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.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lesson (1989, Christian I. Nyby II)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 10, 2016
The Case of the Lethal Lesson is a very strange Perry Mason TV movie. Not just because director Nyby actually doesn’t do an atrocious job, but also because Robert Hamilton’s teleplay is a jumbled mess. Lethal Lesson introduces two new regulars to the main cast, with one of them being the person read more
Champion (1949, Mark Robson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 9, 2016
Champion is a boxing picture. It ends with a big fight, as boxing pictures are wont to do. However, as the fight starts and the film cuts between all the people Kirk Douglas’s Champion has wrong, the film isn’t asking the viewer to root for the protagonist. Douglas is a bad guy. The entire third read more
Journey Into Fear (1943, Norman Foster)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 5, 2016
Journey Into Fear has a number of insignificant problems, a couple significant ones, and one major one. The major one is Foster’s direction. It’s not bad, it makes good use of the sets, it even uses some of the supporting cast well, but it’s not frightening, it’s not exciting. Journey Into Fear, read more
Series | Superman (1978-1983, 1987, 2006)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 5, 2016
The Superman franchise started alongside, for the most part, the culturally redefining Star Wars and–sort of–Indiana Jones. But it had little in common with those franchises. It had a big studio feel to it. Superman is the culmination of the American epic. It just happened to coincide with the rise read more
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady in the Lake (1988, Ron Satlof)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 3, 2016
There are many things wrong with Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady in the Lake, starting with the title being a little long followed by the first red herring in the movie, which is in its first scene. Then the next red herring is in the second scene and so on and so on. Actually, I don’t think I re read more
Dreamscape (1984, Joseph Ruben)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 3, 2016
Dreamscape has a lot of subplots. The main plot barely gets any more time during the second act than the subplots. But I’m getting ahead of myself because I wanted to talk about the first act, which has Dennis Quaid getting reacquainted with mentor Max von Sydow. The film opens with this fast, fun read more
Arrival (2016, Denis Villeneuve)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 30, 2016
Stylist for hire. Stylist for hire. Denis Villeneuve is a stylist for hire on Arrival. He assembles a wonderful crew and they all do great work. Joe Walker’s editing is always assured, never flashy. Bradford Young’s photography is phenomenal. Arrival’s got a great color palette. Bored with its read more
Kiss of Death (1995, Barbet Schroeder)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 25, 2016
Kiss of Death takes place over four years, has eight to ten significant characters, and runs an hour and forty minutes. It skips ahead three years at the forty-five minute mark. And the last twenty minutes could have their own movie, as David Caruso returns to the city to face Nicolas Cage, who kno read more
Perry Mason: The Case of the Avenging Ace (1988, Christian I. Nyby II)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 24, 2016
Perry Mason: The Case of the Avenging Ace is a domino effect of lame. Lee David Zlotoff’s script is really bad, but director Nyby is also really bad, and then some of the performances are really bad. Some of the performances a Perry Mason TV movie needs to be okay aren’t okay here. Avenging Ace read more
Escape from Tomorrow (2013, Randy Moore)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 24, 2016
Director Moore snuck cameras into Disney World (and Disneyland) to tell the story of a creepy dad who goes insane while on the last day of the family vacation. Moore, who also wrote the tedious script, has reasons for the insanity, but they’re all nonsense because Tomorrow is more about showcasing read more
Panic Button (1964, George Sherman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 23, 2016
Watching Panic Button, two adjectives came to mind repeatedly. Anemic and stupefying. It’s incredible the things the film can’t make funny–like Maurice Chevalier, Carlo Croccolo and Eleanor Parker dressed up as nuns trying to make it to a Venice film festival. Not the Venice Film Festival, because read more
Midnight Cowboy (1969, John Schlesinger)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 20, 2016
Midnight Cowboy gets to be a character study, but doesn’t start as one, which is an interesting situation. About forty-five minutes into the film, which runs just shy of two hours, Midnight Cowboy chucks the narrative urgency. Maybe not chucks, maybe just shuts down, because it does take the film read more
Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel (1987, Christian I. Nyby II)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 19, 2016
Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel is a bit disappointing. It’s got a really lame script from Anthony Spinner. Spinner doesn’t have a good mystery, he doesn’t write characters well, he writes dialogue something awful. So there are no expectations from the script. However, Scoundrel read more
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (1997, Anno Hideaki, Masayuki and Tsurumaki Kazuya)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 18, 2016
Just over the first half of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth is all right. It’s a compilation of episodes from the “Neon Genesis Evangelion” television show, expertly edited by Miki Sachiko. There’s very little exposition, with all the backstory on the giant monster fighting–but read more
Young Guns (1988, Christopher Cain)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 13, 2016
Young Guns is an Emilio Estevez vanity project, which was once a thing. Estevez lacks the screen charisma and acting ability, but it’s a confusing part. He’s Billy the Kid and he’s playing him like a manipulative but somehow still likable psychopath. For about half the film, John Fusco’s script read more
Seems Like Old Times (1980, Jay Sandrich)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 13, 2016
Seems Like Old Times is an enthusiastic homage to the screwball comedy. Most of the action takes place at Goldie Hawn’s house, where she’s trying to hide fugitive ex-husband Chevy Chase from current husband–and district attorney–Charles Grodin. She’s a public defender who takes in all of her read more
Young Guns II (1990, Geoff Murphy)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 13, 2016
In many ways, Young Guns II is an improvement over the first. Geoff Murphy knows how to direct a Western, at least until he has to do a showdown scene and then he’s in trouble, but if it’s general Western action, he can do it. And he’s got the same cinematographer as the first movie, Dean Semler, read more
Perry Mason: The Case of the Murdered Madam (1987, Ron Satlof)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 13, 2016
I’m going to say something I never expected to say. Ron Satlof does a good job directing Perry Mason: The Case of the Murdered Madam. He’s a regular director on the series and he’s never directed one as well as this one. The showdown between Raymond Burr and guilty party is fantastic. Satlof does read more
Batman: The Movie (1966, Leslie H. Martinson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 12, 2016
Burt Ward is really bad in Batman: The Movie. Sure, he’s just around to parrot Adam West, who’s a horny, kind of dumb, know-it-all. The problem is it doesn’t seem like anyone else is in on the joke because director Martinson does such a bad job. There are some okay scenes in Lorenzo Semple Jr.’s read more