The Stop Button
blogging by Andrew Wickliffe
Category: 1996
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Before Last Man Standing came out–when it was, presumably, going to be a hit because Willis was on one of his career upswings–I remember seeing Walter Hill say this film, his film, was going to improve on the source material (that source material being Kurosawa’s Yojimbo). Hill borrows more liberally from the first remake of…
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At some point during Twister, I remembered Jack N. Green shot it–he shot a bunch of Clint Eastwood’s nineties pictures. So, Twister looks great. Jan de Bont’s a fine director, he knows how to shoot Panavision. It’s really a lousy movie, a lousy summer action movie. It’s a perfect roller coaster movie in terms of…
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Looking over his filmography, one could argue John Frankenheimer stopped making significant films at some point in the late sixties or early seventies (I haven’t seen Black Sunday so I don’t know about that one). But by the eighties, he was already someone whose best work was clearly behind him. By the nineties… well, it’s…
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What the heck was my problem with Executive Decision the last time I watched it? I saw it about eight years ago and, according to my notes, was unimpressed. It’s a fantastic action movie–just the combination of editors–director Baird, Dallas Puett, Frank J. Urioste–might make it one of the tightest action movies ever made. I…
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Boiling them down, three things ruin Blood and Wine. Stephen Dorff, the script and the approach. The last two are complicated, because it’s hard to see determine where the script and the approach differ. Blood and Wine was, at the time of its release, promoted as the conclusion of an informal trilogy for Rafelson and…
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The Beast is, like most television miniseries, engineered to be watchable without being compelling. It’s like a McDonald’s milkshake (are they still called milkshakes or are they back to shakes?)–you’re in the mood for a milkshake, so you figure it can’t be too bad and order one… only to finish it and discover you should…
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Of the principals, only Michael Rapaport is under thirty (Beautiful Girls hinges on a ten-year high school reunion) and much of the running time can be spent wondering how the viewer is supposed to believe Timothy Hutton isn’t thirty-five years old (he’s actually thirty-six). Hutton gives one of the film’s best performances, frequently transcending the…
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The tragedy of Mickey Rourke is not his failed mainstream career. Rather, it’s how he’s never been able to get any filmmakers of note involved in his vanity projects. Bullet‘s an incredibly ambitious, sensitive film… or, with the right production team, it would have been. What remains hints at what could have been–the film’s a…
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I remember when Tremors II first came out. I believe it was on the heels of a special edition laserdisc of the first film, but it might have been at the same time. Universal made a lot of direct-to-video sequels in the 1990s, but Tremors II was a little different. First, it was an actual…
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Stallone is Kit Latura, disgraced EMS chief (he cared too much). Besides the name, Stallone’s just the disaster movie lead and not even any interesting one (besides the caring too much). There aren’t even any Stallone grunts in the movie and he plays it straight and as well as anyone can play the terrible script.…
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Thanks to a frantic trip through the New York skyline and Danny Elfman’s familiar score, Extreme Measures’s opening credits play like an unused Batman sequel opening… until the two naked guys run out on to the street. It’s an odd opening (and the naked guys and their plight are compelling enough one forgets Elfman until…
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Larger Than Life is a different film today than it was ten years ago–back then, I remember, it was a big deal Matthew McConaughey starred in the film. There were reshoots to add more of him. Today, the film’s sold as a kid’s movie on DVD, which isn’t particularly appropriate, given a lot of the…
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Ransom is not Richard Price’s only “big Hollywood” movie (and it’s probably not his most anomalous one either), but there’s something very particular about the film. You’re watching a mix of various 1990s genres–a Mel Gibson movie, a Richard Price cop movie, and a Ron Howard movie. Except not the current Oscar-bait Ron Howard, the…
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The first forty-five minutes of Flirting with Disaster play like Woody Allen mixed with a 1990s Miramax indie, which makes sense, since Flirting is a 1990s Miramax indie. That first half is real strong comedy of errors, then Josh Brolin’s bi (but married to fellow ATF agent Richard Jenkins, who’s phenomenal) old friend starts hitting…
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Excruciatingly boring tale of a young orphan and the hooker with a heart of gold who takes her in. Set in a dystopian future Japan, despite always being boring, the film doesn’t get too bad until about forty minutes into the two hour and thirty minute (!) run time when the future mobsters show up.…
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Fun–which is appropriate since director Jackson referred to this extended version as “The Director’s Fun Cut”–slapstick horror comedy about a ghost hunter (Michael J. Fox) who finds himself having to deal with actually dangerous ghosts, instead of just the amusing kind. Along the way he romances Trini Alvarado and battles a crazy FBI agent (Jeffrey…
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Meta-slasher movie with twentysomethings playing teenagers menaced by a masked serial killer. Good direction from Craven, great performance from lead and prime target Neve Campbell; just okay support from everyone else. Drew Barrymore and Skeet Ulrich are quite bad. Great cameo from Henry Winkler. Director’s cut adds some violence to the beginning and a “Fred…
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Sometimes lovely film about developmentally disabled Thornton (who stars, writes, directs) getting out of the mental hospital he’s been in since killing his mother and her lover as a child. He soon bonds with 12-year old Lucas Black, who’s experiencing his own traumas. Way too long, way too many montages. Embarrassing-to-the-production bad performance from Dwight…
The Stop Button 