The Stop Button Posted by on February 10, 2020

It’s a strong episode. Like, really strong; great pacing too. It starts with Constantine (Matt Ryan), who teleported to Hell at the end of last episode, getting to Hell and having a chat with lost soul turned season villain Olivia Swann. It’s a welcome scene not so much for the...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 9, 2020

Far more often than not, Atomic Blonde is not more than it is. Atomic Blonde is not a “realistic” late eighties spy thriller à la Graham Greene or even John le Carré (see, I can do nineties “New Yorker” levels of extra too). It’s not a James Bond movie with...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 8, 2020

Joey Batey really does belong in the eighties as a sitcom sidekick, doesn’t he? Opening credits for the Netflix series, “The Witcher”, done “Night Court”-style   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 8, 2020

This episode ends where the second episode should’ve ended, with the Jerry Goldsmith Star Trek: The Motion Picture theme (i.e. “The Next Generation” theme) and a starship going into a very boring warp. It took Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his band of sidekicks all episode to get into space; apparen   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 7, 2020

The first act of Duel ought to be enough to carry it. Spielberg’s direction, Frank Morriss’s editing, even Jack A. Marta’s workman photography—it’s spellbinding. It even gets through lead Dennis Weaver calling home to fight with his wife and revealing to the audience he’s a wuss. See, last night he   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 6, 2020

This episode is series story editor Mellori Velasquez’s first episode as the credited writer. And, wow, either she’s really and at the dialogue or they went exceptionally cheap on the supporting cast. For example, Chelsea Rendon’s murder trial defendant. There’s no reason Rendon should be bad and s   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 5, 2020

The first half of Grumpier Old Men is such an improvement over the original, it could be a paragon of sequels. Director Deutch knows how to showcase the actors amid all the physical comedy. There’s a lot of physical comedy and sight gags in Grumpier. There’s Walter Matthau doing the...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 4, 2020

Farmageddon has so many sci-fi TV and movie references it’s hard to keep track. The whole thing feels like an homage to E.T. as far as the story—an alien (“voiced” by Amalia Vitale; voicing means making noises in Farmageddon, there’s no dialogue) gets stranded on Earth and makes friends with...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 3, 2020

Unfortunate bit of trivia to start us off—Twilight is supposed to be called The Magic Hour, but just around the time of release, Magic Johnson’s high profile (and quickly cancelled) TV show had the same title and they changed the movie’s title. Titles are both important and not. They definitely...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 2, 2020

I would rather exhaustedly write this blog post than watch another episode of “Becker.” I still swear it gets good, but it’s rather rough going. Ken Levine wrote about it and Ken Levine’s solid on his sitcoms. Old time blog reading. I think a lot about The News Blog, which...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 2, 2020

Thank you, “Evil,” for forcing me to realize I don’t know how to spell Baphomet. Oh, wait, I do know how to spell Baphomet. Apple just doesn’t know how to spell Baphomet. Seems like something for the Satanic Temple to investigate, whether or not Apple has deity spellings for other...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 1, 2020

“Grantchester” is definitely not going to be one of those shows where they take out a lead character, drop in a replacement and it’s about the same. The show has been reminding Tom Brittney isn’t just a brunette version of departed ginger(?) James Norton, but it triples down throughout this...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on February 1, 2020

I was expecting a lot of fan service this episode and it definitely did not provide. But instead of doing fan service—outside confirming Riker, Work, and LaForge are all still alive—this episode just kills forty-five minutes or so until the next one. “Picard” has a ten episode season and Maps...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on January 31, 2020

If Grumpy Old Men weren’t so scared of its ribald humor—giving almost all of it to dirty oldest man Burgess Meredith, who’s just there to make sex jokes and serves no other purpose in the film—you could probably just as well call it Horny Old Men. At least in Jack...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on January 30, 2020

I’m not sure how Dirty Mary Crazy Larry played on its original release—like, did audiences actually sympathize with “leads” Peter Fonda and Susan George—but whatever shine time has scrubbed off it has left something of an endurance test. Fonda and Adam Roarke (who’s more the protagonist than Fonda   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on January 29, 2020

Even with conservative expectations, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum disappoints. Even with adjusted expectations as the film progresses; the first act seems like it’s going to be a two hour real-time action extravaganza with lead Keanu Reeves fighting his way through seventies and eighties   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on January 28, 2020

I’ve always liked to do movie re-edits. When I was a teenager, I’d make a combined Evil Dead/Army of Darkness or I’d cut the end off a movie if I didn’t like who died. On VHS to another. Discovered the video titling machine in the TV studio at my high...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on January 27, 2020

I’m curious enough about The Battle of Jangsari I think I’m going to read War in Korea: The Report of a Woman Combat Correspondent by Marguerite Higgins, which might have some information about the actual battle of Jangsa-ri because there’s nothing on the Google not about the movie. The big...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on January 27, 2020

Lots ends up happening this issue, even as the episode starts with Tom Brittney getting returned mail from his estranged mother. In fact, there’s going to be something for everyone this episode—except Leonard (Al Weaver); Leonard is background. Will (Brittney) doesn’t just have a murder case—a very   read more

The Stop Button Posted by on January 26, 2020

If—and it's a big if—there's anything interesting about John Wick: Chapter Two as a sequel, it's how poorly the original filmmakers execute the sequel. It feels like a contractually obligated affair, only with the original principals returning. Well, save David Leitch who produced the f   read more