Movie Review: Them! (1954)

Them! (1954) directed by Gordon Douglas

This classic 1950s sci-fi film introduced the sub-genre of giant bugs, usually made big by atomic radiation. In this story, a child is found wandering in the desert of New Mexico. She's shellshocked and won't talk to Sergeant Ben Peterson (James Whitmore), who leads the investigation. He and his partner find the RV camper where her parents were, but it's been ripped open from the outside. No valuables have been taken. Making the crime more intriguing, an odd footprint is discovered in the sand. Local forensics cannot identify it, so the cast is sent to Washington, D.C., for analysis. Cue the entry of Doctor Harold Medford (Edmund Gwynn) and his daughter Doctor Patricia Medford (Joan Weldon), both myrmecologists from the Department of Agriculture. They are experts who study ants. Sure enough, they discover an ant colony in the desert. The ants are huge, eight feet long at a minimum. The heroes gas the colony, go in and discover that two queen ants have already left, presumably making more colonies elsewhere. If they aren't found and stopped, it could mean the end of civilization. Well, at least human civilization.

The movie has a lot going for it. The pacing is very good, slowly revealing what's going on (though a glance at the poster gives away the main secret). The actors are all very good in their roles, taking it seriously and not providing any camp. There's a hint of romantic interest from Peterson for the younger Doctor Medford, but she is almost all business. She has some moments to scream, but those are hardly "damsel in distress" moment--any man, woman, or child would scream in the same circumstances. She insists on going into the nest to investigate the queen situation (her dad is too old to do it and the cops don't know what to look for), exhibiting the sort of courage not usually granted to female leads in these films. The creature effects are very good. They are certainly man-made but have plenty of detail and are photographed to give them maximum believability. The ending is another classic bit of 1950s paranoia about what we have wrought with the coming of the nuclear age.

Recommended, highly for sci-fi fans. 

TV Review: The Burroughs (2026)

The Buroughs (2026) created for television by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, executive produced by the Duffer Brothers

Recently widowed Sam (Alfred Molina) moves into The Buroughs, a retirement community chosen by his wife for their twilight years. All their money is sunk into it, so he can't refuse to stay though he is very unhappy there. He initially rebuffs his neighbors but is convinced to try being friendly rather than lonely. His cul-de-sac has a bunch of eccentrics that he meets at a barbecue hosted by his neighbor Jack (Bill Pullman). Sam starts to blend in but the situation gets worse when he goes to Jack's house one night and discovers a monster feeding on Jack. Sam manages to chase the monster away but Jack dies from the injury. Sam's first reaction is doubt, especially since he keeps having visions and nightmares of his deceased wife. Is he mentally unwell or are monsters really creeping around all over the place?

The show follows a familiar story arc for Sam as he tries to sort things out, both with the threat and with his new friends and with his supportive daughter Clair (Jena Malone). The stellar cast includes Alfre Woodard and Geena Davis as neighbors. They all do a great job. The creepy town has all the amenities you'd expect (like the Mexican restaurant, pickleball, and fancy golf carts to get around) and has that menacingly far-too-innocent vibe about it. Not much of it feels original but the blend is nice and Sam is a very sympathetic character played masterfully by Molina.

Mildly recommended--I enjoyed watching this but probably won't watch it again unless some friends or family want to watch it together.

Book Review: Philosophical Essays by G. W. Leibniz

Philosophical Essays by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, translated by Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber

Leibniz was part of the philosophical tradition struggling under the impact of Descartes. Descartes intended to restart philosophical thinking by reevaulating the starting point. He used his methodical doubt to strip away any uncertain or unclearly grounded knowledge and worked his way back up to the existence of the world and of God. Along the way, he posited a distinction between the material and the spiritual with an attempt to reunite the two principles that most agree was not successful. Subsequent philosophers tried to sort out the problem of what's really real--the material or the spiritual, or some way to combine both. Leibniz's solution was monads.

For Leibniz, reality is made up of simple substances and compound substances. Each compound substance is an aggregate of simple substances. The simple substances (monads) are indivisible parts of reality that are therefore unchangeable (they have no parts to move around or rearrange) and eternal (they cannot be destroyed). They are not just particles of matter, they have a force or power in them. They can be the forms or souls in things, the principle that makes the compounds what they are (so they are like Aristotle's forms). They also contain the potential for everything, since the whole history of the monad and what it will be a part of is already in it. In modern parlance, the macrocosm is contained in the microcosm. Leibniz works out a lot of consequences from this system about the nature of the world and of God.

While he crafts an interesting philosophical system, it's hard to see that it represents reality accurately. The monads are simple and indivisible but they are distinct from each other and also have at least the potential of being any other thing. Nothing every really dies, the monad that was the soul of the person or animal continues on and may re-aggregate again. God exists outside this system but He created it and sustains it in existence. Since God is good and intelligent, the world is the best one possible and is coherent and comprehensible. The idea does not present the real world as most people know it. I found his system interesting but ultimately unhelpful.

