Movie Review: Blade Runner

"All those moments will be lost in time...like tears in rain."

Movie Review: Blade Runner (1982) directed by Ridley Scott It is 2019, and Los Angeles is in rough shape. Thanks to climate change, pollution and other factors, animals are nearly extinct. The city itself is dark and run down, with almost perpetual rain showers. Most of the people who can move to off-world colonies have done… Continue reading Movie Review: Blade Runner

Movie Review: Sword of the Beast

Gundayu and Gennosuke discuss their plans.

Movie Review: Sword of the Beast (1965) directed by Hideo Gosha It is 1857, towards the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Commodore Perry’s ships have forced Japan to open its ports, and social change is rippling across Japan. Yuuki Gennosuke (Mikijiro Hira) thought he was going to help bring reform, but instead wound up killing his… Continue reading Movie Review: Sword of the Beast

Book Review: Branded West

Book Review: Branded West edited by Don Ward The Western Writers of America were founded in 1953 to promote literature related to the American West. It started with primarily traditional Western fiction, but also promotes historical and non-fiction works and even songs. It has an annual prize called the Spur Awards. But this collection published… Continue reading Book Review: Branded West

Magazine Review: High Adventure #191: Action Special

This cover is unrelated to any of the stories within.

Magazine Review: High Adventure #191: Action Special edited by John P. Gunnison This issue of the pulp fiction reprint magazine has five stories from different action subgenres from five different magazines. Let’s see what’s in the grab bag! “The Jonah” by Bill Adams, first published in The Blue Book Magazine November 1935, is a sea… Continue reading Magazine Review: High Adventure #191: Action Special

Movie Review: The Last Stand (2013)

Time for the town's defenders to lock and load!

Movie Review: The Last Stand (2013) directed by Jee-Woon Kim Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) is the organized crime version of a nepo baby, being a third generation cartel boss. But he didn’t stay on top in the business by being anything less than a ruthless, cunning active criminal. When captured inside the United States, Cortez uses… Continue reading Movie Review: The Last Stand (2013)

Comic Book Review: Best of DC #20: World’s Finest

Art by Ross Andru & Dic Giordano

Comic Book Review: Best of DC #20: World’s Finest Art by Dick Dillin & Joe Giella For a few decades, World’s Finest Comics was by default the Superman/Batman team-up book, featuring DC Comics’ two top characters working together to handle various cases and crises. This 1982 reprint digest presents three of these stories from 1971-1972,… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Best of DC #20: World’s Finest

Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories

Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories edited by Rogers Terrill This collection of exciting tales of action and bravery plucked from the pages of Argosy, the long-running pulp magazine, is most notable for only choosing from those printed between 1946 and 1952, when the collection was published. Thus it had, at the time,… Continue reading Book Review: The Argosy Book of Adventure Stories

Book Review: Diadem from the Stars

Book Review: Diadem from the Stars by Jo Clayton Aleytys (“Leyta” to her friends) isn’t like the other girls in her clan. No one else has that bright red hair. Although she is the daughter of Azdar, the clan head, he barely acknowledges Aleytys exists, and his first wife Qumri is physically and emotionally abusive… Continue reading Book Review: Diadem from the Stars

Movie Review: Serenity (2005)

The Serenity's crew doesn't always agree on the best course of action.

Movie Review: Serenity (2005) directed by Joss Whedon This is what we are told: It is around 500 years in the future. Life on Earth That Was became unsustainable, so humanity went looking for new worlds to live on. At least one place they found was a trinary star system with multiple planets and planetoids in… Continue reading Movie Review: Serenity (2005)

Movie Review: The Revenge of Frankenstein

Dr. Stein considers a point made by a colleague.

Movie Review: The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) directed by Terence Fisher When last seen in The Curse of Frankenstein, Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) had been condemned to the guillotine. At the beginning of this story, he’s being marched to his execution. We see the blade fall, but two grave robbers soon discover that the Baron has somehow… Continue reading Movie Review: The Revenge of Frankenstein