The Great Muppet Caper (1981, Jim Henson)
The Great Muppet Caper is rather easy to describe. It’s joyous spectacle. The film has four screenwriters and not a lot of story. Instead, it’s got some fabulous musical numbers. Director Henson really...
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Scanners (1981, David Cronenberg)
About a half hour into Scanners, the film starts to run out of its initial steam. Director Cronenberg (who also scripted) opens the film with some dynamic set pieces–lead Stephen Lack mind frying a...
View ArticleMadame X (1981, Robert Ellis Miller)
Madame X never has good pacing. The movie starts with Tuesday Weld on trial, in old age makeup. She refuses to identify herself, hence the title, and won’t even assist her lawyer, Martina Deignan, in...
View ArticlePeanuts (1965) s01e22 – Someday You’ll Find Her, Charlie Brown
“Someday You’ll Find Her, Charlie Brown” is the cringe-inducing tale of Charlie Brown (Grant Wehr) and Linus (Rocky Reilly) stalking a girl Charlie Brown saw at a football game on TV. She was in a...
View ArticlePeanuts (1965) s01e21 – It’s Magic, Charlie Brown
It’s Magic, Charlie Brown is the dramatically inert tale of Charlie Brown (Michael Mandy) turning invisible. It takes a while for him to turn invisible, with the first half or so of the special spent...
View ArticleBody Heat (1981, Lawrence Kasdan)
Sumptuous is unfortunately not the right word to describe Body Heat. I wish it were because sumptuous just sounds hot, temperature-wise. And Body Heat is all about heat. It takes place in during a very...
View ArticlePennies from Heaven (1981, Herbert Ross)
Pennies from Heaven is about how being a woman—particularly in the 1930s—is awful because you exist entirely for male consumption. If not sexually, then as production. The film’s supposed to be about...
View ArticleUnder the Rainbow (1981, Steve Rash)
There are a number of scenes in Under the Rainbow you probably wouldn’t have imagined had been put on film. Starting with Billy Barty playing a Nazi spy who accidentally hits Hitler in the balls...
View ArticleWhose Life Is It Anyway? (1981, John Badham)
Director Badham intended Whose Life Is It Anyway? to be black and white, which would probably help with the staginess. It’s a play adaptation. Badham handles the relatively big, busy cast well, but he...
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History of the World: Part I (1981, Mel Brooks)
History of the World: Part I is funny about twenty percent of the time. The eighty percent of the time, it isn’t funny, it’s either because the jokes are too homophobic, sexist, racist, or punny. If...
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Detective Comics (1937) #504
So the Joker breaks out of Arkham for no reason other than to create an elaborate room of deadly toys to kill Batman. It’s definitely insane, but also completely idiotic. This issue makes me wonder if...
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Detective Comics (1937) #505
Dan Adkins’s inks are a mess here. Because of them, there’s barely one good panel of Don Newton drawing Batman versus a werewolf. The story’s something of a surprise–with Conway concentrating solely...
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Batman (1940) #338
It’s sort of hard to believe Conway wrote both the terrible lead story and the mildly charming Robin backup. I mean, the Robin story–Dick solving a mystery at the circus–has it’s problems, like Conway...
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Detective Comics (1937) #506
I know kids actually read comic books back in the eighties so Conway had to keep them in mind, but he’s got a story about a golden mannequin lady killing people… he didn’t need to open with a really...
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Detective Comics (1937) #507
Conway doesn’t do much with Gotham City this issue, instead it’s just Batman in pursuit of the villainous Manikin. Except, of course, it’s not clear how villainous the reader is supposed to find her....
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Batman (1940) #339
It’s a strange issue in a couple ways. Primarily because the Robin backup is some kind of life-affirming emotional origin of the character. It’s well-produced–Conway and Novick really make the reader...
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Batman (1940) #340
The cover announces Gene Colan on art, so does the title page, so obviously DC wanted to sell him on the book. But then why did they put him with Gonzales on inks? It barely even looks like Gene...
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Batman (1940) #341
It’s the ghost of Wayne Manor! Actually, it’s just Man-Bat. It’s Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon bickering! Actually, they’re both just upset about politics. It’s a guest appearance from Dr. Thirteen! A...
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Batman (1940) #342
Conway’s promise of a Man-Bat story–the one he basically wasted the entire previous issue setting up–is not realized here. And I make that observation even with the issue having two fight scenes...
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Detective Comics (1937) #508
I’ve been trudging through Conway’s Batman comics the last few days–maybe the Irv Novick art on Batman is getting me down–so it’s nice this issue of Detective Comics is fantastic. It’s a completely...
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Detective Comics (1937) #509
Conway really lays on the melodrama for his resolution to Bruce and Selina’s romance–Catwoman’s still too much in the picture for her to be able to stick it out–but it still works somehow. The major...
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An American Werewolf in London (1981, John Landis)
There’s a lot of good stuff about An American Werewolf in London–for example, Landis doesn’t have a single joke fall flat–but something about it just doesn’t work. Something Landis doesn’t do, as a...
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Escape from New York (1981, John Carpenter)
Man and boy, I’ve probably seen Escape from New York ten times. This viewing might be the first where I noticed the film’s quietness. Carpenter uses the relative silence to make the first third (even...
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DC Special Series (1977) #27
The issue opens with Len Wein’s nearly incomprehensible expository narration. While the comic is written almost more as a tie-in to the “Hulk” TV show and an introduction to Batman, one almost needs an...
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Captain America (1968) #253
When Stern isn’t writing too much exposition, he really does a good job. I always forget during those exposition heavy issues. Cap heads off to the UK to help out the aged former Captain Britain with...
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Captain America (1968) #254
What a bunch of trouble to launch a new Union Jack. I guess Stern gets to kill the original Union Jack (and Baron Blood) but the whole thing is just a setup for Marvel UK. Whatever. I’m being really...
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Captain America (1968) #255
Wow, what a truly awful comic book. Bryne inks himself here (I guess Joe Rubinstein) was busy and the results are unfortunate. The action lacks any punch and the bland faces have started, years...
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Ka-Zar the Savage (1981) #1
If the first issue is any indicator, Bruce Jones’s Ka-Zar is a mix of Conan, Tarzan and Woody Allen. This issue is Ka-Zar roaming around, acting like a petulant teenager (even though he’s apparently...
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Mad Max 2 (1981, George Miller)
Mad Max 2 might be the perfect example of pure action. Besides a couple extended dialogue moments–maybe the only times Mel Gibson’s protagonist gets to talk without Brian May’s music over him or just...
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The Funhouse (1981, Tobe Hooper)
The Funhouse is terrifying. Director Hooper opens the film with a dual homage to Halloween and Psycho and then proceeds to do something entirely different in the end of this film. Like those two films,...
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Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981, Steve Miner)
When director Miner finally does a decent sequence in Friday the 13th Part 2, it comes as something of a surprise. Amy Steel is on the run from the masked killer and, even though it’s stupid, it’s...
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Halloween II (1981, Rick Rosenthal)
Halloween II is not always a crappy sequel set in a closed setting without any sympathetic characters. It is a crappy sequel set in a closed setting without any sympathetic characters. But it wasn’t...
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