Reviews by TrekMedic

This episode, still one of my favorites, had so many things going on behind the scenes.
First, it was critically considered one of the best of a bad 5th season (and beyond). At this point, the mortal wounds from the departures of Barbara Bain and Martin Landau were starting to take their toll. The IMF missions were pivoting away from escapades in faux Eastern European countries mimicking the real Cold War and, instead, frequently targeting "The Syndicate" (read WASPy Mafia) in the US.
Leonard Nimoy's role of Paris - magician, sleight-of-hand expert and master of disguise - did a passable effort to replace Landau's Rollin Hand, but the revolving group of co-stars (it was always alluded that the IMF contained a broader group of operatives beyond the show's regulars), including Lesley Ann Warren and Sam Elliott, never provided the same team chemistry as Bain and Landau.
Now, about the episode: this was Japan in 1970. As we are 50-plus years removed from the episode, it's hard to imagine 1970 Japan was 25 years removed from unleashing a global conflict that ended in the only war-time use of nuclear weapons and 6 years from their global reemergence in the 1964 Summer Olympics. American business was actively engaged in trade with this new, peaceful Japanese economy. But for some Japanese, bitter war memories are behind a push to discredit America and return Japan to an isolationist society.
The mission? The IMF force must exonerate an American businessman framed for the murder of his wife, a relative of an influential Japanese isolationist. And this is where the 5th season's issues become obvious. Production costs limited the Japan settings to filming in the Japanese Gardens park in Los Angeles. While the supporting cast was populated with respected Japanese-American actors such as James Shigeta, Khigh Dhiegh's role as bad guy Toshio Masaki was just a revisited version of his role as recurring Hawaii Five-O villain Wo Fat. Critics assailed Nimoy's Paris as a kabuki performer. Nimoy's features were too European to ever pass as an Oriental native. Even worse, Dhiegh ([Link removed - login to see]

So, I originally found this on YouTube as a "proof of concept" demo about a year ago. Then I was recently able to stream watch the entire film, under the " Blood Immortal" title. The title photo doesn't do justice to this diamond in the rough movie and the production values are at the high end of indie amateur films. Imagine [Link removed - login to see] if Ayn Rand was consulted on the script.
Told in three acts, past, present and future, it sets up a world where vampires aren't the powerful apex predators of most movies. Instead, as humans consume more artificially created foods and fill themselves with alcohol, nicotine and illicit substances, these are passed on to the vampires, who find themselves searching for "clean" blood sources the way a junkie looks for uncut heroin or cocaine.
The collegiate economics lessons set as a backdrop to one vampire's attempt at a "normalized" life set up a dystopian finale that kind of falls flat.
As I stated at the beginning, this is a real diamond in the rough. Hopefully, someone in Hollywood picks up the rights to this, throws a few dollars at it and some quality actors, and puts it out in theaters.

Stop me if this seems familiar: The year is 2018 (from a 1970s perspective, of course) and corporations have replaced governments on a global scale. Rollerball is a global spectator sport, part roller derby, part basketball or hockey, and all mayhem. In the movie, stereotypes abound. Houston, the reigning champion, represents "energy" (Enron, anyone?) and their team is populated with bare-fisted, Texas manly-men. The team (and supporters) from Tokyo, display a single-minded, unified front so typical of the Japanese society at-large. And so on. At the center of all of this is Jonathan E - hero and global star of the Houston team. But, as John Houseman's character Bartholomew coldly states, the game is designed to weed out the individual and promote existence for the good of the corporations. Jonathan E. is good at what he does and enjoys the societal perks of his stardom. But he's an individual,...and he has questions. Now, he needs to retire, or be retired. The game's rules will change, and change again, until the corporations succeed. Or will Jonathan E. ?

Note to self: never let a washed-up actor like Sam Jones crash your party. Your life will never be the same!

An early Mannix episode that features a young, up-and-coming singer by the name of Neil Diamond! Neil sings a few of his songs, including "Solitary Man," and gets a quick verbal jab at Mannix when a fight breaks out during his set!

Also made into an animated mini-series [Link removed - login to see]

Je hoeft geen Vlaams te spreken om van deze tv-show te genieten!
Of course, through the courtesy of corporate translation service, the PBS subtitles are in English.
As for the show: imagine a character with the phobic quirks of [Link removed - login to see] but with the arrogance and dysfunctional upbringing of [Link removed - login to see] and you have Professor Jasper Teerlinck. Roped in by former student and current Belgian police Inspector Annelies Donckers to help solve a case tinged with personal guilt on her part, T becomes integral to help solving the various murders in Antwerp. A cookie-cutter police procedural, but nonetheless interesting to watch.

Confusing and confused! Was this a distaff remake of Hitchcock's [Link removed - login to see] Or Sigourney Weaver's [Link removed - login to see] (Edit - scratch that,...however, there are published articles intimating plagiarism between the plot and the book upon which this film is based). In the end, I felt more confused. Maybe I was expecting more from a star like Amy Adams, who could turn scripted pig's ear into a cinematic silk purse?
Maybe I'll come back and watch it again?
Or maybe I won't,...
Confused?

I saw this when it was first released in the theatres and I've since watched it numerous times on TV but, even though I know it's based on a crime novel (Sight and Sound), the beginning and ending scenes still leave you wondering: did Jerry Black, failing to catch his last killer, retire into the life of a doddering drunk who is fantasizing about the movie's events, or was he numbing the pain of losing his idyllic small-town life by using his girlfriend's daughter as bait to catch the serial killer?

Another first for Mission: Impossible - an episode that didn't start with it's traditional IMF briefing to Jim Phelps. Instead, we see an operation already in place in an unnamed Eastern Bloc country. Jim, Willy and Cinnamon have installed themselves into the militaristic government to steal vitally important documents. But,...things go awry and Cinnamon is captured!
Normally, under the rules of the Impossible Missions Force, her life is now forfeit and the team should cut their losses and move on.
Instead, Jim pulls of an extraordinary exchange and Cinnamon is returned to the team!
And how did Cinnamon (in real life, Barbara Bain) repay the team? She asked for more money and was gone (along with husband and co-star Martin Landau) by the end of Season 3!
Boy, the nerve of some people!!