Tuesday, December 29, 2020

A guy named Joe


SOUL

2020
Directed by Pete Docter
Written by Mike Jones, Kemp Powers, and Pete Docter

Spoiler alert: mild

Monday, December 28, 2020

Oops, Wonder Woman raped a dude


WONDER WOMAN 1984

2020
Directed by Patty Jenkins
Written by Geoff Johns, Dave Callaham, and Patty Jenkins

Spoiler alert: moderate

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Walt Disney, part XXXVI: Beginnings are contagious there


OLIVER & COMPANY

1988
Directed by George Scribner
Written by committees with their own subcommittees, apparently

Spoiler alert: moderate

Walt Disney, part XXXV: I hope you're proud of yourself—and those pictures you took


WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT

1988
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman ("based on" the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, but at least the book properly punctuates its title)

Spoiler alert: forget it, reader, it's Chinatown

Monday, December 21, 2020

What a disaster: Maybe they ought to leave it the way it is—a kind of shrine to all the bullshit in the world


THE TOWERING INFERNO

1974
Directed by John Guillermin and Irwin Allen
Written by Stirling Silliphant (based on the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

It's an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world


TENET

2020
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan

Spoiler alert: moderate

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Disney's Challengers, part VII: Your mother can't be with you anymore


THE LAND BEFORE TIME

1988
Directed by Don Bluth
Written by Judy Freudberg, Tony Geiss, and Stu Krieger

Spoiler alert: high, but 'cmon

Thursday, December 10, 2020

What a disaster: Earthquakes bring out the worst in some people, that's all


EARTHQUAKE

1974
Directed by Mark Robson
Written by Mario Puzo and George Fox

Spoiler alert: moderate

Monday, December 7, 2020

Disney's Challengers, part VI: And the streets are paved with cheese


AN AMERICAN TAIL

1986
Directed by Don Bluth
Written by David Kirschner, Judy Freudberg, and Tony Geiss

Spoiler alert: moderate

Saturday, December 5, 2020

What a disaster: Climb, baby, climb!


AIRPORT 1975

1974
Directed by Jack Smight
Written by Don Ingalls

Spoiler alert: moderate

Thursday, December 3, 2020

What a disaster: It is the view of Her Majesty's Government—the view, the policy, the determination—to resist extortion by terror


JUGGERNAUT

1974
Directed by Richard Lester
Written by Richard Alan Simmons, Alan Pater, and Richard Lester

Spoiler alert: moderate

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Busby Berkeley: Manhattan babies don't sleep tight


GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935

1935
Directed by Busby Berkeley
Written by Robert Lord, Manuel Seff, and Peter Milne

Spoiler alert: moderate

Sunday, November 29, 2020

What a disaster: There's got to be a morning after


THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE

1972
Directed by Ronald Neame
Written by Stirling Silliphant and Wendell Mayes (based on the novel by Paul Gallico)

Spoiler alert: a little bit more than moderate, a little bit less than high

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Opie on Opie


HILLBILLY ELEGY

2020
Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Vanessa Taylor (based on the book by J.D. Vance)

Spoiler alert: man, this guy is doin' fine

Friday, November 27, 2020

Cardboard Science: Challenger of the unknown


THE LOST WORLD

1960
Directed by Irwin Allen
Written by Charles Bennett and Irwin Allen

Spoiler alert: moderate

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

What a disaster: Nobody dies on my airplane, not me, not him, not them—not even you, you son of a bitch


SKYJACKED

1972
Directed by John Guillermin
Written by Stanley R. Greenberg (based on the novel Hijacked by David Harper)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Monday, November 23, 2020

Busby Berkeley: Who cares if they've got a plot or not when they've got a lot of dames?


