What's New
30 Aug 26
So guess what I managed to do? Yes, I finally finished reading The High Window, which means I can now cover Time to Kill, an adaptation of said novel with another character taking Philip Marlowe's place. Speaking of other film detectives taking Marlowe's place, we also have The Falcon Takes Over, an adaptation of Farewell, My Lovely with the Gay Falcon taking the lead (and George Sanders' last time to play the Falcon). Another thing I watched recently was the 1974 BBC drama Fall of Eagles. We close on a double feature because we might as well get both of them out the door at the same time. It's the two Divergent sequels: Insurgent and Allegiant. Remember the YA boom of the Tens? I can't say it was a good time, but it was a time. I was about to say I wasn't going to cover the TV series cobbled together to salvage the ending after the lead actress pulled out, but that actually got cancelled, so the movie-only crowd was left hanging. Well, so much for that. Anyway, I've actually started doing some anime watching, so hopefully I'll have some stuff ready for next week. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 12:49:19
23 Aug 26
As I mentioned before, I did more sleeping than watching on my hops across the pond this time around, so I don't have that much to present in terms of viewing, but here's what I have. First is the 2020 documentary miniseries Washington, the Tensura movie That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea and the Chinese animated film Nobody. While I still haven't finished The High Window, I did just finish reading Volume 7 of The Eminence in Shadow. To round things out, we have the 1959 film The Devil's Disciple. Looking to next week, what I put together will depend on whether or not I can finish The High Window by then. Maybe getting some anime viewing done would be nice as well. I'm also thinking about getting some more teasers out. We'll see what all I can get up to. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 13:33:50
17 Aug 26
Well, my vacation kept me pretty well occupied. Even my fooling around with AI was somewhat curtailed. I did a lot more sleeping on the plane and running around the rest of the time, so I don't have much of a haul for you, and even that needs to be delayed until next week. Also, I still haven't finished reading The High Window, so that additional feature I had planned last month also needs to be placed on hold a bit longer. I've got a couple weeks of what should be slow days at work, so maybe I can make up for lost time a bit. Anyway, what I've prepared for you today is another selection from the review backlog. We'll go chronologically, starting with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in 1941's The Corsican Brothers. Next is the 1959 detective story The Crimson Kimono, with its delightfully tacky tagline on the poster. Next is 1973's The Day of the Jackal, and don't ask me to review the 2024 TV series. Chuck Norris bursts onto the scene in 1986's The Delta Force and we close with George Romero branching out from zombies to do the Stephen King adaptation The Dark Half. There are only two things I watched on the plane, so if I can finish The High Window over the course of the week, I might roll the two plans into one. Feel free to hope for me to resume writing on any of my stories as well. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 13:11:17
27 Jul 26
I got the movies watched I intended for this week, but I haven't finished reading The High Window, so we'll put off that plan for a bit. In the meantime, we have my first anime review of the year, from the Spring 2026 season, The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King. From here, we continue with the movie backlog. Going chronologically, we start with Errol Flynn in 1936's The Charge of the Light Brigade. Next is Richard Burton in that magical wonderland known as Haiti in 1967's The Comedians. Next, we have the 1974 Japanese film The Castle of Sand and lastly, from the folks who brought you Murder by Death, it's Peter Falk in The Cheap Detective. There may not be an update next week, so don't be holding your breath for it. If I manage to get something together, it'll probably just be more movies out of the backlog, but I might surprise everyone, myself included. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 07:45:14
19 Jul 26
It took me a little longer than I was expecting to get it all together, but it's time to get hardboiled. First we have Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe in 1975's Farewell, My Lovely and the 1978 version of The Big Sleep. We then go back to the source with Raymond Chandler's original novels for The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely. Last and unfortunately least is 1947's The Brasher Dubloon, which has yet another actor playing Marlowe in such a short time. Next week I'd like to have read the source novel for this, The High Window, and watch a couple examples of Chandler's stories co-opted for other characters, and after that, I might even start having anime reviews at the ready. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 15:45:20
13 Jul 26
The hardboiled feature I was promising needs to be pushed back one more week because I still have a few chapters to go before I finish reading Farewell, My Lovely, so instead we'll proceed with our regularly scheduled programming. I jumped ahead to keep all the dahlias together last week, so let's take a brief step back alphabetically to cover 1930's The Blue Angel and its 1959 remake from director Edward Dmytryk, who also brought us 1954's The Caine Mutiny. Sandwiched between these two 1950s films is the 1957 classic The Bridge on the River Kwai. We then jump ahead all the way to 2012 for The Bourne Legacy for those of you who want a Bourne movie without that pesky Jason Bourne guy. If all goes according to plan, we'll have that Raymond Chandler-centric feature next week. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 15:23:01
05 Jul 26
