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)
Watching Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure become an unexpected phenomenon in 1989, any studio executive with at least half a working brain cell would of course fast-track a sequel to ride however much of that wave still remained a couple years later. And because the characters’ first movie had been so Excellent, it stands to… Read More Most Non-Non-Heinous | Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991) 4K Ultra HD
Making a smart movie about dumb characters is no easy business. Overplay their dim-wittedness and the characters become unlikable. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure has always, for me, threaded that needle very skillfully, to deliver an endearing comedy about a pair of lovable doofuses. In this week’s Film at 11 podcast, I take one of… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 7 | Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Even though it basically foundered in theatrical release, the 2005 comedic thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang marked a notable career comeback for stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer. Downey’s years of drug problems had left him close-to-unemployable for a while, and Kilmer had a reputation for being difficult to work with that made him… Read More L.A. Don’t Want You No More | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
For our Film at 11 podcast this week, my young son learns a valuable life lesson from watching the 1984 sci-fi adventure The Last Starfighter, which unambiguously delivers the message that playing video games is the most important skill any kid can ever learn and may literally help save the universe. As a parent, I… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 6 | The Last Starfighter (1984)
Nostalgia for the 8-bit video game renaissance of the 1980s is such a compelling force that, even despite astronomical improvements in computing power over the decades, the format continues to live on in popular modern games such as Minecraft or Roblox. Every once in a while, Hollywood attempts to cash in with a movie either… Read More Let the Nerds Take Over | Pixels (2015) 3D Blu-ray
In this week’s episode of the Film at 11 podcast, I sit down with my son to watch the very kid-friendly baseball flick The Sandlot. It was a first-time viewing for the both of us. Afterward, we share our thoughts on the movie from both a parent’s and a Fifth Grader’s perspective. I was 19-years-old… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 5 | The Sandlot (1993)
Rob Reiner had a hell of a directing run through the 1980s and early 1990s. Just about every movie he made from This is Spinal Tap (1984) to A Few Good Men (1992) turned out to be an enduring classic. Arguably (and indeed strong arguments can be made for others), the best of them remains… Read More Two for Flinching | Stand By Me (1986) 4K Ultra HD
Up, up and away! Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman (typically marketed as Superman: The Movie, even though that’s not how it’s credited on screen) was a record-setting blockbuster in its day and has endured as a beloved classic of its genre. However, can the movie still hold the attention of today’s kids raised on the CGI… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 4 | Superman (1978)
Just one year prior to his big critical and commercial breakthrough with The Crying Game, writer/director Neil Jordan released a tiny Irish drama that slipped through the cracks, was noticed by almost no one, and has since been nearly forgotten to time. Despite all that failure, I managed to catch a screening of The Miracle… Read More You’ve Got to Be Kind to Your Characters | The Miracle (1991)
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