& TV












There are a lot of links on the following pages. I haven't had a chance to look at all these movie and TV links too closely as I've just been finding them all over the last few weeks. I have only listed links that seem to have something of interest. I had to wade through a lot of broken links and, let's face it, crap to get the ones I did. I will try to update them every so often, but pages go down all the time (I've had 4 links disappear in the last couple of weeks even before I could get my page up). Good luck out there in the World Wide Bog.

My Favourite Movies


Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Steven Spielberg is a master at inspiring a sense of wonder. He uses a combination of wrenching photography, master storytelling, and a moving soundtrack designed to take you on an emotional roller coaster ride touching on sadness, joy, fear, and excitement. We can only hope that if we ever meet an alien race they are as friendly as Spielberg's. He used a lot of these themes again in E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Jurassic Park (1993) which are two of the most popular movies of all time.
Close Encounters was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, winning Best Cinematography and Best Sound Effects Editing. E.T. was nominated for 1 Academy Award in 1981 and for 6 in 1982, winning Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Score. Jurassic Park won 3 Academy Awards; Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Spielberg was nominated for Best Director with both these movies and more, but his talents weren't officially recognized until he won that award for Schindler's List (1993).

James Bond Movies
I really like the James Bond movies even if they all have flaws. Sean Connery was definitely THE Bond. George Lazenby was a good Bond and he got to play opposite Diana Rigg, lucky guy. The biggest problem with Roger Moore's movies wasn't him, but the era the movies were made (awful music & fashion). Timothy Dalton brought the toughness back to Bond. Pierce Brosnan was always a pretty obvious choice for Bond and he did a good job. Barry Nelson was the first Bond (an American agent with a British sidekick?). The 60's version of Casino Royale was a wild spoof with David Niven as the real, reserved, prudish Bond while Peter Sellers was the figurehead playboy image of Bond. All of the secret agents in this version call themselves James Bond (to confuse the enemy). What little kid in all of us can't enjoy all those gadgets, exotic locales, gorgeous women, and glorious adventure. M, Q, and Moneypenny are all like somebody you know, a family member or co-worker or ...


I really can't pick a favourite movie. The best Bond villain would have to be Gert Frobe as Goldfinger. My top 5 Bond women are Diana Rigg as Contessa Teresa di Vincenzo
(Tracy) in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock
in For Your Eyes Only, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger,
Jane Seymour as Solitaire in Live and Let Die, and Lois Chiles as Dr. Holly Goodhead in Moonraker(one of the worst movies). The best sidekick was Pedro Armendariz as Kerim Bey in From Russia With Love. Without question, Paul McCartney & Wings
did the best title song for Live and Let Die. Although, John Barry's rowdy,
instrumental trademark Bond music is great and showed up in various forms throughout all
the Bond films (obscured by other pitiful music of the times sometimes). Last year I saw
The Brian Setzer Orchestra play an incredible version of the best of this music (right out of From Russia With Love). Brian's nasty guitar rendition of the opening riffs led to the onslaught of his huge horn section. It was an unexpected treat, I expected to see a couple of bikini clad girls dancing on the stage and maybe a nuclear explosion or something. There is a strong Avengers relationship here. Not only did Diana Rigg marry James Bond, but
Patrick MacNee was in A View to a Kill and they both died. Honor Blackman was Steed's partner before Emma Peel.



Enemy Mine (1985)
A sci-fi story of two enemies of different species who both crashland on a barren planet and have to work towards understanding each other to survive. This movie was really well done and didn't just resort to space battles to tell a good science fiction story. Louis Gossett Jr. is incredible and utterly convincing as the lizardlike alien. Based on the book Enemy Mine by Barry Longyear.

Ghost Story (1981)
A story of 4 men who share a terrible secret from their past that comes back to haunt them. This is an eerie movie. You don't quite know what's going on most of the time and the story kept me riveted to the screen. The 4 men are played by Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and John Houseman.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
All of these movies are a lot of fun, but I probably like Raiders the best (usually first movies are better than sequels). Harrison Ford has had a lot of great roles, but Indiana Jones is my favourite. You get wild-paced adventure, humour, a story by George Lucas for Raiders, and all the trademark Spielberg tricks.
Raiders received 8 Academy Award nominations; winning Best Art Direction / Set Decoration, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects. Temple of Doom got 2 nominations winning Best Visual Effects. Last Crusade got 2 nominations.



