The Stop Button

Bridge of Spies (2015) D: Steven Spielberg. S: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Sebastian Koch, Austin Stowell, Billy Magnussen. Milquetoast, profoundly problematically jingoistic “thriller” about successful attorney Hanks defending an accused Soviet spy (Rylance). The storytelling (despite a Coen Brothers rewrite) is hackneyed and bland. It’s visually bland, too; all super high contrast and CGI-y. The Thomas Newman score… well, I’m glad it’s not John Williams. Hanks is good, Rylance is great, everyone else is just there.

Cunk on Life (2024) D: Al Campbell. S: Diane Morgan. Morgan’s indomitable interviewer Philomena Cunk returns for another special, this time contemplating the big question–human existence. Given there’s no real imperative for the contemplation (there’s a good ChatGPT gag), it’s just a showcase of Morgan’s deliveries of the absurdist f*ckwit history. There are some excellent laughs, even if none of the interview segements stand out.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) D: Chuck Russell. S: Patricia Arquette, Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Robert Englund, Ken Sagoes, Rodney Eastman, Jennifer Rubin. For the third NIGHTMARE, Langenkamp and John Saxon return from the original, with the former now a hotshot dream research grad student (less said about Saxon the better). She’s trying to help the latest teens Englund’s hunting; they’re all under psychologist Wasson’s care. Excellent effects, okay enough direction, and some solid performances (not Langenkamp or Wasson) get it through.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) D: Renny Harlin. S: Robert Englund, Rodney Eastman, Danny Hassel, Andras Jones, Tuesday Knight, Ken Sagoes, Lisa Wilcox. Englund inexplicably returns from the dead the hunt down the teens who escaped last movie. Knight is in for Patricia Arquette and is terrible. Otherwise, the cast is likable and able if not talented. Some excellent direction from Harlan at times, even better special effects. It’s as good as NIGHTMARE gets. Fantastic pacing too.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989) D: Stephen Hopkins. S: Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Erika Anderson, Valorie Armstrong, Kelly Jo Minter, Danny Hassel. Direct follow-up to the previous entry has Wilcox returning, only looking more like a different character from the last one. She can’t help but dream Englund back from the dead for another sequel. Creatively bankrupt is mean but not inaccurate. The special effects seem a tad too staid and budget. The cast’s not terrible just kind of silly.

Paddington (2014) D: Paul King. S: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Nicole Kidman, Julie Walters. Constantly entertaining adaptation of Michael Bond’s children’s book character. Whishaw does a fine job voicing the talking Peruvian bear trying to find a home in London, pursued by evil Kidman, and crashing with Bonneville and Hawkins’s family. It gets short towards the end, but it’s always charming and usually a delight. Some great cameos and bit players, too.

Saturday Night (2024) D: Jason Reitman. S: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Lamorne Morris, Willem Dafoe. Not quite real time recounting of the first SATURDAY NIGHT (LIVE). Brash, passionate young producer LaBelle has to contend with hostile network fogies and squares, temperamental cast members, and a particular marital arrangement. All in 90 minutes (ish). All the performances are excellent plus, particularly Sennott, O’Brien, Morris, and Smith. LaBelle’s a superb lead. Wonderful direction and production too.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) D: Merlin Crossingham. S: Ben Whitehead, Reece Shearsmith, Peter Kay, Lauren Patel, Diane Morgan, Adjoa Andoh, Lenny Henry. Nick Park’s dynamic duo returns for a tightly paced (shall we say, reasonably budgeted) feature, with a thirty-year legacyquel to their second outing, THE WRONG TROUSERS. Evil penguin Feathers McGraw is plotting his revenge. Wallace invents a third wheel, aggravating Gromit but getting things underway. There are some nice laughs, good action scenes; a convivial, constrained outing.