“Who Believes in Roswell?”
November 14, 2011
What has come to be known as "the Roswell Incident"—the alleged mid-1947 retrieval of a crashed flying saucer and its humanoid crew from the desert near Roswell, New Mexico—continues to be controversial. It is the Holy Grail of UFOlogy, and many believe the truth is being covered up by a government conspiracy. However, skeptics cite evidence that what really crashed on Max Brazel's ranch was a secret U.S. spy-balloon array from Project Mogul (an attempt to monitor Soviet nuclear tests). Only later were alien bodies added to the story, through repeated hoaxes, proliferating urban legends, and the confabulated memories of aging witnesses.
“Anonymous” (A Nickell-odeon Review)
November 09, 2011
Fresh from counting the take of his other box office bonanzas—Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012—Roland Emmerich has gone from creating disaster movies to launching a movie disaster. Called Anonymous, this is a conspiracy fantasy based on the idiotic notion that Shakespeare was not the author of his literary masterpieces, which were instead penned by the Earl of Oxford.
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The Skepcook: Gourmet Anti-Vampire Soup
October 20, 2011
A guest who turns away from this delicious first-course offering, is probably a—well, you know what! Check the person's image in a mirror!
Theatrically Yours: “The Ghost of Fort Niagara”
October 11, 2011
"The Ghost of Fort Niagara" is an engaging little musical by the multitalented Neal Radice, founder and director of Buffalo's Alleyway Theatre, as well as author, composer, lyricist, and set and lighting designer—just to mention his personas that are directly involved in this Alleyway production!
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Irish “Spontaneous Human Combustion”? Blarney!
September 27, 2011
In a classic instance of faulty logic—what is known as "an argument from ignorance"—an Irish coroner has proclaimed "spontaneous combustion" as the cause of death of a 76-year-old man, Michael Faherty, whose body was found extremely burned at his home in Ballybane, Galway. Although his remains were found lying "with his head closest to an open fireplace," fire officers nevertheless concluded that that blaze was not involved! They did not explain how they had ruled out the obvious source of the ignition (BBC News Online, September 23, 2011).
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“The Debt” (A Nickell-odeon Review)
September 21, 2011
The Debt is a riveting thriller about Mossad secret agents David, Stefan, and Rachel, who are played—in scenes of 1966 and 1997—by two sets of actors.
Outlaw-Imposture Syndrome
September 07, 2011
The targets of impostors are not only the noted but the notorious also. Numerous persons have claimed that they were an erstwhile presumed-dead outlaw, like Jesse James or—the latest target—Butch Cassidy. So similar are the features of such cases that they define what I now call the Outlaw-Imposture Syndrome.
“Cowboys and Aliens” (A Nickell-odeon Review)
August 25, 2011
It's a cross between True Grit and War of the Worlds—with sequences of fine acting and great special effects worthy of either movie.
Why, then, is Cowboys and Aliens such a failure?
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Midnight in Paris (A Nickell-odeon Review)
August 15, 2011
Ah, midnight in Paris!
Or anytime in Paris if you ask me—a place where I once had a magical time, until the Orient Express whisked me away, like a magic carpet, to Istanbul.
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The Ghost Haunters
July 27, 2011
(What the spirited duo might say, if they weren't speaking through a ghost writer.)
