I’ve just posted my third (and probably final) guest article of the week over on the Futurismic blog, discussing the role of escapism in science fiction movies.

Click here to read ‘Guilty Pleasures’.

What’s your favourite “guilty pleasure” sci-fi film? Which DVDs do you reach for on a Friday night? My top ten include (in no particular order):

• The Matrix
• Independence Day
• The Terminator
• Back To The Future
• Armageddon
• Dark City
• Serenity
• Highlander
• Aliens
• The Abyss

The reason shows like Star Trek were so loved in their day is that when they first appeared, they were new and exciting and they epitomised the zeitgiest of their time. Where are the shows that do that for our time? Where are the films our kids will look back on with nostalgia? When my daughters go to the cinema, they’re going to want something more than tired retellings of shows that first aired before their father was born.

After all, what’s going to happen when they run out of old movies and shows to remake?

Maybe it’s time Hollywood stopped spending all its money on CGI and started investing in a few decent writers, and some new ideas?

I watched The Philadelphia Story on DVD this evening, for the first time in several years, and it’s still one of my favourite films. It has a crackling script and a great cast, including Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant — but it’s Jimmy Stewart’s Oscar-winning performance as the frustrated, principled writer, Macaulay (Mike) Connor that gets me every time I watch it. I guess it’s easy for me to identify with him. You see, Connor really wants to write short stories but has to work as a journalist in order to make a living, and you can see that – despite his tough talk – it’s really eating him up inside. He’s facing the one dilemma every serious writer faces sooner or later: how to balance the need to write with the need to eat.

Tracy:  These stories are beautiful. Why, Connor, they’re almost poetry.

Mike:  Don’t kid yourself. They are.

Tracy:  Tell me something, will you? When you can do a thing like that book, how can you possibly do anything else?

Mike:  You may not believe this, but there are people that must earn their living.

Tracy:  Of course, but people buy books, don’t they?

Mike:  Not as long as there’s a library around.

My computer suffered a major failure on Friday. Luckily I had all my writing backed up on a memory stick – otherwise I would’ve lost everything. I’m writing this on a borrowed laptop. Please bear with me. I’ll post again when normal service is resumed…

In the meantime, I just watched ‘A Scanner Darkly’ starring Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, based on the Philip K Dick novel of the same name. Good film – I enjoyed it. It reminded me of my university days.