Still Watching the Skies

Real Genius

Still Watching the Skies: Episode 86 “Real Genius”

Nat, Cody, and Robert are joined by Kyle Fahrner to see Val Kilmer’s star on the ascent in Martha Coolidge’s REAL GENIUS from 1985. Fifteen year old Mitch (Gabriel Jarrett) is recruited by a-hole professor Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton) to a California tech college with designs on developing a workable laser for nefarious purposes. Fortunately […]

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Invaders from Mars

Still Watching the Skies: Episode 85 “Invaders from Mars”

Robert, Nat, and Cody are joined by Jim Laczkowski for a double dose of childhood nightmare fuel with 1953’s INVADERS FROM MARS and 1986’s INVADERS FROM MARS. A young boy witnesses a flying saucer land late at night. He wakes up to an alien invasion in which adult authority figures are being taken over one

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Mission to Mars

Still Watching the Skies: Episode 84 “Mission to Mars”

Cody, Robert, and Nat go on a shorter space odyssey with Brian DePalma’s MISSION TO MARS.   When an expedition to Mars encounters something ancient, a disaster ensues and a rescue mission is mounted. It’s an old school, high concept, star driven vehicle from right before Hollywood took a turn toward IP driven franchises. You

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Michael Crichton

Still Watching the Skies: 2021 Summer Bonus “Michael Crichton”

Nat, Cody, and Robert take time off from our beach reading to bring you a special bonus episode focusing on three films directed by Michael Crichton from the 1970s; Pursuit, Coma, and The Great Train Robbery. Crichton wrote the source material for two of the films and adapted the screenplay for another, so they clearly

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Phase IV

Still Watching the Skies: Episode 83 “Phase IV”

Nat, Cody, and Robert confront evolutionary superiority in Saul Bass’s PHASE IV. After a strange astronomical event, several species of ants have apparently evolved in the Arizona desert and begin plotting together. Strange structures are built by the ants. Etymologist Ernest Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) and number theorist James Lesko (Michael Murphy), along with a local

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The Day of the Triffids

Still Watching the Skies: Episode 82 “The Day of the Triffids & The Earth Dies Screaming”

Robert, Nat, & Cody experience a pair of “cozy catastrophes” this episode with THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1962) and THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING (1964).  Both films are a very English look at the apocalypse at the height of the Cold War and forerunners of the zombie apocalypse genre which would be created just a

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