Erik Henriksen
Star Trek
Portland, OR, United States
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Past articles by Erik:
How Star Trek Ornaments Can Light Up a Dark Year
This story was originally published on December 22, 2020. Confession: I don’t like Christmas that much. Maybe it’s because I’ve never been religious. Maybe it’s because social gatherings amp up my anxiety. Or maybe it’s because scientists have repeatedly and definitively proven that Halloween is cooler in every conceivable way. → Read More
Before Lower Decks, There Was Star Trek: The Animated Series
Saturday mornings used to be a lot weirder. While Star Trek: Lower Decks explored new territory as Star Trek’s first comedy, it’s actually the second animated Trek series. On Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1974 — years after The Original Series was canceled, and years before Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters — Star Trek: The Animated Series continued the adventures of the Enterprise… → Read More
Before Lower Decks, There Was Star Trek: The Animated Series
Saturday mornings used to be a lot weirder. While Star Trek: Lower Decks explored new territory as Star Trek’s first comedy, it’s actually the second animated Trek series. On Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1974 — years after The Original Series was canceled, and years before Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters — Star Trek: The Animated Series continued the adventures of the Enterprise… → Read More
Onward Review: A Wholly Original, Surprisingly Emotional Adventure
Especially when compared to Pixar's best, there's definitely stuff to nitpick in the studio's latest, Onward. Fair? Maybe, but then again, even Pixar movies can have a hard time living up to Pixar movies. But to focus on Onward's benign, minor missteps—none of which detract from the story's surprisingly emotional arc—is to miss the bigger picture. Instead of yet another Toy Story or Finding Nemo… → Read More
Legendary Hong Kong Action Director John Woo Is Coming to Portland with The Killer
On Saturday, April 11, director John Woo will be at the Hollywood Theatre for a rare 35mm screening of The Killer—the 1989 classic starring Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee that changed the way action movies are made. The Hollywood's screening of The Killer will feature a post-film Q&A with Woo, and there'll be plenty to talk about: Few action directors are as distinctive or have had as much influence… → Read More
The 2020 Presidential Candidates' Terrible Campaign Merch: A Journey of Discovery
AMERICA! Our land of dreams and of promise, of sprawling vistas and magnificent inspiration! Also a place where presidential candidates are basically legally required to hawk a bunch of crappy merch that no one needs! Let's take a journey—together—through the finest crappy merch that the 2020 election has to offer, and maybe—just maybe—we'll learn a little something about liberty, justice,… → Read More
The World's Most Important Questions About the Life-Changing Trailer for F9: The Fast Saga
We have something to discuss. IS DOM GOING TO MAKE OUT WITH JOHN CENA?C'mon kiss kiss kiss kiss everyone can tell you want to OH—WAIT! WAIT...WAIT. WAIT. WHAT?!?!This entire story is about family and to find out that Dom has a supposed "brother"—a so-called brother who is, presumably, a somehow-in-the-course-of-eight-movies-a-heretofore-never-mentioned Toretto—is bullshit. I am absolutely livid… → Read More
Portland’s Best Bagels
We ate a lot of bagels so that you... can also eat a lot of bagels. → Read More
Democratic Debate Recap: Despite Solid Performances, Warren and Sanders Can't Compete with Hobbs and Shaw
On Tuesday July 30 at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, 10 candidates—most notably, frenemies Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders—faced off to determine the Democratic nominee in the 2020 presidential election. That same evening, at Regal Lloyd Cinemas & IMAX in Portland, Oregon, frenemies Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw faced off to determine nothing less than the fate of the world.… → Read More
Regal Cinemas Announces Movie Subscription Service
Regal Cinemas has announced "Regal Unlimited," a movie subscription service that, for between $18 and $24 a month, will allow moviegoers to see "as many movies as you want, as many times as you want, whenever you want, wherever you want," along with offering a few additional perks. The move follows the protracted demise of the popular subscription service MoviePass—and the resultant scramble by… → Read More
