Written By: Dan Geer

Fellow students of Bill & Ted University, and the chemical, physical, and biological nature of love…

With 2020 being one of the most non–non-heinous years in the history of mankind, it has become totally clear that all time and reality as we know it has folded in on itself in a most egregious way. A way that only heroes from our past – the two great ones, Bill S. Preston Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan – can totally restore balance to in the present. They must finally fulfill their destiny to explore the meaning of meaning and bring us the song that will unite the world in harmony and save reality as we know it.

While the Wyld Stallyns may be most unwise in the ways of science or politics to bring an end to our modern real-world problems, returning writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon have once again managed to make us totally forget about all of that for 1.5 hours in this most outstanding sequel to their 1989 and 1991 hit films Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. It’s almost as if all of our world’s odious issues totally disappeared in a most bodacious way when watching this stellar cinematic achievement of pure unadulterated nostalgia and escapism.

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Written by: Dan Geer

It would probably be an understatement to say that Star Wars: The Last Jedi has had an “interesting” ride since its theatrical release back in December 2017. On one side of the spectrum, it received rave reviews from both critics and fans alike, while on the other side garnered some of the most vicious reactions from viewers. As time progressed, negative reception to this film seemed to bring more and more people over to the Dark Side to the point where fan reception is now pretty much split right down the middle. Some people really hate this film. They hate it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. Others think it is one of the best Star Wars films of all time, praising it for being bold and doing something new for a change. Both sides will fight to the death for their position.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Star Wars fandom.

While there are all sorts of complaints about the film – with everything from flying Leia, to the apparent necessity of the entire Canto Bight plot – the one thing that really seems to have set the haters over the edge more than anything else is its portrayal of Luke Skywalker. This, above all else, seems to be the thing that makes the film so unforgivable for these people.

But are their perceptions valid? Is Luke Skywalker really not portrayed “correctly” here? Let’s dive in and see if we can’t pick things apart a bit and perhaps put this whole thing into perspective…

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Written By: Dan Geer

Before I begin, let’s be sure to establish right off the bat that I am not trying to poo-poo on anyone’s Christmas film-watching traditions. This article is simply stating what constitutes a Christmas movie for me personally, although I do feel that what follows will end up holding true for many, many others.

For the longest time (although it seems social media has really blown up on this topic more recently), people have been debating over and over again what exactly makes a film an actual Christmas movie. Films like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are always the first two that come up in conversation, mainly because they take place during Christmastime. They do indeed have the theme of Christmas interspersed throughout, even with a focus on “family” in there. There are of course other “Christmas” films that fall into this category as well, such as The Long Kiss Goodnight, Die Hard 2, Iron Man 3, Gremlins, to name a few. The list goes on and on.

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Written By: Dan Geer

In order keep this as spoiler free as possible, this review will refrain from discussing details about anything that was not already in the trailers and TV spots.

“Breathe. Just… BREATHE. Now, reach out with your feelings….”

By “feelings,” I mean the way you felt growing up watching Star Wars films – with a wild-eyed, childlike sense of wonder in the beginning, who continued finding new and fascinating things to love and appreciate about these movies as you grew into adulthood. Everything from the exciting characters, action sequences, droids, ships and lightsaber battles – all the way deep down into the incredibly intriguing myth and lore of it all. Get ready to experience that entire fan journey all in one film with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

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Written By: Dan Geer

Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla (2014) was a valiant effort to revive the famous Kaiju as an American studio production, and it by far exceeded what Roland Emmerich did with the genre back in the late 90s. While Emmerich’s take veered far too much from the source material, Edwards really brought it back home by bringing the monster back to resembling the classic Godzilla of old (instead of a giant iguana), and honoring the spirit of what Toho did for the Japanese market for decades by having Godzilla stay true to its roots in terms of story and character, and giving it the top-notch special effects and story treatment the lovable giant monster had always deserved.