DAMES

1934
Directed by Ray Enright
Written by Robert Lord and Delmer Daves

Spoiler alert: moderate

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Moon blinked


OVER THE MOON

2020
Directed by Glen Keane and co-directed by John Kahrs
Written by Audrey Wells

Spoiler alert: moderate

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

What a disaster: Crystal healing


THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN

1971
Directed by Robert Wise
Written by Nelson Gidding (based on the novel by Michael Crichton)

Spoiler alert: a little bit higher than moderate, but there's no way to talk about it without at least alluding to the ending

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Blonde Sunday


I MARRIED A WITCH

1942
Directed by Rene Clair
Written by Robert Pirosh, Mark Connelly, Dalton Trumbo, Andre Rigaud, and Rene Clair (based on the novel The Passionate Witch by Thorne Smith and Norman H. Matson)

Spoiler alert: well, the title's a dead giveaway

Friday, November 13, 2020

Hoping that her next leap will be the leap home


POSESSESSOR

2020
Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg

Spoiler alert: moderate

Monday, November 9, 2020

Census Bloodbath: For me to poop on


MADHOUSE
aka And When She Was Bad aka There Was a Little Girl

Halloween might be cancelled, but it's still October but it's still early November, for which I apologize, though now that the true terror and pain is over, perhaps we can catch up.  Either way, it's still within the general timeframe prescribed for that mix of peanut butter and chocolate we call The Switcheroo, with Brennan Klein of Popcorn Culture and Alternate Ending doing my weird, gross, nostalgic 1950s sci-fi thing for a spell, whilst I do some nice, wholesome slashers from the brightest days of the 1980s.

1981
Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis
Written by Stephen Blakeley, Peter Sheperd, Roberto Gandus, and Ovidio G. Assonitis

Spoiler alert: moderate

Saturday, October 31, 2020

Census Bloodbath: Parasocial relationship


Halloween might be cancelled, but it's still October, and that means it's time again for the peanut butter and chocolate we call The Switcheroo, with Brennan Klein of Popcorn Culture and Alternate Ending doing my weird, gross, nostalgic 1950s sci-fi thing for a spell, whilst I do some nice, wholesome slashers from the brightest days of the 1980s.

THE FAN

1981
Directed by Ed Bianchi
Written by Priscilla Chapman and John Hartman

Spoiler alert: moderate

Monday, October 26, 2020

Busby Berkeley: Flying away from Rio


WONDER BAR

1934
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Written by Earl Baldwin (based on the plays by Geza Herczeg, Karl Farkas, and Robert Katscher)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Cineramarama: Vacation's all I ever wanted


CINERAMA HOLIDAY

1955
Directed by Robert L. Bendick and Philip De Lacy
Written by Louis de Rochemont III and Otis Carney (based on a book, somehow, called America Through a French Looking Glass by Renee Gossett and Pierre Gossett)

Spoiler alert: N/A

Friday, October 23, 2020

Census Bloodbath: Cultural appropriation


Halloween might be cancelled, but it's still October, and that means it's time again for the peanut butter and chocolate we call The Switcheroo, with Brennan Klein of Popcorn Culture and Alternate Ending doing my weird, gross, nostalgic 1950s sci-fi thing for a spell, whilst I do some nice, wholesome slashers from the brightest days of the 1980s.

NIGHT SCHOOL

1981
Directed by Ken Hughes
Written by Ruth Agerton

Spoiler alert: high, I guess, I said reluctantly

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

This is the voice of world control


COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT

1970
Directed by Joseph Sargent
Written by James Bridges (based on the novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones)

Spoiler alert: high

Saturday, October 17, 2020

Busby Berkeley: When good Americans die, they go to Paris



FASHIONS OF 1934

1934
Directed by William Dieterle
Written by Harry Collins, Warren Duff, F. Hugh Hubert, Carl Erickson, 

Spoile alert: moderate

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

What a disaster: The sudden decompression at 30,000 feet is something you gotta see to believe


AIRPORT

1970
Written and directed by George Seaton (based on the novel by Arthur Hailey)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Cineramarama: Beautiful for spacious skies


THIS IS CINERAMA

1952
Directed by Merian C. Cooper, Michael Todd Jr., Ernest B. Schoedsack, and Gunther von Frisch

Spoiler alert: as inapplicable as it gets

Saturday, October 3, 2020

G-d Week: Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.



