A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Pros:  Fairly effective marriage of two separate Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episodes Cons:  Feels a tad uneven, and the mood is downbeat.  In the middle of the 1991-92 TV season (March 1992, to be precise), ABC and George Lucas's Lucasfilm Limited attempted a daring experiment; to give viewers a mixture of educational material - primarily focusing on early 20th Century history - and entertainment (edutainment for short) in a series titled The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.   Like Lucasfilm's 2008-2013 Cartoon Network animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars , The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was an anthology; instead of being a linear narrative which starts in 1908 and ends in 1923, the series jumped around the timeline and alternated episodes with preteen Indy (played by Corey Carrier) and teen/young adult Indiana/Henri Defense/Henry Jones, Jr. (Sean Patrick Flannery).  Each episode was "framed" with prologues and epilogues set in the ser

Pros:  Great CGI dinos, good John Williams score, and at least it's fast-paced. Cons:  Formulaic story, and the third act seemed forced. Although Jurassic Park (in both novel and movie formats) was bound to spawn sequels just as Jaws did, it didn't have to fall into movie by the numbers territory, yet, surprisingly, The Lost World does just that. Even though screenwriter David Koepp, director Steven Spielberg, some cast members and all the techno-wizards are back for this 1997 sequel, one comes away from watching The Lost World - Jurassic Park wondering if Spielberg had his mind elsewhere...perhaps thinking about such projects as Amistad and Saving Private Ryan, or poring over script ideas for Indiana Jones IV . It's not an awful movie, mind you, otherwise I would not own it. But it isn't that great, either, and that is disappointing, considering it is a Steven Spielberg film. Once again screenwriter Koepp takes a few scenes from Michael Crichton's eq

Pros:  True to the Star Wars universe, great sound and graphics, interesting premise. Cons:  It can be overwhelming. Too much info to digest at once until you master Rebellion . Since 1977, Star Wars has inspired video games and computer simulations. And why not? Its storyline and visual effects-heavy battle scenes are ready made video game material. Want to fly an X-wing fighter or its nemesis, the Imperial TIE fighter? You can, if you have a PC and the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter CD-ROM game. Want to be a Jedi Knight? There are several LucasArts Entertainment titles that will allow you to wield your trusty lightsaber, face Sith Lords and assorted baddies, and join the ranks of the Jedi Order in either the Prequel or Classic Trilogy eras. In short, there is a Star Wars game for almost every computer game category in the marketplace. (There is even a Monopoly variant released as a joint effort between Hasbro Interactive -- now Infogrames -- and LucasArts!) One of

Author's Note: This is a very old review; I wrote it for Epinions back in 2003 when I started writing for the now dormant website. At the time, Epinions was owned by Shopping.com, and I was just a new reviewer at the site and still not quite sure how to write computer game reviews for a wide online audience.  I still have my CD-ROM disc somewhere, but I seriously doubt that a Windows 95 game will run on a PC with Windows 10.  Pros:  Good graphics, easy to handle, and lots of fun. Cons:  The film clips are nice but get boring after a while. Hasbro Interactive's Star Wars Monopoly: CD-ROM Edition is a fully animated interactive computer version of Parker Brothers' 1997 Monopoly board game, albeit with the 20th Anniversary "Special Edition" twist. Although the rules remain the same as the classic Monopoly game and the goal still is to buy up as many properties as possible and not becoming bankrupt, the setting is no longer Earthbound (as in Atlant

Pros:  Reasonably good story; a good introduction to the TV series Cons:  Emphasizes action over plot In October 2008, Time-Warner's Cartoon Network will begin to air The Clone Wars , an animated Star Wars series produced by Lucasfilm Limited and Warner Bros. as part of the ongoing Clone Wars multimedia franchise set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," Produced by George Lucas and Catherine Winder, the first season will consist of 22 episodes dealing with the conflict between Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent System (or Separatists) and the Galactic Republic led by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and protected by the Jedi-led clone army. (A second TV live-action series, set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope will air on TNT, which is also owned by Time-Warner; it's supposed to air in 2009.) Although Lucas had said that after Revenge of the Sith there wouldn't be any more Star Wars theatrical films, he apparently liked

Author's Note: This is the original review of The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia that I wrote for Epinions, a now-inactive review website owned by eBay, on December 30, 2008.  It was, of course, written at a time when George Lucas still ran Lucasfilm. The now-canceled Star Wars: The Clone Wars television show was barely halfway through its first season on Cartoon Network, and as far as we knew, the feature film saga was complete; Lucas was adamant that the six films - plus the aforementioned TV series on Cartoon Network - were the complete account of The Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker and that he wasn't interested in making the long-rumored Sequel Trilogy. In 2018, we know that things have changed since I wrote this review nearly a decade ago. Lucas retired and sold his company, Lucasfilm Limited, to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Star Wars: The Clone Wars ended its five-season run in 2014 and was followed on Disney XD by Star Wars Rebels, which recently end

(C) 1997 HighBridge Audio and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Fast Friends Cast: Han Solo: Perry King Boba Fett: Ed Begley, Jr. Jabba the Hutt: Edward Asner Lando Calrissian: Arye Gross Princess Leia Organa: Ann Sachs Luke Skywalker: Joshua Fardon Bib Fortuna: David Dukes See-Threepio (C-3PO): Anthony Daniels Skiff Guards: Various Sail Barge Guards: Various Barada: Martin Jarvis Narrator: Ken Hiller Sound/FX Roles Chewbacca Gamorrean #1 Gamorrean #2 Rancor Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) Sarlaac Salacious Crumb: Ian Gomez Reviewer's Note: All quoted material is from the 1996 book Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - The National Public Radio Dramatization.  This edition contains Brian Daley's complete radio play, which differs slightly from the version of the Radio Drama which aired on National Public Radio in 1996 and the original 1990s HighBridge Audio cassette and compact disc editions. The version in Daley's script  was  recorded,