Having come out of film school just a couple years prior, Run Lola Run is exactly the sort of movie I wish I’d been talented and audacious enough to make myself at the time. Thrown together on a shoestring budget with more ambition and nerve than actual filmmaking resources, the movie is equal parts pulse-pounding… Read More Life’s Really Crazy Sometimes, Isn’t It? | Run Lola Run (1998) 4K Ultra HD
After the rather challenging and stressful experience of recording an entire episode with both of my 11-year-old sons, our Film at 11 podcast now returns to its regular, more manageable one-on-one format. This week, I introduce my son Joseph to Penny Marshall’s classic fantasy Big, which remains as delightful and charming today as it was… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 12 | Big (1988)
For a movie nerd who’d only recently come of age and started young adulthood at that moment, the early- to mid-1990s were a very exciting time in cinema. The independent film movement was flourishing, and even within traditional Hollywood circles, a new generation of writers and directors were rising up to make their voices heard.… Read More The Biggest Mexican I Have Ever Seen | Desperado (1995) Arrow Video 4K Ultra HD
It’s doubles all around! To mark our milestone eleventh episode of the Film at 11 podcast, I have subjected both of my 11-year-old sons (yes, both of them!) to not one but two versions of the twin-swapping comedy classic The Parent Trap: the 1961 Hayley Mills original and the 1998 Lindsay Lohan remake. Who better… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 11 | The Parent Trap (Double Feature)!
The legend and myth of El Mariachi are a lot bigger than the movie itself could ever hope to live up to – even though, ironically, that entire story is predicated on how small the film is. The debut feature from director Robert Rodriguez was famously made on an almost inconceivably paltry budget of just… Read More Guitarra Hero | El Mariachi (1993) Blu-ray
For our Film at 11 podcast this week, I made my 11-year-old son watch the 1980 Flash Gordon for the first time, and he seems to have come away totally baffled by the movie. I think I may have broken his brain a little with this one. To be fair to Thomas, I may not… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 10 | Flash Gordon (1980)
Long a cult item with a highly divided reputation among viewers, Barbarella is simultaneously an awful movie and also kind of amazing. I’ve seen it a number of times over the years and somehow both love it and inevitably feel bored senseless by it well before its short 98-minute runtime peters out. I don’t think… Read More A Primitive State of Neurotic Irresponsibility | Barbarella (1968) Arrow Video 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
The inspirational classic The Karate Kid was first released to theaters in 1984, but I don’t believe I caught it until the following year on VHS or cable, right about when I turned 11. Of course, the movie became a cultural touchstone for anyone of my generation at that point. In this week’s Film at… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 9 | The Karate Kid (1984)
Released just shy of three decades since the last installment, Bill & Ted Face the Music is exactly the sort of legacy sequel that every old movie franchise has felt compelled to roll out in recent years, typically to mixed success. The very few smash hits that rekindle the original phenomenon are usually followed by… Read More You’ve Got to Earn the Right to Rock | Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Avast, ye scallywags! For our latest adventure in film exploration, my son and I take to the high seas with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In the new episode of our Film at 11 podcast, we review the movie from both perspectives – a parent who hadn’t watched the movie… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 8 | Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)
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