I saw an A.I. video on YouTube, that I’m not going to bother to link to, that was just plagiarism of Star Wars clips—instead of getting shot in Empire , Threepio pulls out a bat and beats up another robot. The technical quality is getting better exponentially, but it’s still a world of crap. It really makes me think if the problem isn’t the technology but the operators. How many people in the world can really make a great film? A few dozen? A hundred?

I have not seen The Bride! I didn’t even know there was such a movie. I loved Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first film, The Lost Daughter . I guess The Bride! doesn’t really work but people sure are laying into it. The vitriol for it seems just so—I guess ugly is the word.

My least favorite morning of the year: daylight savings time begins. I think it’s necessary to have daylight savings time, but I don’t like how they changed it some years ago to start several weeks earlier. (Keeping it an extra few weeks in October for kids trick or treating on Halloween makes sense.) I’ll be awake eventually.

I’ve written before about how I read comic books as a kid in the 1980s. I loved the Marvel X-books and still have nostalgic fondness for that era. I stopped briefly into a comic book earlier this week...and it’s always a strange experience. It feels so far removed from what I knew and loved. I asked the guy working there if any kids buy comics now. He seemed surprised by the question. I think he said something about parents occasionally bringing in their kids while they shop.

Check out this very comprehensive transcription—with annotations—on the seminal “Linus and Lucy” by Vince Guaraldi: Very informative!

Harrison Ingemarson made this piano reduction of John Williams’ theme for Amazing Stories : I remember watching this for the first time with the imaginative title sequence: What can you say about master composer like John Williams, who knows how to create an instantly memorable tune, perfectly arranged? It’s like a lost art now. Although the show had a lot of promise—a Twilight Zone -style anthology, made by top filmmakers (Spielberg!)—outside of a few episodes, it just wasn’

There’s a new Star Wars movie in less than three months. The trailer: It’s a little hard to tell what the actual story is going to be. I have enjoyed the show but when the hero doesn’t show his face and the sidekick doesn’t speak, it is rather limiting to the drama.

It’s not films or film music, but my friend Dan Madsen is selling his incredible collection of Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain materials . You’ll remember them, of course, from the episodes “The Savage Curtain” and “Time’s Arrow,” respectively.

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Robert Carradine. He took his own life after years of battling bipolar disorder . My friend and I once saw him out at an L.A. restaurant. For whatever reason we introduced ourselves—we’re fans—and I remember him sweetly saying, “I’m Bobby” and shaking hands. He played the ultimate, iconic nerd in the Revenge of the Nerds films, but it was a total performance—I remember in person being struck at how cool and un-nerdy he seemed. The o

I was channel-surfing briefly yesterday and saw a few minutes of Superman: The Movie on pay cable. (Nowadays both the 2025 and 1978 films come up in the channel guide as simply “Superman” so it’s not always clear what you’re going to get.) This is one of my favorite movies and I just love it, always. I watched a few minutes of the initial Metropolis scenes. Donner and his team get everything so right. Even the little things, the character grace notes and humor—just so, so go

The Nacelle Company has released a new, three-hour interview with Marcia Lucas. I haven’t watched it all but she is very candid about not liking the prequels or sequels. Cool lady!

Check out this video of Vince Guaraldi (with bass and drums) playing “Linus and Lucy,” courtesy Lee Mendelson Film Productions: It’s billed as the earliest television recording, from 1964—but I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen a video of Vince playing. I have read that he had short fingers which led in part to his unique sound. It’s hard to describe, but his music just doesn’t sound the same played by anybody else.

YES!!! The weeks between the NFL playoffs and the start of baseball—or at least March Madness—are so boring. But Olympic curling is back! So sooooooothing....

Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes have a new podcast, Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny , which is terrific fun. Anybody who has seen them at conventions knows how good they are. The entire TNG cast was an extraordinary collection of good people who are genuinely decent and fun. It’s not a Star Trek podcast, but they have “resigned to fate” that Trek will come up a lot. Enjoy!

I like Christopher Nolan’s films, although I don’t spend days and weeks trying to figure them out. (I think even Nolan said Tenet is not supposed to make sense.) But this video on Inception does seem to provide the most conclusive interpretation about the ending: Well done, nerd!

I was surprised to see a second season produced of The Night Manager , ten years after season one. The original was a very slick adaptation of the Le Carré novel. About season two—well, I dunno. I’ve always been annoyed by sequels where the original wrapped everything up, the hero vanquished the villain, and then in the next one, the villain comes back and they do it all over again. What was the point, exactly? Terrific cast, though.

Thumbs way up for Adolescence , which I only now just watched. Wow, what an achievement—just as a piece of storytelling, to say nothing of the one-take construction. I think people are going overboard with the one-take thing ( Birdman , The Studio ) but this has to be the most incredible use of it. In the first episode, I was thinking, wow the VFX to stitch this together is seamless—well, there wasn’t any. It truly was one take per episode. Here’s how they did it . I will say

Thumbs up for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms , the newest Game of Thrones spinoff/prequel from HBO. I didn’t even know this was coming, or what it was based on. I saw a listing and thought, hey that looks like a Game of Thrones ripoff. The creators have wisely “gone small” and very successfully so, with a character-based story about a wannabe knight and his unusual squire. It recaptures the feeling of the early Game of Thrones seasons, with the lived-in world and medieval

I was rewatching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , as all of the Trek movies have cycled around on pay cable. It’s a reminder of the simple power of goodness and teamwork, and seeing people we like, who like each other, live up to their ideals. Ah, Star Trek, bless you. I remember when the late 1980s Star Trek movies came out and the critics and culture were just merciless about the aging cast. Old jokes, fat jokes, wig jokes—it was brutal. And now Indiana Jones is in his eigh

There’s a trailer for a new He-Man movie, which looks like a videogame (natch). But this is as good a time as any to remind everybody that the voice of the original animated He-Man was the same as Morris the Cat. True!