As only the second James Bond movie, and a quick sequel cranked out for release just one year after the first, From Russia with Love finds the series still in a formative stage, not entirely settled into the formula that would define it for the next several decades. In fact, From Russia in particular stands… Read More No Substitute for Experience | From Russia with Love (1963) 4K Ultra HD
Made on a budget barely equivalent to $1 million USD at the time, the film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s spy thriller Dr. No was very modest even by 1962 standards. Although producers Harry Saltzman and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli surely had high hopes for it, I doubt even the most optimistic of projections could have foreseen… Read More World Domination, That Same OId Dream | Dr. No (1962) 4K Ultra HD
With (arguably, but not very) only one good movie out of the six made to that time, the Predator franchise was in considerably poor shape by the early 2020s. Although the studio wasn’t ready to give up on it yet, the next installment would skip a theatrical release and debut instead on Hulu streaming. To… Read More A Hunter Doesn’t Wait | Prey (2022) 4K Ultra HD
Apparently, neither two failed direct sequels nor two failed Alien crossovers were quite enough to keep one good Predator down. Perhaps they should have been. Even though three decades of trying to turn the Arnold Schwarzenegger 1987 action classic into a sustainable franchise had not thus far worked out, someone in the studio had what… Read More Not My Space Animal | The Predator (2018) 4K Ultra HD
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)
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