Category: Steven Spielberg

Action, Movies, Steven Spielberg, Suspense, Thriller

Jaws is Fifty Years Old

What can you write about a movie that has already been examined, discussed, dissected, and studied in minute detail for fifty years?

Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter: Parallel Careers?

I’ve been thinking about this post for ages.

TSJ Reviews INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE

TSJ Reviews Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

This won’t be an extremely detailed post because, One, I don’t want to give away spoilers, and Two, there are barely any negatives to this game.

Timothy S. Johnston Reviews THE COURIER Starring Benedict Cumberbatch

TSJ Reviews The Courier

Release Date: March 26, 2021
Company: FilmNation Entertainment
Director: Dominic Cooke
Writer: Tom O’Connor
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan

The Most Iconic Book Covers in the Thriller/Suspense/SF Genres

I’ve recently been re-reading some classic novels from my younger days, and I realized that some of their covers might now be considered iconic — some so notable that the movie marketing machines actually copied the book cover, further cementing the image in our minds. Here are some of those books.

TSJ’s “My Favorite Things Related to the Oceans”

Over at Speculative Chic they’ve posted an article I wrote about the Science Fiction books and movies that I love most featuring the oceans. They helped inspire me to write THE WAR BENEATH. Some of them are novels from the tail end of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

TSJ’s List of the Best Science Fiction Movies of the 1970’s

August 27, 2018 • 2 Comments

The Best Science Fiction Movies of the 1970’s

I should clarify that a film’s presence on this blog post is entirely subjective based on my experiences growing up. These were my creative formative years, during which I was discovering genre books, television shows, and movies. I was born in 1970, so really the 80’s were my true introduction to Science Fiction Horror, Thriller and Adventure — books by Asimov and Crichton and films by Cameron, Spielberg, Carpenter, and Verhoeven — but the 1970’s played a huge role in my love for the genre. Detroit Channel 7 broadcast most of the films I saw. Many had poor effects, but the stories were so powerful and the actors so committed that the movies rose above the rest of the stories that were available at the time. The themes were relevant, the plots compelling and interesting, all the base human emotions like revenge and lust and greed and hate were on full display, they spoke of issues that people dealt with every day, and they featured powerful scores and incredible directing. They were gripping.

TSJ Reviews Shout! Factory’s BluRay Release of John Carpenter’s “Lost” Film SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME!

August 23, 2018 • 0 Comments

TSJ Reviews John Carpenter’s “Lost” Film SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME!

Shout! Factory has been releasing John Carpenter films on Blu for a few years now. Each features additional special features that previous discs did not, many including interviews and brand new commentaries not on previous iterations. Their releases of THE THING and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK are real standouts in their Carpenter library.

Carpenter wrote and filmed SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME! for television broadcast in 1978. Two weeks after the ten-day filming concluded, he was off doing HALLOWEEN, a movie that blasted his career into the stratosphere. (See my articles on it here and here, and I spoke about it on a radio show here.)

TSJ Reviews MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — FALLOUT

August 6, 2018 • 0 Comments

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — FALLOUT

TSJ’s Spoiler-free Review of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — FALLOUT

Christopher McQuarrie has had quite the career as both a writer and director, and with MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — FALLOUT he has cemented himself as one of those next-level action directors, in the club with Spielberg, Cameron, Miller, Abrams, Nolan et al. His directing in FALLOUT is impeccable. The movie moves from one incredible set piece to another, with a good amount of exposition between them to keep the story leaning forward, and the result is

The First Time I Saw JURASSIC PARK

June 16, 2018 • 0 Comments

The First Time I Saw JURASSIC PARK

It’s hard to believe that JURASSIC PARK was released 25 years ago this week. I still remember seeing it at the Galleria. My friend Adam turned to me as the lights went down and said, “So what’s this film about?” He had no idea. It was a Friday night and our group of friends always hung out on the weekends.