Released in 1984, This Is Spinal Tap was by no means the first so-called mockumentary film, nor even the first about a fictional music band. (For one, The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash predates it by several years.) However, even though not a huge financial hit during its original theatrical release, Spinal Tap grew… Read More You Know Where You Stand in a Hell Hole | This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
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)
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)
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)
Although I was just about the perfect age to most appreciate it, I didn’t get to see The Naked Gun in a theater with an audience. I had to wait for a VHS rental from Blockbuster the following year, at which time my teenage self became obsessed with the movie and watched it over and… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 23 | The Naked Gun (1988)
Following the unexpected blockbuster success of Airplane! in 1980, studio Paramount fast-tracked a sequel for release just two years later. Unfortunately, the original comedy writing/producing team of David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams (collectively known as “Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker” or “ZAZ”) wanted nothing to do with it, and the resulting film made without them (Airplane II:… Read More The Unadorned Firearm | Police Squad! (1982) Blu-ray
Under normal circumstances, the way the Film at 11 podcast is supposed to work is that I, as a parent, will choose a movie I want one of my children to see, and then force him to watch it and talk about it afterward. Whether the kid initially has any interest in that movie is… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 22 | Pacific Rim (2013)
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