Entertainment
The 80s Sci-Fi Thriller That Was Filmed Illegally, The Danger Is Real
By Robert Scucci
| Updated
1980’s The Psychotronic Man is one of those films that should go on your watch list if you’re a creative type who deals with crippling amounts of self-doubt. It’s not a great movie. It’s grainy, rough around the edges, and acted just well enough to pass as a forgotten B-movie with a $175,000 budget. Not only was it personally financed by Peter G. Spelson, who wrote, produced, and starred in it, it was also shot illegally, completely outside of the studio system.
At the time of its production, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley discouraged filmmaking in the city because many movies coming out were cynical, and he didn’t want Chicago portrayed in a negative light. Instead of giving up on his project, Spelson went ahead and made the movie anyway. All of the downtown scenes with shootouts and car chases were done without permission, without notice, and without apology, perfectly illustrating what you can accomplish through guerilla filmmaking.
And we’re not talking about Bowfinger-level trickery either. People could have seriously gotten killed if they found themselves caught in the middle of an unsanctioned chase involving fake police cars barreling through city streets at reckless speeds unannounced.
The Movie Isn’t That Great
What’s unfortunate about The Psychotronic Man is that its production values leave a lot to be desired. The chase scenes are actually solid, all things considered, but the rest of the film plays out like a scrapped episode of The X-Files. While this is a common trap when a single person is running the show (see also: Neil Breen, Tommy Wiseau), there’s still something to appreciate here on a molecular level. Some guy wanted to make a movie, didn’t necessarily know how to, and did it anyway.
The final product, as you would expect, is a total punisher, and you generally have to be a fan of B-movies to even get your foot in the door. You have to squint a little, read between the lines, and imagine the film it could have been with proper studio backing to truly enjoy it.
The film revolves around a troubled man named Rocky Foscoe (Peter G. Spelson), a barber on the verge of a mental break. He drinks heavily, then drives around, blacks out, and loses track of long stretches of time. During these blackout periods, he insists that his car starts flying, but nobody believes him, not even his wife (Lindsey Novak), because he’s the worst kind of alcoholic. When Rocky complains about his issues to Dr. Stenberg (Paul Marvel), his concerns are brushed off because there’s no tangible way to prove his claims.
Desperate to retrace his steps and prove he’s not going crazy, Rocky goes back to the road where he first experienced the phenomenon and has a run-in with an old man who believes him. When Rocky has another episode, the old man attacks him, but Rocky kills him with his mind. No special effects are used for these sequences, so again, you have to use your imagination.
There’s Really Not Much Else To It
As Rocky’s behavior escalates in The Psychotronic Man, everybody eventually catches on, confirming he’s not just some looney drunk trying to justify his blackouts. Once it becomes clear that he’s incredibly dangerous, and that his latent subconscious powers pose a threat to the physical world for real, the chase is on, and everything goes off the rails.
The chase sequences are the best parts of The Psychotronic Man because they’re basically real. Real cars on real Chicago streets. These shots were all stolen and done completely on the sneak. It’s a miracle some random pedestrian didn’t get picked off while these scenes were filmed, and even crazier to think that at any moment the production could have been shut down, with Peter G. Spelson getting thrown in jail for reckless endangerment and breaking God knows how many other laws in the process.
I don’t care whether you like this movie, love it, hate it, or never plan to watch it. It takes a massive amount of balls to just say “screw it” and do the thing you want with no regard for the consequences. For that reason alone, I admire this film because it proves that sometimes all you need to do is take a risk and believe in yourself if you want to see your vision realized. Nobody else is going to do it for you.
But I’d be lying if I said it was even a good B-movie. It’s okay. I don’t regret watching it, and I’m glad it exists. Part of me wishes it had a bigger budget because the concept is cool, but there just weren’t enough resources to hold it together.
