Twenty-seven years have passed since the Losers’ Club stopped Pennywise’s killing streak. They’ve grown up and moved on, spreading out across the Greater Toronto Area United States. When the slaughter begins again, they return to Port Hope, Ontario Derry, Maine, hoping to permanently end the life of a certain murderous clown from beyond.

It Chapter Two has much to recommend it, but the fact that I spent a measurable amount of its two hours and 49 minutes trying to identify locations tells you something.

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Just when it looked like Disney and Marvel Studios had all of their Marvel Toys back, Sony has rejected a new deal that would have seen the profits between the two studios split more equitably– that is, Disney would have received a bigger percentage. At present, it appears that Sony will be continuing on their own with Spider-man, leaving him out of the official MCU films.

Of course, with the kind of money that might be made, and Sony’s shaky track record with the Web-slinger, expect twists and updates to this story.

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It wouldn’t be summer without some Weekend Reviews of older films, classic, curious, or forgotten, of interest to the Bureau. This 1970 creature feature follows up Hammer’s better-known One Million Years BC. It’s not as celebrated as that film, but it’s better than Hammer’s other quaintly ridiculous “Cave Man Pictures”—and it exists in both family-friendly and slightly more adult variants.

And these old features come, after all, the closest SF usually gets to a beach movie.

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Alternate history is SF, right? In Quentin Tarantino’s lastest film, we have a meandering story about a fading actor, which then turns into alternative history and a movie about, I suppose, movies. It is also the first Tarantino film I’ve seen in the movie theatre (rather than at home) since Kill Bill, Volume 2. What I like about Tarantino’s work I rather like in this movie. What I don’t like about his work I really don’t like in this movie.

Back to Hollywood, then, fifty years ago….

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Fresh off the climatic end of Marvel Cinematic Universe phase 3 with Avengers: Endgame, we get a much more gentle coda as Peter Parker decides to go on his class trip to Europe.  Also, a new hero named Mysterio emerges.  If you are still worried about spoilers for Avengers: Endgame, avoid this movie and this review.  If you are worried about spoilers for Far from Home, there are lots of twists and surprises it would be difficult to review it without saying Continue reading →

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
–Theseus (V.i.7-8)

Summer is icumen in the Northern Hemisphere and a certain midsommar horror will see release soon, and so we’re going to review Shakespeare’s popular play of fantasy. So many film adaptations exist that we might make this an annual tradition. For now, we’ll start with the two most star-studded cinematic interpretations, Warner Brothers’ 1935 adaptation with luminaries like James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, and Olivia de Havilland, and the 1999 version starring Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Calista Flockhart, and Christian Bale, among others.

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