Made for a pittance by an untested young writer-director, Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs caused a sensation at film festivals from Sundance to Cannes, was enormously hyped when it played in limited theatrical release, and would prove to be one of the most important titles of the 1990s indie boom. Of course, it would also launch… Read More Let’s Get Rambling | Reservoir Dogs (1992) 4K Ultra HD
Once a decade, to much fanfare and debate, British magazine Sight & Sound publishes its so-called “Greatest Films of All Time” poll. People take this seriously for some reason. The latest results were released last week, crowning a new champion and also, notably, kicking a bunch of established classics to the curb. Much virtual ink… Read More Brief, Probably Inconsequential Thoughts on the 2022 Sight & Sound Greatest Films Survey
Back in the days when a proper live-action adaptation of The Lord of the Rings still seemed impossible, George Lucas (riding high off the success of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises) got together with Ron Howard (who’d done very well with Splash and Cocoon) to mount their own high-fantasy adventure copycatting the J.R.R.… Read More An Unexceptional Journey | Willow (1988)
Sequels cranked out rapidly following the success of a hit movie too often fail to recapture the magic, but 1993’s Addams Family Values manages to improve upon its predecessor. The film doubles down on all the parts that worked the first time around, eliminates or fixes the parts that didn’t, and generally feels like a… Read More Let’s Not Forget Our Cheery Little Chippewas | Addams Family Values (1993)
The 1991 theatrical film adaptation of The Addams Family is, without question, a shameless example of corporate assembly line filmmaking and I.P. whoring. Somehow, it also kind of works and remains suitably entertaining even a few decades on. In industry terms, the movie was a nearly perfect package, pairing up a beloved pop culture property… Read More Do What They Wanna Do, Say What They Wanna Say | The Addams Family (1991)
Making a sequel to a beloved holiday classic that countless families have a tradition of watching every year is a tricky proprosition that rarely works out. Anyone who’s suffered through Frosty Returns can attest to that. Thankfully, HBO Max’s new A Christmas Story Christmas mostly pulls off the task. The film may not be a… Read More The Old Man Would Be Proud | A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
I have long since lost count of how many times I’ve watched the 1986 animated The Transformers: The Movie in my life. A pivotal part of my childhood, I know it practically backwards and forwards, and assumed it could hold no further surprises for me. However, the chance to sit with my 8-year-old son as… Read More Such Heroic Nonsense | The Transformers: The Movie (1986) 4K Ultra HD
I have a soft spot for Predator 2, even if the movie may fail pretty badly at its intended purpose as the sequel to a bona fide action masterpiece. Taken on its own, as a schlocky B-movie about a grizzled urban cop fighting a superhuman hunter from outer space, the picture has a lot of… Read More A New Player in Town | Predator 2 (1990) 4K Ultra HD
As these things often go, a new piece of content put me in the mood to watch something older that’s related to it. In this case, all the promotion for this year’s “Weird Al” Yankovic parody bio-pic convinced me to seek out the musician’s one and only feature film starring vehicle, the zany 1989 comedy… Read More Where Did You Get that Lovely Spatula? | UHF (1989)
When a musician who has spent a long and very successful career parodying other people’s famous songs finally gets an official authorized film biography, of course it has to be a parody of other musical bio-pics. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is by far the highest-profile piece of original content yet created for the Roku… Read More Nothing Rhymes with Virgin! | Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
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