Well, seeing as people traditionally watched TV for free (though basic cable admittedly muddied those waters), the sponsors were indeed the actual customers.

The site is going to review Star Trek: Strange New Worlds at some point, right?

Yeah, it’s sort of been widely forgotten that upon its release (and for a good number of years thereafter) Tron was routinely held up (along with films like The Black Cauldron and The North Avenue Irregulars) as proof that Disney was hopelessly adrift post Walt, and incapable of recapturing that old “Disney magic.”…

1982 is usually my pick for greatest year of movies (at least in the ones I want to see). 1999 is also really up there.

What the studios didn’t understand 40 years ago was that IP is king. For the most part, they were putting their faith in filmmakers coming off massive hits: Spielberg had recovered from the disaster of 1941 with Raiders Of The Lost Ark; Scott was scorching hot after Alien; Carpenter and star Kurt Russell made the…

In a career full of worthy achievements, his work on Mad Men was really an ultimate achievement, insofar as I believe his character was originally envisioned to be very minor and only seen very occasionally, yet his portrayal was so strong he developed into part of the main ensemble in one of the best ensemble casts…

I want to try and not by cynical about this, but something about Richard Linklater kind of makes me want to groan and roll my eyes and say, “Yes Richard, we get it: your adolescence to early adulthood and the times they occurred in were really awesome to you and you loved it. What else have you got to say?”

I don’t hate Part III. I actually like bits and pieces of it. I don’t even resent the fact that Tom’s role in the family business is suddenly being done by George Hamilton, bless him. I mean, if you can’t get an iconic actor to reprise an iconic part, why not go 180 degrees the other direction?

There’s a funny story about how when Paramount executives saw early rushes of the film, they complained that the film was too dark to show in drive-ins. Clearly, they didn’t get the thematic significance, i.e., that the Corleones inhabit a “shadowy” world, that the tentacles of their criminal empire reach into many…

I too have never seen a nitrate print. They were rare as hen’s teeth prior to the pandemic, I suspect showings now are virtually nonexistent. But yes, I have heard that they are particularly “luminous.” Keep in mind, nitrate and acetate are base materials. The actual image is coated onto them. It may simply be that…

I’d hate to be you when the franchise wars start.

The biggest problem with Speed 2 is that it’s pitched as a sequel to Speed. If they had conceived it as a stand alone action/disaster movie, it would have still been dumb, but in a fun and campy sort of way. Bullock is delightful as always. Willem Dafoe’s villain doesn’t rise to Dennis Hopper’s iconic maniac from the…

As others have noted below, those publicity shots are awful. Firstly, because most people assume what you’re showing is before/after, not after/before. But secondly, because I have watched the Godfather on a few mediums - VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu Ray - and have never seen it presented the way it is shown in those…

Digital optical sensors have only practically caught up with the full potential resolution of 35mm film in the past 10-15 years. That’s ignoring the restrictions of presentation which have also only recently started get close to to matching the resolution of properly projected 35mm.

I would be skeptical that they would use the actual camera negative for visual process shots. I would think they would create a duplicate or intermediate.

Was excited to hear that until I read this:

the 2008 “Coppola Restoration” did NOT give you milky grey frames with the brightness super boosted.

See, it turns out that Pike thinks he can cheat his horrible fate by swapping identities with an ambitious young Starfleet officer named James T. Kirk. That way, when “Pike” gets maimed by radiation, he’ll slip right back into the captain’s chair as “Kirk.” Think of it as Star Trek if it were written by Patricia…

[S]o I’m wondering what his rank will be in SNW.

When Pike finally gets blasted with radiation, and Kirk shows up to take over the ship and point it towards the galactic barrier, where the guy HAL murdered in 2001 and Hot Lips from the movie MASH get all silvery eyed and god-like.