“Big things have small beginnings.“

Welcome to my website, and a renewed attempt at getting back into regular writing, something I’ve loved since I was a young, and the genesis of “RazorwireReviews” in the first place. Fifteen years ago I began a site (“I do a blog…”) with that name focused on reviewing wrestling. This quickly transitioned into a YouTube channel which I’ve maintained fairly consistently ever since, the blog long since abandoned. More about that in the About section!

This is not just the start of a new website but a daily bulletin series, something to hopefully keep anyone with even a passing interest in what I have to say about films and physical media checking back for new posts, a quick selection of thoughts that I typically have every single day about films, physical media and movie news, things like that. Almost like… a social media account! Only instead of throwing out my thoughts to a chorus of silence on Twitter or Instagram, I can enjoy the crickets from the comfort of my very own website, dot com and all!

I’m famously awful at maintaining anything so it’ll be interesting to see how long I can keep this particular venture up, but I’m at my desk and on my phone every single day so, there should really be no excuse. Whether or not I’ll have anything compelling to talk about will be up to whoever might read these I suppose, but while I joke about my words going out into the ether here, I do encourage comments! And I would love to engage in some back and forth discussions in the same way I would in my YouTube comments section. We’ll see. Early days.

After seeing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey last weekend, I was kind of craving some of the old Ray Harryhausen mythical monster movies. I didn’t have a great time at the cinema with that one for reasons beyond the film itself, but came away from it remembering how much I enjoy a good seafaring adventure story with larger than life encounters. Almost a decade ago, in 2017, Indicator released a trio of box sets featuring some of Harryhausen’s finest stop motion monster work, and the first one out of the gate was The Sinbad Trilogy. I managed to buy all three sets, even though I always fall behind on Indicator’s lavish LE releases, but have not even touched them since.

This only bolsters how much I’ll stand behind my unwieldy blu-ray collection however (currently sitting at 1300+ films, including shorts and docs, unwatched!), as I knew that at some point I would really have an itch to watch them, and that time has arrived! So yesterday I popped in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and enjoyed a gorgeous 4K restoration of a truly wonderful film. Sure, the acting is a little janky and not helped by a dubbed soundtrack, but there’s plenty of spirit to the thing and the setpieces are just incredible. I shouldn’t get carried away though, as this could easily make an entire post itself. The satisfaction of having this set and films on tap in the best possible quality (though I was amused to see a 4K UHD of The 7th Voyage JUST came out a few days ago!) exactly and precisely when I wanted to watch them, was lovely.

Even better than that though, was getting to share my first time watch with my son Lucas, who was truly awed by all of the monster sequences. We watched it at a leisurely pace throughout the day, ending the evening by watching the third act. By the time a skeleton came to life and fought Sinbad with a sword and shield, he was too hyped to stay sat on the sofa, and jumped to his feet in excitement. Beyond the infectious quality of his investment in a near-seventy year old film, one of his observations absolutely buckled me.

I always think of George Lucas’s brilliant line in Attack of the Clones, where Yoda says: “Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.” It’s a simple one, but really cuts to this universal truth that children just tend to come out with these perfect little truth nuggets. About halfway through 7th Voyage, the Cyclops falls off a mountain, seemingly dead in a heap on the valley floor below. I tend to dissuade Lucas from saying he’s “died” in a game and similarly here I merely commented: “oh no, he fell off the mountain.” There was a pause, and Lucas stoically added: “He isn’t angry any more.” I laughed out loud, and he quickly followed that pearler up with: “He needs to see a MONSTER DOCTOR!” I chuckled and said he probably does. Truly, movie magic, and a special moment with my boy.

Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion animation is so dynamic and exciting, even in 2026.

See, I could just go on and on about all things film until my fingers fall off, but I envision this bulletin series being more of a bite-sized affair on a day-to-day basis. One exciting piece of news, and I’ve been waiting for what feels like years for an update on it, is the first official look at the new Amazon Prime series Blade Runner 2099, which boasts involvement from Ridley Scott. Apparently the story will follow Michelle Yeoh’s character Olwen, a replicant hunting down rogues while knowingly facing the final days of her own lifespan. At this point in time, fifty years after Blade Runner 2049 (2017), replicants have won a war against humans and are the dominant members of society, flesh and blood citizens now pushed down to second class. An interesting approach!

Hunter Schafer plays Cora, Olwen’s partner, a human who is pretending to be a replicant. The plot thickens, I guess. As a huge fan of the original 1982 classic by Ridley Scott and its 2017 legacy sequel from Denis Villeneuve, I have high hopes that this series will match the visual and aural tone of its predecessors. The showrunner Silka Luisa has cited the original novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick as a source of inspiration on top of the two films, and the visual feel of Ridley’s Blade Runner as a “key north star.” She also teased a different look too and “sunshine noir” was a phrase used, so I’m highly intrigued and do think it needs to continue to evolve. Give us all the dark, moody and rainy future noir grit that we love, but like 2049, it’s more than worth expanding the palette of such a rich and textured world as well. Now who’s doing the score?

Alright, that’ll do for day 1! I envision some of these being a few quickly typed up thoughts, but will play it by ear and try my best to both enjoy and be consistent with this site. There’s plenty of reviews to come too!

Luke