Million Dollar Baby (2004, Clint Eastwood)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 2, 2017
Million Dollar Baby has a somewhat significant plot twist. Well, it actually has a couple of them. And neither comes with much foreshadowing. A little in Paul Haggis’s script, which director Eastwood visualizes appropriately, but they’re in the background. The film has its larger than life story read more
Indian Summer (1993, Mike Binder)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 24, 2017
Indian Summer is genial and life-affirming. Writer-director Binder imbues it with an optimism and positivity–as long as you have the right support system, anything is possible. Given the film’s about a bunch of thirtysomethings who return to their childhood summer camp to find themselves, it’s read more
Vanished (1971, Buzz Kulik)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 23, 2017
Even for a TV miniseries, Vanished feels like it runs too long. There are always tedious subplots, like folksy, pervy old man senator Robert Young plotting against President Richard Widmark. Widmark is up for re-election and he’s vulnerable. Even his own press secretary’s secretary (Skye Aubrey) read more
Series | The Thin Man
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 22, 2017
Since its first installment in 1934 and in the eighty years since, The Thin Man series has stood apart from other film series and franchises. Its six films always delivered a “twist” mystery and the wonderful chemistry between stars William Powell and Myrna Loy. Much of the series’s most memorable read more
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985, George Miller and George Ogilvie)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 17, 2017
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is the story of a burnt-out, desolate man who learns to live again. Sort of. It’s more the story of a burnt-out, desolate man who finds himself babysitting sixty feral children who think he’s a messiah. But not really that story either, because Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome read more
Alien (1979, Ridley Scott), the director’s cut
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 16, 2017
Ridley Scott’s director’s cut of Alien feels like vaguely engaged exercise more than any kind of devout restoration. Its less than artistic origins–Scott cut it together a combination, apparently, of fan service and studio marketing needs–actually help it quite a bit in the first act. Scott’s read more
Making Mr. Right (1987, Susan Seidelman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 11, 2017
Making Mr. Right feels a little incomplete. It’s not entirely unexpected as Floyd Byars and Laurie Frank’s script plays loose with subplots–even after the film forecasts its basic structure, it loses track of a lot, and some essential scenes happen offscreen. The subsequent reveals in the narrative read more
Alexander the Great (1963, Phil Karlson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 11, 2017
Had Alexander the Great gone to series instead of just being a passed over pilot and footnote in many recognizable actors filmographies, it seems likely the series would’ve had William Shatner’s Alexander continue his conquest of the Persian Empire. The pilot is this strange mix of occasional actio read more
Ragnarok (1983)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 10, 2017
Ragnarok is a “video [comic] strip.” There’s no animation, though occasionally there are electric crackles, just panning, scanning, and zooming across illustrations while three voice actors perform multiple roles. There are sound effects–minimal ones, which sometimes works to great effect, sometime read more
Spider-Man (1977, E.W. Swackhamer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 10, 2017
Someone is mindcontrolling upstanding citizens and making them commit daredevil bank robberies in broad daylight. While New York’s finest detectives–cigar-chewing Michael Pataki and his nitwit sidekick Robert Hastings–are on the case, they soon get some valuable assistance from Spider-Man! This read more
King Kong Escapes (1967, Honda Ishirô)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 10, 2017
Despite lacking special effects and a phoned in score from Ifukube Akira (reusing his previous Godzilla themes to various effect), King Kong Escapes has quite a bit of charm to it. The film opens with Kong enthusiasts–really, they’re sitting around drawing pictures of him–Rhodes Reason and Takarada read more
The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 8, 2017
By the time the door opens and Dorothy (Judy Garland) finds herself over the rainbow, The Wizard of Oz has already completed one full narrative arc and is starting another. The film opens with Garland in a crisis–she’s a teenage girl on a farm where no one has time for her (it’s a busy farm, after read more
The Untouchables (1987, Brian De Palma)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 5, 2017
There are few constants in The Untouchables. Leading man Kevin Costner comes in after nemesis Robert De Niro (as Al Capone) opens the movie; only the Chicago setting and Ennio Morricone’s grandiose, bombastic, omnipresent score are unabated. Director De Palma embraces the film’s various phases, read more
Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring (1971, Joseph Sargent)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 2, 2017
Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring opens with a montage sequence. Sally Field is hitchhiking cross country (supposedly, it’s all California) while audio of her calling home to her parents–after running away to become a hippie–and letting them know she’s all right. The exact amount of time read more
Wonder Woman (2017, Patty Jenkins)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 2, 2017
Wonder Woman has one set of official, awkward bookends and one set of unofficial ones. The former does lead Gal Gadot no favors–after spending a moving building a character, it goes all tabula rosa and turns Gadot into little more than a licensing image. The latter does the film no favors. The latt read more
The Mean Season (1985, Phillip Borsos)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 31, 2017
Somewhere in the second act of The Mean Season, the film just starts slipping and it never corrects. The opening titles, set against stormy Miami weather and a vicious (though not graphic) murder, establish the film’s momentum. Everything moves fast, whether it’s establishing unsatisfied reporter read more
Oscar (1991, John Landis)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 31, 2017
Excluding prologue and epilogue, Oscar has a present action of roughly four hours. The movie runs just shy of two hours. A lot happens with a lot of characters. And, while the film’s based on a play–which explains the limited setting–and even though it’s not like director Landis does anything read more
Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 29, 2017
Duck Soup is madness. It’s not divine madness or sublime madness. It’s comedic madness, which is fine, but it’s a tad frantic and a tad distracted. The film opens with Margaret Dumont’s wealthy widow getting Groucho Marx installed as a head of state. Turns out evil Louis Calhern–a neighboring read more
Love & Friendship (2016, Whit Stillman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 29, 2017
Love & Friendship opens with some non-traditional portrait cards for its cast of characters. The actors all appear in the opening titles, but then director Stillman breaks out introductions to the characters. Along with some narration. There’s some narration early on, which goes away almost imm read more
A Connecticut Yankee (1931, David Butler)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 28, 2017
A Connecticut Yankee fumbles on pretty much every level, including wasting lead Will Rogers. The big problem is the script, from William M. Conselman. It doesn’t help any director Butler can’t mount an action or comedy sequences, because there’s nothing else in the picture. It doesn’t even work read more