As of this writing, you can stream The Psychotronic Man for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
Lord Of The Rings Is Now In The Hands Of One Of America's Most Hated Celebrities
By Jennifer Asencio
| Updated
Just when we thought the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert meant the end of seeing the comedian’s rhetoric, he’s rising again like Sauron trying to collect the One Ring. But this time, the target of his didactic punditry is nerddom: Colbert is penning a “sequel” to The Lord of the Rings.
One Sequel To Rule Them All
The movie’s working title is The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past and is going into production after the newest entry, The Hunt for Gollum.
Colbert believes he can add to JRR Tolkien’s work with a story that begins 14 years after Frodo leaves for the Grey Wastes. Sam’s daughter goes girl-boss and makes a discovery that leads her “to uncover why the War of the Ring was nearly lost before it began.” That leads to a flashback in which the movie will cover chapters 3-8 of The Fellowship of the Ring, a story that includes exciting prospects like The Barrow Downs.
As if The Hobbit and Rings of Power weren’t damaging enough to Tolkien’s legacy, now we’re getting another shameless cash grab at the expense of the author’s work. Only this time, one of the most divisive and extremely political personalities in Hollywood is writing the script.
Colbert is co-writing the film with his son, Peter McGee, and “franchise veteran” Philippa Boyens. Boyens has long been a part of the Peter Jackson productions; she co-wrote The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Jackson’s King Kong.
Colbert Really Is A Certified Tolkien Obsessive
Colbert has been held out as a Tolkien expert since the announcement on March 24, 2026, and that is actually fair, no matter what one thinks of his extreme political views. He has studied the author’s work extensively, to the point where he can speak both Elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin.
The biggest question on the minds of fans is whether Colbert will be tempted to infuse the story with his personal politics, or if the writing team will try to add extra material that isn’t needed by Tolkien’s story. The Hobbit didn’t work because it added embellishments, such as the romance between Tauriel and Kili. Rings of Power doesn’t work because, on top of adding modern identity politics to the series, it also doesn’t follow the source material, earning the derision of many Tolkien fans.
Boyens has shown that when she sticks to Middle Earth and not regular Earth, she can deliver on Tolkien’s mastery. However, the inclusion of Colbert raises concerns that this movie will stray beyond Tolkien’s boundaries.
In his other job as a talk show host, Colbert has made it a mission to inject his divisive personal politics into his work. That tendency towards personalizing what he does could either strongly enhance a new Lord of the Rings project or turn it into a stain on Tolkien’s legacy by applying themes to the world of the One Ring that Tolkien never intended. Which Colbert will ultimately write the script: the political loudmouth or the Tolkien scholar?
Entertainment
Sandra Bullock’s Sexy, 90s Action Thriller Will Make You Care About Floppy Disks Again
By Robert Scucci
| Published
There’s nothing more entertaining than watching a movie about cutting-edge technology from the 90s, 30 years after the fact. On one hand, I’ll give 1995’s The Net credit where it’s due. It’s well-acted, Sandra Bullock is the hottest computer geek in cinematic history (sorry, Hackers), and the plot actually kind of makes sense because they don’t drown you in tech jargon and junk science. There’s a golden rule when it comes to technological thrillers: the less you explain the logic, the better. The Net toes this line perfectly because I know enough about computers to pick up what they’re throwing down, but I’m also dumb enough to think, “that makes sense,” while watching.
I’m not going to pause the movie and look up the technical semantics to prove this point, but the storyline is immersive enough to grab your attention without getting so convoluted that it takes you out of the experience. I don’t know how any of this stuff works at this level, and as a viewer, I appreciate that The Net doesn’t treat me like I’m too dumb to understand the implications, while also refusing to hold my hand because it’s all pretty straightforward.
Sandra Bullock Is Lost In The Net
The Net focuses on Sandra Bullock’s Angela Bennett. She’s a perfect patsy for what’s about to go down because she’s a freelance systems analyst who works from home. Most of her relationships are the kind of faceless encounters you have online, and her mother lives in a nursing home because she has Alzheimer’s disease and barely remembers she exists. It’s a lonely life for Angela, but she’s also well connected through her work. Or so she thinks.
