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.
The Funhouse (1981, Tobe Hooper)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 7, 2014
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, he takes a while to get to the violent acts. He does, however, announce he’s going to terri read more
Repo Man (1984, Alex Cox)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 1, 2014
For such an “odd” movie, Repo Man is incredibly precise. Writer-director Cox has four or five subplots–depending on if Emilio Estevez becoming a repo man and his journey as one is considered the plot, as Cox downgrades it to subplot status about three-quarters through the picture. read more
Mad Max 2 (1981, George Miller)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 24, 2013
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 the fantastic sound effects drowning him out–it’s all action. It̵ read more
The Great American Beauty Contest (1973, Robert Day)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 23, 2013
Trying to figure out where The Great American Beauty Contest stands on the women’s lib movement is a headache. Actually, the whole thing is a little misogynist but not for the obvious reason–not because the titular contest’s participants are being objectified (I doubt director Day read more
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986, Leonard Nimoy)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 20, 2013
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, director Leonard Nimoy establishes a light-hearted, but very high stakes, action-packed environment. Voyage Home is in no way an action movie–the action sequences mostly consist of chases and comedic subterfuges–but there’s a new one every few min read more
The Sting (1973, George Roy Hill)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 18, 2013
There are two immediate peculiar things about The Sting. The opening credits introduce the cast with scenes from the film, so one watches the picture waiting for a particular actor to come up. While it might have been done to get Paul Newman’s face onscreen sooner (he takes about fifteen minu read more
Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972, Theodore Gershuny)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 17, 2013
Silent Night, Bloody Night is notable for three things. First, but sadly not foremost, is Adam Giffard’s daytime photography. Not much of the film takes place during the day, but when it does, Giffard makes it look fantastic. Even though he’s shooting questionable settings… which read more
Rosemary’s Baby (1968, Roman Polanski)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 13, 2013
From the first scene of Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski establishes the style he’s going to use until the big reveal at the end. He shoots a lot of over-the-shoulder shots with people moving around out of frame, causing a startling effect when the viewer finds out they’re now in a read more
Garden of Evil (1954, Henry Hathaway)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 9, 2013
For a while it seems like the third act of Garden of Evil will make up for the rest of the film’s problems. Or at least give it somewhere to excel. Sadly, director Hathaway and screenwriter Frank Fention inexplicably tack on a terrible coda–tying into the title no less–and effecti read more
The Monster Walks (1932, Frank R. Strayer)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 6, 2013
I went into The Monster Walks with what I consider reasonable expectations. I thought it would be bad. I thought it would be a bad, low budget, rainy night in a mansion with a killer ape loose movie. It is all of those things, but it’s also awful. Director Strayer apparently had such a low bu read more
I Walked with a Zombie (1943, Jacques Tourneur)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 4, 2013
Before it stumbles through its third act, I Walked with a Zombie’s biggest problem is the pacing. It’s exceedingly boring during the second act. Its second biggest problem is it’s too short. The second act plays so poorly because there’s not enough going on, there’s ju read more
Caddyshack (1980, Harold Ramis)
The Stop Button Posted by on Dec 2, 2013
What’s the funniest thing in Caddyshack? Bill Murray is a good first choice, Rodney Dangerfield, even Ted Knight is hilarious, but Chevy Chase actually wins out. He doesn’t have as many awesome scenes as Murray, but Murray’s got a couple mundane ones. Chase–who opens the mov read more
Bedlam (1946, Mark Robson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 29, 2013
Bedlam is about a third of a good picture. It’s like writers Val Lewton and (director too) Robson didn’t quite know how to make it work, what with having to have Boris Karloff in it. Karloff’s the villain, the head of a mental institute in the eighteenth century. Karloff’s s read more
The Storybook Review (1946, Ray Harryhausen)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 26, 2013
The Storybook Review consists of four nursery rhymes told in stop motion animation. Director and animator Ray Harryhausen has a varying degree of success with the four, usually due to storytelling. For example, the Mother Hubbard entry goes on way too long even though it’s shortened from the read more
The Terror (1963, Roger Corman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 20, 2013
It might be too easy just to call The Terror terrible or to go into the various puns one could make with “terrible” and the title. It’s not a surprisingly bad film at all. It’s an expectedly bad film, given it opens with a pointless scare attempt. Boris Karloff shows up in t read more
Dementia 13 (1963, Francis Ford Coppola)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 15, 2013
The first half of Dementia 13 is surprisingly good. From the first scene–pre-titles even–Coppola establishes some great angles to his composition. He keeps it up throughout with close-ups jump cutting to different close-ups; excellent photography from Charles Hannawalt makes it all work read more
A Bucket of Blood (1959, Roger Corman)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 6, 2013
Until the unfortunate deus ex machina finish, A Bucket of Blood is a small wonder. Even with the finish, the film manages to succeed; the performances are just too strong. Dick Miller plays a simple, well-meaning bus boy–who also takes drink orders, apparently for no tips–at an art café read more
Boomerang! (1947, Elia Kazan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Nov 1, 2013
Boomerang! is a mess. The first half of the film is a misfired docudrama, the second half (or so) is a fantastic courtroom drama. Richard Murphy’s script is such a plotting disaster not even beautifully written scenes and wonderful performances can make up for its problems. And director Kazan read more
Nightshift (1985, Philip Noyce)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 31, 2013
The big problem with Nightshift, an episode of “The Hitchhiker,” is how William Darrid’s teleplay handles the protagonist. Margot Kidder plays a retirement home nurse who preys on her charges–little mean stuff, stealing their jewelry. The script isn’t playful with its read more
The Curse of the Cat People (1944, Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 30, 2013
The Curse of the Cat People is apparently Kent Smith. Well, him and writer DeWitt Bodeen. Smith and Jane Randolph return from the first film, this one set over six years later. They have a daughter–Ann Carter in an almost perfect performance–who’s a lonely child. She eventually im read more