Fear in the Night (1947, Maxwell Shane)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 16, 2014
Fear in the Night shows just how far something can get on the gimmick. Bank teller DeForest Kelley wakes up one morning from the dream he killed someone. He then discovers evidence of his crime and, as he suspects he’s going mad, starts going a little mad. If not totally mad, he does make some poor read more
Quicksand (1950, Irving Pichel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 15, 2014
Quicksand is a film noir with room for cream and about five sugars. The genre often has a morality element to it, but this entry goes way too far with it. Or it might just be how the film treats lead Mickey Rooney. Most film noir male protagonists are overconfident simpletons taken in by devious wo read more
Nothing Sacred (1937, William A. Wellman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 13, 2014
Nothing Sacred is an idea in search of a script. It’s a little surprisingly they went forward with Ben Hecht’s script, which plays like he wrote it on a bunch of napkins and left director Wellman to piece together a narrative. Fredric March–who has shockingly little to do in the film–is a newspaper read more
Busses Roar (1942, D. Ross Lederman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 8, 2014
Busses Roar is a slight propaganda film. It doesn't fully commit to any of its subplots, not even the patriotism. With the exception of the establishing the villainous Japanese, German and the gangster at the opening and the flag-waving speech at the end, it's not too heavy on it. Most of read more
FYI: Concept art from Jared Pelletier’s new project
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 6, 2014
Since Troops–and, hey, maybe even Hardware Wars–short fan films have been a thing; with better consumer video editing and the Internet for distribution, they’ve gone past being a zeitgeist into their own genre of short filmmaking. Though they do seem somewhat dismissed by the esta read more
Without Orders (1936, Lew Landers)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 6, 2014
Without Orders has enough story for a couple movies or at least one twice as long–it runs just over an hour. Instead, everything gets abbreviated. There's flight attendant Sally Eilers who has a sturdy fellow in pilot Robert Armstrong, but he's too concerned about helping her with h read more
Clean and Sober (1988, Glenn Gordon Caron)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 4, 2014
In hindsight, as the film settles during its final scene, it becomes clear a lot of Clean and Sober is obvious. Director Caron and writer Tod Carroll withhold a few pieces of information until that final scene, which do inform a little more, but the obviousness isn’t actually a problem. Prota read more
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989, Stephen Herek)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 4, 2014
About halfway through Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the film becomes truly excellent. Dimwitted metal heads Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves have successfully brought historical figures to the present and loosed them on the modern world–the mall. That sequence of the film, along wit read more
KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978, Gordon Hessler), the theatrical version
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 3, 2014
What’s there to say about KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park? It moves pretty fast. Wait, I didn’t specify nice things to say about the movie. Oops. There’s a lot of bad things to talk about. The easiest targets are KISS, who frequently seem lost–supposedly they got fed thei read more
Hud (1963, Martin Ritt)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 2, 2014
Every once in a while in Hud, it seems like Paul Newman's eponymous lead character might do something selfless. Not redemptive or nice, but selfless. It's not the point of the film and not one of its promises–it's just visible how significant it would be for Brandon De Wilde, p read more
Starman (1984, John Carpenter)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 29, 2014
Starman’s first forty or so minutes speed by–director Carpenter gets as much information across as quickly as he can to discourage the viewer from paying too much attention. There aren’t exactly plot holes, but there’s a lot of silliness in the script. For example, Charles M read more
THX 1138 (1971, George Lucas)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 28, 2014
Director Lucas makes one attempt at audience accessibility in THX 1138. It’s actually the first thing he does–he shows a clip from an old Flash Gordon serial to let the audience know the story is about the future. The clip also lets the audience know the future isn’t going to be h read more
The Great Escape (1963, John Sturges)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 21, 2014
While The Great Escape runs nearly three hours, director Sturges and screenwriters James Clavell and W.R. Burnett never let it feel too long. Part of the quick pace comes from the first half hour being told in something like real time and another big part of it is the aftermath of the escape taking read more
The Getaway (1972, Sam Peckinpah)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 20, 2014
From the lengthy opening credits to the big action finale, it's always clear sound is important in The Getaway. Editor Robert L. Wolfe does some wonderful transitions with sound foreshadowing the cut and the next scene, but there's something more to it. That something more is the isolatio read more
Jaws 2 (1978, Jeannot Szwarc)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 19, 2014
There's definitely a good movie somewhere in Jaws 2; maybe just one without so much shark. Sadly, most of its narrative problems seem obvious to fix. For example, if the shark isn't confirmed and Roy Scheider might just be suffering post-traumatic stress… maybe they didn't want read more
At War with the Army (1950, Hal Walker)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 18, 2014
I wonder what At War with the Army would be like if it were funny. I also wonder what it would be like if director Walker could figure out how to open up a scene. Sure, the whole thing is shot on limited exteriors and then the same interiors–it takes place on an army base–but Walker jus read more
Firefox (1982, Clint Eastwood)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 14, 2014
Firefox has three distinct phases. First, there's retired Air Force pilot Clint Eastwood getting recruited into an espionage mission. This part of the film barely takes any time at all–there's three missing months–Eastwood, as the director, does not like montage sequences. Eve read more
Ring Around the Redhead (1985, Theodore Gershuny)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 13, 2014
Television is a visual medium but budgetary constraints sometimes lead to a lack of visualizations. I assume Ring Around the Redhead, an episode of "Tales from the Darkside," had some serious budgetary constraints. The entire episode has two and a half sets–one is inventor John Hear read more
The Brighton Strangler (1945, Max Nosseck)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 11, 2014
While a lot of The Brighton Strangler meanders, there are some rather effective moments in the film. It's a B picture, with John Loder as an actor suffering from amnesia who imagines himself his latest role–a murderer. The film's set in London, with blackouts and air raids–not read more
Detour (1945, Edgar G. Ulmer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 9, 2014
Detour should be episodic, but it's not. The film chronicles the misadventures of Tom Neal's night club pianist, who's stuck not being good enough for Carnegie Hall and having a fickle fiancée (Claudia Drake) from the outset. When he does decide to follow her out to her dreams in Cal read more