I never really connected with Star Trek as a kid. I grew up with a Luke Skywalker action figure firmly gripped in one chubby hand and Darth Vader hectoring him from the other. The schism between the two sci-fi camps, Wars vs Trek, has been joked about forever. For me, the dashing heroism, the witty (to an eight-year-old) banter and sense of adventure in the Star Wars films made the stilted pseudo-science committee-meeting blather of Trek ... Read More

A lot of things come to my mind when I think of James Cameron. Kickass director. Deep-sea explorer. But defender of female action heroines? Not at the top of my list. Maybe it’s because of his notorious hair-trigger temper on set, or perhaps his string of infidelities and failed marriages--the two most high profile being to Katherine Bigelow and Linda Hamilton--but somewhere along the line I forgot that this was the man responsible for ... Read More

    Expendables 2 grabbed the top spot at last weekend’s box office, grossing $28.6 million, according to the Washington Post. Makes sense – folks love watching good triumph over evil in gory bloodbaths. But if you’re tired of all-dude action movies in which an entirely male cast, most of who are well past their fighting prime, blow people to bits in an hour and a half, you’re not alone. I was wondering ... Read More