When Angela’s coworker Dale (Ray McKinnon) sends her a floppy disk known as Mozart’s Ghost, she’s told to click on the Pi button hidden in the document, which functions as a backdoor into an application known as Gatekeeper, an elaborate cybersecurity system she’s not supposed to have access to.
Dale dies under mysterious circumstances, and Angela goes on vacation, where she meets a man named Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam). Jack brings Angela out on his boat, but he’s outed when she realizes he plans to kill her and take the floppy disk. After a violent scuffle, Angela wakes up in the hospital three days later and learns that Jack and his nameless, faceless associates have scrubbed her identity from existence and given her a new one: Ruth Marx.
As Ruth, Angela uncovers a vast conspiracy involving a group of cyber terrorists known as the Praetorians, who are using the Gatekeeper software to orchestrate massive network failures across the country while framing her in the process. Angela confides in her former therapist and lover, Dr. Alan Champion (Dennis Miller), who doesn’t necessarily believe her conspiracy theories but isn’t going to turn down a motel meetup with her either.
A Solid Tech Thriller For The Average iPhone User
While I knew my way around MS-DOS as a kid and have kept up with tech to some degree (I have an iPhone that’s about five generations behind), what I like most about The Net is that it gets its point across without being patronizing or overly complex. There are plenty of flashes of computer screens that help drive the story, but everything is so straightforward that you don’t get lost in granular details. The main focus is the conspiracy and identity theft plot that drives The Net. While you need the occasional tech speak to get from point A to B, you don’t need to be a genius to read between the lines and enjoy the thriller for what it is.
All you need to know is that Sandra Bullock does her best computing in a bikini, everybody thinks she’s somebody she’s not, and because of this, she can’t trust anybody. It’s obviously a bit dated by today’s standards, but it’s still a fun watch because it deals with cybersecurity concepts that remain relevant. I’d imagine similar conversations about different applications are happening behind closed doors today. We’re just getting the 1995 version here.
As of this writing, The Net is streaming for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
Violent Reality Star Costs ABC Millions
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
If you’re looking for a new season of The Bachelorette on ABC, you won’t find it. The season was cancelled when a 2023 video of its proposed star, Taylor Frankie Paul, surfaced, in which she was captured committing domestic violence with her young child present. The child was nearly struck when Paul threw three barstools at her estranged then-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen. ABC scrapped the entire season, reportedly costing between $30 million and $70 million.
The video was uncovered and released by TMZ and caused the show to be cancelled just days before it was due to air its premier episode on March 22, 2026. It was made by Mortenson and was used as evidence in court proceedings in which Paul served 36 months of probation for felony aggravated assault.
Past Is Prologue
Both Mortensen and Paul were central to the storyline of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, another reality show that is owned by Disney, which airs on Hulu (Disney also owns ABC). This show began in 2024, after the tape was recorded. Their relationship has been so tumultuous that there is currently a police investigation into another incident of alleged domestic violence that took place shortly before the 2023 video was released. Other cast members of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives have commented on their disturbing behavior in the wake of the video’s release.
Given the nature of their relationship, it is curious why ABC chose to cast Paul as The Bachelorette. It’s not like her relationship with Mortensen and its constant explosiveness have been a big secret, so it’s almost as if, by hiring Paul for the dating competition, they were spitting in Mortensen’s face. There is also the question of how the network didn’t know about the 2023 incident, despite it having gone to court. Apparently, the show runners of The Bachelorette don’t watch their sister station Hulu, or they might have been aware of what kind of person Paul was before they cast her. Her antics have been well-documented by the Disney company, but it seems there is little communication between its various arms.
Disney has taken a lot of hits lately. Lucasfilm shook up its leadership, as did the parent company. There have been numerous lawsuits against the House of Mouse in recent months, including an anti-trust settlement and a discrimination suit. While the loss from The Bachelorette is mostly absorbed by ABC, that still falls under the Disney umbrella and represents yet another failure from the Magic Kingdom. If the company doesn’t course correct, it may find itself dethroned.
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