Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989, William Shatner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 29, 2014
In some ways, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is an ambitious movie pretending to be popcorn entertainment pretending to be an ambitious movie. There's a lot of nonsense about self-help, not to mention the whole God thing, and none of it works. Partially, it doesn't work because David Lou read more
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989, Joe Johnston)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 27, 2014
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a constant battle between trite and sincere. Except the special effects stuff; the special effects are astounding, especially the sequences where there's a mix of styles, between practical and optical, and a mix of sizes. Director Johnston does such an exceptional j read more
Against All Odds (1984, Taylor Hackford)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 26, 2014
If Against All Odds had just a few more things going for it, the film might qualify as a glorious disaster. There are a lot of glorious elements to it, even if there aren't quite enough to make it worthwhile. Or even passable. Hackford's direction is outstanding. He's fully committed read more
Creature (1985, William Malone)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 26, 2014
I'm hesitant to pay Creature any compliments, but it does have some unexpected plot developments. Not regarding the space monster, which rips off Alien comprehensively–though stoutly–but in how director Malone and co-writer Alan Reed plot the film. They have a large cast to work th read more
About (5)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 24, 2014
Hello, and welcome, to the Stop Button “About” page. I’m Andrew Wickliffe and I’ve been blogging here so long the site can get a driving permit. I write about movies, comics, and television. On rare occasion, I write longer pieces in hopes of driving traffic to the older pie read more
Cat People (1982, Paul Schrader)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 24, 2014
Cat People is so brilliantly made, often so well-acted, it's surprisingly those elements can't make up for its narrative issues. Screenwriter Alan Ormsby has a big problem–he's got to turn his protagonist from a victim to a villain to a victim. Sadly, he and director Schrader c read more
Scaramouche (1952, George Sidney)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 24, 2014
Scaramouche is a deliberately constructed film. I’m curious if screenwriters Ronald Millar and George Froeschel followed the source novel’s plot structure, because it’s a very peculiar series of events. It doesn’t open with the leading man, instead starting out with villain read more
Madison Avenue (1962, H. Bruce Humberstone)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 23, 2014
Madison Avenue somehow manages to be anorexic but packed. It only runs ninety minutes and takes place over a few years. There’s no makeup–which is probably good since Dana Andrews, Eleanor Parker and Jeanne Crain are all playing at least ten years younger than their ages. Director Humbe read more
At the Earth’s Core (1976, Kevin Connor), the digest version
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 22, 2014
Take one bad movie–At the Earth's Core–running eighty-nine minutes and take one inept editor and tell him or her (the editor is uncredited) to cut it down to fourteen minutes. It's a lousy movie anyway, so what are you going to lose…. Well, some bad things. Definitely so read more
Lovesick (1983, Marshall Brickman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 21, 2014
Lovesick is an unassuming comedy. Director Brickman will occasionally bring in frantic, sitcom-like plotting to jazz things up momentarily, but otherwise the film’s exceedingly calm and measured. It only runs ninety-some minutes; it’s gradual, without much conflict at all–in fact, read more
The Bigamist (1953, Ida Lupino)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 17, 2014
With a sensational title like The Bigamist, one might expect something lurid and exploitative from the film. Definitely from the titular lead, Edmond O’Brien. But, no, poor O’Brien is just a married traveling salesman with a barren, work-oriented wife (Joan Fontaine) so who can blame hi read more
Beware! The Blog (1972, Larry Hagman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 9, 2014
Could Beware! The Blob be less competent? Possibly not. Screenwriters Jack Woods and Anthony Harris approach Beware! like a spoof. It’s a comedic early seventies handling, complete with hippy jokes, racism, some cracks at small businessmen, pot, Eastern Europeans… Woods and Harris cover read more
Big Trouble in Little China (1986, John Carpenter)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 9, 2014
Although Big Trouble in Little China takes place in modern day San Francisco and has a whole bunch of awesome special effects, it’s really just John Carpenter doing another Western. This time he’s doing a light comedy Western and he’s got the perfect script for it. W.D. Richter (c read more
The Blob (1988, Chuck Russell)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 8, 2014
The Blob is a mixed bag. On one hand, director Russell does a good job throughout and he and Frank Darabont’s script is well-plotted. On the other hand, the script will occasionally have some idiotic dialogue and the actors just stumble and fall through it. Similarly the special effects. Ther read more
Hollow Triumph (1948, Steve Sekely)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 1, 2014
Calling Hollow Triumph a vanity project for star (and producer) Paul Henreid might be a little too easy. He does play a guy who decides to murder someone who looks just like him–sadly, Daniel Fuchs’s script doesn’t have much fun with Henreid in the dual roles. In fact, Fuchs only read more
Father of the Bride (1950, Vincente Minnelli)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 24, 2014
Father of the Bride is such a constant delight, it’s practically over before its problems become clear. First off, it’s definitely about the titular Father–a wonderful Spencer Tracy–who not only narrates but is in almost every scene. The wedding reception, when he’s ch read more
Gigantis, The Fire Monster (1959, Oda Motoyoshi and Hugo Grimaldi)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 24, 2014
There’s something rather amusing about Gigantis, The Fire Monster and not just its idiocy. It’s the American version of the second Godsilla picture and it has some amazingly bad pseudo-science–the monsters are “fire monsters,” which may or may not have been dinosaurs. read more
Dear Heart (1964, Delbert Mann)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 14, 2014
Dear Heart starts awkwardly and ends awkwardly. At the beginning, director Mann and writer Tad Mosel are very deliberately setting up their protagonists and the setting. The awkwardness makes sense. That very solid foundation allows for everything following. The ending, which plays–at least f read more
Bloodlust! (1961, Ralph Brooke)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 10, 2014
What’s startling about Bloodlust! isn’t how bad it gets–the film opens on a docked ship, with the principal cast pretending it’s moving violently so the bad is obvious straight away–but how many not bad elements there are to the film. None of them are enough to make Bl read more
Robocop (1987, Paul Verhoeven), the director’s cut
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 8, 2014
There are a lot of acknowledged accomplishments to Robocop. Pretty much everyone identifies Rob Bottin and Phil Tippett. Bottin handled the startling makeup, Tippett did the awesome stop motion. Director Verhoeven gets a lot of credit–rightly so–and Basil Poledouris’s score is ess read more