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Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 5: The Boomerang
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 6, 2018
It’s unclear what the chapter title, The Boomerang, has to do with any of the content. Unless it’s something about Buster Crabbe and Frank Shannon continually returning to Beatrice Roberts’s palace from the Clay Men’s kingdom. Crabbe and Shannon start the chapter saving Jean Rogers and Donald read more
Gaslight (1944, George Cukor)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 5, 2018
At the end of Gaslight, when all has seemingly been revealed, there’s only one question left. If Scotland Yard inspector Joseph Cotten isn’t an American in London, why doesn’t anyone notice his lack of accent. It’s a wise choice not to give Cotten an accent–presumably he couldn’t do one–but read more
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015, Christopher McQuarrie)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 4, 2018
While Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation doesn’t deliver much in the way of plot twists, it instead delivers a lot of easy smiles and a handful of good laughs. The easy smiles aren’t just for the action sequences, which often focus on characters’ reactions to them–sometimes relief, sometimes read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 4: Ancient Enemies
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 3, 2018
The cliffhanger resolution from last chapter should be this awesome sequence where Buster Crabbe–faced with a collapsing structure–swings down on a line, risking his life to save his prisoner (Beatrice Roberts), in a scene George Lucas would “borrow” for Star Wars. Unfortunately, the whole thing read more
This Unfamiliar Place (1994, Eva Ilona Brzeski)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 2, 2018
This Unfamiliar Place is content in search of presentation. Director Brzeski’s father survived the Nazi attack and occupation of Poland. He never talked about it. Then there’s an unspecified earthquake (maybe the San Francisco-Oakland one of 1989, but it’s sort of immaterial because Brzeski’s read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 3: Queen of Magic
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 1, 2018
Queen of Magic has a lot going on. After the perfunctory cliffhanger resolution, there’s another chase sequence (of sorts) through the Clay Men’s caves. It takes a while–and has Buster Crabbe and company duking it out with the actual bad guys (Beatrice Roberts’s human thugs)–but eventually read more
I, Tonya (2017, Craig Gillespie)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 31, 2018
Despite the rather declarative I in the title, I, Tonya, Margot Robbie’s Tonya Harding is not the protagonist of the film. Writer Steven Rogers avoids making her the protagonist as long as he can–really, until the third act–and instead splits it between Robbie and Sebastian Stan (as her husband). read more
Pushover (1954, Richard Quine)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 30, 2018
As far as suspension of disbelief goes, nothing in Pushover compares to the second scene of the film, when twenty-one year-old Kim Novak makes goggly-eyes over forty-eight year-old Fred MacMurray. Both actors handle it straight, which is impressive on its own, but clearly MacMurray realizes how luc read more
Black Rider (1993, Pepe Danquart)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 29, 2018
Black Rider is almost desperate in its lack of great. There’s a single great moment–sort of, it’s a funny twist but entirely problematic–amid a bunch of other not great moments. And the resolution to the twist is pat and a joke… only one at the expense of writer and director Danquart and the read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 2: The Living Dead
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 28, 2018
If only The Living Dead had some better stock music choices, because the actual content of the chapter is fantastic. Unfortunately, it’s got this passive, tranquil score without any energy or excitement. Meanwhile the onscreen action is all energy, all excitement. While Buster Crabbe, Frank Shannon read more
Autumn Sonata (1978, Ingmar Bergman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 27, 2018
Somewhat recently I read an observation along the following lines–Ingmar Bergman created great roles for actresses by giving them absolutely awful emotions to essay. Whoever said it (I’ve tried, without success to properly credit her) said it a lot better. But at around the hour mark of Autumn Sona read more
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938, Ford Beebe and Robert F. Hill), Chapter 1: New Worlds to Conquer
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 26, 2018
Until about three-quarters of the way into New Worlds to Conquer, I thought Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars was going to be one of those mistitled movies. Like the studio changed it for some reason. Because when adventurers Buster Crabbe, Jean Rogers, and Frank Shannon take off, they’re headed right read more
Voyeur (2017, Katharine White)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 25, 2018
Voyeur has five shots. Maybe six… but I think five. The main shot is of star (and writer and producer) Stephanie Arapian’s front door. A little of the apartment interior is visible, but mostly in shade. Or, during the night shots, it’s just a lighted window. Over the film’s six minute run time, read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 24, 2018
Dick Tracy starts reasonably strong, which one forgets as the serial plods through the near five hours of its fifteen chapters. The first chapter’s a decent enough pilot, with lead Ralph Byrd actually solving a crime, something he doesn’t really do later on. It doesn’t even open with him, instead read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 15: Brothers United
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 23, 2018
Brothers United, sadly, does not feature much in the way of brothers uniting. Much of the chapter is spent with Ralph Byrd begging Carleton Young to remember his identity and Young not remembering his identity and running away. There’s no uniting. It’s actually the most red herring of a chapter read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 14: The Devil in White
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 22, 2018
The Devil in White is the penultimate Dick Tracy chapter, which is great. It means there’s only one left. And it even has an interesting cliffhanger. It doesn’t have an interesting cliffhanger resolve. It has another easy cliffhanger resolve; I don’t think the serial’s had a single good resolve. read more
Middle of the Night (1959, Delbert Mann)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 20, 2018
Paddy Chayefsky adapted his own play for Middle of the Night and there are some clear alterations with original intent. Fifty-six year-old widower Fredric March is in garment manufacturing. His first scene has him hanging out with the other old guys in the factory, kvetching about how there’s nothi read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 13: Fire Trap
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 19, 2018
So, unfortunately, Ralph Byrd (you know, Dick Tracy), doesn’t get shot in the cliffhanger resolution. He dodges. Because they all heard the Spider approach because the Spider has a club foot. Except they also all think the Spider is wearing a disguise, implying the club foot is a part of that disgu read more
Dick Tracy (1937, Ray Taylor and Alan James), Chapter 12: The Trail of the Spider
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 18, 2018
The Trail of the Spider is the clip chapter. After the current winner for laziest cliffhanger resolve in the serial–Ralph Byrd turns a steering wheel to get out of danger–Byrd and the cast get together with three new characters to hear all about the Spider. Although Byrd’s been hunting the Spider read more
Police Story (1985, Jackie Chan)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Aug 17, 2018
Much of Police Story operates on charm. If it’s not co-writer, star, and director Jackie Chan’s charm, it’s charm of the scenes. There are some painfully uncharming moments–mostly Chan’s frequent neglective abuse of girlfriend Maggie Cheung–but even when Police Story is in its stunt spectacular read more