Despite its PG rating (PG-13 didn’t exist at the time) and 50-year age, Jaws may not be an appropriate movie for an 11-year-old viewer, no matter how smart and otherwise mature he or she may be. That’s a big takeaway I got from this week’s Film at 11 podcast viewing with my son. Perhaps that… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 26 | Jaws (1975)
Following his U.S. Army service and combat experience in the Vietnam War, an aspiring young filmmaker named Oliver Stone graduated from NYU film school and managed to get his first theatrical feature financed, produced, and granted a limited release. That’s an extremely impressive achievement for anyone to attain by the age of just 28-years-old, even… Read More Getting Blood from a Stone | Seizure (1974)
Released the following summer, one year after Batman, Warren Beatty’s extravagant production of Dick Tracy was expected to be the next big comic book (technically in this case, comic strip) blockbuster smash hit movie of the year. It might have succeeded at that, if not for one, kind of obvious problem. While every kid in… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 25 | Dick Tracy (1990)
Ghostbusters II has one truly inspired, nearly iconic line of dialogue, when Dan Aykroyd’s character Ray refers to a bunch of bratty kids at a birthday party as “ungrateful little yuppie larvae.” I love that phrase and think of it often whenever I’m harassed by too many annoying children. (Ironically, most of the kids in… Read More Everything You’re Doing Is Bad | Ghostbusters II (1989) 4K Ultra HD
I saw Ghostbusters in the theater when I was ten-years-old in the summer of 1984. I loved the movie while watching it, but had some scary dreams afterward about the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Yes, of all the ghosts and demons and other monsters in that picture, it was the cuddly-looking product mascot with a… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 24 | Ghostbusters (1984)
Given that most comedy sequels already struggle to live up to the original films they follow, how well can two such sequels be expected to weather the passage of time thirty-plus years later? I asked myself that question and, honestly, braced for the worst when I sat down to binge both The Naked Gun 2… Read More Looks Like the Cows Have Come Home to Roost | The Naked Gun 2 1/2 (1991) & The Naked Gun 33 1/3 (1994)
Although I was just about the perfect age to most appreciate it, I didn’t get to see The Naked Gun in a theater with an audience. I had to wait for a VHS rental from Blockbuster the following year, at which time my teenage self became obsessed with the movie and watched it over and… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 23 | The Naked Gun (1988)
Following the unexpected blockbuster success of Airplane! in 1980, studio Paramount fast-tracked a sequel for release just two years later. Unfortunately, the original comedy writing/producing team of David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams (collectively known as “Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker” or “ZAZ”) wanted nothing to do with it, and the resulting film made without them (Airplane II:… Read More The Unadorned Firearm | Police Squad! (1982) Blu-ray
Under normal circumstances, the way the Film at 11 podcast is supposed to work is that I, as a parent, will choose a movie I want one of my children to see, and then force him to watch it and talk about it afterward. Whether the kid initially has any interest in that movie is… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 22 | Pacific Rim (2013)
During the height of the James Bond phenomenon in the mid-1960s, a host of knockoff fictional spies sprung up throughout popular culture, hoping to capitalize to any small degree off even the fringes of Bond-mania. From Matt Helm and Derek Flint on the big screen, to the agents of the Impossible Missions Force and U.N.C.L.E.… Read More My Goodness, This Is Strong Shampoo | Casino Royale (1967) Blu-ray
The Video File Blog 