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.
Diagonal Symphony (1924, Viking Eggeling)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 27, 2012
If I knew how Eggeling made the shapes in Diagonal Symphony move–or if I was really into geometry (but probably not)–I might appreciate it more. The short is some shapes doubling and duplicating until they eventually start rescinding. The shapes aren’t interesting; in fact, when E read more
All Night Long (1924, Harry Edwards)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 18, 2012
Harry Edwards flops on every sight gag in All Night Long, seemingly a combination of his inability to direct comedy and star Harry Langdon’s lack of comic timing. However, otherwise Edwards does a great job with the short. He’s got an excellent dinner table sequence and a lot of special read more
Boys Will Be Joys (1925, Robert F. McGowan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 16, 2012
Boys Will Be Joys is a strange Our Gang outing, simply because the story doesn’t belong to the Gang. Instead, sixty year-old industrialist Paul Weigel has grown bored being a successful grown-up and just wants to goof off. Luckily, he happens to be developing a plot of land the Gang has built read more
Love’s Surprises (1915, Max Linder)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 15, 2012
Calling Love’s Surprises a tepid comedy would be an understatement. Writer-director-star Linder fails to understand the very basics of drama, which puts the whole short in the dumps right off. It opens with a dinner party. The three men at the party all run off to grab hidden flowers for a gi read more
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, Jack Arnold)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 14, 2012
Almost all of Creature from the Black Lagoon is a compelling mix of science fiction, workplace drama and horror. The Creature makes a great “villain” because there’s nothing human about him (except maybe his fixation on leading lady Julie Adams) so it’s possible to both fear read more
Geometria (1987, Guillermo del Toro), the director’s cut
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 13, 2012
About the only thing good about Geometria is Juan Carlos Muñez’s photography. It’s very stylized, very red and blue, but it’s competent throughout and there are a couple great shots. It’s clear Muñez and del Toro shot it in an apartment or house, but Muñez gives it real scal read more
The Glass Key (1942, Stuart Heisler)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 12, 2012
The Glass Key‘s a murder mystery, but its solution–and even its investigation–is incidental to the rest of the picture. From about seven minutes in, director Heisler defines Key as something quite different. Leading man Alan Ladd isn’t a detective, he isn’t even partic read more
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955, Val Guest)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 10, 2012
“No character development, please, we’re British.” There’s nothing to recommend The Quatermass Xperiment. Walter J. Harvey’s black and white photography is fantastic, but it can’t recommend the film. Xperiment is so stupid, it appears screenwriters Richard H. Lan read more
The Vampires: The Ring That Kills (1915, Louis Feuillade)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 8, 2012
In The Ring That Kills, Feuillade goes with a gradual build-up and a rather tense finish. There’s no recap of the previous Vampires entry, which gets confusing towards the end, when a supporting character returns. Feuillade uses that character, played by Marcel Lévesque, as comic relief. He&# read more
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, Robert Zemeckis)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 7, 2012
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, even with the absolute mess of a final act, would have really benefited from a better director. Oh, Zemeckis isn’t bad. With Dean Cundey shooting the film, it’d be hard for it to look bad and it doesn’t. But Zemeckis doesn’t–apparently–kn read more
Halloween 5 (1989, Dominique Othenin-Girard)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 3, 2012
Halloween 5 shouldn’t be mind-numbingly boring. There’s no chance something called Halloween 5 is going to be smart, so I was expecting mind-numbing stupidity… but not boredom. The movie opens with a recap of the previous entry, with some changes to the ending to keep Michael Myer read more
Tummy Trouble (1989, Rob Minkoff and Frank Marshall)
The Stop Button Posted by on Sep 2, 2012
Tummy Trouble goes out of its way to pay homage to Tex Avery (down to a Droopy cameo) and director Minkoff does a decent job of it. Not to say Tummy‘s successful, however. While Minkoff apes Avery all right, it’s a combination of too obvious and too reverential. Outside being an “ read more
Back to the Future Part II (1989, Robert Zemeckis)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 31, 2012
Back to the Future Part II, while front heavy with special effects, ends up being a small picture. The first half or so deals with the sequel setup from the first movie’s finale but then Part II tells a side story set during the first film. Time travel franchises can be, it turns out, rather read more
Pool Sharks (1915, Edwin Middleton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 30, 2012
According to Pool Sharks, the only thing better than getting the girl is getting a free bottle of liquor. W.C. Fields is at a picnic and courting a young woman–apparently the only single woman there (the actor is sadly uncredited)–and he runs afoul her other suitor, played by Bud Ross. read more
Recreation (1914, Charles Chaplin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 28, 2012
Chaplin’s got a real problem with visual continuity in Recreation. At first, he does really well. The actors move–through a park–from left to right. Helen Carruthers is on a bench with a prospective beau (Charles Bennett), then she leaves him and moves right. Chaplin (as the Tramp read more
The Vampires: The Severed Head (1915, Louis Feuillade)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 25, 2012
I probably should have paid more attention to The Severed Head‘s title. Even when the discussion of a decapitated murder victim came up, the title didn’t register any significance. Guess what? Director Feuillade gets in a severed head. I didn’t even think the murder case mattered, read more
Crocodile Dundee II (1988, John Cornell)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 24, 2012
Crocodile Dundee II isn’t really a comedy. It’s an action movie with a lot of comic moments, but it’s not a comedy. Figuring out how it’s going to not be a comedy–since it’s a sequel to a successful comedy after all–is one of its biggest problems. Director read more
The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970, James R. Rokos)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 23, 2012
Even with all the obvious symbolism in The Resurrection of Broncho Billy, a lot of it is still quite good. About half of Rokos’s shots are excellent and Nick Castle’s photography is great. The shots of movie cowboy-wannabe Johnny Crawford walking through downtown L.A. are magnificent. T read more
Cruel, Cruel Love (1914, George Nichols)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 21, 2012
Cruel, Cruel Love has a lot of possibilities. Sadly, director Nichols doesn’t realize any of them. He’s interested in broad physical humor–wrestling, actually–and having Charlie Chaplin mug for the camera. Chaplin does a fine enough job mugging, but it goes on forever. Love read more
The Human Torch (1963, Donald F. Glut)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 19, 2012
Sure, at one point the Human Torch appears to be a naked Ken doll painted red, but come on… it’s The Human Torch. I think it’s unintentional, but at times director (and star) Glut makes the Torch’s “flaming on” seem positively painful. Or maybe the rubber hand Gl read more