With some sly remarks about sequels, more of the same, but bigger, 22 Jump Street takes Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) to college. Once again, the film walks a fine line between raunchy/silly comedy to delivering a commentary on relationships, bromance, and box-office budgets. When the pair are shipped off to college for…
Tag: budget
Allan Quatermain & The Lost City of Gold (1986) – Gary Nelson
Gary Nelson, who directed my beloved The Black Hole, directed the sequel to 1985’s King Solomon’s Mines, Allan Quatermain & The Lost City of Gold, which was filmed back to back with the first film. In fact, it steals a large portion of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for the first film as a way to save…
Galactica 1980 (1980) – The Super Scouts: Part II, and Spaceball
As the children fall ill, Troy (Kent McCord) and Dillon (Barry Van Dyke) develop a risky plan to save them, and show the chemical company responsible for the pollution, represented by Stockton (Mike Kellin) the folly of his ways. The Super Scouts: Part II aired on 23 March, 1980 and was written by series creator…
Rush Hour (1998) – Brett Ratner
I wasn’t a big fan of Rush Hour when it first came out. I didn’t see it in theatres or take it home on video (despite the countless free rentals we got working in a video store) and I was a little bothered to hear that Chris Tucker got paid more than Jackie Chan did…
Rocky (1976) – John G. Avildsen
From the horn fanfare created by Bill Conti to the fantastic steadicam work (a revolutionary reveal at the time), to an open, honest performance from Sylvester Stallone, 1976’s Rocky remains an iconic film, and the first ‘sports’ film to win the Best Picture Oscar. Stallone wrote the film and was heavily involved in its making,…
Absentia (2011) – Mike Flanagan
So digging into Mike Flanagan’s work, I found his first horror feature film, which you can source on YouTube. Sure, it’s shot on a digital camera, and looks a little less sleek than some of his later works, but damn if a lot of recognizable elements aren’t there from the off; the use of family…
1941 (1979) – Steven Spielberg
It has been a long time since I last watched Spielberg’s 1941, but as I’m revisiting his films and exploring the ones I haven’t written about before, it seemed like a perfect time to look at this one again. The film did not do well upon release, in fact, watching it now, it still feels…
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979) – Planet of the Slave Girls
It’s been forever since I watched this short-lived series, but alongside Star Wars, Star Trek, and Galactica, Buck Rogers was an integral part of my youth. I had previously written about the pilot episode, released theatrically, before airing on network television on 20 September, 1979, so I moved right on to the next episode in…
Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018) – Stephen Cognetti
Y’know what? I’m not gonna lie. I had a pretty good time with the first film, Hell House LLC, so I figured I would dive into the sequels – I mean it’s the same writer/director through all of them, so we know that no matter how they play out, this is Cognetti’s story the whole…
Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series (2019) – Aaron Harvey, and Rich Schepis
I remember when I first heard about Star Trek: The Animated Series. It was the early 80s, and I seem to recall having received a Best of Trek book one Xmas or birthday. It was a compilation of some of the most popular articles and stories from Trek magazine, an unofficial Star Trek fanzine. Inside…
The Mind Reels 