The Goonies (1985)
A movie for us kids of all ages, this is rollicking adventure. A bunch of kids find a treasure map, risk deadly traps, get chased by crooks, and see things only imagined. I would have loved to have an adventure like this as a kid. Not a surprise that this was produced by Spielberg.

Blade Runner (1982)
A dark vision of a dark and foreboding 21st Century. Harrison Ford is a Blade Runner who tracks down renegade androids. A good story even though it hardly resembles the original
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick.
Received 1 Academy Award nomination.
Check out 2019: Off-World (Blade Runner Page).

The Princess Bride (1987)
An excellent tongue-in-cheek fairy tale. It has all the trimmings; love, betrayal, princes, giants, swordplay, spells, and a very silly sense of humour. I still howl when I watch it. Directed by Rob Reiner.
For more on Rob try The Rob Reiner Page.

Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)
My favourite Whoopi Goldberg movie. It's got all of her standard gags and dangerous intrigue too. Whoopi accidentally gets hooked up with a British spy who's in trouble on her computer at the bank. A memorable scene is when she is trying to figure out the lyrics to Jumpin' Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones for a computer code. This was
Penny Marshall's directing debut. Other good Whoopi movies are Burglar (1987),
Fatal Beauty (1987), and yes I liked Sister Act (1992).
Check out The Whoopi Goldberg Page

Star Wars (1977)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Return of the Jedi (1983)
One of the grandest and most exciting sagas ever from producer George Lucas who also wrote the first and third instalments, as well as directing the first. Set a standard for space scenes that still has influence today. The characters all stick
with you; Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2D2, C3PO, Yoda, Jabba the Hut. I can't wait to see what the mind of Lucas and modern special effects will cook up for the next
trilogy which will be a prequel to this one. Another excellent role for Harrison Ford.
Star Wars was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won Best Art Direction / Set Decoration, Costume Design, Film Editing, Sound, Visual Effects, and Original Score. The Empire Strikes Back was nominated for 4, winning Best Sound and Visual Effects. Return of the Jedi was nominated for 4, winning Best Visual Effects.


2001: A Space Oddysey (1968)
2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)
While 2001 is definitely slow and plodding in places it has some gorgeous footage. While it is obscure and hard to understand in places it is a wonderfully inspiring tale of contact with aliens who might as well be gods to us. It is hard to forget the computer HAL 9000 who goes insane and kills most of the astronauts on his ship. Screenplay written by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick and based on Clarke's short story The Sentinel. Kubrick directed this one as well as these well known films: Spartacus (1960), Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and The Shining (1980). 2010 was done pretty well and had some great shots. In the book the scientists and astronauts are able to get past the petty political squabblings of their governments, but in the movie there was way too much nationalistic posturing. They also glazed over the significance of discovering life on Europa, especially leaving out the parts of the book that involved the wildcard Chinese ship competing with the Russians and Americans.
For more on Kubrick try Stanley Kubrick.

Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Alien 3 (1992)
Sigourney Weaver spends all of these movies battling very nasty aliens. Most people like Aliens the best, but I like the original Alien because there is more mystery and you don't get to see the alien very clearly. I think this adds to the suspense. The various aliens and some of the sets were designed by artist H.R. Giger. The original movie has a lot of similarities to The Thing (1951, 1982) which was based on the story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr.
Alien was nominated for 2 Academy Awards, winning Best Visual Effects. Aliens was nominated for 7, winning Best Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects. Alien 3 was nominated for 1.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
A peaceful alien comes to Earth To promote peace and warn against the direction we are headed with nuclear weapons. He is accompanied by the robot Gort who is the one IN CHARGE. If we do not agree to check our aggressive tendencies the robot will wipe out our whole planet. Most of the people agree with the alien Klaatu about peace but, of course, the ones in charge are way too paranoid and would rather take out the alien and doom the human race. The way Klaatu is befriended by regular folks and persecuted by the government is reminiscent of the martyrdom of Jesus Christ.
Based on the story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates.

Friday the 13th (1980)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The original movies in these series were quite good. Friday the 13th is pretty much a straight slasher but it works. Don't really need to see any of the sequels to this one though. Nightmare is a slasher and screamer but it also keeps you very confused as to what is actually happening, or is it just a dream, or...? It makes for a story that keeps you interested and it gave me some good chills. The sequels are fun even if they fall short of the original. They started going more and more for campy humour. There are some really funny one-liners (a little gruesome of course).


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