I probably should have timed the release a little better to coincide with the recent Disney+ sequel movie (which we don’t even get around to talking about), but my son Joseph and I tackle the 2003 Lindsay Lohan/Jamie Lee Curtis remake of Freaky Friday in our latest Film at 11 podcast episode. Ostensibly, we use… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 28 | Freaky Friday (2003)
Fresh off his Oscar win for Platoon, filmmaker Oliver Stone transitioned directly from the jungle combat of Vietnam to a very different battlefield in the cutthroat trenches of Wall Street. Released in 1987, the financial drama was a solid box office success and won star Michael Douglas an Oscar, but was also greeted by mixed… Read More How Much Is Enough? | Wall Street (1987) Blu-ray
I usually describe our Film at 11 podcast as my effort to introduce my children to famous movies they haven’t seen. I’m not sure this week’s choice qualifies as famous. Coming from Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon, 1990’s Robot Jox is a straight-up B-movie cheesefest, the kind most fans first discovered back in the day when… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 27 | Robot Jox (1990)
Fans of schlocky 1980s horror undoubtedly know the name Frank Henenlotter as director of the ultra-low-budget midnight movie and VHS rental staple Basket Case. With that grungy classic under his belt, Henenlotter scraped together nearly $2 million (still a pittance by most movie production standards, even at the time) for his next horror offering, the… Read More He’ll Be a New Man in the Morning | Brain Damage (1988)
Despite its PG rating (PG-13 didn’t exist at the time) and 50-year age, Jaws may not be an appropriate movie for an 11-year-old viewer, no matter how smart and otherwise mature he or she may be. That’s a big takeaway I got from this week’s Film at 11 podcast viewing with my son. Perhaps that… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 26 | Jaws (1975)
Following his U.S. Army service and combat experience in the Vietnam War, an aspiring young filmmaker named Oliver Stone graduated from NYU film school and managed to get his first theatrical feature financed, produced, and granted a limited release. That’s an extremely impressive achievement for anyone to attain by the age of just 28-years-old, even… Read More Getting Blood from a Stone | Seizure (1974)
Released the following summer, one year after Batman, Warren Beatty’s extravagant production of Dick Tracy was expected to be the next big comic book (technically in this case, comic strip) blockbuster smash hit movie of the year. It might have succeeded at that, if not for one, kind of obvious problem. While every kid in… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 25 | Dick Tracy (1990)
Ghostbusters II has one truly inspired, nearly iconic line of dialogue, when Dan Aykroyd’s character Ray refers to a bunch of bratty kids at a birthday party as “ungrateful little yuppie larvae.” I love that phrase and think of it often whenever I’m harassed by too many annoying children. (Ironically, most of the kids in… Read More Everything You’re Doing Is Bad | Ghostbusters II (1989) 4K Ultra HD
I saw Ghostbusters in the theater when I was ten-years-old in the summer of 1984. I loved the movie while watching it, but had some scary dreams afterward about the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Yes, of all the ghosts and demons and other monsters in that picture, it was the cuddly-looking product mascot with a… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 24 | Ghostbusters (1984)
Given that most comedy sequels already struggle to live up to the original films they follow, how well can two such sequels be expected to weather the passage of time thirty-plus years later? I asked myself that question and, honestly, braced for the worst when I sat down to binge both The Naked Gun 2… Read More Looks Like the Cows Have Come Home to Roost | The Naked Gun 2 1/2 (1991) & The Naked Gun 33 1/3 (1994)
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