fiction done up straight and light, with the first United Nations astronauts on the moon finding evidence of having been beaten out by a British trio at the turn of the century.
From the Earth to the Moon (1958)
Antiquated sci-fi
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Byron Haskin; Produced by Benedict Bogeaus for Warner Brothers release. Screenplay by Robert Blees and James Leicester, from Jules Verne's story; Photography by Edwin DuPar; Edited by Leicester; Music by Louis Forbes; Special Effects by Lee Zavitz. Starring: Joseph Cotten, George Sanders, Debra Paget, Patric Knowles, Don Dubbins, Henry Daniell and Morris Ankrum.
A big-budget adaptation of Jules Verne's adventure tale. Private enterprise and scientific ingenuity facilitate the first launching of a ship to the moon (in the 19th Century), shot out of a cannon.
Love All Parts (2024)
Ancient history
Adult Time dips into the way-back machine to recycle three lesbian vignettes from three 2015 DVDs for a new VOD package.
Two of the scenes were originally issued on the Girls Try Anal label, emphasizing anal sex with toys and fingers. Perennial favorites were paired: Anikka Albrite with big-butt queen Jada Stevens and Chastity Lynn with redhead Penny Pax. Both segments were directed by Stills By Alan.
Third segment was a very early scene shot by Alan and Craven Moorehead, both directors having gone on to greener pastures since. It's titled "Girl's Got Game", from the Web Young website. It features April O'Neil seducing Eva Sedona in "Girl's Got Game", a rather silly piece about the danger of becoming addicted to video games. This one has a NonSex cameo by Eva's step-sister Carmen (Callaway). Girlslway issued this one on the DVD "Crafty Classmates".
Proud Trans Sex Life (2024)
A motley bunch of TS scenes
Drawing from disparate sources, Adult Time fashioned a VOD of random transsex footage for diehard fans.
First up is an Adult Time Pilot titled "Cosmopolitrans - Coffee & T". It has four TS stars chatting at a cafe manned by barista Jayden Marcos, telling their tall tales, sort of resembling an indoor "campfire stories" segment. Result is a collection of four sex scenes, beginning with Angelina Please's date with a New Age hippy-dippy Jenna Creed. Jenna's nonsense talk annoys Please but her big dick pleases her. They suck each other's cock and half two fake cum shots -very poorly faked.
Next up is Jade Venus relates how she fu*ked the barrista Jayden at the cafe one night, and he delivers a real money shot. Tori Easton's story is a non-starter, how at the office flirting, client Joel Someone turned her down for sex as soon as he found out she's trans. Ariel Demure delivers a copious cum shot on Nicole Kitt's belly in her flashback.
Next vignette is taken from a dumb masturbation series (Caught Fapping), titled "New for Us Both". Ariel Demure is jerking off when her brother's roommate catches her -he's played by Jayden Marcos, and they have sex together. It's a very lengthy scene, as long as the multi-part cafe segment.
For filler, the VOD ends with a solo porn scene from an obscure Adult Time series "Shower Solos", basically just a set of she-male strokers. Lain Arbor beats off her dick for an interminable 22 minutes, ending in an invisible cum shot.
Yellowstone: The Apocalypse of Change (2024)
Flavorful scenes, but a hodge-podge
In "The Apocalypse of Change", the second post-Costner episode of "Yellowstone", there's no continuity to the narrative: just a series of potent, well-acted scenes, not properly knitted together. Confusing at first, each segment is watchable, but forward momentum is sorely lacking.
It starts off with a fun scene in Texas (evidently a flashback but not identified as such) with the cowboys (and cowgirl Teeter) in tents dealing with the misfortune of camping on a rattlesnake nest! Meanwhile, back in Montana, Kayce and family are renovating their new oldie of a house. Beth has a fun encounter with a female Broderick Crawford (Texas highway patrol) and fetches her hubby Rip from the tent camp for an impromptu vacation in Texas drinking some (plugola) of Sheridan's 6666 Ranch vodka at a speakeasy.
The fun, spirited scenes stop as the time flashes forward to everybody grieving papa Dutton's demise, and the scene of Kayce with wife and son (handling latter's grief philosophically in a well-written exchange) clashes with the earlier home renovation scene (clumsy editing/story structure).
Back to the main story, Beth is very mean to Summer and then slaps brother Jamie and seems prepping for revenge, also getting violent with her dad's grinning lady-killer Dawn Olivieri (who gets a brief sex scene). Beth and her bro conclude that Jamie killed Costner, setting the stage for a revenge through-line the rest of the season (with Kayce checking military contact to find out which hired killer organization was hired to off his daddy). Episode ends where it began (confusingly back to the past) with cowboys going back to work from their Texas tent encampment.
I hope once the show regains its pacing and advances the story it will get exciting again.
Wifelike (2022)
Softcore porn, where goest thou?
With Shannon Whirry and Shannon Tweed at career peaks, softcore porn movies were the rage in the '90s, via VHS and Cinemax popularity. Hardcore porn, especially via internet distribution ended that era, but here's a throwback, made by indie filmmakers headed by James Bird whose pretentious "fantasy/surrealism" style comes off as precious and as artificial as his AI characters.
It was distressing to see British actor John Rhys Meyers descend so quickly into the career tailspin of a Malcolm McDowell (who he physically resembles) -moving from A pictures to grade Z level. His breathy line readings are extremely poor, and his overall sleepwalking performance made him seem like an AI himself. Why Bird decided on such a misogynist premise (no husband replacement studs for sale here) mystified me. And the casting was a bust, with lovely heroine Elena so closely resembling Twiggy of the Sixties, rather than going for a voluptuous softporn actress. Even the glamorous settings look like current porn, hardcore that is, where the expicit lovemaking is often photographed in fabulous mansions by directors like Jules Jordan or Kayden Kross.