Mildly recommended--this is more for people interested in the history of philosophy.

Fort Frederick, Maryland

Built in 1756, Fort Frederick is one of the oldest stone forts in the continental United States. It was constructed while Maryland was still a colony and served to protect settlers on what was then the frontier of the British settlements. The fort was named after Frederick Calvert, Sixth Baron Baltimore, who never set foot on American soil. Ruling through appointed governors, Calvert's only interest was the income the colony provided. Governor Horatio Sharpe had the fort built. Most forts at the time were built of wood. As a result, they were easily burned to the ground by hostiles (in the 1750s, that meant the French and/or the Indians). A stone fort was much more expensive but it was definitely worth the investment. The fort was designed to safeguard local colonists during military raids, with plenty of room inside. Two barracks were built to house soldiers, another as the Governor's House (though no governor stayed there). It was more likely the officers' quarters.

Fort Frederick

Not far from the fort is a visitor center which explains the three hundred year history of the fort. Originally built during the French and Indian War period, it served during the American War for Independence as a prisoner-of-war camp for British soldiers. A lot of artifacts have been found and are on display, along with recreations of some of the residents.

Making peace with the locals

Typical staff at the fort

Crockery, buckles, buttons, etc.

A typical soldier's kit

Metal artifacts found at the fort

The design follows the star fort style popular at the time. The corners of the fort have protruding bastions on which soldiers and guns could be stationed. The design let them shoot at any opponents that got close to the walls and enabled crossfire. The only gate is in the middle of the south wall.

The design of the fort

Walking up to the gate

The only way in

We visited over Memorial Day weekend, so docents were dressed up in their 18th century finest and told us a lot about the fort. One anecdote was about the families who took shelter in the fort. They would put small holes in the wall to have a rod sticking out over which a tent tarp could be laid or a pot could be hung over a fire. One section of the wall had a hole smashed out for cannon to shoot through. Those were subsequently repaired.

The black outline shows were a large hole was put in the wall

Each of the curtain walls are about 180 feet long and 18 feet high. They were not designed to withstand cannonfire because they assumed the French could not bring large artillery pieces to the area (which was a correct assumption). They were not designed for soldiers to walk along, so dirt was used to build up a walkway along the edge. That's all gone now, though a staircase shows another way to get to the top of the walls and look out.

Closed!

The bastions had dirt ramps on the sides to get up to the top. One bastion was full of dirt, with a hollowed-out storage compartment to protect ordinance from any over-the-wall incendiaries. They are all cleaned out now.

The bastion today

Bastion with a flag and two docents

The barracks were designed to house around two hundred soldiers each, with some women as laundresses. Keeping your clothes clean was very important back then, with disease and insects spreading quickly if unchecked. The women also cooked and did other duties as assigned.

Recreated barracks

The other recreated barracks

Inside one of the buildings, we chatted with re-eanctors who talked about the lives of the soldiers in the 1700s. 

A day in the life, long ago

Two to a bunk was the rule

Recreated uniforms

Re-enactors' outfits

View to the other barracks from upstairs

The governor's house has not been rebuilt yet but the foundation is laid out in stone. The fort was sold at auction by the fledgling United States in 1791. The grounds were eventually bought by a former slave and used as farmland before the American Civil War. During that war, the fort was re-occupied to defend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the railroad that ran alongside the canal (both of which came after the fort was sold). The land was returned to its owner and the fort went into decline.

In the 1920s, the state government bought the land to make a state park. The walls had crumbled or were "harvested" for other local building projects. During Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps came and restored the walls and cleaned up the area. One of the CCC building is still there and serves as a small museum.

CCC building

A 1930s-style desk

Typical dining in the CCC days

Entertainment and snacks available for the workers

The CCC snack bar pointed us back to Captain Wort's Sutler Shop, the place serving snacks and brik-a-brac to visitors today. We took the kids over for a treat.

Other support buildings

Kids on the porch enjoying a snack

The grounds extend to the canal and the Potomac River. We didn't go down there. My wife remembered camping with our daughter and her American Heritage Girls troop a long time ago down by the river. It's a beautiful area and well worth visiting.

