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Author: Rob Kirchgassner

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Mar 8, 2017

The 10 most underrated episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (part 1)

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The announcement of this series in 1986, when the original Star Trek series turned 20, was met with skepticism by many, including myself. After all, the great…

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Feb 28, 2017

Movies that Predicted Trump: My Fellow Americans (1996)

It’s now been one month since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, and already his standing with the public is at an all-time low. In addition, people are withdrawing from his cabinet or from…

Text / TV / TV Recap

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Feb 8, 2017

TV Shows that Predicted Trump: Star Trek "Turnabout Intruder"

This is part of a series of reviews we’re calling Movies/TV Shows that Predicted Trump, where we discuss the media that foretold (in ways both large and small) the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United …

Agonizer / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Jan 23, 2017

Leonard Nimoy's best (non-Spock) work

As Nimoy himself illustrated throughout his professional life, there was so much more to him than his unique portrayal of a super-intelligent extraterrestrial who did his best to minimize emotion.

Movies / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Dec 16, 2016

The kinship between Jaws and Taxi Driver

So on the one hand, these two movies, which were released within less than a year of each other, couldn’t be more different. But given that both were released in the middle of the American Film Renaissance of the 1970s, it can be argued that there's a kinship of sorts between these two classics.

Movies / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Nov 3, 2016

10 great double feature ideas

Since the advent of home video and later the internet, people can now have double features of all kinds in their own homes. Here now (in no particular order) are 10 great double features you can have at home and why I find them ideal.

Agonizer / Interviews / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Oct 18, 2016

Interview with Benita Ha

Benita Ha is a Canadian actress who's appeared in numerous movies and television shows, including X-Men: The Last Stand. She's also lent her voice to a number of video games, and is also a nurse! I recently had the pleasure of interviewing this talented lady.

Agonizer / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Sep 19, 2016

Calvin and Hobbes (1985-1995)

It probably goes without saying that the most influential comic strip of our time is Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. While certainly not the first strip to appear in daily newspapers, Schulz made Charlie Brown, Snoopy...

Movie Review / Movies / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Aug 23, 2016

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

“But like its two predecessors, Beyond’s focus on being fun is at the expense of being something meaningful. It's dumb fun, which more or less sums up the Trek reboot series.”

Movies / Series Review / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Jul 11, 2016

The Dirty Harry series: When police brutality was cool

“This film basically states that criminals’ rights are often at the expense of the rights of those who have been victimized. This allows viewers such as yours truly to look at Dirty Harry as something of a modern-day Man With No Name.”

Movies / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Jun 14, 2016

Summer blockbusters, and why they’re harmless

“This is probably a key reason why summer blockbusters continue to thrive: Plot and even coherency can be rendered secondary if the film itself has enough kinetic energy to keep the audience awake for a couple of hours.”

Text / TV

· by Rob Kirchgassner · May 19, 2016

The magic of Star Trek: TNG’s third season

“The third season finale ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ was not only a culmination of TNG’s third year; it was the culmination of what TNG had achieved by this point.”

Movies / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Apr 19, 2016

A look back at the Scream franchise, 20 years later

“Whether Courteney Cox’s presence was a coincidence or not, the Scream series became less of a scare-fest as it went on, and more like Friends with murders sprinkled in. ”

Movie Review / Movies / Text

· by Rob Kirchgassner · Mar 21, 2016

The Fly (1986)

“The Fly actually managed to be superior to its ‘50s predecessor. This is because it drastically toned down the tongue-in-cheek elements seen in the earlier version.”