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.
Tor, King of Beasts (1962, Donald F. Glut)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 18, 2012
While Tor, King of Beasts is a remake of King Kong, director Glut comes up with a few new twists for the retelling. The two most obvious are the futuristic plane Glut (he also stars) and his companions use to the get the island. At first I wondered if it was time travel. Second, there’s no gi read more
War Feathers (1926, Robert F. McGowan and Robert A. McGowan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 16, 2012
I expected an Our Gang short titled War Feathers to be racist, but I was unprepared for how racist it gets. It opens with the kids torturing a train conductor–and Joe Cobb in blackface. Sorry, “chocolate” face. The poor conductor doesn’t just have to try to contain them, he& read more
Twister (1989, Michael Almereyda)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 15, 2012
Twister tries very hard to be avant-garde, but ends up just being a quirky family comedy. Worse, director Almereyda changes up the narrative style about fifty minutes into the film. Although Twister is based on a novel, Almereyda’s style is more appropriate for stage. The first half or more t read more
Xenogenesis (1978, James Cameron and Randall Frakes)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 14, 2012
Xenogenesis doesn’t just have lengthy opening titles for a twelve minute short, it then has exposition explaining it as directors Cameron and Frakes pan over some sci-fi illustrations. There are some amazing things about the short, but they’re all related to the stop motion animation. F read more
And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 13, 2012
The Comix Gallery is located in the sleepy suburb of Wilmette, along the edge of Chicago’s north shore. Access via car, bus, or train make this a very accessible store for those in the know. At 405 Linden Ave., the end of the purple line is only steps away, and ample parking makes your visit read more
Alice’s Wonderland (1923, Walt Disney)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 12, 2012
Depending on the process director Disney used to marry live action with animation, Alice’s Wonderland is either mediocre or just plain bad. If it’s the latter, Disney has no concept of perspective or, you know, shadows. The first three minutes are awesome. A little kid (Virginia Davis, read more
Film is Rhythm (1923, Hans Richter)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 11, 2012
Film is Rhythm isn’t immediately impressive. Director Richter moves some white rectangles across the black screen. Then, gradually (but at a quick pace–Film is only three minutes), he starts doing more movements with these rectangles and squares. By the time he was zooming them in and o read more
Silver Streak (1976, Arthur Hiller)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 10, 2012
Silver Streak is a wonderful film. It opens with all these little scenes on a train between Gene Wilder and Ned Beatty and then Jill Clayburgh. At this point, Streak seems like a very intelligent romantic comedy. There’s no drama yet, just excellent dialogue from Colin Higgins’s script. read more
Time Is Just a Place (1961, Donald F. Glut)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 9, 2012
I’m sure writer-director Glut understands Time Is Just a Place–and I’m sure he explained it to friends and family who watched it when he made it–but there’s no explanation in the short itself. There are a couple rocket ships traveling through space. They’re appar read more
The Teenage Frankenstein (1959, Donald F. Glut)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 7, 2012
The Teenage Frankenstein. Where to start. How to start. First, it’s not exactly The Teenage Frankenstein, it’s more The Teenage Bride of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, which actually works out pretty well. It’s unclear why teen auteur Glut includes a werewolf–who saves Dr. read more
The Saga of Windwagon Smith (1961, Charles A. Nichols)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 5, 2012
There’s nothing good about The Saga of Windwagon Smith. The best thing about it is the extended opening titles, which eat up some of the runtime and lessen the cartoon’s awfulness. The animation happily plays at the nexus of lazy, incompetent and bad. Director Nichols–who cowrote& read more
Playlands of Michigan (1949)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 4, 2012
A more accurate title for Playlands of Michigan is Playlands of Lake Michigan, though an even more accurate one would be Michigan Playlands of Lake Michigan. “Voice of the Globe” James A. FitzPatrick takes the viewer through some of the state’s summer tourism, mostly as it relates read more
Foul Play (1978, Colin Higgins)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 3, 2012
Foul Play ends with a celebration of itself. Over the end credits, clips of some of the film’s more memorable moments and characters play. It’s incredibly egotistical–I mean, Foul Play is director Higgins’s directorial debut, it’s Chevy Chase’s first leading man read more
The Adventures of Superpup (1958, Cal Howard)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 2, 2012
What better way to capitalize on the success of TV’s “The Adventures of Superman” with a kid’s show recasting the characters as dogs. What’s strangest about “The Adventures of Superpup”–not surprisingly, it never went past pilot–isn’t the read more
Three Amigos (1986, John Landis)
The Stop Button Posted by on Aug 1, 2012
Three Amigos is beautifully made. Whether it’s the silent era Hollywood scenes at the opening, the silent movie in the movie, or the Western the film quickly becomes… it all looks fantastic. Landis even brings in the singing cowboy genre–the scene with the animals accompanying the read more
Something’s Got to Give (1962, George Cukor)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 31, 2012
I wonder how Something’s Got to Give plays if you haven’t seen My Favorite Wife (Give was a remake). This thirty-seven minute edit of footage of Marilyn Monroe’s last–unfinished–film is a disjointed suggestion of what might have been. Monroe’s good in her part, t read more
House of Games (1987, David Mamet)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 30, 2012
House of Games is a very small film, but Mamet and cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía manage to make it appear a lot bigger. When there’s no one in a shot, in a public place, except a principal, Mamet makes it seem stylistic instead of budgetary. It’s only during the final fifteen minutes, when there read more
Anemic Cinema (1926, Marcel Duchamp)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 29, 2012
I’m not sure how Anemic Cinema cinema is surrealist. Obviously for the time, but today the most surreal thing about it is the copyright notice. Director Duchamp slaps a copyright notice on the end. It feels completely out of place with Anemic, which is otherwise a direct communication with th read more
Tantalizing Disaster (1970, Piotr Kamler)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 28, 2012
Tantalizing Disaster is magnificent and wondrous, but it’s kind of dumb. Director Kamler is most enthusiastic about shapes, patterns and small movements. The film concerns a cosmic ball bouncing on some cosmic stairs. Inside the cosmic ball is a big, gelatinous fat guy in a fedora. He’s read more
Intervals (1969, Peter Greenaway)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 26, 2012
Intervals is a series of profile shots of Venice buildings. It’s unclear it’s Venice until the boats start passing. It’s impossible to tell when director Greenaway shot the film, but the light never changes much so one might assume he either did it every day at the same time. The read more