Book Review: Daredevil: Yellow by J. Loeb and T. Sale

Daredevil: Yellow storytelling by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

After Karen Page's death, Matt Murdock decides (on Foggy Nelson's advice) to write her a letter explaining how he feels about the situation. The writing is a way to deal with his love of her and his guilt over her death. He goes back to the beginning, which means starting with the death of his own father while Matt was in law school. Jack Murdock was a boxer whose career had a sudden revival with a string of knockouts. Jack's new manager is nicknamed "The Fixer," which turns out to be exactly what it implies. When they get to the fight where Jack is supposed to take a dive instead of his opponent, Jack refuses. The Fixer is upset because Jack wasn't following orders and his wider crime-world connections are unhappy too. Matt, while working hard at his Columbia Law School studies, has also been working hard on his fighting skills. When his dad is killed and the justice system lets the killers go free, Matt goes to his dad's trunk, going through his fighting gear (which includes a yellow robe), and makes his first Daredevil suit out of it. Then he goes to avenge his dad. Meanwhile, he and Foggy have finished law school and open their own practice, hiring Karen Page, who becomes a catalyst for romantic drama between the two lawyers.

Loeb and Sale are a great team, crafting masterpieces like Batman: The Long Halloween. They make a great origin story for Daredevil, incorporating all the classic bits while giving the story more depth and emotion. They have the law firm though courtroom scenes are kept to a minimum. Daredevil has some awkward integration with other Manhattan superheroes and villains. When the Fantastic Four show up at the law firm, have they figured out Matt's secret identity or do they really just need legal help with Reed's patents? The fight scenes are not the main focus but are interesting and do connect to larger themes and narratives. As Matt reminiscences, the seemingly scattershot details fit together as a whole, providing more insight into his personality. 

Recommended, highly for Daredevil fans. 

Movie Review: Newsies (1992)

Newsies (1992) directed by Kenny Ortega

In 1899, the New York City newspaper scene is dominated by publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. But they are dependent on their distribution network, which comes down to the Newsies, the boys and young men who sell the newspapers on street corners, at events, and anywhere they can. Of course, the publishers have no respect for the Newsies. In a bid to make more money, Pulitzer (Robert Duvall) decides to up the newspaper prices on the boys. They buy the papers at half price and sell them for a penny, keeping any profits and eating the cost of any papers they don't sell. A ten percent increase isn't a lot but it is. The Newsies already have a hardscrabble life, including Jack Kelly (Christian Bale), who wants to make enough money to move out west where he tells the other boys that his parents have gone. He has been in and out of the Refuge, a reform school that's more of a prison. Jack befriends newcomer David (David Moscow) just as the price inflation hits. They decide to strike, though David is more the brains behind what to say and Jack is the flamboyant mouthpiece rallying the troops. For the strike to be successful, they need to enlist other Newsies from other papers, to keep their story visible (thanks to a reporter (Bill Pullman) for a rival paper), and to avoid getting arrested by the cops.

The movie is a fun musical with a lot of dance numbers, almost all of which are the Newsies dancing. The numbers have a lot of energy and enthusiasm. The songs are nice but not great and the plot follows a familiar arc. Bale is very charming and anchors the show. The rest of the cast is good but not outstanding. Duvall's character is a bit underdeveloped, leaving him as more of a generic bad guy. The filmmakers could easily have switched to calling him William Randolph Hearst (who only appears for less than a minute at a poker game in the middle of the film) and nothing else would change. A love interest for Jack, David's sister Sarah (Ele Keats), is tacked on to give Jack a little extra motivation and a kiss at the end. She could have been dropped from the story and all that would be lost is some of the run time. That said, it is enjoyable and an interesting story.

Mildly recommended.

TV Review: Legends (2026)

Legends (2026) created by Neil Forsyth based on The Betrayer: How An Undercover Unit Infiltrated The Global Drug Trade by Guy Stanton and Peter Walsh

In the early 1990s, Margaret Thatcher's government wanted to step up drug enforcement, especially with the deaths of two young people that played prominently in news coverage. The job falls to Customs House, which keeps an eye on stuff and people coming into the United Kingdom. Specifically, the project is given to Don (Steve Coogan), a higher up who has had experience going undercover to expose criminal operations. His first problem is that no one in Customs has any training in undercover work. He puts out an internal advert and has to whittle down interested employees (who know no details about what they will be doing). He winds up with four agents. Guy (Tom Burke) is a family man who is bored with his regular job but doesn't want to endanger his family. He works alone, infiltrating a Turkish crime family bringing in heroin. Kate (Hayley Squires) and Bailey (Aml Ameen) work together to infiltrate the Liverpool distribution system. Erin (Jamine Blackborow) works behind the scenes supporting their cover stories (called "Legends" by Don) and tracking down license plates, companies, people, and any other information needed. The system is volatile since the field workers quite often make it up as they go along, leading to a lot of harrowing situations.

The show moves at a brisk pace but it also keeps things grounded and the characters' problems (professional and personal) in focus. The cast is very good, portraying bravado and vulnerability. Some bits at the end are "big speeches" about themselves and the importance of their work. By that point in the story, they feel justified. The complications that arise make for exciting drama. The show is very satisfying.

Highly recommended.

As I write this (June 2026), this is only available streaming from Netflix.