Balladeer’s Blog’s end of year retrospective continues with this look at April’s best:
MARS MEN (1976) MOVIE REVIEW – My review of the Thailand/ Japan/ Taiwan monster movie mashup. Click HERE.
THE HISTORY OF AN EXTINCT PLANET (1884): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Plenty of brilliant concepts in this neglected sci-fi gem. Click HERE.
THE GUARDIAN’S MELANIE PHILLIPS: WHY I LEFT THE LEFT – She speaks for so many of us. Click HERE.
STALKER (1976-1976): SWORD AND SORCERY SERIES – For this look at a combination Witcher, Conan and Game of Thrones click HERE.
THE INVISIBLE MAN (1984) – Forgotten British television adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic. Click HERE.
GEORGES (1843): Alexandre Dumas’ novel about a swashbuckling swordsman fighting slavery. Click HERE.
DAYBREAK (1896): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – The moon hits the Earth, plus Mars’ equivalent of Jesus? Click HERE.
APRIL FOOL’S DAY WITH THE FOOL KILLER – A quick guide to the original Fool Killer Letters of the 1800s and beyond. Click HERE.
TOOMORROW (1970) – My movie review of Olivia Newton John’s deep dark secret. Click HERE.
TRUMP’S PAYROLL PROTECTION PROGRAM FURTHERS HIS FDR IMAGE – As I’ve said before, de facto Third Party President Donald Trump has been the best president of my lifetime when it comes to his aid for the working class and the poor. Click HERE.
A PLUNGE INTO SPACE (1890): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – A Steampunk journey to Mars. Click HERE.
TOP MOVIES OF SHINYA TSUKAMOTO – Balladeer’s Blog looks at the director’s best HERE.
DOCTOR THORNDYKE – A rival of Sherlock Holmes in a great mystery adapted for television. Click HERE.
THE AMERICAN GIRLS (1978): FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Female reporters as the new Charlie’s Angels? Click HERE. Continue reading
MANDY (2018): NICOLAS CAGE IN THE ROLE HE WAS BORN TO PLAY – Cage always brings the crazy and this wild, hyper-stylized and ultra-violent horror film showcases him at his psychotic best. Click 
ROBERT LUDLUM EXPANDED UNIVERSE – Television series like Beowulf Agate, Operation: Medusa and one set in the dystopian future from the end of The Holcroft Covenant. Click 
TWENTY JAMES GARNER MOVIES: Some of the underrated actor’s best work: movies 
UP IN THE AIR AND DOWN IN THE SEA (1863): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Scientific experimenter Victor Volans devises a passenger balloon which lets him explore two Lost Worlds on islands in the Pacific Ocean. Next he devises underwater exploration techniques which let him recover sunken treasures off Australia and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) while fighting off deep sea monsters. Click 
CASABLANCA: A Valentine’s Day review of the classic movie from Balladeer’s Blog. Click 
2020 TEXAS GLADIATORS – January 1st of this year saw the publication of the movie review I’d been planning since I started Balladeer’s Blog back in 2010! My favorite bad/ weird post-apocalypse movie reviewed on New Year’s Day of the year in which it was set. How close to reality were its predictions for the future? Nowhere NEAR close but that’s part of the fun of course.
KILLRAVEN, SABRE AND THE SLOW FADE OF AN ENDANGERED SPECIES – My review of the post-apocalyptic adventures of Killraven and Sabre in the year 2020 as told from the 1970s. 
THE LOG OF THE FLYING FISH (1887): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – My review of the 1887 novel about The Flying Fish, a craft capable of flying and serving as a submarine. 
GULLIVAR JONES ON MARS (1905) – Written by Edwin L Arnold. In 
Gullivar Jones on Mars starts out in the late 1860s or early 1870s with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Gullivar Jones, a veteran of the Union forces in the Civil War, in New York City on shore leave. He comes into possession of a Turkish rug with unexplained mystical powers. While standing on the unrolled rug he wishes he was on Mars and the flying carpet transports him there. (?) 
GULLIVAR JONES ON MARS (1905) – Written by Edwin L Arnold, this novel was originally published under the title Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation. Years later, with the spelling of the lead character’s first name altered, it was published as Gulliver of Mars. Over the years it was revived under a variety of titles. I’m using the title that I prefer – Gullivar Jones On Mars. 
If Arnold had written this story decades later it could have been said that he was intentionally subverting the tropes of heroic sword & science epics. Unfortunately, this novel instead seems to be the victim of ineptitude on the author’s part. 
THE INCUBATED GIRL (1896) – Written by F.T. Jane, as in THE Jane who originated the Jane’s Guides. 
THE ARTIFICIAL MAN: A SEMI-SCIENTIFIC STORY (1884) – Written by an unknown figure under the pseudonym Don Quichotte. 
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