I thought I’d have a slam dunk watching the original 1982 Tron with my son Thomas for the Film at 11 podcast this week. The kid plays frisbee and loves video games, so how could he not like a movie that combines the two things? I probably should have guessed that wouldn’t go over as… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 37 | Tron (1982)
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
Far too often, after rewatching a favorite movie from my youth in the 1980s and early 1990s, I get a compulsion to also play the tie-in video game that accompanied it at the time. This is often a mistake, as most of them are terrible games. I was especially nervous to revisit the 1989 Nintendo… Read More 8-Bit Replay | Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1989) for NES
The new animated series from the creators of Love, Death + Robots is, I suppose unsurprisingly, an infuriating mess and generally a huge waste of time. Coming in hot at the end of the year, Amazon Prime’s Secret Level is one of the worst new TV shows of 2024. Judging whether it will turn out… Read More Whatever This Is, It’s Loud and Unpleasant | Secret Level (2024) Amazon Prime Series Premiere
Poor timing was just the first of many failures that befell the official Nintendo Entertainment System video game adaptation of James Cameron’s The Terminator. By late 1992, the original Terminator movie was already eight-years-old, and even the blockbuster sequel (that presumably inspired the release of this game) had left theaters almost a year and a… Read More 8-Bit Replay | The Terminator (1992) for NES
Considering how extensively the popular Fallout video game series satirizes American consumerist and media cultures, the fact that its inevitable live-action television adaptation would be produced by retail giant Amazon for distribution on its streaming service seems both fitting and more than a touch ironic. That the first season of the show would actually turn… Read More Don’t Lose Your Head | Fallout Season 1 (2024) on Amazon Prime Video
The Blumhouse production of Five Nights at Freddy’s turns the favorite horror-themed, point-and-click video game series of ‘tweens everywhere into a live-action fright flick. For that target audience, this may well be the movie event of the year. Everyone else will probably wonder what the fuss is about. Distributor Universal Pictures made an interesting decision… Read More Family-Friendly Fun and Cutting Edge Animatronic Technology | Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023)
The extended Nintendo commercial known as The Wizard has no business working at all, on any level, much less surviving for 30+ years with a modest audience of fans willing to revisit it from time to time. Unlike other notable cult films (such as the 1993 Super Mario Bros., which this pairs well with), I… Read More Sure Plays a Mean Super Mario Bros. 3 | The Wizard (1989) Blu-ray
A notorious flop in its day, the 1993 live-action movie version of Super Mario Bros. is a fascinating disaster. The film feels like it was made by people who knew nothing about video games and, specifically, never had any interest in Nintendo’s smash hit Super Mario Bros. in the first place. In a strange way,… Read More Vote Koopa | Super Mario Bros. (1993) Blu-ray
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