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 Sinister Spirit (1987, Richard Lang)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 5, 2016
The Case of the Sinister Spirit has some problems. Mostly in the cast, some in the story. And cinematographer Arch Bryant really doesn’t make the haunted hotel sequences scary. There’s some okay lighting at times too–in the haunted hotel–but it’s never scary. Lang’s direction is trying for read more
Electric Dreams (1984, Steve Barron)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 5, 2016
Electric Dreams is a very strange film. And not just because it’s about a computer brought to life by champagne and electric fire. Not even because said computer has the voice of Bud Cort. It’s strange because it has no interest in having a conventional narrative structure, both in terms of the read more
Ghosts of Mars (2001, John Carpenter)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 4, 2016
Ghost of Mars has a lot of earnestness going for it. Director Carpenter needs quite a bit his cast and he supports them even when they’re clearly not able to succeed–especially lead Natasha Henstridge. He takes the project seriously, his cast takes it seriously. Sure, it doesn’t exactly work out, read more
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992, James Foley)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 2, 2016
The first half of Glengarry Glen Ross is phenomenal. David Mamet’s screenplay is lightning fast during this section, moving its characters around, pairing them off for scenes or moments–the brevity is astounding. Half the movie is over and it feels like just a few minutes. Then the second half hits read more
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love (1987, Ron Satlof)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 29, 2016
The Case of the Lost Love is a rather charmless Perry Mason outing. Jean Simmons is an old flame of Raymond Burr’s and he ends up defending her ungrateful husband (Gene Barry). Simmons and Burr have some chemistry as Lost Love establishes their history, but the movie’s so technically inept, it neve read more
Warning Shot (1967, Buzz Kulik)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 28, 2016
Warning Shot is almost successful. For most of the film, director Kulik and screenwriter Mann Rubin craft an engaging mystery. Then the third act happens and they both employ cheap tricks and it knocks the film off course. It’s a rather short third act too–the film’s got a peculiar structure, read more
Summer School (1987, Carl Reiner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 27, 2016
There’s an almost magical competency to Summer School. It starts with the opening titles, which are expertly edited to showcase the eventual primary cast members. Not the adults–outside lead Mark Harmon–rather the students. There’s no audible dialogue, just a rock song playing, but there’s read more
Trancers 5: Sudden Deth (1994, David Nutter)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 22, 2016
There are no good parts to Trancers 5: Sudden Deth. The best parts, however, are when you forget you’re watching an actual motion picture–or even a direct-to-video release on a name label–and think you’re instead watching some terrible fantasy movie shot by the staff of a renaissance fair. At read more
Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star (1986, Ron Satlof)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 22, 2016
There’s a lot of camp value to The Case of the Shooting Star. During William Katt’s investigation scenes, his clothes get more and more absurd. At one point he’s wearing a jacket with a tiger on it. Then he gets sidekick and flirtation partner Wendy Crewson, who wears really loud eighties pants, read more
Suddenly (1954, Lewis Allen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 21, 2016
I’m sure there’s got to be some examples of well-written “Red Scare” screenplays, but Suddenly isn’t one of them. Writer Richard Sale’s got a lot of opinion about the dirty Commies, he just never gets the opportunity to have any one character fully blather it out. They’re too busy blathering read more
Trancers 4: Jack of Swords (1994, David Nutter)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 10, 2016
I’m not sure where to start with Trancers 4 except I don’t recommend anyone else ever watch this film. Especially not if you like Trancers or even Tim Thomerson. That definite discouragement aside, for a direct-to-video sequel shot in Romania and set in a different universe like an episode of the read more
Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun (1986, Ron Satlof)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 8, 2016
So Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun. It’s not good. It is not a good TV movie. Even if the writing were better, Satlof is a lousy director. And Héctor R. Figueroa’s photography is quite bad. The lighting in the courtroom finale changes between shots. The editing is already graceless–more read more
The Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 7, 2016
The Seventh Seal has a lot of striking imagery. Gunnar Fischer’s cinematography is peerless, but it’s more–it’s how the photography works with the shot composition, how the shots work with one another (Lennart Wallén’s editing is simultaneously amiable and stunning). And then there’s how read more
The Wailing (2016, Na Hong-jin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 2, 2016
What a stupid movie. Sure, The Wailing isn’t all bad. The cinematography from Hong Kyung-pyo is fine. It’s not great because, even its better moments, director Na never does a particularly good job. He likes long shots, he likes three shots, but he doesn’t like actually trying to read more
Perry Mason Returns (1985, Ron Satlof)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Oct 1, 2016
The most impressive technical contribution to Perry Mason Returns has to be Dick DeBenedictis’s music. He lifts thriller style music, some horror, some whatever, then applies it to this somewhat bland TV movie. Albert J. Dunk’s photography is too muted and director Satlof, though very c read more
Pride of the Marines (1945, Delmer Daves)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 30, 2016
Pride of the Marines is a disappointment. It never gets particularly good, but it does have a lot of potential–at least from its cast–so when it starts getting better and then slips, it’s a disappointment. The film starts before Pearl Harbor with John Garfield’s would-be bac read more
The Monolith Monsters (1957, John Sherwood)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 25, 2016
Against the odds, The Monolith Monsters almost comes together in the finale. The special effects are good, there’s a lot of tension, none of the acting is too bad. And then the end flops. I want to blame director Sherwood, maybe screenwriters Norman Jolley and Robert M. Fresco, maybe editor P read more
Ladyhawke (1985, Richard Donner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 25, 2016
Two things about Ladyhawke without getting to the script or some of the acting. First, Andrew Powell’s music. It’s godawful; it’s stunning to see a director as competent as Richard Donner put something so godawful in a film. Intentionally put it in a film. It’s silly. It sou read more
Alligator (1980, Lewis Teague)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 23, 2016
Alligator has quite a few things going for it. Lead Robert Forster is great, Robin Riker’s solid as his love interest and sidekick, John Sayles’s script has some excellent moments in it (some of them just being the attention he pays to Forster and Riker’s relationship), the giant read more
Patterns (1956, Fielder Cook)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Sep 18, 2016
Patterns is a short and simple picture. Van Heflin is the new man at a corporation; he suspects he’s there to replace his assigned mentor, Ed Begley. He has a ruthless boss (Everett Sloane) and a similarly ruthless wife (Beatrice Straight). Will Heflin, called a rising young man (Heflin was f read more