Muirmaiden's Corner

Spock: The Icon Dear readers, in my first blog post of 2020, I decided to write something that is still tied to my love of classic Hollywood and the arts, but also that has a deeper meaning to me. As with most others during this COVID-19 crisis, I have found myself spending more time all by my lonesome, more so than I would like (and I say this as a person who is somewhat introverted). This has led me to not only re-watching shows and films that were significant to me in my growing up years, and re-reading books connected to that, but also having more time to re-examine and acknowledge things about myself that have been thought-provoking and somewhat painful. However, it has been enlightening and I wanted to share some of it with you. I don't consider myself a Trekkie, but I am a fan of the original Star Trek and the character of Spock, the half-Vulcan, half-human science officer, played masterfully and memorably by the late Leonard Nimoy (1931 - 2015), and this was a s...

In response to my earlier post regarding the 1987 film version of "Flowers In The Attic"  and the changes that were made to the film before its release, I feel it's time to share my thoughts on the 2014 television remake. I mentioned that I was disappointed and that was an understatement. I admire that people tried to make an effort to produce something that was closer to the book and could delve into the more taboo side of the story.  However, something was lost in translation. In the next few paragraphs, I will explain what I'm referring to.  The casting could have been better in most respects. I felt that Kiernan Shipka was wrong for the role of Cathy - her voice was flat and monotonous, and her narration was nearly robotic. Mason Dye gave probably the best performance of the younger actors, but even he seemed stiff.  Cory (Maxwell Kovitch) and Carrie (Ava Telek) were pretty much non-entities - and didn't serve much of a purpose other than to annoy thei...

This post is deliberately timed since the 30th anniversary of this film's release is coming up next year (2017), and there is some hope that it could possibly be restored on DVD and Blu-Ray to the original cut that director Jeffrey Bloom intended. The question is, does the deleted footage still exist, can it still be used and would any company (such as the Shout! Factory) put together a new release of the director's cut if they have resources to do so? There are mixed feelings about this film adaptation of the classic V.C. Andrews novel, since studio interference caused the film to be shelved for over a year and drastic changes were made in order to get a lower rating from the MPAA. (And a spoiler warning is in order as I will be discussing plot points of the story, so here's the SPOILER ALERT). Let me start off with sharing my own experience regarding the book and movie. My cousins had the film taped and showed it to me when I was about 11 years old. Unfamiliar wi...

As an 11-year-old, I managed to see this two-part miniseries in its original airing back in 1990, and the scenes featuring Pennywise, the Dancing Clown (portrayed by Tim Curry) stayed with me for years and no doubt contributed to my dislike of clowns. But I also loved the story of childhood friendships, and of teamwork to take down evil. (It helped that at the time I had a major crush on Jonathan Brandis, about whom there will be more as this post progresses). It can't be denied that there are echoes of "Stand By Me" (1986) another film based on a work by Stephen King, who is known primarily as a horror writer but he has proven that he is much more than that. The nostalgic feel of much of the first half of "IT" and about a quarter of the second is what I enjoy the most and I've come across others who have the same opinion. First off, let's get down to the outrage of novel purists who despise the fact that so much was omitted and changed from King...