Watching Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure become an unexpected phenomenon in 1989, any studio executive with at least half a working brain cell would of course fast-track a sequel to ride however much of that wave still remained a couple years later. And because the characters’ first movie had been so Excellent, it stands to… Read More Most Non-Non-Heinous | Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991) 4K Ultra HD
Making a smart movie about dumb characters is no easy business. Overplay their dim-wittedness and the characters become unlikable. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure has always, for me, threaded that needle very skillfully, to deliver an endearing comedy about a pair of lovable doofuses. In this week’s Film at 11 podcast, I take one of… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 7 | Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
For our Film at 11 podcast this week, my young son learns a valuable life lesson from watching the 1984 sci-fi adventure The Last Starfighter, which unambiguously delivers the message that playing video games is the most important skill any kid can ever learn and may literally help save the universe. As a parent, I… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 6 | The Last Starfighter (1984)
Nostalgia for the 8-bit video game renaissance of the 1980s is such a compelling force that, even despite astronomical improvements in computing power over the decades, the format continues to live on in popular modern games such as Minecraft or Roblox. Every once in a while, Hollywood attempts to cash in with a movie either… Read More Let the Nerds Take Over | Pixels (2015) 3D Blu-ray
The Film at 11 podcast is back with its original co-host, my 11-year-old son Joseph. This week, I introduce him to Edward Scissorhands, the movie that may serve as a statement piece to define director Tim Burton’s entire career. Joseph tells me he doesn’t typically like movies with too much drama, and this one sure… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 3 | Edward Scissorhands (1990)
During its release dead-center in the middle of the 1990s, Crimson Tide felt more than a little like a watered-down retread of The Hunt for Red October, once again churning up Cold War paranoia for another (then) modern-day nuclear submarine thriller. Three decades on, the film’s plot about a megalomanaical Russian dictator plunging the world… Read More The True Enemy Is War Itself | Crimson Tide (1995) Blu-ray
For the second episode of our new Film at 11 podcast series, I’ve both chosen a new movie and switched 11-year-olds! This week, I introduce my son Thomas to director Joe Dante’s delightfully wicked dark comedy Gremlins. The kid was actually a little nervous going into this one. I first saw Gremlins when I was… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 2 | Gremlins (1984)
Most cult movies that are actively made with the intention of becoming cult movies from the outset just wind up missing their target and alienating everyone, both the multiplex mass audiences who don’t get what the film is supposed to be, and actual cult movie fans who don’t appreciate being pandered to. An argument can… Read More Just Be Cool | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984) Arrow Video Blu-ray
This week, we launch a new feature here at The Video File blog. For the past couple months, I’ve been quietly working on a video podcast called Film at 11, in which I’ve convinced my sons to watch famous movies they’ve never seen before and discuss them with me, offering their reviews from an 11-year-old… Read More Introducing “Film at 11,” A New Movie Podcast from The Video File: Episode 1 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
One of cinema’s all-time great political thrillers, John Frankenheimer’s 1962 adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate paints a depressing portrait of America unraveling from within, where the country’s government is torn apart by the collusion of its own leaders willfully (even happily!) allowing themselves to be manipulated by malicious foreign aggressors for personal gain at the… Read More The Wires Have Been Pulled | The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Criterion Collection Blu-ray
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