QUO VADIS

1951
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by S.N. Behrman, Sonya Levien, and John Lee Mahin (based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Monday, September 28, 2020

G-d Week: My son, do not regard the Lord's discipline lightly, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.


BARABBAS

1961 Italy/1962 USA
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Written by Christopher Fry (based on the novel by Par Lagerkvist)

Spoiler alert: somewhere between moderate and high

Thursday, September 24, 2020

The night breed


LITTLE MONSTERS

1989
Directed by Richard Alan Greenberg
Written by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott

Spoiler alert: mild

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Sunday, September 20, 2020

G-d Week: Those who were not my people I will call my people, and she who was not beloved, I will call beloved.


THE ROBE

1953
Directed by Henry Koster
Written by Gina Kaus, Albert Maltz, and Philip Dunne (based on the novel by Lloyd C. Douglas)

Spoiler alert: high

Friday, September 11, 2020

G-d Week: Truly this man was the son of God.


THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

1965
Directed by George Stevens
Written by James Lee Barrett and George Stevens

Spoiler alert: very very N/A

Monday, September 7, 2020

G-d Week: She went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" "The head of John the Baptist," she answered.


SALOME

1953
Directed by William Dieterle
Written by Harry Kleiner and Jesse Lasky Jr.

Spoiler alert: high

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Oh the huge manatee


CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Kaiju no kodomo

2019 Japan/2020 USA
Directed by Ayumu Watanabe and Kenichi Konishi
Written by Hanasaki Kino (based on the comic by Daisuke Igarashi)

Spoiler alert: I feel like I'd need to have understood what happened in order to spoil it, but hey, let's say "moderate"

Monday, August 31, 2020

God gave rock 'n' roll to you


BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC

2020
Directed by Dean Parisot
Written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon

Spoiler alert: moderate

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Brooklyn, James—Cinderella wants to take another look at the ashes


COVER GIRL

1944
Directed by Charles Vidor
Written by Marion Parsonnet, Paul Gangelin, Erwin Gelsey, John H. Kafka, and Virgina Van Upp

Spoiler alert: moderate

Saturday, August 29, 2020

The great beauty


ROMAN HOLIDAY

1953
Directed by William Wyler
Written by Dalton Trumbo and John Dighton

Spoiler alert: moderate

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Life after wartime



THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

1946
Directed by William Wyler
Written by Robert E. Sherwood (based on the novella Glory For Me by MacKinley Kantor)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Friday, August 21, 2020

I'm a society burglar—I don't expect people to rush about shooting me


HOW TO STEAL A MILLION

1966
Directed by William Wyler
Written by Harry Kurnitz (based on the story "Venus Rising" by George Bradshaw)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

The first wonder of the world


LAND OF THE PHARAOHS

1955
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by William Faulkner, Harold Jack Bloom, and Harry Kurnitz

Spoiler alert: well, the pyramid gets finished, but moderate otherwise

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Walt Disney, part XXXIV: The supreme ruler of all mousedom


THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE

1986
Directed by Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, Dave Michener, and John Musker

Spoiler alert: moderate

Saturday, August 8, 2020

Dancing about architecture


PLAYTIME

1967
Directed by Jacques Tati
Written by Jacques Lagrange, Art Buchwald, and Jacques Tati

Spoiler alert: oh, very inapplicable

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Walt Disney, part XXXIII: I presume, boy, that you are the keeper of this oracular pig?


THE BLACK CAULDRON

1985
Directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich

Spoiler alert: moderate

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Hang on a minute lads—I've got a great idea


THE ITALIAN JOB

1969
Directed by Peter Collinson
Written by Troy Kennedy Martin

Spoiler alert: a tiny bit more than "moderate"

When the day comes that we have to go to war against Utah, we are really gonna kick ass


BROKEN ARROW

1996
Directed by John Woo
Written by Graham Yost

Spoiler alert: moderate

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Disney's Challengers, part V: Courageous heart


THE SECRET OF NIMH

1982
Directed by Don Bluth
Written by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy, and Will Finn (based on the novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien)

Spoiler alert: high