Science is what makes posting this little article possible. It allows you to access my ramblings on your phone and read them at your desk, break room, or in the restroom (I’m sure I’m the only one who reads The Cool Ship in the bathroom.).  Recently an article was posted to The Cool Ship about the faulty science behind the Fox [...]

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn was released 31 years ago this week. Courtesy of social media and our overly connected society, it feels like Star Trek: Into Darkness has been out about that long. So, if you haven’t seen the latter yet this is your only spoiler warning. Walk away, and check out this spoiler free version. By [...]

At the point when FOX finally canceled Arrested Development, its ratings were pretty bad. In the Nielson cycle that sealed its fate, the doomed comedy lost out to long forgotten quality programs like Skating with Celebrities and Apprentice: Martha Stewart. There has never been a program quite like Arrested Development. It can be difficult explain the show’s multi-camera  mock-umentary style. [...]

Star Trek Into Darkness opens with a perfect original series scenario. The Enterprise crew has been monitoring a class m planet (Earth-like) and its pre warp (pre wheel) society. Captain James T. Kirk for some unknown reason has picked up a sacred relic and is being chased by the paper mache people through a red forest. Spock is stranded inside an active [...]

Seth Macfarlane is the undisputed king of network television animated comedy. The guy has three animated sitcoms on the air–on Fox. If that weren’t enough, the success of Ted has led to two more film projects. He voices multiple characters on each of his shows and even hosted the Oscars this year. I am so completely bored of Seth MacFarlane [...]

When and if aliens finally make themselves known to the people of our planet, they will make the assumption that we are ruled by film actors. Can we blame them? If they peruse our periodicals and check out the things we actually do with the Internet, it would be the only logical conclusion. Aliens are pretty logical. The way that [...]

Happy May Day everyone! A sort of holiday celebrated on college campuses the way most things are celebrated on college campuses-with binge drinking. Think of it as New Year’s Day but in the spring. Netflix is celebrating by removing over 2,000 titles from its ever shrinking movie rolls. Classic titles like Cleopatra and less classic ones like Barb Wire will [...]

Bob Dylan is the most prolific songwriter in American music history. The Country, Folk, and Rock and Roll genres have all felt his influence. Over the course of 35 studio albums, several live recordings, and countless compilations, Bob Dylan’s genre jumping and reinventing has been well documented. With such a huge catalog and a career spanning 50 plus years, I feel [...]

Jonathan Winters was, in my opinion, the funniest man who ever lived. This is a pretty serious declaration given that there have been a lot of living men over the course of history. We can assume that, at least, some of them were funny. Some were probably even very funny. Still, of all the funny men over all of the [...]

X-men is the property which truly began our society’s current obsession with comic book based films. Sure, we flirted with the genre before with Batman and Superman films, but it wasn’t until 2000′s X-men that the world really took notice. The timing could not have been more brilliant. Those of us who were avid watchers of the 1992-97  animated Fox version of [...]

  My name is J. Fortune and I am addicted to Star Trek. There I said it. From my first exposure to The Next Generation at  the age of 13, I have been completely, hopelessly hooked. Through 5 TV series, 10 movies and hundreds of novels, I followed the adventures of various Starfleet personnel from any number of timelines and alternate timelines in [...]

March is one of my least favorite months. Professional football ends in early February leaving my sports landscape barren. Sure, there is the free agency, but it is simply not enough to keep me focused ahead of the draft in April. With the summer movie season still months away, the anorexic offerings at my local theater do not hold my attention. Daylight savings time guarantees that until [...]

    Last month’s 85th annual Academy Awards really have me thinking. First, I’ve been thinking about all of the hilarious reaction to Seth Macfarlane being Seth Macfarlane, and doing a song about actresses going topless in various films. Come on folks, Macfarlane does gross out, irreverent humor in various media for millions of dollars. His work is now so prevalent and [...]

I just completed my fifth viewing of Skyfall. I have written about it and James Bond movies in general a few times Here, Here, and Here. As a lifelong James Bond fan, I am always excited by the release of a new film in this hallowed series, but Skyfall is something more. The 23rd film represents a turning point in the reboot [...]

  Sometimes the Internet really freaks me out. Not in that “anyone who has an opinion is suddenly given the forum to express it no matter how dangerous it may be” sort of way. I mean in a general fashion. In the “oh my God, Skynet is self-aware” sort of way. Sure the Internet is amazing. I mean without the world [...]

Elmore Leonard is the author of some 80 books. The majority of his early works were in the western genre. With titles like 3:10 to Yuma, Last Stand at Saber River, Valdez Is Coming, and more, Leonard is second only to Louis L’amour in western output and rivals the old master in quality. Leonard’s fame, however, comes from his crime fiction works. [...]

      When Netflix announced it was nearly doubling its rates by separating its by mail DVD service from the instant streaming,  they claimed the additional revenue would be used for two purposes. The first purpose was to purchase better content (I’m still waiting on that one to come to fruition). The second was to venture into creating original [...]

As far back as I can remember, I have been enamored with racketeers. My love affair with gangsters began when I read Mario Puzo’s definitive work on the subject, The Godfather, when I was about 13 years old. Since that time I’ve read numerous biographies of real life gangsters (The 3 piece suit kind, not the baggy-pants-shouting-over-slow-techno kind)and just about every [...]

On Monday we had the pleasure of witnessing one of the many things that makes our country unique and stresses to the world the greatness of democracy. The Presidential Inauguration represents a bloodless transition of power that truly makes me proud of my country, despite my feelings toward our current administration.  Audiences are flocking to see Daniel  “and the Oscar goes to” Day- [...]

Have you ever seen Thunderball? Have you ever seen Never Say Never again? If you answered yes to either of these questions then you have answered yes to both.  How can this be? How could the James Bond franchise get away with making the same movie twice? They didn’t, well at least not exactly. Thunderball was the fourth movie in [...]