SPECIAL BONUS! Xanadu Cinema Pleasure Dome #55: Neon Escalators and Things - Part 2

The second half of my guest spot on the maelstrom of delight that is Xanadu Cinema Pleasure Dome, as we explore where John Carpenter went wrong.

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[Short-Lived Showcase] Captain Power, episode 20 "New Order, Part 2: The Land Shall Burn Them"

"Regardless of how epic and exciting the script to this episode was, the direction was just a very shittily executed job, and Otto Hanus should feel bad for it. It's something which just shouldn't have happened, like getting Vince Colletta to ink Jack Kirby's astounding run of The Mighty Thor."

To read more, check out our latest post.

SPECIAL BONUS! Xanadu Cinema Pleasure Dome #54: Neon Escalators and Things - Part 1

I once again join the magical hosts of Xanadu Cinema Pleasure Dome, this time for an overall career look at filmmaker John Carpenter, the subject of my show Masters of Carpentry.

Check it out here!

[Masters of Carpentry] Monthly Feature #12: Halloween 2 (1981)

"It is a film that has a lot of problems and it felt like a sequel that they made because they had to, but I still like that they brought a lot of the same crew back, so it has a lot of the same technical polish. It looks great, it's edited very well. When it follows the first film is where it's at its strongest, in terms of the town hysteria, Loomis running around with the sheriff's department, pulling out the bodies, in terms of that whole 'Did we actually get him or is this just some other random kid?' I like it when it's doing that. But a lot of the middle film, at the hospital, it's a very wrote slasher movie, where you have very poorly defined characters doing very stupid things and usually just walking right into their own deaths."

For more, check out our latest episode.

[Short-Lived Showcase] Captain Power, episode 19 "New Order, Part 1: The Sky Shall Swallow Them"

"This one didn't click too much with me. It's not that I feel it did much wrong, it just felt flat to me. They certainly kicked up the action, to the point where I felt their 7 minute action mandate had been instead flipped to just 7 minutes of story, as once they fly in, it's nothing but laser beams and explosions. And yet, that's the problem, in that there's really nothing but laser beams an explosions. There's a lot happening in the action scenes, but very little going on. There's no story to the scene themselves, no staging to have dramatic twists and turns and everybody getting something to do as their coordinated effort drives them forward."

To read more, check out our latest post.

[Short-Lived Showcase] Captain Power, episode 18 "Freedom One"

"I'm left with many questions."

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[Short-Lived Showcase] Captain Power, episode 17 "The Eden Road"

"I love the setting of the ruins in the acid fog, where even Dread patrols fear to tread because any who wander too deeply in go rogue as their systems are corroded. It's neat to see, as Biodreads just drift aimlessly and into their own laser grids, and even their human Overunits just brush it off as a normal occurrence. That's a neat scene, by the way, of Dread actually going out among his human Overunits, and being firm yet fair as he instructs them through performing like machines."

To read more, check out our latest post.