Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
Muppet Treasure Island: Directed by Brian Henson, David Lane. With Tim Curry, Billy Connolly, Jennifer Saunders, Kevin Bishop. The Muppets set sail in search of treasure, with Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver. Possibly the greatest Muppet story adaptation, second in my mind only to their version of The Christmas Carol, As always with The Muppets, the human actors are great foils for the well loved Muppets and Tim Curry really steals every scene he’s in with a devilish grin and glint in his eye. As with the Christmas Carol adaptation, this is no mere child’s film with dead bodies...
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Directed by James Wan. With Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Amber Heard. Black Manta seeks revenge on Aquaman for his father’s death. Wielding the Black Trident’s power, he becomes a formidable foe. To defend Atlantis, Aquaman forges an alliance with his imprisoned brother. They must protect the kingdom. I actually saw this a couple week ago and am just now getting around to mentioning it. Which isn’t so much an indication of how entertaining the film was, but of how little it stuck with me and how excited I was by seeing it....
Reacher: Created by Nick Santora. With Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Malcolm Goodwin, Willa Fitzgerald. Itinerant former military policeman Jack Reacher solves crimes and metes out his own brand of street justice. Another great season, speaking to the burgeoning American minimalism movement, the increased need for manufactured or found families, and the lengths we should go to believe in others. Also, violence. Lots and lots of violence. Buy On Amazon!
Gold Diggers of 1937: Directed by Lloyd Bacon. With Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Victor Moore. When two investors inform an opportunistic dancer that they can’t fund an elderly stage producer’s production, she suggests they get an insurance policy on the producer’s life. The “Gold Diggers” franchise reminds me greatly of “The Producers” in which insurance payouts are the panacea for all the problems that some rather disreputable people are having. This is the third move of the franchise about women looking for love (and a paycheck) and the odd adventures and escapades they fall into. I’m obviously here...
On a distant Earth colony, an orphaned survivor of an alien invasion discovers that the greatest world-ending dangers aren’t behind her. It’s been eight years s Set in the same universe as the “Frontlines” series, Kloos has wisely wrapped up the storylines from that first set of books and continued on with a new character that’s a survivor of the Lanky invasion and is holed up in an underground bunker on a far away planet with little to no hope for rescue or help from Earth. As like Kloos’s other books, this is so exceptionally good that I managed to...
Star Trek Continues: With Vic Mignogna, Todd Haberkorn, Christopher Doohan, Grant Imahara. The further adventures of the crew of the USS Enterprise. It only took me a couple years, but I finally made it through all 11 episodes of this, the best fan fiction in Star Trek that I’ve ever seen. There’s some surprisingly good science fiction here with plots that range from silly adventures to poignant stories of the human condition.. They’re all for free on youtube, so if you’re a Trek fan and want more TOS in your life, this is the best place to hit that sweet...
The long-awaited memoir from iconic, beloved actor and living legend Sir Patrick Stewart! At just over 450 pages, I thought this was going to be a slog to get through, but Stewart’s writing style is snappy enough that even his descriptions of his childhood home’s lack of a toilet was interesting enough that I was able to finish this in just a couple reading sessions. Surprising to me however was both how open he was about his marital mistakes and how little he talked about his time making Trek and the various movies that he did afterwards like the X-Men...
The Marsh King’s Daughter: Directed by Neil Burger. With Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn, Brooklynn Prince, Gil Birmingham. A woman seeks revenge against the man who kidnapped her mother. While this is a perfectly fine movie with some good acting from both Ridley and Mendelsohn, it feels less than what I was expecting, it’s more of a character study of a situation than it is an action filled revenge adventure. There’s some gorgeous scenery for Ridley and Mendelsohn to chew through, but the story failed to really draw me in. Buy On Amazon!
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: Directed by Steven Caple Jr.. With Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Luna Lauren Velez, Dean Scott Vazquez. During the ’90s, a new faction of Transformers – the Maximals – join the Autobots as allies in the battle for Earth. I can’t exactly remember why I rewatched this, other than it’s a popcorn movie that I could just turn my brain off and not worry about stressing myself about complicated plots, at least sorta, the time travel stuff is complicated enough for this type of movie. I’m more interested in what they’re doing in the final 5...
Echo: With Alaqua Cox, Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Graham Greene. Maya Lopez must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots and embrace the meaning of family and community if she ever hopes to move forward. The latest and greatest from the MCU, this time it’s the sorta villain from the “Hawkeye” show that gets to launch the new “Marvel Spotlight” sub brand from MCU content and only time will tell what that branding actually means. The first series is a good one with just 5 episodes with a total run time of about 4 hours, which is fantastic...
