The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: Directed by Shane Black
-
I recently joked to a friend I wanted to claim “audacity” as a complementary phrase, but just for Stanley Kubrick. Something simple like, “Stanley Kubrick: Audacity can be a compliment.” But then she called me on it being gross. The Nice Guys is basically, “Shane Black: Humility is for [slur we’re allowed to use because…
-
The Predator has a really short present action, which is both good and bad. Good because one wouldn’t want to see screenwriters Fred Dekker and director Black try for longer, bad because… well, it gets pretty dumb how fast things move along. Dekker and Black don’t do a good job with the expository speech (for…
-
Iron Man 3 feels a lot like the end of the series, which isn’t a bad thing–Robert Downey Jr. does the hero’s journey thing quite well–but director Black handles it oddly. After spending the entire movie pairing Downey with buddies, whether love interest Gwyneth Paltrow, sidekicks Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau, his computer and even…
-
Black comedy about thief Robert Downey Jr. masquerading as an actor and getting wrapped up in a noir-ish L.A. conspiracy. Val Kilmer’s sort of the hard-boiled P.I., Michelle Monaghan’s sort of the femme fatale. Great performance from Downey and phenomenally constructed script from director Black enable the whole thing. Kilmer and Monaghan are both excellent…
The Stop Button 