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Briefly (12 November 2026)
Movies Godzilla Minus Zero (2026) D: Takashi Yamazaki. S: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Hideaki Anno, Masami Nagasawa. Picking up two years after the previous entry, with married couple Kamiki and Hamabe trying to find some normality, despite some secrets (from the audience). Then there’s another monster attack, and they’re back in the game with monster czar Yoshioka. Fantastic action, superlative special effects, complicated and deep characters. Herky-jerky finish, however, and, of course, atrocious…
Briefly (2 November 2026)
Movies Calling Philo Vance (1940) D: William Clemens. S: James Stephenson, Margot Stevenson, Henry O’Neill, Edward Brophy, Ralph Forbes. Stephenson takes over as PHILO (his only appearance, however; he died a year after this entry), now working for the State Department and trying to root out traitors and saboteurs. The espionage angle’s just set dressing around the S.S. Van Dine adaptation, but adequate for most of the picture. Brophy’s fun, Stephenson’s likable (and has a…
Briefly (18 October 2026)
Movies Armored Car Robbery (1950) D: Richard Fleischer. S: Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, William Talman, Gene Evans, Steve Brodie. Talman and his gang knock over an ARMORED CAR (killing a cop in the process), with copper McGraw in pursuit. Functional, pragmatic, and not-too-long procedural survives only having a single likable character (cuckolded trigger man Fowley); everyone, cop or robber, is at least semi-loathsome. Talman and McGraw both give boring, flat performances. An early copaganda curio.…
Briefly (9 October 2026)
Movies The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973) D: Nathan Juran. S: Kerwin Mathews, Elaine Devry, Scott Sealey, George Gaynes, Robert J. Wilke. When a WEREWOLF attacks dad Mathews and son Sealey, it bites (and curses) Mathews. Will anyone listen to Sealey before it’s too late? The film hurries genuine scares (Were-Dad stalking convenient prey Sealey), instead showcasing writer-actor Homel’s Jesus-freak hippie. Wanting makeup, but inept day-for-night photography’s the silver bullet. At best, an early seventies…
The Spirit (August 10, 1941) “The Element of Time”
Element of Time starts as a mad scientist strip and fairly quickly becomes a “thug of the week” strip. Just as Professor Corda completes his life’s work to condense time into a physical form–in this case, a liquid–Tommy Moran decides to plug Nick Ennis for snitching. Moran’s got a girlfriend who wants him to reconsider and think about their future together, but toxic masculinity; no one snitches on Tommy Moran. Tommy and the Professor happen…
The Spirit (August 3, 1941) “Wanted Dead or Alive: The Spirit”
From the splash page, Wanted Dead or Alive promises a lot and delivers very little. Spirit is indeed wanted, and apparently dead or alive, but the police manhunts never give him the slightest trouble. Not even when he breaks into the police station and kidnaps Dolan and the Mayor. Spirit’s very cocky this strip, and oddly self-destructive. He’s wanted because he’s broken a murder suspect out of jail. The murdered is a foreign general who…
The Spirit (July 27, 1941) “Pink Perkins”
Pink Perkins brings back the two kid characters—revealed here to be the Tidewater children–who previously appeared in the “Hitler Goes Good” strip. They don’t get first names here; the family name matters because their dad is initially in trouble. He runs the Tidewater grocery chain, and the mob is shaking him down for protection money. It just happens the mobsters in the Spirit comic strip use similar threats as the mobsters in the Gumshoe Gus…
Briefly (26 September 2026)
Movies The Book Club (2018) D: Tobias LaMontagne. S: Ray LaMontagne, Sarah Sousa. After accomplished women of a certain age Keaton, Fonda, Steenburgen, and Bergen select 50 SHADES OF GREY for their BOOK CLUB, they start to examine their romantic pursuits (or lack thereof). The script’s entirely platitudes and tropes, but there are a handful of strong moments and occasional honest ones. And an often excellent soundtrack (also of a certain age). Book Club: The…
The Spirit (July 20, 1941) “The Jewel of Death”
The Spirit heads to Syria for a Middle Eastern-tinged adventure in Jewel. He’s there to find the only doctor who can cure a disease back in Central City, but the doctor has married a beautiful local woman and doesn’t want to return. Except this beautiful local woman seems to be a dark figure of legend—any man who marries her dies within twenty-four hours. Perhaps The Jewel of Death has something to do with it. The…
The Spirit (July 13, 1941) “Stolen Squad Cars”
Like last week, Stolen Squad Cars brings back another recurring Spirit character to involve them in war-related intrigue. This strip it’s Squire Samson, a corrupt political operator who’s been a thorn in Commissioner Dolan’s side for ages. Last time the Squire appeared, Spirit outed him as a criminal. Unfortunately, the Women’s Civic Club—and its twenty thousand voting members—didn’t read the Spirit that week; they still think the Squire’s a saint, which will eventually be very…
