The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: ★
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Should be good (or at least better) disaster thriller about news reporter Jane Fonda and her rugged cameraman (Michael Douglas, who also produced, in a risible performance) happening upon an nuclear power plant “event” coverup involving plant supervisor Jack Lemmon. Great supporting performance from Wilford Brimley, waste of both Lemmon and Fonda’s time. Director Bridges…
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Rookie cop Go Soo already has his hands full with drug dealers then comes across TV reporter Song Ji-hyo, who may or may not be able to tell the future, and the two find themselves trapped in increasingly dangerous (and ominous) situations. Cute and occasionally lighthearted, the film still manages to be violent and threatening.…
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Direct continuation sequel is probably incomprehensible if you haven’t seen #1. Ueto Aya is a master assassin in Tokugawa Japan; everyone underestimates her because she’s a girl. Low budget, bad villains, and Kaneko’s mostly unimaginative direction don’t help, neither do the sillier aspects of the script. Ueto’s good and Kaneko does an amazing job with…
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Tsutsumi Shin’ichi is an introvert professor, Uchiyama Rina is his long-lost (and completely unknown to him) daughter. She tracks him down and starts influencing his life for the better. Amazing performance from Tsutsumi can’t save the film, which has serious script problems. DVD (R2).Continue reading →
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Rather bad comedy about Italian immigrant Walter Chiari moving to Australia. The acting is actually fine, it’s the script (by director Powell’s long-time partner Emeric Pressburger–under a pseudonym). May have been responsible for kicking off the Australian film industry? But otherwise, a big stinker. DVD (R4).Continue reading →
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Nicely paced disaster movie about a volcano growing out the La Brea Tar Pits. Anne Heche is the scientist, Tommy Lee Jones is the city guy, Gaby Hoffman’s his daughter. It’s occasionally annoying, with bad dialogue, but the cast is great. Heche and Don Cheadle are outstanding; Jones is fine. The film takes itself just…
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Technically magnificent action/horror picture has Sakaguchi Tak fighting zombies with a samurai sword while wearing an ultra cool black leather trench coat. The writing is always iffy, but Kitamura’s direction tends to compensate enough. DVD, Streaming.Continue reading →
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Do the Brits have any major film movement? In the 1920s, the Germans had the expressionist movement. In the (what?) 1960s, there was the French New Wave. In addition to contributing more Greenhouse Effect-causing pollutants to the atmosphere, the United States has perfected the over-produced blockbuster. The British, however, have never really had a movement.…
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The modern Japanese drama tends to be emotive. Even when they aren’t good, they succeed in making the viewer care for the characters. Turn is, ostensibly, a Japanese Groundhog Day. Only not funny. Where Groundhog Day was about Bill Murray interacting with people with no consequence, the character stuck in turnover in Turn is alone.…
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We all know Winston Churchill wasn’t kidnapped or assassinated during World War II–except maybe President Bush, but he’s still waiting for John Rambo to call with info on Osama–so The Eagle Has Landed‘s ending is a bit of a give-away. The film succeeds–to some degree–since it presents the audience with characters they care so much…
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I read about the Superman II restored international cut (RIC)–a fan effort to compile all the extra Superman II footage from various television prints, mostly from foreign markets–in Entertainment Weekly. It said to head over to Superman Cinema to get a free copy, just so long as you provide free copies. By that time, however,…
The Stop Button 