The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: 1978
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There are limits to how much patented Walter Hill machismo one person can take and The Driver pushes its limit early on. Well, maybe not too early on, since the movie runs ninety minutes. It doesn’t help Ryan O’Neal doesn’t talk, Isabelle Adjani chokes through her English dialogue, and Bruce Dern turns in an exceptionally…
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The Silent Partner starts a little bit better than it turns out in the end, from a filmmaking standpoint. The sound design is so phenomenal in the build-up, I actually made note of it. I usually don’t make notes unless it’s something terrible and I want to make sure to bring it up. I fully…
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I love how the end of Superman, with the spinning back of the earth, causes so much trouble for people. My fiancée–before Marlon Brando had even gotten the kid into the spaceship–made me stop the movie twice (I had to tell her to stop, though I love her line about Superman having just as many…
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Growing up–early, before I’d really seen any movies–I knew Steve McQueen was in The Great Escape (though I hadn’t seen it, I’d seen the motorcycle clip) and I knew he’d gotten his start in The Blob. When I first did get into film, when AMC was still the station to watch, I discovered McQueen had…
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Fairly awful sci-fi adventure picture about a scientist and his sidekicks discovering Atlantis; along the way there are sea monsters and other such things–if you’ve ever wanted to see John Ratzenberger fight a giant octopus, here’s you go. The Atlantians are fascists so the explorers aren’t just trying to save themselves, they’re trying to save…
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Watchable–thanks to good acting and direction–and beautifully designed melodrama about the rugged 1950s Australian newsreel cameramen and their manly pursuit of the capital n news. Sometimes hard to believe melodrama–often involving William Motzing’s music ruining scenes. There’s also the problem with how the authentic newsreel footage mixes in. Very assured, but to no good end.…
The Stop Button 