I distinctly remember seeing Star Trek: Nemesis during its opening weekend in a mostly empty theater auditorium. That experience was all too common for those few other fans who likewise made the effort. The film remains, to date, the lowest grossing Star Trek movie and the only one to lose money at the box office.… Read More This Doesn’t Feel Right | Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) 4K Ultra HD
One of the biggest blockbuster hits of 1994, and a movie still well-remembered and well-liked by most viewers almost three decades later, True Lies is a sad case of a piece of popular art that has fallen victim to its creator’s indifference toward it. Now seventeen years into the Blu-ray era, True Lies remains absent… Read More It’s Not Like He’s Saving the World or Anything | True Lies (1994) HD Streaming Comparisons
You’d think that by its ninth feature film, the Star Trek franchise might have found some sense of consistency or had a clue how to build off the success of its biggest box office hit at the time (1996’s quite good Star Trek: First Contact). Sadly, that wasn’t at all the case. The next big-screen… Read More Androids Do Not Have Fun | Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) 4K Ultra HD
That Star Trek: First Contact is, without question, the best of the Next Generation crew’s feature films may lead to it being a bit overrated. This cast is so beloved from their years on television that fans desperately wanted (and still want) them to have at least one great movie as well. Personally, I’ve always… Read More This Is No Time to Argue About Time | Star Trek: First Contact (1996) 4K Ultra HD
Star Trek: Generations is neither the best nor the worst of the franchise’s many feature films. Looking across the entire range of them, it falls somewhere near the lower middle of the pack. Narrowed down specifically to the four Next Generation cast movies, it would have to land in second place – but to be… Read More It Was… Fun | Star Trek: Generations (1994) 4K Ultra HD
The action-adventure fantasy Megaforce is a legendarily terrible movie that any fan of 1980s cheese ought to find very easy to fall in love with. The film is a very specific product of the early ’80s, a moment when the manufactured patriotism and military-industrial expansion of the Reagan era collided with a pop culture explosion… Read More I Love You, But You’re Hopeless | Megaforce (1982) Blu-ray
The qualities that caused Dragonslayer to fail at the box office in 1981 are very likely the same reasons the film has endured for so long as a cult item with many passionate fans. Released at a time when what passed for movies in the fantasy-adventure genre were typically jokey and juvenile in nature (see… Read More We Shall Live and the Beast Shall Die | Dragonslayer (1981) 4K Ultra HD
First published in 1963, John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was designed as a corrective against the far-fetched espionage fantasy of Ian Fleming’s popular James Bond series. A movie adaption followed two years later, released right at the height of Bond-mania. While perhaps not cultural milestones on quite the same… Read More You Can’t Be Less Wicked Than Your Enemy | The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) Criterion Collection Blu-ray
The title itself is probably the funniest thing in Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part I. After his razor-sharp parodies of Westerns (Blazing Saddles) and classic horror movies (Young Frankenstein), Brooks was practically the king of cinematic comedy. When his next two efforts (Silent Movie and High Anxiety) fizzled a little with audiences, the… Read More It’s Good to Be the King | History of the World Part I (1981)
Predicting the annual Oscar race is more about psychology than artistic merit. The Best Picture winner is rarely the actual best film released in a given year. Guessing which people and movies will take home trophies is a matter of understanding how and why the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences members will vote… Read More 2023 Oscar Winners and Associated Nonsense
