Franchise Fred
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 30th Anniversary: Franchise Fred’s First Crusade
When I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 30 years ago, I thought it was the best movie I’d ever seen. That’s a little strange to me now because I had seen Die Hard, Labyrinth and Back to the Futu...
Exclusive Interview: Scott Adkins on Avengement and Why He Regrets Doctor Strange
I discovered Scott Adkins when Vern reviewed Undisputed III, Ninja and The Tournament. I got my first chance to interview Adkins for Expendables 2 and we’ve been talking regularly ever since. So I def...
Aladdin Movie Review: Parrots Just Don’t Understand
Aladdin sure is a Fresh Prince Ali. It has a lot of fun with the animated classic in a live-action context and by casting middle eastern actors, gives Naomi Scott, Mena Massoud and Marwan Kenzari a we...
Exclusive Interview: Jesse V. Johnson on Avengement
Jesse V. Johnson became a filmmaker I paid attention to because of his work with Scott Adkins. I had seen his Steve Austin/Dolph Lundgren movie The Package, but with his run of Savage Dog, Accident Ma...
A Dog’s Journey Fetches Sequelitis
A Dog’s Purpose was a sweet movie about a dog reincarnated through the ages. It began when Ethan was a boy and they reunited when Ethan was a grown man (Dennis Quaid). Since that brought us pretty muc...
Franchise Fred Interview: Gregory Widen on Backdraft 2 and Highlander
Franchise Fred would want to talk to the writer of Backdraft 2 no matter who it was. But when the writer of the original Backdraft, Gregroy Widen, wrote the Universal Home Entertainment sequel, I defi...
Backdraft 2 Movie Review: Chicago Fire
I really like how Universal plumbs its catalog for titles to make direct to video sequels. It’s a good way to give movies that wouldn’t generate theatrical sequels solid follow ups like Hard Target an...
The Crow 25th Anniversary: 1/4 Century Without Brandon Lee
25 years ago I finally got to see Brandon Lee’s final film. He’d died 26 years ago filming The Crow and for a while it was unsure whether the film could or would be finished. I had only just discovere...
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum Review; Franchise Fred Is So Happy
I’ve written before about how I’m less into current movies than I was 20 years ago, theorizing that it was just the natural aging process when you outgrow the target demographic. But if they made ever...