Prompted by last week's review of the '46 The Big Sleep, I had this big hard-boiled feature in the works, but I need a little more time to get it all together. Coincidentally, proceeding down the list actually yielded three films that fit the theme, so we'll take a look at them first. We start with 1929's The Bishop Murder Case and follow it with another Raymond Chandler story brought to the silver screen in 1946, The Blue Dahlia. And while we're on the topic of dahlias, we can top it off with 2006's The Black Dahlia. Shifting gears, we have Tyrone Power and Orson Welles in the Walter Scott-esque The Black Rose and Rutger Hauer in the post-apocalyptic flick The Blood of Heroes (otherwise known as The Salute of the Jugger). And that does it for now. At least I have a plan for next week's reviews that isn't just dipping into the backlog, so that's something. Whatever else I can cobble together, if anything, remains to be seen. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 17:08:04
28 Jun 26
We're kickin' it old school this week, not by any intention of mine but rather mere coincidence of how the backlog shakes out. We start in 1932 with Walter Huston in The Beast of the City. Next, we have Humphrey Bogart in 1946's The Big Sleep and Ray Milland and Charles Laughton in 1948's The Big Clock. We then close with a double feature from 1960 with Ava Gardner in The Angel Wore Red and Jack Lemmon in The Apartment. What should we look forward to this week? No clue! At bare minimum, more movies from the backlog. Actually, scratch that. There's at least one movie I just watched this evening that'll go on the pile. Whatever else I get up to remains to be seen. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 15:23:41
27 Jun 26
As much as I thought I'd get to take it easy this week, work-work still found a way of occupying a decent chunk of my time. I suppose that's what they pay me for, so I can't complain too much. Anyway, I've been promising more teasers for the Alkoresh Cycle for a while and here they are. We start off with an adaptation of the first three books of the Tico series: Task Force Excalibur - Volume I: Operation Purgatorio, Task Force Excalibur - Volume II: Operation Paradiso, and Task Force Excalibur - Volume III: Operation Inferno. The previously featured The Holy Knight and His Lady will act as a prequel and the events of Princess of Hell will run concurrently, mostly taking Jack and Ally's part of the story out and adding to it. Next, we have the Everyday Magic-inspired Put the "Ma(é”)" in Magic and Put the "Ma(é”)" in Magic 2. And that does it for now. With me adding Tellus Arc characters into the mix, there are still more stories to come, but I need to refine the concepts a bit more before I start putting more teasers out. Be looking for reviews tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 16:51:47
22 Jun 26
I got a late start, so I didn't get this done before I needed to head to bed. Anyway, I'd planned to watch at least six episodes of anime every evening to start whittling down my backlog. That'd mean three series added to the review pile. However, I only finshed two. No, not two series. Two episodes. -_-; Clearly I need to step up my game. Anyway, we continue to make our way through my movie review backlog, starting in 1971 with the adaptation of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain. We then have the 1985 Italian film The Adventures of Hercules. This is the sequel to Luigi Cozzi's 1983 Hercules, which I originally saw first, but I ended up posting the review of the previous film before this. Funny that. Hopping ahead to the new millennium, we have 2004's The Alamo and 2005's Thank You for Smoking. We then close with 2010's The A-Team, which has a Patrick Wilson connection with The Alamo, so that's something. Can I get anime watched, teasers written and even the new chapter of WttW done? Who knows? Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 05:23:04
14 Jun 26
For this week's reviews, we start with Johnny Weissmueller's debut as Jungle Jim Tarzan the Ape Man. Next we Richard Widmark and Karl Malden in 1953's Take the High Ground!, along with the 1965 version of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. We then close on a Kurt Russell double feature, first pairing him with Mel Gibson in Tequila Sunrise and with Syvester Stallone in Tango & Cash. I'm hoping this week will have less of a load to it so I can hop on some of the things I've been meaning to do like start watching anime again, prepping those teasers I've been talking about and maybe even some actual story writing. A man can dream. We'll see what I can get accomplished. Stay tuned.
UTC 15:01:40
07 Jun 26
I found myself struggling a bit to choose which three films to headline this post. I was divided between going for cinematic merit on the one hand and what was fun on the other. I ended up splitting the difference. We start with Akira Kurosawa's 1949 film Stray Dog, followed by Billy Wilder's 1950 classic, Sunset Boulevard. And 90s kids will know why I struggle not to write "Sepuveda Boulvard" instead. We jump ahead in time to Christopher Walken and Denis Leary in 1997's Suicide Kings. Next, we have littering and, littering and, littering and smoking the reefer in 2001's Super Troopers. Lastly, we have a fine example of a Tarantino movie that Tarantino didn't make with Sushi Girl. A lot more fun to be had than last week's selection. I keep saying I'm going to start getting caught up on anime viewing and it may yet happen. (But the fact that I didn't watch a thing even while I stayed at home during Wednesday's typhoon should tell you something.) I'd also like to get some more teasers out for the Alkoresh Cycle, so we'll see what happens. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 15:54:13
31 May 26
We kick things off this week with Bette Davis in 1935's Special Agent and what's said to be the first film noir, 1940's Stranger on the Third Floor. Next, I am Spartacus, you are Spartacus, but most importantly, Kirk Douglas is Spartacus. We then have Chey Chase and Dan Akroyd in Spies Like Us and the 1986 made-for-TV remake of Stagecoach. Except for Spartacus, not quite a sterling selection, but so it goes sometimes. No idea what I might get up to next week, but if nothing else, there'll be more reviews like this. Maybe I'll at least get a few more teasers out. Maybe something more. Stay tuned.
Posted by: JamesUTC 13:56:27