It’s kind of ironic that the villain of the sequel to 1996’s “Space Jam” is named Al G. Rhythm, the physical manifestation of an algorithm who decides the fate of not just star Lebron James but of the Looney Tunes. “A New Legacy” (Or “Space Jam 2”) feels like it was directed not by a person, but a committee of people that followed algorithms about what was appealing to modern audiences, and what was “hip.” The film doubles as a two hour EPK for the HBO Max Streaming Service. “A New Legacy” premieres on the aforementioned streaming service (and theaters), so Warner takes full advantage of exploiting every single (repeat: every single) IP that they have at their disposal.
Tag Archives: Science Fiction
The Dead Zone (1983): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
Some of the best Stephen King book to screen adaptations has been television mini-series. That’s fascinating as “The Dead Zone” often feels exactly like a television mini-series. Despite David Cronenberg’s solid direction, “The Dead Zone” is often very episodic. It doesn’t have one streamlined narrative so much as it has vignettes that lead to what you could call the series finale. In retrospect after my first viewing, it’s not at all a surprise that the premise inevitably led to a television series.
River (2021)
A young woman named River goes back to her hometown following the passing of her mother. As she works through her grief and clearing her childhood home, she goes on a self-discovery journey which includes disappearing for an extended period of time and potential outside forces at play.
Black Widow (2021)
After waiting almost two years (with three delays) for “Black Widow,” there’s something poignant about its entire tone and the time of its release. With Scarlett Johansson leaving the MCU and the series moving on, “Black Widow” is a wonderful epilogue that fills in the holes about Natasha Romanoff once and for all. Natasha was always something of an enigma who we could never really make up our minds about, and the long overdue solo movie gives us the definitive look in to the life of a pretty noble heroine.
The Time Guardian (1987) [Blu-Ray]
Brian Hannant’s “The Time Guardian” is about as vintage straight to video science fiction as it can get. It’s a low budget, serviceable genre entry with a hodgepodge of (what feel like) recycled concepts that never quite gel together, and sadly never comes together even by the time the climax rolls around. It’s “Back to the Future,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Star Wars,” and “Terminator” all rolled in to one big Ozploitation mélange. At its best it’s only kind of charming in fleeting moments; at its worst, it’s absolutely dull late night cable fodder.
Richard Donner (1930-2021): My Top Five Films from the Director
Richard Donner was one of the great action directors, a man who could tackle almost any movie and add his own distinct flavor to it. Although mostly a film titan in the eighties, Donner continued a long and illustrious career directing genre films well in to his eighties and left behind a humongous legacy of iconic films, hit films, and films that will live on for many, many years in the hearts of movie buffs everywhere.
In remembrance of the cinematic titan, I thought I’d list my five favorite films from his humongous oeuvre.
What are your favorite Richard Donner films? Let us know in the comments!
F9 (2021)
The only thing worse than a bad action movie is a boring one; even with the “Fast and the Furious” series now reaching that point where it’s becoming self-aware and self-satirical, Justin Lin’s penultimate entry in to the long running movie series is terrible. I rarely see action movies with so much noise and activity that put me to sleep, but lo and behold, “F9” pulls it off. This is a movie that throws everything but the kitchen sink at audiences, bringing in the cast from “Tokyo Drift,” Helen Mirren and Kurt Russell for brief walk on roles, and jumping through hoops to explain away the big plot holes with something vaguely resembling logic.