So Long, Amazon
Quitting Amazon seems hard. But in Portland, it's super easy. → Read More
Where Portlanders Can See Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on 35mm
Diehard shoot-on-film and project-on-film and do-everything-you-possibly-can-on-film writer/director Quentin Tarantino's upcoming movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, was shot on 35mm, with the help of trusty cinematographer/benevolent wizard Robert Richardson. Most theaters in the country will be showing the film digitally, but word's starting to come out regarding where cinephiles can see the… → Read More
Rep. Earl Blumenauer on Climate Change: "Congress Needs to Understand This Is an Emergency and Act Like It"
On Tuesday, Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer, along with New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, discussed plans to introduce a resolution to Congress that would declare a climate emergency in the United States—urging lawmakers to, as Blumenaer tweeted, address "the truth about the climate crisis and the urgent, massive action needed to address… → Read More
We Wanted to Review Stranger Things 3, But We Can't Really Say Anything About It
Anyone who complains about having a job where they're paid to watch movies and TV probably hasn't ever had an actual job. Being a movie or TV critic is a job where, worst case scenario, you might have to sit through a Kevin James movie you aren't particularly excited about. It is not a difficult job, and—unlike other jobs—there are rarely major obstacles to navigate. That said, sometimes things… → Read More
As Your Apartment Melts into a Boiling Puddle of Molten Glass and Smoking Brick, Here Are the Best Movies to See Excuses to Sit in Air Conditioning
Today's hot, and tomorrow will probably be hotter—this week, Portland's temperatures will hit the high 90s—and yes, it's only June, and yes, the world is growing more uninhabitable by the day, and yes, if your apartment is anything like mine, it won't even last until the Water Wars, because by 10 am this Friday it will be a boiling puddle of molten glass and smoking brick. Luckily, there are a… → Read More
Here's the First Trailer for Stumptown, the Portland-Set TV Series Based on the Portland-Made Comic
A gritty-but-fun noir comic with sharp writing and gorgeous art, writer Greg Rucka and artist Matthew Southworth's Stumptown is getting turned into a series for ABC, starring The Avengers' Cobie Smulders. Now we've got our first look at the show, via a trailer from Slate. It's a good trailer! If you're looking to catch up before the premiere—or just looking to be that person who never stops… → Read More
John Wick 3 Review: God Bless You, John Wick! Never Stop Murdering!
With its florid title, Fortnite tie-ins, and blockbuster-sized predictions that it will unseat Avengers: Endgame at the box office, John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum opens this weekend—cementing the bizarre fact that the ultraviolent, relatively low-fi action flick that was 2014's John Wick has grown into a massive, full-on, crowd-pleasing franchise. By all rights, the fantastic John Wick should… → Read More
What to Watch This Weekend: QDoc, Tuca & Bertie, Long Shot, and More!
Welcome to What to Watch This Weekend™, a weekly post in which I tell you what to watch this weekend! I will continue doing this post until you have watched everything you should watch. QDoc 2019—The well-curated queer documentary film fest is back! "I wasn't able to watch everything on the lineup," writes Mercury Senior Editor Ciara Dolan, "but the films I did see were uniformly great. My… → Read More
The Mighty Avengers, and the Endgame of Cinema
“The two-hour film has had a great run over 100 years, but it’s become very difficult to work in,” said Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo in December. Filmmakers’ focus on two-hour movies, Russo joked, was the equivalent of writers saying, “Hey, we all love sonnets. Let’s just write sonnets for 100 years.” “We have to destroy the past by wiping the slate clean and saying that, ‘Yes, cinema… → Read More
A Reading List for the End of the World: The Best, Weirdest, and Scariest Books About Climate Change
“It is worse, much worse, than you think.” So begins journalist David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, a book about climate change that reminds you, chapter after chapter, that even if you think you know how bad things are, and even if you think you know how much worse they’re going to get, you probably have no fucking idea. Humanity, writes Wallace-Wells, is facing a… → Read More