The Crazies: Directed by Breck Eisner. With Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker. After a strange and insecure plane crash, an unusual toxic virus enters a quaint farming town. A young couple are quarantined, but they fight for survival along with help from a couple of people. It’s a reboot / remake, I have memories of it being a sequel, but apparently that’s a fake memory because it’s not a sequel at all! It has a great opening song of “we’ll meet again” by the man in black and features a young Danielle Panabaker, who I always forget...

The Crazies: Directed by George A. Romero. With Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar. The military attempts to contain a manmade combat virus that causes death and permanent insanity in those infected, as it overtakes a small Pennsylvania town. One of Romero’s few movies that doesn’t have much to do with zombies, though I guess you might consider the ‘crazies’ to be slightly zombie like, but I personally do not. They’re crazes, not zombies. It’s a movie that could easily be made today with only practical effects that aren’t very good, but the story itself of a...

We know what happens in the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But what is the crew up to when we are not watching? IDW’s first Star Trek comic issues allow a glimpse into the space between… A well written story that (apparently?) never had a proper resolution, at least that’s the impression I got from the forward of the book, though that forward was definitely written well before 2017 when this collection was originally printed, so perhaps they’ve had time to get back to resolving the story of Federation Admirals going off the rails and using Picards’s logs for evil...

The Protege: Directed by Martin Campbell. With Maggie Q, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, David Rintoul. Rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody, Anna is the world’s most skilled contract killer. However, when Moody is brutally killed, she vows revenge for the man who taught her everything she knows. A terrible poster for a movie that had terrible marketing, but ended up being an enjoyable experience, and I dare say one of Maggie Q’s best roles. The plot it self is familiar, she’s a hitman with special skill done wrong, but it’s the emotional acting and emotional baggage...

Brand New Cherry Flavor: Created by Nick Antosca, Lenore Zion. With Rosa Salazar, Catherine Keener, Eric Lange, Jeff Ward. Lisa Nova, an aspiring film director in the sun-drenched but seamy world of 1990 Los Angeles, embarks on a mind-altering journey of supernatural revenge that gets nightmarishly out of control. Buy On Amazon!

Respect: Directed by Liesl Tommy. With Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Tituss Burgess. Following the rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom, RESPECT is the remarkable true story of the music icon’s journey to find her voice. A perfectly fine biography of one of America’s finest vocal professionals, starring one of our other finest vocal professionals. There’s high drama and plenty of twists and turns, but it’s obvious that everyone involved was emotionally dedicated to making a perfectly fine biography with captivating music. Buy On Amazon!

Kate: Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. With Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Woody Harrelson, Miku Patricia Martineau, Tadanobu Asano. A female assassin has 24 hours to get vengeance on her murderer before she dies. A Netflix exclusive story of a hitwoman, done wrong and her (super quick) quest for revenge. Other some incredibly bad CGI in a car chase scene, this is a well done film with an enjoyable cast and a familiar story to anyone that’s ever watched a single “powerful person done wrong and wants revenge” films. Despite not offering much in the sense of unique story elements, I still enjoyed...

The colony worlds Adirondack and Silvern fell to the Troft forces almost without a struggle. Outnumbered and on the defensive, Earth made a desperate decision. It would attack the aliens not from space, but on the ground—with forces the Trofts did not even suspect. Thus were created the Cobras, a guerilla force whose weapons were surgically implanted, invisible to the unsuspecting eye, yet undeniably deadly. But power brings temptation, and not all the Cobras could be trusted to fight for Earth alone. Jonny Moreau would learn the uses—and abuses—of his special abilities and what it truly meant to be a...

Punisher: War Zone: Directed by Lexi Alexander. With Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchison, Colin Salmon. Frank Castle, known as the Punisher, ruthlessly demolishes organized crime, but it starts an even bigger war. Ah, the Punisher. His first appearance in the comics was the same year as “Death Wish” and shares many of the same elements of death families, a third for revenge, and poorly thought out action scenes. This is the third Punisher film with the third actor to play the character, none of whom I actually liked all that much in the roles, either because they were too...

Watch Dogs 2: Directed by Danny Bélanger, Jonathan Morin. With Ruffin Prentiss, Shawn Baichoo, Tasya Teles, Jonathan Dubsky. In San Francisco, hacker Marcus Holloway joins DedSec, to take down a corrupt system by fighting and hacking his way trough the entire San Francisco Bay. Me and a buddy tried doing this co-op and we had some problems figuring out if the game was even co-op to begin with. It is, but it really isn’t. It’s a pretty game that I just don’t have the energy to try playing any more. Buy On Amazon!