The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on November 4, 2018

Evil Eyes, despite all evidence to the contrary, actually seems like it might be doing something new with Clutching Hand. After an amazing cliffhanger resolution where instead of assaulting Ruth Mix, the clutching hand of the unseen Clutching Hand takes a paper she’s reading. She’s terrified, but n   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on November 3, 2018

The Incredible Hulk Returns is severely lacking. It’s severely lacking pretty much everything. Despite being set in and filmed in Los Angeles, the movie looks generic and constrained–director Corea has a truly exceptional aversion to establishing shots. The interior shots often have a different vis   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on November 2, 2018

The Other Side of the Wind opens with two very ominous notes. Well, two and a half. The first is a text card explaining the film’s history, but not much about its resurrection. For example (and here’s the half ominous note), was it director Welles’s idea to do multiple aspect...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on November 1, 2018

A Cry in the Night refers the the cliffhanger of this chapter. Not the cliffhanger resolve at the open, which is another terrible Clutching Hand resolve, but the one in the very last scene. It’s not clear it’s night out. The cry is more of a scream. Whatever. After the...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 31, 2018

RELATED IT’S THE EASTER BEAGLE, CHARLIE BROWN! (2018 REVIEW)   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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 Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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 Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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 changing   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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 ray   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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 fi   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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 plays Bro   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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 Double...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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...   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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’ peril. Phan   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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 least r   read more

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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

The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on October 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, beau   read more