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.
Russian Rhapsody (1944, Robert Clampett)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 31, 2014
Russian Rhapsody is a strange–and very funny–cartoon. First, as a historical document, it's a Hollywood cartoon mocking Hitler (before the end of the war and the extent of his atrocities became clear). In Rhapsody, he's an obnoxious windbag and there are a bunch of good jokes read more
Sabotage (1936, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 28, 2014
Sabotage demands the viewer's attention. It opens with a dictionary definition of Sabotage, forcing the viewer to read something and then immediately relate it to the rapidly edited sabotage of a power station. This sequence, which sets off the first act of the film, takes place in maybe a min read more
Black Angel (1980, Roger Christian)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 22, 2014
Until the finale, which features a risible fight sequence, Black Angel at least looks and sounds good. The story is atrocious, but the production values make it tolerable. Based on that fight sequence, the short concerns a clumsy, vain and mostly incompetent knight–Tony Vogel in a terrible pe read more
Godzilla (1954, Honda Ishirô)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 17, 2014
Godzilla is a peculiar picture. It's intensely serious, with director Honda never letting the viewer get a moment's relief. This approach is all throughout the film, which opens with a documentary feel. Honda and co-screenwriter Murata Takeo set up their main characters quickly and withou read more
Trancers: City of Lost Angels (1988, Charles Band)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 14, 2014
Tracers: City of Lost Angels was originally intended to be part of an anthology film but it doesn’t feel much like a short subject. With the obviously limited budget, director Band treats it like a television production more than a film. Most of the action plays out in one or two of the sets. read more
Supernatural (1933, Victor Halperin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 12, 2014
Supernatural is a strange little film. I say little just because it's just over an hour; it has a great pace, however, and always feels full. Maybe because it introduces two subplots before getting to top-billed Carole Lombard. Then Lombard sort of encounters one of the subplots and the other read more
Island of Lost Souls (1932, Erle C. Kenton)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 4, 2014
What’s so incredible about Island of Lost Souls is how Charles Laughton doesn’t overpower the entire picture. Laughton’s take on the mad scientist role–playful, gleeful, callous, cruel–is a joy to watch and it definitely contributes but it doesn’t make Souls. Eve read more
The Invisible Man (1933, James Whale)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 4, 2014
The Invisible Man is a filmmaking marvel. First off, R.C. Sherriff’s screenplay sets things up speedily and without much exposition. The film introduces Claude Rains’s character through everyone else’s point of view–first the strangers he meets, then his familiars–all read more
Jaws 3-D (1983, Joe Alves)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 27, 2014
Jaws 3-D is one part advertisement for Sea World, one part disaster movie, one part monster movie, then figure the rest is character stuff. It does really well as the Sea World ad, not so well as a disaster movie, a little better as a monster movie… and shockingly well on the character stuff. read more
Sorcerer (1977, William Friedkin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 18, 2014
It’s incredible how much concern director William Friedkin is able to get for his characters in Sorcerer. Now, the film’s really kind of like four or five movies in one–there are four prologues, with very full ones for Bruno Cremer and Roy Scheider, then there’s the story of read more
The Strange Woman (1946, Edgar G. Ulmer)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 18, 2014
The Strange Woman opens with Dennis Hoey as a drunken widower and Jo Ann Marlowe as his evil little daughter. Herb Meadow's script is real bad in this opening, but it's nineteenth century kids playing and one of them is a psychopath, how good is the script going to be? But then it jumps f read more
Vision Quest (1985, Harold Becker)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 11, 2014
Linda Fiorentino might be a year older than Matthew Modine back she's supposed to be playing a worldly twenty-one year-old to his eighteen year-old high school senior in Vision Quest and they sure don't look it. Modine looks about twenty-four, his age at the time of filming. Fiorentino lo read more
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989, William Shatner)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 29, 2014
In some ways, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is an ambitious movie pretending to be popcorn entertainment pretending to be an ambitious movie. There's a lot of nonsense about self-help, not to mention the whole God thing, and none of it works. Partially, it doesn't work because David Lou read more
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989, Joe Johnston)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 27, 2014
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a constant battle between trite and sincere. Except the special effects stuff; the special effects are astounding, especially the sequences where there's a mix of styles, between practical and optical, and a mix of sizes. Director Johnston does such an exceptional j read more
Against All Odds (1984, Taylor Hackford)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 26, 2014
If Against All Odds had just a few more things going for it, the film might qualify as a glorious disaster. There are a lot of glorious elements to it, even if there aren't quite enough to make it worthwhile. Or even passable. Hackford's direction is outstanding. He's fully committed read more
Creature (1985, William Malone)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 26, 2014
I'm hesitant to pay Creature any compliments, but it does have some unexpected plot developments. Not regarding the space monster, which rips off Alien comprehensively–though stoutly–but in how director Malone and co-writer Alan Reed plot the film. They have a large cast to work th read more
About
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 24, 2014
Hello, and welcome, to the Stop Button “About” page. I’m Andrew Wickliffe and I’ve been blogging here so long the site can get a driving permit. I write about movies, comics, and television. On rare occasion, I write longer pieces in hopes of driving traffic to the older pie read more
Cat People (1982, Paul Schrader)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 24, 2014
Cat People is so brilliantly made, often so well-acted, it's surprisingly those elements can't make up for its narrative issues. Screenwriter Alan Ormsby has a big problem–he's got to turn his protagonist from a victim to a villain to a victim. Sadly, he and director Schrader c read more
Scaramouche (1952, George Sidney)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 24, 2014
Scaramouche is a deliberately constructed film. I’m curious if screenwriters Ronald Millar and George Froeschel followed the source novel’s plot structure, because it’s a very peculiar series of events. It doesn’t open with the leading man, instead starting out with villain read more
Madison Avenue (1962, H. Bruce Humberstone)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Mar 23, 2014
Madison Avenue somehow manages to be anorexic but packed. It only runs ninety minutes and takes place over a few years. There’s no makeup–which is probably good since Dana Andrews, Eleanor Parker and Jeanne Crain are all playing at least ten years younger than their ages. Director Humbe read more