Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 6: Superman in Danger
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 11, 2018
Superman in Danger opens with another fine action sequence from directors Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr with the animated flying Superman. It leads into another really short scene between Noel Neill and Kirk Alyn. Then there’s another action sequence, involving Alyn and kryptonite, with Aly read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 5: A Job for Superman
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 10, 2018
A Job for Superman has the serial’s first enthusiastic use of the cartoon flying Superman. Kirk Alyn has just ditched Tommy Bond with a goofy excuse so he can put on the long-johns (behind rocks this time, not shrubbery) and he’s flying between rock outcrops to get ahead of the bad guys’ car. read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 4: Man of Steel
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 9, 2018
Man of Steel opens with a good scene for Kirk Alyn, as both Clark Kent and Superman, as he has to decide if he’s going to reveal his secret identity. He’s trying to convince scientist Forrest Taylor to destroy kryptonite. Unfortunately, Taylor’s got an assistant who’s more interested in personal read more
Actor | Eleanor Parker, Part 2: Technicolor
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 8, 2018
When Eleanor Parker left her Warner Bros. contract in early 1950, she did so before any of her films of that year released. There were three–Chain Lightning, Caged, and Three Secrets. All three were successful. She was top-billed on the latter two (and second-billed only to Bogart in Lightnin read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 3: The Reducer Ray
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 8, 2018
The Reducer Ray drags. It opens with an okay, not great, cliffhanger resolution–with the best use of the animated Superman action so far in Superman. The resolution’s truncated so the action can get back to the Daily Planet so Noel Neill can meet Kirk Alyn (as Clark Kent). She already met Superman, read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 2: Depths of the Earth
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 5, 2018
Depths of the Earth opens with Superman saving a train. Only on a budget. Yet everyone acts like it’s the second coming, from Noel Neill’s Lois Lane to the stunned rail worker. All the rail worker saw was Kirk Alyn run out of the bushes in his Superman costume and kneel next to the train tracks. read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 1: Superman Comes to Earth
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 4, 2018
Superman Comes to Earth starts on the rocky, barren planet of Krypton. Which has just experienced a tidal wave, according to the narrator. There’s a little incongruity between the narration and the dialogue. It ceases to be an issue once Krypton’s elders start heckling Nelson Leigh for telling them read more
V (1983, Kenneth Johnson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 3, 2018
About half of V is quite good. Unfortunately, V was a two-night mini-series and the first half is good part. The second half, not so much. The first half has human-like alien visitors arriving on Earth, in hopes of making a chemical compound to take back home to save their planet. Turns out they’re read more
Lizzie Borden Took an Ax (2014, Nick Gomez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 1, 2018
A horrific crime. An infamous suspect. An unrelenting prospector and his search for the truth. Or not. I mean, technically most of the above statements could be used to describe Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, but none of them accurately captures the ninety-one minute TV movie. There is some time spent o read more
A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 31, 2017
A Boy Named Charlie Brown gets by on a lot of charm. It takes writer and creator Charles M. Schulz forever to get to the story. It takes Schulz so long to get to the story–Charlie Brown, spelling bee champ–it seems like there isn’t going to be a story. Schulz lays the groundwork for the story, read more
Horse Feathers (1932, Norman Z. McLeod)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 30, 2017
Horse Feathers finally finds its funny sometime in the second half. The film plays like the main plot has been removed and just a subplot remains, so it’s impressive it ever does. And when it does, it’s depressing–director McLeod and (wow, four) writers Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, S.J. Perelman, read more
The Incredible Hulk (1977, Kenneth Johnson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 30, 2017
The Incredible Hulk opens with a montage of lead Bill Bixby’s martial bliss. It goes on for quite a while, just Bixby and (an uncredited) Lara Parker being a happy married couple. Then tragedy strikes. Like most tragedies in The Incredible Hulk, it involves a car tire blowing out. There are three read more
Brenda Starr (1976, Mel Stuart)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 29, 2017
It’d be nice if there were anything good about Brenda Starr. Stuart’s direction is–at its best–medicore. It’s always predictable, it’s sometimes bad. He has familiar patterns–over the shoulder, close-up, walking two shot. He repeats them, every time with a bad cut from James T. Heckert read more
In the Bleak Midwinter (1995, Kenneth Branagh)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 29, 2017
In the Bleak Midwinter is a sweet movie. It’s kind of a Christmas movie–it takes place at Christmas–and it’s this gentle, thoughtful, sweet but never saccharine or even really acknowledging its sweetness sweet movie. Writer and director Branagh puts a lot of work into the plotting of the film, read more
Super 8 (2011, J.J. Abrams)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2017
Sometimes special effects are just a little too much, especially with CGI composites letting director Abrams set so much of Super 8 in gigantic action sequences. The film’s about a bunch of tweens in 1979 Ohio making a Super 8 zombie movie when they witness a train crash. The train crash, with trai read more
Alien Nation (1988, Graham Baker)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2017
A film like Alien Nation encourages a lot of thought. For example, I think I’ve decided I want to say the film is badly directed (by Baker) while being poorly lighted (by Adam Greenberg). I already know I wanted to say it was atrociously edited. Kent Beyda’s cuts don’t just jump (there’s a car read more
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, Robert Wise)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2017
The Day the Earth Stood Still opens with these sensational titles. 3D text jumping out, set against the backdrop of space, Bernard Herrmann’s score at its loudest; the titles suggest the film is going to be something grandiose. It is and it isn’t. For the first act, director Wise moves quickly, read more
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976, Nicolas Roeg)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 25, 2017
The Man Who Fell to Earth is an endurance test. The film runs 138 minutes and has a present action of… dozens of years? Eventually Candy Clark and Rip Torn are in old age makeup, milling about the film from scene to scene, like being forgotten by it would be worse. Everyone’s a drunk by the end, read more
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966, Ben Washam and Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 25, 2017
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! has three rather distinct things going on throughout the twenty-six minute television special. It also some some indistinct things going on–the Whoville songs, while charming, are nowhere near as impressive as the big things. First, but not foremost, is Washam and Jo read more
The Night Stalker (1972, John Llewellyn Moxey)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 24, 2017
The Night Stalker moves with ruthless efficiency. It’s a TV movie, so it’s got a mandated short runtime–seventy-four minutes; Richard Matheson’s teleplay has a brisk pace, something director Moxey embraces. There’s rarely a dull moment in The Night Stalker. It’s always about waiting for read more