In theory, the 2010 sequel Predators was supposed to do for Predator what Aliens had done for Alien – take an originally confined premise and expand it in scope and scale, then escalate the action to a new level of intensity, potentially a different genre entirely. Sadly, what we actually got was just a rote… Read More No Hunting Like the Hunting of a Man | Predators (2010) 4K Ultra HD
At one time the record-holder as most popular movie ever made, can Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial still win over a modern 11-year-old kid watching it for the first time today? That’s the big question we address in the latest episode of the Film at 11 podcast. This week’s movie choice comes by viewer request,… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 14 | E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Released at the very end of 1993, Tombstone arrived as the first of two back-to-back movies about legendary Wild West lawman Wyatt Earp. A competing film, simply called Wyatt Earp, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring Kevin Costner, followed six months later in mid-1994. Much publicity was raised in the entertainment press at the time… Read More You’re a Daisy If You Do | Tombstone (1993) 4K Ultra HD
I may have made a mistake in this week’s Film at 11 podcast. I had several last-minute changes of mind about what movie to watch with my son Thomas, until I eventually settled on Jurassic Park. Mind you, this is the kid who found Gremlins a little too scary, and I thought it would be… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 13 | Jurassic Park (1993)
Having come out of film school just a couple years prior, Run Lola Run is exactly the sort of movie I wish I’d been talented and audacious enough to make myself at the time. Thrown together on a shoestring budget with more ambition and nerve than actual filmmaking resources, the movie is equal parts pulse-pounding… Read More Life’s Really Crazy Sometimes, Isn’t It? | Run Lola Run (1998) 4K Ultra HD
For our Film at 11 podcast this week, I made my 11-year-old son watch the 1980 Flash Gordon for the first time, and he seems to have come away totally baffled by the movie. I think I may have broken his brain a little with this one. To be fair to Thomas, I may not… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 10 | Flash Gordon (1980)
Long a cult item with a highly divided reputation among viewers, Barbarella is simultaneously an awful movie and also kind of amazing. I’ve seen it a number of times over the years and somehow both love it and inevitably feel bored senseless by it well before its short 98-minute runtime peters out. I don’t think… Read More A Primitive State of Neurotic Irresponsibility | Barbarella (1968) Arrow Video 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
The inspirational classic The Karate Kid was first released to theaters in 1984, but I don’t believe I caught it until the following year on VHS or cable, right about when I turned 11. Of course, the movie became a cultural touchstone for anyone of my generation at that point. In this week’s Film at… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 9 | The Karate Kid (1984)
Released just shy of three decades since the last installment, Bill & Ted Face the Music is exactly the sort of legacy sequel that every old movie franchise has felt compelled to roll out in recent years, typically to mixed success. The very few smash hits that rekindle the original phenomenon are usually followed by… Read More You’ve Got to Earn the Right to Rock | Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
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)
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