I recall Paramount Home Video releasing plenty of drek in this vein way back when, but for current Paramount Pictures to indulge is disappointing. The sci-fi potential of the story is completely wasted. Obviously, it takes a big budget to do a "Blade Runner", but the aspirations here are embarrassing.
Landman: Dreamers and Losers (2024)
Oy vey!
I admire the way Taylor Sheridan mixes in doses of outrageous black humor to leaven the extreme problems that Billy Bob Thornton encounters in "Landman". The first two episodes provide content equal to a two-hour feature film, but things have just begun for the beleagured landman.
Some prime characters make the scene in Part 2: Kayla Wallace as high-powered lawyer Rebecca, tangling with Billy Bob at first sight; Jon Hamm, extremely well-cast as Billy Bob's slick, hardly sympathetic boss (with his wife Demi Moore only teased into the show so far), plus Colm Feore and James Jordan as Billy Bob's quirky roommates.
The auteur apparently got a special dispensation for Billy Bob to play a chain-smoker, something not seen on TV or even movies in recent years, and I bet Michelob Ultra and Dr. Pepper are providing plenty of product placement funds to support the lavish production values.
Landman: Landman (2024)
Parameters of the job
Taylor Sheridan's concise and terse dialogue for Billy Bob Thornton in the opening (pre-credits) scene of "Landman" sets the stage for a roughneck new series. Billy Bob fits the role perfectly, and even though he didn't write the script it seems utterly natural when he speaks, plus his priceless, underplayed reactions to the foibles of the other characters.
Taylor's gritty, warts and all approach to the genre is refreshing, compared to Hollywood movies that traditionally have cast some heroic (and handsome) wildcatter going through endless cliches until an inevitable scene of a gusher coming in, covering the cast with oil. We get to see the anti-glamorous world of Thornton as landman, dealing with one crisis after another. For human interest, we're introduced to his alluring ex-wife Ali Larter, his everyman young son Jacob Lofland on his first day on the job, and his beautiful teenage daughter Michelle Randolph. After all the tough talk, there's also room for some honest sentiment, and a wallop of a powerful surprise ending to the pilot episode.
Lioness: The Lie Is the Truth (2023)
Bonding
Female bonding is the major theme of this segment, as the focus returns to Oliveira's dangerous mission, gaining the trust of the Middle Eastern socialite who will lead her to her target.
Meanwhile, Kidman's character becomes increasingly sinister, as Taylor Sheridan sets up murky morals (or lack thereof) among the American leaders and intelligence community, reminiscent of the cable hit "Homeland". And of course a dollop of cable-ready nudity is coldly injected into the scenario, followed by some genuine passion.
Thad Luckinbill, playing perhaps the least appealing "bad good guy" and a thorn in Saldana's side, is terrific in a scene terrorizing some petty thieves who interfered with a mission, while both Morgan Freeman and especially Michael Kelly make the most of their limited screen time, dominating a big deal white house meeting concerning the botched San Antonio debacle. Female bonding is the major theme of this segment, as the focus returns to Oliveira's dangerous mission, gaining the trust of the Middle Eastern socialite who will lead her to her target.
Meanwhile, Kidman's character becomes increasingly sinister, as Taylor Sheridan sets up murky morals (or lack thereof) among the American leaders and intelligence community, reminiscent of the cable hit "Homeland". And of course a dollop of cable-ready nudity is coldly injected into the scenario, followed by some genuine passion.
Thad Luckinbill, playing perhaps the least appealing "bad good guy" and a thorn in Saldana's side, is terrific in a scene terrorizing some petty thieves who interfered with a mission, while both Morgan Freeman and especially Michael Kelly make the most of their limited screen time, dominating a big deal white house meeting concerning the botched San Antonio debacle.
Halo: Allegiance (2022)
A teeny bit of (cool) sexiness
John and Makee team up in this episode, returning to the main story arc, and presenting a couple with surprising sex appeal. It also sets the series into a more mystical realm, less of the hard-edged sci-fi previous emphasis. (With the lovely locations, it reminded me of how that Jodie Foster sci-fi classic "Contact" veered into fantasyland at the end.)
The prophecy recited by Makee reminds me of the religious claptrap of "End of Days", so relevant now that extreme right-wing forces have taken control of our government pursuing a nihilistic program under Trump. No sci-fi story of recent vintage can compare with the horrors we might endure in real life if he and especially his backers (including Musk) put their goals into effect.
As John decides to take a big chance that Makee can save the day, the war against the Covenant heats up, with our good guys suffering millions of casualties. The gung-ho attitude of our troops reminds me of Paul Verhoeven's approach to the future, as in "Starship Troopers", but without his satirical edge.
With so many villains in the show, it's no surprise that McElhone emerges as the #1 Fascist in the story, with John, of course, remaining our stalwart hero. Otherwise, it's not wise to trust anyone. After a flurry of ultra-violence, the segment ends with a solid cliffhanger.
First Man Into Space (1959)
Odd British sci-fi/horror
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Robert Day; Written and Produced by John Croydon and Charles Vetter for MGM. Photography by Geoffrey Faithfull; Edited by Peter Mayhew; Music by Buxton Orr. Starring: Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards, Robert Ayres, Bill Nagy and Carl Jaffe.
British science fiction/horror paranoia concerning spaceflight, with the first astronaut returning to Earth as a blood-craving, abrasive-gook-coated monstrosity. Thompson is okay fronting this British picture as the usual Hollywood import, but offering little marquee value.