Captain Voyeur (1969, John Carpenter)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 31, 2018
Captain Voyeur starts better than it finishes, which is too bad since it gets better as it goes along. Writer and director Carpenter opens the short with a long tracking shot of some boring workplace. Excellent black and white photography from Joanne Willens (save two shots later on) makes the open read more
It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown! (1974, Phil Roman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 30, 2018
Easter Beagle has a really strong script from Charles M. Schulz. Everything is balanced just right. It’s not balanced equally. The proportions are just right. Besides the lovely musical sequences–where Beagle goes for being lovely and graceful (lots of dancing Snoopy, set Vince Guaraldi, some read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 7: The Invisible Enemy
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 29, 2018
The Invisible Enemy does indeed feature an invisible enemy. Sort of. It’s the shadow of the Clutching Hand, who despite being the villain for the entire serial, is mentioned with surprise when Jack Mulhall reads another of the Hand’s threatening notes. On one hand (no pun intended), it& read more
The Witch (2015, Robert Eggers)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 28, 2018
The Witch is very creepy. It has to be. There’s a lot of scary music, done to scary effect. Cuts to black and the like. Ominous forest. Cut to black. Very creepy. Whether or not it’s scary is another matter. It’s somewhat disturbing. But it’s set in the seventeenth century and it’s serious. read more
It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown (1974, Phil Roman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 27, 2018
It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown opens with this adorable five minute Woodstock sequence. He builds a new nest, then goes and takes a swim in a bird bath. A storm comes in–whatever its faults, Mystery does have some rather ambitious animation for a “Charlie Brown” special–the tranquil clouds read more
The Return of the Incredible Hulk (1977, Alan J. Levi)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 26, 2018
The Return of the Incredible Hulk is the second pilot movie for the subsequent “Incredible Hulk” TV series. It aired three weeks after the first pilot, which featured the origin of the Hulk–scientist Bruce Bixby turns himself into green-skinned musclebound grotesque Lou Ferrigno thanks to gamma read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 6: Steps of Doom
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 25, 2018
Steps of Doom almost opens with a good cliffhanger resolve. It definitely has a couple surprises to it, which the chapter does nothing with after revealing them–even though both beg further explanation–and gets into another bar fight at the waterfront. It raises a third question, just before the read more
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989, Jim Sheridan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 24, 2018
My Left Foot is told in flashback. There’s the present–kind of glorified bookends–when Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a successful adult and flirts with his nurse (Ruth McCabe)–and then the past, which recounts Brown growing up poor, with cerebral palsy, in 1940s Dublin. Hugh O’Conor read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 5: The Double Trap
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 23, 2018
Clutching Hand is definitely wearing me down. I got through the bad fist fights without thinking too much about their poor execution. And lead Jack Mulhall’s annoying “acting” quirks didn’t annoy as much as usual. It’s just Clutching Hand, why would it get any better five chapters in. The read more
There’s No Time for Love, Charlie Brown (1973, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 22, 2018
There’s No Time for Love, Charlie Brown takes about seven minutes to get into the main story–Charlie Brown and the other kids go on a field trip to the art museum–and about seventeen minutes to get to the title relevancy. At first it seems like there’s no time for love because the kids read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 4: The Phantom Car
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 21, 2018
There’s no reason for The Phantom Car to have its title. There are cars in the chapter, yes, but none of them have any supernatural traits. In fact, the one “mysterious” car-related incident–the chapter’s cliffhanger–explains the gimmick to the viewer while never showing the characters’ read more
You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown (1972, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 20, 2018
A lot goes on in You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, with the actual class president election stuff coming in at the end of the first act. Instead, Elected starts with Sally (Hilary Momberger-Powers) having school troubles. There’s a long conversation about all the possible school proble read more
Halloween (2018, David Gordon Green)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 19, 2018
Halloween never met a MacGuffin it didn’t embrace. Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride, and director Gordon’s script strings together MacGuffins to make the plot. And if it’s not a MacGuffin, it’s something they’re not going to do anything with. With a handful of exceptions, Halloween is usually at read more
Lonelyhearts (1958, Vincent J. Donehue)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 18, 2018
The most frustrating thing about Lonelyhearts is Donehue’s direction. While not a television production, Donehue directs it like one. He’ll have these shots of star Montgomery Clift baring his soul to girlfriend Dolores Hart and Donehue will stick with Clift, no reaction shot on Hart much less lett read more
Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Howard Hawks)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 17, 2018
The first forty-five minutes of Only Angels Have Wings is mostly continual present action. Jean Arthur arrives in a South American port town, looking around–followed by two possible ne’er-do-wells (Allyn Joslyn and Noah Beery Jr.)–and the film tracks her experience. Great direction from Hawks, read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 3: House of Mystery
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 16, 2018
It’s another action-packed episode. The action is atrociously executed, but there is definitely a lot of it. After a perfunctory cliffhanger resolution, the Clutching Hand sends more thugs after detective Jack Mulhall and his sidekick, reporter Rex Lease (Lease’s professional makes no difference read more
He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown (1968, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 15, 2018
He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown opens with Snoopy terrorizing the kids. He’s indiscriminately vicious, leading to the kids complaining to Charlie Brown about it. Charlie Brown’s solution is to send Snoopy off to the puppy farm for reeducation. Snoopy is Dog’s draw. His worst moments read more
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995, Joe Chappelle)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 14, 2018
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers doesn’t even run ninety minutes and gets boring fast; the last twenty minutes are completely mind-numbing. Nothing makes sense, characters act without motive, cults cult without purpose, it just goes on and on. At least Donald Pleasence is lucky enough to get read more
The Cheap Detective (1978, Robert Moore)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 13, 2018
It was until after The Cheap Detective was over I realized there’s never anything about Peter Falk’s fee. It’s not clear whether he’s cheap or not. It’s never addressed. It’s one of the many things Neil Simon’s screenplay never gets around to addressing, like if the third act is all a read more