The Spirit (July 6, 1941) “Agent 24”
Agent 24 is an espionage thriller; Spirit goes over to occupied France on an impromptu rescue mission—one with many surprises in store. The strip itself sets a few precedents, including the first direct use of Germans as Spirit fisticuffs villains. A couple strips ago, Eisner and studio did a fable about Hitler finding his humanity and, while the Germans were villains there, Spirit didn’t interact with them the same way. It’s no longer vague European…
Briefly (2 September 2026)
Comics Marvel Graphic Novel (1982) #1 WA: Jim Starlin. Creator Jim Starlin gives CAPTAIN MARVEL a singular superhero send-off. After his superpowers reveal he has terminal cancer, Marvel determines he’ll go out alone, without any help. His friends and loved ones disagree with that approach. Mostly somber and serious, Starlin finds time for pin-up splash pages and a couple of arguably unnecessary action sequences. Outstanding work. The Spirit (July 6, 1941) “Agent 24.” WA: Will…
Briefly (10 August 2026)
Movies Double Danger (1938) D: Lew Landers. S: Preston Foster, Whitney Bourne, Donald Meek, Cecil Kellaway, Samuel S. Hinds. Inoffensive but mostly charmless B picture about police commissioner Hinds inviting his two prime suspects for “The Gentleman,” a renowned jewel thief, to his suburban estate for the weekend. Foster and Bourne are the suspects and ostensible romantic leads. Simultaneously too busy and not busy enough during its hour-long runtime. The opening social engineering heist is…
Briefly (27 July 2026)
Movies Attack Force Z (1982) D: Tim Burstall. S: Mel Gibson, John Phillip Law, Sam Neill, Ko Chun-Hsiung, Sylvia Chang. Bewildering and boring WWII picture about elite Aussie ATTACK FORCE Z who are sent in to a Chinese island, occupied by the Japanese, to rescue mysterious plane crash survivors. Everything goes wrong because the Z team isn’t very elite when not shooting people in the back. Way too much involves psychopath Law (who’s comically bad)…
Briefly (22 July 2026)
Movies The Death of Robin Hood (2026) D: Michael Sarnoski. S: Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgård, Noah Jupe, Murray Bartlett. Beautifully directed, revisionist old-man ROBIN HOOD picture asks… what if he was actually a murderous brigand? Jackman’s fantastic in the lead, but director Sarnoski’s script doesn’t have much for him (or anyone) to do. No deep (or even interested) observations on Robin Hood, and Sarnoski wimps out on the patriarchal violence discussion. Instead, it’s…
Briefly (15 July 2026)
Movies Barbie (2023) D: Greta Gerwig. S: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, John Cena, Michael Cera. Director and co-writer Gerwig takes a doll Barbie (Robbie) into the real world to find her owner, whose sadness is spreading to Barbieland. Robbie’s disappointed how feminism and equality are going, but Ken (Gosling) is geeked for patriarchy. Always fun, usually smart, beautifully executed, with some outstanding musical numbers. Good to excellent performances abound. It’s a great time.…
Briefly (8 July 2026)
Movies Apostle (2018) D: Gareth Evans. S: Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen, Lucy Boynton, Mark Lewis Jones, Kristine Froseth. Early twentieth-century lapsed, traumatized British missionary Stevens goes to save his sister from cultists on their island. The pro-colonialist, low-key Church of England propaganda is icky but more interesting than the plot for the first hour. The second is then pseudo-gore and terrible acting from Lewis Jones. Stevens’s bad. Bad writing, directing. Somehow, Sheen perseveres. Ballistic (2026)…
Briefly (21 June 2026)
Movies Fall Guy (1947) D: Reginald Le Borg. S: Leo Penn, Robert Armstrong, Teala Loring, Elisha Cook Jr., John Harmon. Mildly engaging B picture has vet Penn waking up covered in blood, a dead girl nearby, and no memory of it. If only he hadn’t supplemented his binge drinking with “narcotic” (cocaine), that infamous hallucinogenic depressant. Half the movie is Penn piecing it together with cop uncle Armstrong (who’s great). The other half is moralizing…
Briefly (13 June 2026)
Movies Akira (1988) D: Katsuhiro Otomo. S: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Takeshi Kusao, Tessyo Genda. Misanthropic cyberpunk anime epic about a teenage biker gang who coincidentally figure into an ongoing military plot to exploit post-nuclear mutant kids. The gang’s beta becomes the world’s most powerful mutant, and the alpha has feelings about it. Exceptionally thin characterizations and a meandering first half don’t help. The frequently impressive animation gets it to a fizzling finale.…
Briefly (1 June 2026)
Movies The Awakening (2011) D: Nick Murphy. S: Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Shaun Dooley. Classy enough melodrama about post-Great War ghost hunter Hall going to investigate a boys’ school with a possible killer poltergeist on the roster. She meets various possible (human) suspects, such as fetching vet teacher West and creeper draft-dodger Mawle. The film’s on a budget and impressive with the constraints; sadly, the script’s finish leaves the actors…
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