Somehow my memories of The Black Hole are much fonder than, watching it now, the movie seems to merit. I had the novelization of the film on my bookshelf growing up, and read it repeatedly during my early teens. It was laced with photos from the film, so the imagery was all familiar during this viewing and the plot held no surprises. Though darker than Disney’s usual fare, it’s still pretty family-friendly, and has its fun moments, but I’d have a hard time recommending it to any but sci-fi buffs, alas.

Mad Max, which stars a very young Mel Gibson, is often badly acted, badly written, and stylistically rough, but manages in spite of these obstacles to be a heck of a lot of fun. If you enjoy wanton destruction, there’s plenty of it to go around. If you like Mel Gibson, there’s plenty of him too. If you like adorable kids, there’s one of them too. This one will probably go over better with most guys than with most gals, but being a guy, I give it a solid thumbs up.

The BBC News has a story up about the auction of the prosthetic ears Leonary Nimoy used while portraying Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek TV series. Also included in the auction are a plaster cast of William Shatner’s head, a couple original Star Trek movie scripts, Errol Flynn’s diary, and one of the original Energizer bunnies.