Watchmen (2019) s01e09 – See How They Fly
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 11, 2020
I’ve been trying to gin up enthusiasm to write about this “Watchmen” finale all day. Though, if I think hard enough, I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with a compliment. Something like… thanks to “Watchmen: The Series,” Robert Wisdom’s most… unappreciative recent casting is no longer read more
Evil (2019) s01e11 – Room 320
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 11, 2020
I resent how affecting this episode of “Evil” gets because it doesn’t deserve to be. The stuff about Katja Herbers and Aasif Mandvi discovering how the guy who attacked Mike Colter before hiatus is the same guy who posed as a creepy little girl in AR to stalk Herbers’s kid early on in the series… read more
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 10, 2020
During To Kill a Mockingbird’s exceptional opening titles, I wondered how it was possible the film was going to look so amazing yet had no reputation for being some exquisitely, precisely directed piece of cinema. Then up came Stephen Frankfurt’s credit for title design, which kind of dulled my read more
Archie Gets a Job! (1977)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 10, 2020
Are Christian comics better or worse since Archie Gets a Job! (from 1977)? The comic promotes a combination of functional illiteracy and profound ignorance, not to mention encouraging teasing of people’s appearances, particularly fat-shaming. Just like Jesus, no doubt. The comic’s all about Archie read more
That mockingbird don’t sing, or: Blaming the cat for the lack of subtitle
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 10, 2020
This post is a race. Can I write a Summing Up post in the time it takes me to cook dinner. I was going to have a To Kill a Mockingbird post up tonight but then we watched two “Schitt’s Creek” instead of one (finishing the third season, which has that wonderfully nice season finale; I wonder when read more
All Rise (2019) s01e12 – What the Constitution Greens to Me
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 9, 2020
This episode of “All Rise”—the first after hiatus—seems like a return to form. At least as much form as “All Rise” has ever had; in terms of guest stars, it means the pilot. “All Rise”’s guest star caliber has dropped since then. Not anymore. This episode doesn’t just have Peter read more
Archie’s Parables (1973)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 8, 2020
Archie’s Parables is Christian comics propaganda from the 1970s and is a great example of why it never would’ve occurred to me to read an Archie comic before, what, 2010 or something. But Parables, courtesy Spire Christian Comics and creator Al Hartley. Though using the word “creator” for Hartley read more
Echoes of You (2018, Henry Quilici)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 7, 2020
About halfway through, Echoes of You gets after-school special cringy, which seems like it’s too bad because at least before—despite being this Dickensian tale of classical pianist employed as a theatre custodian (Laurence Fuller) who befriends the street urchin living out back (Zakary Risinger) read more
Doctor Gorpon (1991) #3
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 7, 2020
So last issue was a surprise as far as creator Marc Hansen’s plotting for Doctor Gorpon goes and this issue is no different. The issue opens having to resolve three cliffhangers—all of the monsters Gorpon has captured over the years has gelled into sentient ooze bent on destroying him, his former read more
Doctor Gorpon (1991) #2
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 6, 2020
I was expecting Doctor Gorpon #2 to be gross and funny—and it is both gross and funny—but not have much of a story. Instead, creator Marc Hansen has a bunch of it. In fact, the story even overshadows the gross and some of the funny. Everyone who survived the first issue is back. Gorpon’s strugglin read more
A Cheap Endorphin Rush, or: 2020’s off to a lousy start, isn’t it?
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 5, 2020
We’ve been marathoning “Superstore” and now “Schitt’s Creek” so I don’t have a ready backlog of Stop Button posts right now. I wrote that sugar-high post earlier this week, which was… something to do. And I’ve been fairly good with the comics posts. I’m going to do the next Ennis read more
Restoration (1995, Michael Hoffman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 4, 2020
Restoration is two parts period drama, one part character study, one part comedy. It’s often tragic, both because of events occurring and because it takes place in 1665 England and 1665 wasn’t a great time to be alive given the state of medical knowledge versus, you know, disease. Or mental health. read more
Watchmen (2019) s01e08 – A God Walks into Abar
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 3, 2020
This episode of “Watchmen” gets, quite nicely, to the heart of the matter. As the episode goes through its meme-ification of Dr. Manhattan (albeit prestige HBO series starring recent Academy Award-winner Regina King memes), where King and Dr. Manhattan—who’s always visibly obscured when he’s read more
Doctor Gorpon (1991) #1
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 3, 2020
Doctor Gorpon is a nice bit of gross-out gore. Creator Marc Hansen’s cartooning has these thick inks, which perfectly complement the tentacles and intestines the title character is pulling out of monsters throughout the issue. Doctor Gorpon is a monster hunter, one who charges for his services whe read more
Spawn (1997, Mark A.Z. Dippé), the director’s cut
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 2, 2020
Spawn is really bad. It’s bad from the first frame, the first bad CGI vision of Hell. I’m not sure if it’s bad until the last frame, I didn’t bother with the end credits. But based on the music accompanying the start of the end credits… yes, yes, it’s bad until the final frame. Even if there’s read more
The Weatherman (2019) #1
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 2, 2020
I read the first Weatherman series because Nathan Fox having a steady gig seemed like it was worth seeing. And the series was fine… I didn’t even remember it ended on a cliffhanger though. This second volume continues the action as mind-wiped former interplanetary terrorist turned weatherman read more
Nugget, or: Dream of the Sugar Fiend
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 1, 2020
Every swallow has weight. I’m not sure if it’s the sugar, the alcohol, or what seems to be a coming nausea, but every swallow weighs. The bubbles in the champagne should help though. I just ate about a fifth or sixth of a Bavarian creme butter braid, a “Fun Size” Snickers, and a 60% Cacao Dark read more
Lords of the Deep (1989, Mary Ann Fisher)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 31, 2019
Lords of the Deep exists for reasons. Some of them seem interesting enough I’m disappointed the trivia section on IMDb doesn’t offer any explanations. But just going on what it’s like watching the film and what it’s good for? You hate top-billed Bradford Dillman and want to simultaneously be read more
Pope Hats (2009) #6
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 30, 2019
I’ve read Young Frances, which collects Pope Hats, but haven’t actually read any Pope Hats issues. Based on this issue, it’s different to the point I can’t imagine what it’s like to read Young Frances serialized, not if Hartley Lin intersperses it with his one or two page lyrical comic strips. read more
Becket (1964, Peter Glenville)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 29, 2019
Becket has some genre constraints. Significant ones. It’s a king-sized 70mm Panavision English history epic only it doesn’t feature any big battles. In fact, it goes out of its way not to show battles. It’s also an early sixties historical epic and it’s trying to be a little edgy in how it shows read more