A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 22, 2011
Two things stick out in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. First, Charlie Brown is a bit of a drag. Charles M. Schulz, writing the script, initially sets up Charlie Brown as the Scrooge of “Christmas”. While that condition changes a little–eventually, Charlie Brown is the vi read more
The Windblown Hare (1949, Robert McKimson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 20, 2011
The Windblown Hare is fairly intolerable. Even if the animation wasn’t lazy–maybe Warner slashed the budget after finding out what McKimson wanted to do–there are still two and a half major problems. First, and most surprisingly, Mel Blanc’s Three Little Pigs voices are terr read more
Hotel (1967, Richard Quine)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 16, 2011
Hotel comes from that strange period of Hollywood cinema just between the Technicolor melodramas and the seventies realism. The film’s still in Technicolor of course–and Charles Lang’s cinematography is fantastic. He makes the New Orleans location shooting look just wondrous. But read more
Dry and Thirsty (1920, Craig Hutchinson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 15, 2011
Dry and Thirsty is split into two distinct parts. The first part, set on a boardwalk and beach, mostly features protagonist Billy Bletcher. Bletcher, who also wrote the short, resembles Chaplin. The mustache isn’t identical, but it’s close, and the mannerisms suggest a very American Cha read more
Airport (1970, George Seaton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 14, 2011
While it did start the seventies disaster genre, Airport barely qualifies. The first hour of the film is excruciating soap opera melodrama—airport chief Burt Lancaster is stuck in a loveless marriage with harpy Dana Wynter, so he’s got a flirtation going with widowed Jean Seberg. His sister, played read more
The Mouse That Jack Built (1959, Robert McKimson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 13, 2011
A prerequisite for The Mouse That Jack Built is probably working knowledge of “The Jack Benny Program.” I have none, though I think I’ve heard the radio show before. But I certainly do not remember it enough for Mouse to make sense. It’s a strange concept for a cartoon– read more
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988, David Zucker)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 12, 2011
Oh, okay… it’s less than ninety minutes. I was wondering why The Naked Gun felt so fast. It’s because it’s short. That observation isn’t a negative one—the film is a constant delight, with Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker (and Pat Proft) coming up with a good laugh or gag every thirty to forty seconds. read more
Back Stage (1923, Robert F. McGowan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 8, 2011
Back Stage opens with a vaudeville owner, played by William Gillespie, coming to town. Once the show’s presence is established, the narrative moves to the gang. They’ve turned a car into a donkey-powered double decker bus. It’s an extremely complex contraption. It doesn’t s read more
Adventures in Babysitting (1987, Chris Columbus)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 7, 2011
If it weren’t for the acting, Adventures in Babysitting would probably be more interesting as a cultural document than anything else. The way the film treats race is probably worth a couple sociology articles. Black people aren’t scary as much as foreign beyond belief. Space aliens woul read more
Cat Feud (1958, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 6, 2011
Cat Feud is almost too precious for its own good. In fact, the precious nature is what gets it into most of its trouble. The cartoon concerns a tough construction site guard dog who gets all mushy inside when he finds an adorable kitten. Trouble comes in the form of a stray cat, who is after the ki read more
It Takes Two (1988, David Beaird)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 5, 2011
It Takes Two features a dream sequence set in protagonist George Newbern’s stomach. It looks cheaper than an antacid commercial. The movie’s filled with fake Southern accents–Newbern loses the accent after about fifteen minutes, right before he gets to the big city (Dallas) where read more
Innerspace (1987, Joe Dante)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 2, 2011
It’s always a surprise when I remember Innerspace wasn’t a hit (it was also the first movie I ever saw as a letterboxed VHS–it was letterbox only). It’s easily Dante’s most populist work–I don’t think a single Dante “touch,” except for Dick Mill read more
Magical Maestro (1952, Tex Avery)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 1, 2011
I had read Magical Maestro was controversial and it took me quite a while, watching it, to release why it had that reputation. There’s a montage of an irate magician turning an opera singing bulldog into various singing stereotypes. There’s a cowboy, there’s a redneck, there’ read more
The ‘burbs (1989, Joe Dante)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 30, 2011
Until The 'burbs gets around to actually having to pay off on its premise–the strange new neighbors are really serial killers–it’s quite good. There’s no way the third act pay off can deliver and the film’s quality takes a number of hits in the last half hour or s read more
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973, Bill Melendez and Phil Roman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 24, 2011
“A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” only has one great scene. The special is generally good–though the usual Peanuts logic problems–but there’s a great sequence with Snoopy and Woodstock messing around to a song from Vince Guaraldi. It’s set against the precious paint read more
The Ape (1940, William Nigh)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 18, 2011
I always forget awful films have always been made; I usually establish some arbitrary point in the mid-fifties when they started getting unwatchable. Then something like The Ape comes along and reminds me I need to set that point earlier. The film’s based on a play, which must be a hoot considering read more
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956, Curt Siodmak)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 16, 2011
Siodmak sure does love his medium shots. He uses the same medium shot for every indoor scene in Curucu, which, along with the atrocious acting and writing, brings some regularity to the film. I’ve wanted to see this one since I was a kid, mostly because of the excellent poster. It’s str read more
Berlin Express (1948, Jacques Tourneur)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 14, 2011
Berlin Express is a postwar thriller. In the late forties and early fifties, there were a number of such films—most filmed either partially or totally on location in the ruins of Germany. I was expecting Express to be more of a noir, but it’s not. With its pseudo-documentary approach, down to the read more
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946, Robert Clampett)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 27, 2011
Is that Porky Pig cameoing in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery? I kept expecting him to be revealed as the big villain. The story concerns Daffy Duck getting clomped on the head and imagining himself in a Dick Tracy adventure. Now, for Tracy fans, there’s a lot to see, including some inventive takes on read more
Daffy Duck Slept Here (1948, Robert McKimson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 25, 2011
So all you need to make Daffy Duck an incredibly sympathetic character is Porky Pig. In Daffy Duck Slept Here, Porky’s a traveler in search of a hotel room. He ends up lodging with Daffy, only they haven’t met yet. Once they do, the majority of the hilarity ensues. And it is hilarity. Slept Here read more