Movie #17 of 2025: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) There are some movies that I think, if you see them when you’re young enough, you can never hope to be truly objective about their qualities. Such is the case with Raiders of the Lost Ark (retroactively retitled Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the …
Continue reading “Movie Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)”
TV #51 of 2025: Classic Doctor Who, season 21 Another bifurcated season of Doctor Who that I wish I could separate into its weaker and stronger parts — although here it’s particularly unfortunate that the former installments bookend the latter. The middle of this run delivers a fine span from RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS through …
Movie #13 of 2025: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) Although still an amnesiac, Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne has by this point in the franchise firmly established himself as a skilled super-spy, seemingly able to infiltrate any security setup and evade detection in any crowded metropolitan area. He’s also continuing to hunt for answers about his past, …
Continue reading “Movie Review: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)”
Movie #12 of 2025: The Bourne Supremacy (2004) The problem with giving your hero a happy ending is that when a sequel gets greenlit — presumably over studio desire to keep monetizing a successful IP, rather than anyone’s feeling that the Jason Bourne story as presented in the first movie was at all unfinished — …
Continue reading “Movie Review: The Bourne Supremacy (2004)”
Movie #11 of 2025: The Bourne Identity (2002) I haven’t seen this movie in a solid decade or two, but it caught my eye on a recent flight and I decided to give it a go. (I’m still undecided if I’ll continue on with the sequels or not, some of which I know I missed …
Movie #10 of 2025: Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (1983) For the tenth anniversary of Doctor Who in 1973, the producers hit upon a great idea: since the show is about a time-traveler, they could devise a story where the previous incarnations of the main character turn up to help the current version, then played …
Continue reading “Movie Review: Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (1983)”
TV #43 of 2025: Classic Doctor Who, season 20 Doctor Who’s 1983 season may not have any all-time classic stories, but overall it’s a fun watch that I would say is stronger than the sum of its parts. The big idea for the twentieth anniversary run was to feature returning villains in every serial, and …
TV #34 of 2025: Classic Doctor Who, season 19 I’m maybe overly charitable towards Peter Davison’s first season as the Fifth Doctor, but there were inevitably going to be growing pains after seven years of his predecessor Tom Baker. And to be clear, I am still not saying that this is great television, as a …
TV #20 of 2025: Classic Doctor Who, season 18 Airing from 1980 to 1981, Tom Baker’s final season is a turbulent time for Doctor Who — and not just because it finds him finally departing the series after a still-unbroken record of seven years / 172 episodes as its star. This run also sends off …
TV #9 of 2025: Classic Doctor Who, season 17 This is a strange year of Doctor Who! Less ambitious than the overarching Guardians / Key to Time stuff from the previous run, but that’s not such a bad thing given how poorly all that was executed. Unfortunately in its place we’ve got some definite clunkers …
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more