Reviews

Review: The Four Musketeers (1974)

(Note: this capsule review is part of my farewell to the Netflix DVD service. #GetThroughMyQueue) A perfect film to kick things off because I had just watched The Three Musketeers (1973) and couldn’t see the sequel on a streaming service without paying more pistoles to somebody.  Why, if I hadn’t had Netflix DVDs, I would have been forced to challenge someone to a duel. Netflix saved my honor is what I’m saying. (Or possibly saved…

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Reviews

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Reviews of Red Envelopes!

The final month is upon us. DVD Netflix is going away. This departure will blow a hole in the movie-watching habits of many of us… and leave us ever more at the mercy of ephemeral licensing deals and capricious streamers, both of which may conspire to leave us without certain perfectly good films that deserve to be seen. As Beth Greenfield notes on Aol.com (yes, the irony of that article’s location is not lost on…

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Producing

Swift Karma in the Entertainment Industry

The Hollywood strikes continue and have no end in sight as I mentioned in my last post. So, with that “no news is bad news,” I thought I’d share some good news for this Labor Day. Now, I’m more of a Tom Swifty fan than Taylor Swift fan, but besides knowing that “girl can write a song,” I appreciate how she’s taken the “with great power comes great responsibility” challenge seriously. You see, she’s made…

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Acting Writing

WGA/SAG-AFTRA 2023: End-of-Summer Update

We’re at the end of Summer with the start of Labor Day Weekend, we’re well over 100 days into the WGA strike, and we do have some developments since both strikes began. But before I get to that, I should cover what hasn’t changed. It’s still a puzzler as to why the companies haven’t settled considering what is being asked. AMPTP, the group representing the companies (both the traditional studios like Paramount and the streamers…

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Various and Sundry

Babylon 5: The Best Imperfect Space Opera?

The new Babylon 5 movie is out and, since it’s not readily on any of the streaming services I subscribe to, my thrift will delay me seeing it soon. At the same time, when I do see it, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it immensely. Right in time for its release, Tor.com has re-published a wonderfully truthful article by Jennifer Giesbrecht from 2019 that goes into how Babylon 5 is great even as it is not…

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Various and Sundry

Animation Break… with Pizza

Apart from contemplating whether to see any component of Barbenheimer in the theaters, I didn’t have anything I was planning to see until my kids announced they were unanimous in wanting to see the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film aka “Wait, there’s another TMNT movie?!?” This was a surprise because, to the best of my knowledge and theirs, they have not seen any previous TMNT movie. They also have not been around long enough…

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Acting Voiceover

Slim Chance of Escaping The Killer Mine

I’ve been fortunate enough to record parts for several audio fiction pieces this year and the first one to drop hits me right in the vintage radio feels. It’s a great reworking of a episode of Escape starring perennial Gunsmoke voice actor and the iconic Paladin of Have Gun, Will Travel, John Dehner. Escape is one of my favorites of those old shows and is similar to the more long-running, better known anthology show Suspense.…

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Acting Writing

Teeny WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Follow-Up

More people than I expected read my Thursday update about the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, so I figured I should do a brief follow-up. For one, I didn’t read the Deadline article closely enough as it turns out the WGA and AMPTP were just meeting about meeting (I’ve made a correction to the Thursday post as it’s still getting some clicks). Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the meeting did not result in agreeing to resume negotiations. In the…

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Acting Producing Writing

WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Update

So, it’s August and both the screenwriters and the screen actors are still striking. The WGA is meeting about returning to the negotiating table this Friday, but that doesn’t mean their strike is ending and, at the time of me writing this, there’s no news on AMPTP talking with SAG-AFTRA (though per that article, they’d be happy to). I’ve gone back and tagged all my relevant posts about the strike(s) for ease of reference, but…

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Various and Sundry

Swedes Take Distress Calls Seriously

I’ve been working on an update on the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, but I saw a meme of the photo above and felt we could all use some good news about humans helping humans. Basically, a small sailboat lost its rudder and called for distress. Naturally, the closest ship came to their aid. It just happened to be a 788-ton 1:1 replica of an 18th century sailing vessel: the Götheborg. Looking for more information than…

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