At Flashbak: The 5 Most Historically Significant Humans in the Planet of the Apes Saga

My newest article at Flashbak is the follow-up piece to the one I wrote for Go Ape Week about historically significant apes.

This one is the yin to that article's yang, and it looks at humans from the same franchise who shaped the course of "future history."

Here's a snippet (and here's the url: http://flashbak.com/the-only-good-human-is-a-dead-human-the-5-most-historically-significant-humans-in-the-planet-of-the-apes-saga-17197/  )

"In my earlier post this week, I gazed at the five simians that -- across the Planet of the Apes multiverse -- had significantly impacted the media franchise’s “future history.”

Today, I want to remember the five human beings in the Planet of the Apes saga who did much the same thing. 

As is the case with the apes, not all the actions of these characters prove positive in either the short term, or the survival of the species."

At Flashbak: The Five Most Historically-Significant Apes in the Planet of the Apes Saga

My newest article at Flashbak ties in with the Go Ape theme of the blog this week.  In particular, I enumerate the five most historically significant simians in Ape history!

Here's a snippet (and here's the url: http://flashbak.com/fonts-of-simian-kindness-the-5-most-historically-significant-apes-in-the-planet-of-the-apes-saga-17111/)

"The Planet of the Apes franchise consists of five original feature films made from 1968 to 1973, a short-lived CBS TV series in 1974, a Saturday morning animated revival, Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975), Tim Burton’s 2001 widely-disliked re-boot, plus a second re-boot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), and its follow-up, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), due in theaters this week.

All heads of this multi-platform media hydra revolve around one central topic: future history, particularly the fall of man, and the rise of intelligent apes as Earth’s dominant species.

Uniquely – and completely in keeping with the time-travel aspect of the franchise -- each branch of the Apes legacy, whether TV series, cartoon, or re-boot -- seems to exist in a similar but slightly different alternate reality.  One might view this as evidence that the future can indeed be altered, but the final destiny of the planet -- the fall of mankind to intelligent apes -- is immutable.

With that notion in mind, enumerated below are the five most historically important simians in Planet of the Apes history.  Some of these five characters described below, you will note, play roles of extreme significance in more than one parallel reality, a fact which cements their status as focal points in the franchise and in the fate of Earth."

At Flashbak: 5 Most Underrated Stephen King Movies

Flashbak, a new spin-off of Anorak, has posted my new article, which concerns underrated films based on the canon of Stephen King.

Here's a snippet (and here's the url:  http://flashbak.com/the-5-most-underrated-stephen-king-horror-film-adaptations-16858/)

Hollywood filmmakers have been adapting the literary works of horror maestro Stephen King since 1976, and often with tremendous financial and critical success. 

De Palma’s Carrie (1976), Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), Romero’s Creepshow (1982) and Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone (1983) are just a few memorable titles from the first wave of silver screen adaptations, but other, later successes include Misery (1990) and The Mist (2008).

With a canon that includes over fifty films at this point, it’s only natural that some efforts should be forgotten or not quite given their due as works of art.

That idea in mind, below are listed, in chronological order, five of the most underrated films based on the genre works of Stephen King.

At Anorak: The Day of the Animals - The Five Strangest Revenge of Nature Movies of the 1970s

My latest article is posted at Anorak, and it remembers the revenge of nature horror cycle of the 1970s.

Here's a snippet (and the url: http://www.anorak.co.uk/402579/news/flashback/the-day-of-the-animals-the-5-strangest-revenge-of-nature-movies-of-the-1970s.html/  ):

IT’S not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

In the seventies, science fiction and horror filmmakers were certain that mankind was going to soon face his comeuppance for polluting and over-populating Mother Earth. And more so, that this comeuppance was going to be delivered at the paws, claws, talons, webbed fingers, and teeth of our former friends: the animals.

Call it the Circle of Death.

Between 1970 and 1979, more than a dozen genre films involved Mother Nature striking back against man for his mis-use of pesticides, his damage of the ozone layer, and for polluting previously unspoiled terrain.

Among these movies were titles such as The Bug (1975), Food of the Gods (1976), Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), and Empire of the Ants (1977).

From a certain perspective, even blockbuster films such as Jaws (1975) — which saw a great white shark attack a beach town’s economy virtually forty years to the day that atom bombs were dropped on Japan — and Dino De Laurentiis’s King Kong (1976) — in which the noble ape was exploited by an Exxon-like oil company — tread into this then-popular “revenge-of-nature” territory.

So with that prologue in mind, here is a look back at five of the most bizarre Revenge of Nature films of the 1970s.

At Anorak: Ten Ridiculous (But Awesome) Horror Movie Tag-Lines of the 1980s

My new article at Anorak is up, remembering some of the crazy (and inventive) tag-lines from 1980s horror cinema.

Here's a snippet (and here's the url: http://www.anorak.co.uk/400427/keyposts/10-ridiculous-but-awesome-horror-movie-tag-lines-of-the-1980s.html/ )

 IF the Seventies proved a fertile time for imaginative horror filmmakers, the 1980s very much represented a new age of plenty, a span wherein every idea that had worked in a movie once before was hauled out a second, third and sometimes fourth time.

And because of the home video revolution and VHS technology, new filmmakers had the opportunity to get their movies seen by more eyes than ever before.

In terms of the decade’s horror then, there was more of everything to enjoy: more slasher films, more Jaws films, and more holiday-themed horrors too.

And once again the marketers writing copy for horror movie posters broached the unenviable task of selling films that otherwise might not have merited audience attention if judged by quality alone.  Sometimes, a great tag-line could still fill a theater, or make the difference at a rental store counter.

So without further prologue here are ten ridiculous and yet utterly brilliant horror movie taglines from the 1980s, the great decade of excess:

At Anorak: The Five Greatest Episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

My latest article at Anorak remembers five great episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979 - 1981), a cult-tv series which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year.  

Here's a snippet (and here's the url: http://www.anorak.co.uk/401205/tv/the-5-greatest-episodes-of-buck-rogers-in-the-25th-century-1979-1981.html/):

AS impossible as it is for me to believe, Glen Larson’s version of Buck Rogers in the 25^thCentury (1979 – 1981) turns thirty-five years old this year.

Today, this cult-TV series is often remembered for its spandex fashions, its gorgeous female stars and guest stars,  its penis-headed robot Twiki (Felix Silla/Mel Blanc), and its oppressive re-use of familiar or “stock” visual effects in the space dogfights.

Though Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century had its weak installments, for certain (like the dreadful “Space Rockers”) it was also a light science fiction series — a romp, essentially — and the series is recalled fondly by fans on those terms too.

Yet in remembering the series, one can detect that the best episodes — or at least the ones that best hold up today — are those that concern relevant cultural issues, or base their narratives in literary or mythic antecedents

Below, are my selections for the five best episodes of this space series, which ran for two seasons on NBC, and from 1979 to 1981.