Sure, Edwards only had so much he could work with on the limited budget he was given, which lead the story to be crafted in such a way where there was tremendous buildup to the appearance of Godzilla, focusing much more on the human characters in the interim. Of course, this upset some fans since the famed monster wasn’t on screen as much as they had hoped he would be (although when he was, it was spectacular to say the least). However, fans should be grateful, because this paved the way for this year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters to really bring on the mayhem they were expecting with that first film, showing not only Godzilla much more, but other classic Kaiju from past Toho films as well. Director Michael Dougherty shows he knows the genre, and executes it with class.

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Written by: Dan Geer

It seems like only yesterday that PopcornMonster.com was created. I never would have thought it would still be around a decade later, but here we are!

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Written By: Dan Geer

Two years ago, showrunner Chris Carter brought back his hit TV series The X-Files for a limited run of six episodes that generated a somewhat mixed reaction from the fan base, and left X-Philes with a giant cliffhanger that left no choice but for there to be another season in order to resolve it. While it contained a decent season finale, it would have been a terrible way to end the series if the Fox network would have opted to never bring it back again.

Thankfully (after two years of waiting) Fox brought back the show for another season, this time granting a total of ten episodes to really allow The X-Files to breathe and stretch its legs. The fans saw it as an opportunity to perhaps resolve that Season 10 cliffhanger, tell better stories than the previous season, and bring closure to a series that we never quite felt we received after ten seasons and two feature films.

But closure was not exactly what Chris Carter had in mind…

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Written By: Dan Geer

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a very safe film for Star Wars fans. It brought us back to a universe of familiarity, mirroring various themes and plot points from the original trilogy. Sure, it also introduced us to quite a few new concepts and ideas that we had never seen before in a Star Wars movie, and did it very well. But those things were surrounded by a safety net of nostalgia. It tasted great. It was the filet mignon you always order at your favorite restaurant, and you do not mind. Not one bit. I never tire of ordering The Force Awakens. It’s a great film.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, however, is more akin to that menu item that you always notice, but are afraid to try because you have never had it before. You always default to the steak. It’s a safe choice you’re always happy with. So when you do finally gain the courage to try something new on the menu, you are not entirely sure you even enjoyed it at first, maybe savoring certain flavors but put off by the texture. It’s so different from the steak, and yet you’re still sitting in the same restaurant.

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Written By: Dan Geer

Every year since 2015, we’ve been getting a new Star Wars film thanks to Disney, and there are no signs of the franchise slowing down. This year marks the return of beloved characters from The Force Awakens entering into what appears to be very dark territory in Star Wars: The Last Jedi – the next episode of the sequel trilogy.

How should we walk into this film? What should we expect? We know that The Force Awakens echoed various beats from A New Hope (albeit while still delivering an incredible new story at the same time, despite what some may say). Will The Last Jedi do something similar with The Last Jedi and echo The Empire Strikes Back? Will all our questions be answered? Will characters do what we expect, or perhaps go down a path that we did not see coming, or do not want, for that matter? Will it finally be confirmed that Snoke is really Jar Jar Binks?

We all desire the film to succeed. It is almost impossible to not have expectations. But let’s just get a few pointers out of the way prior to walking into this film, before we totally ruin our perceptions of it walking out. We want to actually like the movie, don’t we? Read on…

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Written By: Dan Geer

For kids of the 1970s and early 80s, Star Wars was the big blockbuster movie experience, and rightly so. Nothing was bigger. For me personally, while I technically saw Return of the Jedi in the theater when I was three, I don’t really remember much from that day. I highly enjoyed the films growing up, and even had a few of the action figures, an R2-D2 toy toter, and the original three films on VHS. But I never truly experienced seeing the Star Wars films in the theater until the Special Editions were released in 1997.

It was really the first Batman from 1989 that was my first big blockbuster theatrical experience. Aside from Superman: The Movie (1978), the comic book genre had really disappeared into oblivion with the abysmal sequels in the 1980s. So when Tim Burton’s Batman came along, it was the biggest craze since the Pet Rock, and put comic book movies back on the map. As a kid, nothing was more cool than that film. NOTHING.

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