Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
Sheena (1984, John Guillermin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 28, 2017
Deconstructing Sheena could probably be its own intellectual pursuit. The film’s so many terrible perfect things in one. It’s inverted misogyny, it’s colonial racism, it’s misapplied camp. It’s bad acting from actors with no business in film so it’s this example of bad Hollywood trends. read more
The Fate of the Furious (2017, F. Gary Gray)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 19, 2017
What is the Fate of the Furious? It’s unclear screenwriter Chris Morgan knows–it comes up in the script a little–but it’s a needless portent. The Fate is the cast sitting around listening to Vin Diesel talk about family after they’ve gone through high action and zero character development. read more
Absolute Power (1997, Clint Eastwood)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 16, 2017
Absolute Power has a number of narrative issues. Well, less narrative issues and more narrative slights. As the film enters the third act, director Eastwood and screenwriter William Goldman decide the audience has gotten enough out of the movie and it’s time to wrap things up. It’s a shame because read more
Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970, Don Siegel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 16, 2017
Two Mules for Sister Sara opens playfully. Then it gets serious. Then it gets playful. Then it gets serious. Then it gets playful. Director Siegel never lets it keep one tone for too long, not until the end, when he shows what happens when you take it all too seriously. After a hundred minutes of o read more
The Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah), the director’s cut
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 15, 2017
The Wild Bunch opens with a methodically executed heist slash shootout sequence. Director Peckinpah quickly introduces cast members, partially due to the dramatic plotting, mostly due to Lou Lombardo’s fantastic editing. All juxtaposed with some kids watching ants kill scorpions. The Wild Bunch ope read more
The Bastard (1978, Lee H. Katzin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 14, 2017
Somewhere in the second half of The Bastard, the mini-series starts to wear you down and you just give in. The first half is set in 1772 Europe, first in France, then in England. Andrew Stevens is a French boy with a secret. His mom might just be Patricia Neal, inn keeper, but Stevens is actually h read more
Shin Godzilla (2016, Higuchi Shinji and Anno Hideaki)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 10, 2017
Shin Godzilla is the story of hard-working bureaucrats responding successfully to a national crisis. When the giant monsters invade, you can’t do better than the able public servants of Shin Godzilla. And for most of the film, directors Higuchi and Anno pull it off. The first act of the film, with read more
13th (2016, Ava DuVernay)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 3, 2017
The first half of 13th is didactic–well, except when the film makes fun of interviewee Grover Norquist. There are three or four capital C Conservatives interviewees; Norquist and Gingrich are present because they’re such trolls they think they’re convincing. Gingrich is during his Black Lives read more
Literal Bohemian Rhapsody (2016, Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 1, 2017
Literal Bohemian Rhapsody is the filler footage for a bad music video for the Queen song, Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s literal, so Jeff Schine is actually running around telling his mother things and shooting people and whatever. Except he doesn’t shoot the guy right. Because a lot of Literal is just read more
Tootsie (1982, Sydney Pollack)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 1, 2017
Tootsie opens with Dustin Hoffman giving acting classes. He’s a failed New York actor–but a well-employed waiter–who must be giving these classes on spec. It seems like Hoffman being a beloved acting teacher might end up having something to do with the plot of Tootsie, which has Hoffman pretending read more
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973, Norman Jewison)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 1, 2017
There’s a lot bad about Jesus Christ Superstar. Some of it is casting, a lot of it is Jewison’s direction choices. He’s clearly thrilled to be shooting in the Middle East, but it doesn’t connect to his actual narrative. It connects to the subject matter, just not the film Jewison ends up making. read more
Jesus Christ Superstar – Live Arena Tour (2012, Laurence Connor and Nick Morris)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 1, 2017
Besides having an unwieldy title, Jesus Christ Superstar – Live Arena Tour does have quite a few things to recommend it. Within reason. It’s still just a video taping of a live performance–albeit an occasionally rather decent one, albeit with the ability to do complicated shots. Lots of crane read more
Short Cuts (1993, Robert Altman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 30, 2017
Short Cuts is about a weekend in Los Angeles. It’s a Robert Altman ensemble piece with twenty-two principle characters (though at least six of them are questionable–it really has three stories and then some tangents). It’s “based on the ‘writings’ of Raymond Carver” (emphasis mine), but read more
The Blot (1921, Lois Weber)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 28, 2017
The Blot has a lot of plot. Lot of plot. Director Weber fills the film with characters and subplots–unfortunately, not many of the supporting cast get credited so I’ll just have to compliment based on their characters. The main plot is about rich college kid Louis Calhern who discovers–because read more
Director | Edward Burns
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 27, 2017
At multiple points throughout his career, Edward Burns has been a disappointment. He’s not currently a disappointment–in fact, his now five-year absence from feature filmmaking is distressing, given his last film’s success; Fitzgerald Family Christmas is great. But many times over his eleven film, read more
The Little Foxes (1941, William Wyler)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 25, 2017
The most impressive things about The Little Foxes are, in no particular order, Bette Davis’s performance (specifically her micro expressions), Patricia Collinge’s supporting performance, director Wyler’s composition, director Wyler’s staging of the narrative (adapted by Lillian Hellman from read more
Three (2016, Johnnie To)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 12, 2017
Three is about a dirty cop (Louis Koo), a determined doctor (Zhao Wei), and an injured criminal (Wallace Chung). It’s not real time, but its present action is probably seven hours–in an under ninety minute runtime–so it’s close. Zhao is supposed to be getting more and more tired because she read more
Never Say Goodbye (1946, James V. Kern)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 10, 2017
The first thirty-nine percent of Never Say Goodbye is phenomenally paced. It could be a short movie, if there were a little tragedy through in. A little melodrama. Seven year-old Patti Brady is moving back in with mom Eleanor Parker after living six months with dad Errol Flynn. They’re divorced. Fl read more
Director | John Carpenter, Part 1: The Wonder Years
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 4, 2017
Between 1974 to 1981, John Carpenter directed five independent feature films–Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, and Escape from New York. Three of those first five films–Dark Star, Precinct 13, Escape–are phenomenal motion pictures and should have established Carpenter as a read more