Riddle me this: I was enormously popular yet everyone hates me now. I star multiple Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning actors yet every performance is terrible. I feature the so-called “world’s greatest detective” and make him look like an idiot. What am I? Why, of course we’re talking about 1995’s Batman Forever, the first of two… Read More A Riddle Wrapped Inside an Enigma | Batman Forever (1995) 4K Ultra HD
During the 1990s Bat-renaissance, no less than four actors played Batman on cinema screens in the span of five years, though one’s name may not spring to mind as quickly as the others. Nestled between the entries starring Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney was another take on the Dark Knight voiced by Kevin… Read More Batmanimation Appreciation | Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Clive Barker’s stylish, creepy Hellraiser made such a splash in 1987 that studio New World Pictures moved quickly to cash in with a sequel ready for release less than one year later. With Barker himself and most of the original cast still attached, Hellbound: Hellraiser II is often regarded as the best of the many… Read More Your Suffering Will Be Legendary | Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) Blu-ray
The feature filmmaking debut for up-and-coming author Clive Barker, Hellraiser represented an attempt to produce what we might now call an elevated slasher movie. That was a risky proposition to deliver into a cinema landscape dominated by jokey genre schlock at the time. Amazingly, despite initially mixed reviews and modest box office returns, the little… Read More Demons to Some, Angels to Others | Hellraiser (1987) Blu-ray
Because Tim Burton’s blockbuster Batman had spawned a video game spinoff that was very popular in its own right, his sequel of course needed its own game adaptation as well. In fact, it got several different adaptations spread out among a host of gaming consoles. Unfortunately, the NES version of Batman Returns was a huge… Read More 8-Bit Replay | Batman Returns (1993) for NES
In just one episode, the television reboot of Interview with the Vampire (officially, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire) is already a significant improvement over the Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt movie adaptation from 1994. Admittedly, that may not be a very high bar to clear. Still, I have to admit to going in with some skepticism.… Read More Mortality Beats a Heavy Drum | Interview with the Vampire (2022) AMC Series Premiere
Batman Returns, the immediate sequel to the 1989 smash hit, is redeemed mainly by association with its predecessor. It’s a Batman movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton, one of only two. Those aspects give it a certain cachet among fans who continue to hold it in some high regard, even if, to… Read More The Cat, the Bat, and All That | Batman Returns (1992) 4K Ultra HD
Based on a wildly popular bestseller, directed by a filmmaker hot off his buzzy breakthrough, and starring a mega-wattage cast headlined by a certified superstar, the film adaptation of Interview with the Vampire was one of the splashiest movie releases at the tail end of 1994, seemingly preordained to be a monster blockbuster and the… Read More Tom Cruise Sucks | Interview with the Vampire (1994) Blu-ray
Based, at least nominally, on the open-world RPG video game Cyberpunk 2077 (which was in turn based on a 1988 tabletop game originally just called Cyberpunk), the new Netflix anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners plays like it could be a gonzo extension of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, if hopped up on meth and hallucinogens.… Read More Psychosis in the Shell | Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 1 (2022) on Netflix
The history of video games based on movies is littered with poorly conceived duds that were quickly rushed to market to capitalize on publicity for their source material. That was especially true in the 8-bit era, which inflicted numerous outright unplayable disasters onto naive fans hoping to relive their favorite movies in game form. Somehow,… Read More 8-Bit Replay | Batman: The Video Game (1990) for NES
The Video File Blog 