The Stop Button

The Crazies (1973) D: George A. Romero. S: Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, Lynn Lowry, Lloyd Hollar, Richard Liberty, Richard France. Inventive low budget action thriller about a virus outbreak in a small town, specifically when the army arrives to clamp things down. Only a couple performances are, you know, good (Hollar and Harry Spillman as the officers), but many are “Romero good.” Jones, in particular. The first half has a great Vietnam commentary, which sadly slips in the second.

The Fantastic Four (1994) D: Oley Sassone. S: Alex Hyde-White, Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staab, Michael Bailey Smith, Ian Trigger, Joseph Culp, Carl Ciarfalio. Creatively vapid, infamously unreleased Roger Corman-produced adaptation of Marvel Comics’s “First Family.” Way too low budget, with–at best–flat performances. At worst… Culp, who somehow manages to be beneath the material. The leads–Hyde-White, Staab, Smith, Underwood–each try in their own way. Smith’d be most successful if Ciarfalio weren’t atrocious as the rocky alter ego.

House (1977) D: Nobuhiko Obayashi. S: Kimiko Ikegami, Kumiko Ohba, Ai Matsubara, Miki Jinbo, Eriko Tanaka, Masayo Miyako, Yôko Minamida. Incredibly weird horror film about seven high school girls going to the country to vacation with lead Ikegami’s aunt. Minamida plays the aunt, who has an identical cat to the one Ikegami finds in the first act. Bad things pick the girls off one by one; Matsubara and Jinbo (both amateur actors) give standout performances. Wild, wild stuff.

Hundreds of Beavers (2024) D: Mike Cheslik. S: Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, Doug Mancheski, Wes Tank, Luis Rico. Exceptionally weird mix of cartoon absurdity, silent film homage, and (presumably) superlative technicals. Tews (who also co-wrote and co-produced) is a wilderness guy (in the past, not the present) who decides to become a trapper, partially to impress fetching Graves. If only the hundreds of (human-sized) beavers would be more accommodating… BEAVERS is a singular experience.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Three (2024) D: Jeff Wamester. S: Jensen Ackles, Darren Criss, Corey Stoll, Gideon Adlon, Troy Baker, Matt Bomer, Alexandra Daddario. So they bring in Stoll for the finale (as the Lex Luthor who’s going to betray humanity to the bad guy), and he’s a complete waste of a performance. Nothing goes right, starting with the atrocious animation. Also: good grief Daddario’s a terrible Lois Lane. Matt Ryan: say no next time; hashtag dignity. The “cameos” stink, too.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two (2024) D: Jeff Wamester. S: Jensen Ackles, Darren Criss, Meg Donnelly, Stana Katic, Jonathan Adams, Geoffrey Arend, Aldis Hodge. The first half, recounting how Supergirl (Donnelly) figured into PART ONE, and setting up villain Arend, is surprisingly okay. Adams’s stodgy super-being is more fun playing foster dad. And Arend’s story seems like it’s building to something. No payoff here, however. The whole thing goes to pot once it remembers it’s CRISIS. Way too much Batman, too.

Talk to Me (2023) D: Michael Philippou. S: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Zoe Terakes, Chris Alosio. Well-acted teen horror picture (though the teen stuff doesn’t end up mattering much) eventually collapses under its own obfuscation. And insipidness. Doesn’t help the directors are entirely one-note either. Sad Wilde discovers she might be able to commune with her dead mom, never thinking about the consequences. No character development for her! (Or anyone, for that matter).