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.
Bridge (1960, Janusz Majewski)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 24, 2012
Adapting An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge into a short film, if Bridge is any indication, is a terrible idea. Director Majeweski–who also scripted–gives the doomed protagonist more to do before he’s on the noose than after. There’s no time in a short to make the viewer care read more
Working for Peanuts (1953, Jack Hannah)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 22, 2012
As if Donald Duck couldn’t get weirder, he’s apparently got the hots for a female elephant in Working for Peanuts. But it’s not actually a Donald cartoon, it’s a Chip and Dale cartoon. The boys are after the peanuts–a delicacy they’ve just discovered–and th read more
The Hole (1969, Pitor Kamler)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 19, 2012
The Hole, though a precisely, beautifully animated little (two minutes, but that run time includes titles and a preface) piece, is just a cute exercise. Director Kamler comes up with a nice illustration of the futility of the human condition. But he’s too honest and Hole is predictable. The v read more
Susie the Little Blue Coupe (1952, Clyde Geronimi)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 15, 2012
Bill Peet, who came up with the story for Susie the Little Blue Coupe and co-wrote the final script, must have thought American kids didn’t have enough depressing classic Russian literature in their lives. It’s a seriously disturbed, if fantastic, cartoon. Susie tells the story of a hap read more
Sympathy (1929, Bryan Foy)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 14, 2012
Sympathy is a Vitaphone one-reeler about a married man (Hobart Cavanaugh) stepping out on his wife. It’s not his fault, of course, he was just responding to peer pressure. Harry Shannon plays the peer in question and he’s awful. He drags Sympathy down for the first half. Once he’s read more
Poltergeist (1982, Tobe Hooper)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 13, 2012
In a practical sense, one can just watch Poltergeist and be in awe of the technical qualities. Hooper’s Panavision composition and Matthew F. Leonetti’s photography alone are enough to make it a singular experience. But then there are Hooper’s additional touches–like how a s read more
Little Tiger’s Can-Can Bug (1950, Masaoka Kenzô)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 12, 2012
From the title, Little Tiger’s Can-Can Bug, one has to assume there is something lost in translation. The cartoon concerns two little tiger kittens who are working on a ship. They sing and they’re precious, but they don’t do much in Bug. There’s a grown-up tiger, a tuna boat read more
The Big Chill (1983, Lawrence Kasdan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 11, 2012
With The Big Chill, Kasdan tries to be profound, heart-warming and cynical. He doesn’t succeed. For a film so much about introspection, Kasdan is surprisingly unaware at the inherent artifice. The film’s cast of characters are–if they’re male–extraordinary. There’ read more
Half a Death (1972, Leslie H. Martinson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 10, 2012
Half a Death gets off to a troubled start thanks to Tod Andrews. He’s only in the episode (of “Ghost Story”) for the first scene, but he’s just awful. Watching Eleanor Parker act opposite him is painful. While Henry Slesar’s script is no great shakes in the dialogue de read more
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989, Eric Zala)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 9, 2012
Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation clearly shows all you need for rousing adventure is enthusiasm, a willful abandon for one’s physical safety and John Williams music. The film is an attempt at a shot-for-shot adaptation of the original, made by and starring children (over approximately seven read more
Duo Concertantes (1964, Larry Jordan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 8, 2012
What do penguins and bees have in common? They both show up in Larry Jordan’s transfixing collage animation Duo Concertantes. I know, they’re also both animals too. I’ve never seen any Jordan before and Concertantes might not be the best place to start, but it’s a phenomenal read more
Batgirl (1967)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 7, 2012
I’m not sure the actual story, but I’ll just assume at the height of the “Batman” show’s popularity, the producers thought about doing a “Batgirl” series. The pilot, if it’s any indication of the prospective series, suggests the world didn’t mis read more
Aliens (1986, James Cameron), the special edition
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 6, 2012
I always think of Aliens as a precisely choreographed ballet. Director Cameron moves his large cast–though it does winnow over time–around in these cramped sets and everyone has something to do; Cameron draws the viewer’s attention to one character, but the rest are in motion sett read more
Decade for Decision (1957)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 5, 2012
Decade for Decision isn’t the best documentary short subject. It’s a collection of shots of colleges with narration. The information, however, is (historically) outstanding. For example, Decision opens talking about how American students are years behind their foreign (in this case, the read more
Winter (1964, Piotr Kamler and André Voisin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 3, 2012
Winter is a music video for Vivaldi’s violin concerto of the same name. Kamler does an amazing job with the video–it’s technically unbelievable at times–but it’s just a music video. The concerto, the parts Kamler uses, is in three segments. The first two segments have read more
The Return to Reason (1923, Man Ray)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 1, 2012
The Return to Reason doesn’t so much study movement as exhibit experiments in movement. Whether they’re photographic tricks or recognizable objects–or unrecognizable ones until you watch carefully–director Ray isn’t putting them together to solve a puzzle. Unless, of c read more
The Iron Man (1931, Harry Bailey and John Foster)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 30, 2012
The Iron Man‘s protagonist is not the Iron Man itself (himself?), which shows up after the halfway point. The protagonist is a cantankerous old man with some magic powers. He lives amongst all the adorable cartoon animals who sing and dance happily and he does what he can to ruin their days. read more
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936, Stephen Roberts)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 29, 2012
With a better director, a competent editor and a slightly stronger screenplay, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford might be more than an amusing diversion. While William Powell and Jean Arthur are great together, the film underuses them in general and her in particular. There’s this great dinner scene where she’s read more
The Mystery Man (1935, Ray McCarey)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 27, 2012
I hope Robert Armstrong got paid well for The Mystery Man, because it doesn’t do him any other good. While it’s nice to see Armstrong in a lead role, the film’s so incompetently produced, it’s sometimes painful. Armstrong acts well but director McCarey doesn’t know how to compose shots. You’ll read more
Captain Kidd’s Treasure (1938, Leslie Fenton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 26, 2012
Captain Kidd’s Treasure runs into a problem I’m unfamiliar with for a docudrama. Its fictive license posits itself as fact, which makes entire short puzzling. There’s a brief recount of Captain Kidd, his execution and his treasure island. I think I’ve heard the name before, read more