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.
Switching Channels (1988, Ted Kotcheff)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 2, 2012
In Switching Channels, Kotcheff attempts two styles he’s inept at directing—madcap and slapstick. He’s got Ned Beatty, who can act in both those styles, and Beatty does okay. He’s not any good, but one can’t hold the film’s failings against him. But for his other buffoon, Kotcheff uses Christopher read more
La jetée (1962, Chris Marker)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 1, 2012
La jetée is better in its parts than the whole. But the whole is still a rather significant success. Marker shows all a film needs to be successful is great photography (Marker and Jean Chiabaut) and music (Trevor Duncan). It does need, it turns out, motion. Jetée does, of course, have motion. In read more
Baton Bunny (1959, Chuck Jones and Abe Levitow)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 28, 2012
Baton Bunny casts Bugs as a perfectionist conductor who, during a performance, has to cope with wardrobe malfunctions and a bothersome fly. The most interesting thing about the cartoon–and something I’ve never seen from a Bugs Bunny cartoon before–is how co-directors Jones and Lev read more
Free and Easy (1931, Roy Mack)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 26, 2012
The most cinematic thing about Free and Easy might be its end credits card. The card at least makes Easy feel like a short film and not a radio show. Well, wait, I guess there are three sight gags in the short… otherwise, it’d definitely be better suited for radio. It opens with a group read more
A Close Call (1929, Harry Bailey and John Foster)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 25, 2012
A Close Call is a very strange little cartoon. First, it’s an early talkie, so everyone’s very excited about synchronized sound. So much so, in fact, a church choir breaks out into “You’re In The Army Now.” It’s a very odd song choice. But not as odd as the rest read more
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988, Dwight H. Little)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 24, 2012
While still bad, Halloween 4 is better than I ever expected. It’s barely ninety minutes and forty or so minutes are of people in crisis, which passes the time fairly well. It takes place in an interesting version of the original film’s town, where the moon (even when it isn’t full read more
His Prehistoric Past (1914, Charles Chaplin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 23, 2012
Chaplin opens His Prehistoric Past setting it up as a dream sequence, which lets the viewer know the outcome can’t be too dramatic. But the setup is immediate–Chaplin falls asleep on a park bench–so the more relatable elements in the dream don’t have much substance. In the d read more
Fantastic Voyage (1966, Richard Fleischer)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 22, 2012
Among Fantastic Voyage‘s many problems, the two salient ones are the general lack of tension and the utter lack of wonderment. Fleischer is responsible for both, though maybe not so much the first. The story can’t really be tense because there’s very little at stake. The film̵ read more
Now Hear This (1962, Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 21, 2012
Now Hear This is a fairly amazing cartoon. It’s even more amazing when one considers it’s a Warner Bros. cartoon under the “Looney Tunes” banner. Jones and co-director Noble play with the idea of sound as it relates to movies. I suppose cartoons specifically, but it’s read more
The Third Secret (1964, Charles Crichton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 20, 2012
Between Crichton’s fantastic CinemaScope composition and Douglas Slocombe’s wondrous black and white photography, it’d be hard not admire The Third Secret. It’s an engaging enough thriller, though it does run into the problem of having one ending too many. Stephen Boyd plays read more
Buried Treasure (1926, Robert F. McGowan)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 19, 2012
Buried Treasure would be a lot better if director McGowan knew how to embrace the absurdity of the short. The gang has made a seaworthy boat. They take it out to look for buried treasure. Unfortunately, everyone–dog and cat included–get seasick and they’re out all night. Obviously read more
Mouse and Garden (1960, Friz Freleng)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 18, 2012
Mouse and Garden has some bad animation… shockingly bad. The cartoon’s about Sylvester and his sidekick, Sam, fighting over a mouse. The animation on Sam (an orange cat) and the mouse is awful. Freleng apparently didn’t care about appearing three dimensional. Actually, a lot of th read more
Blue Thunder (1983, John Badham)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 17, 2012
Blue Thunder is astoundingly dumb. It’s not exactly bad, as there are some fantastic effects and some of the script has shockingly sublime moments, but it’s astoundingly dumb. It starts off strong, with a decent enough first act. Daniel Stern is new to the Astro division of the LAPD and read more
I Do (1921, Hal Roach)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 16, 2012
Where to start with I Do…. There are two big places and one little one. The little one is just suburban paranoia in the twenties, with newlyweds Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis terrified over being robbed. It leads to hijinks. But this subplot is only the last seven minutes, tacked on to the r read more
Hook, Line and Stinker (1958, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 14, 2012
I don’t get it. I haven’t seen a Road Runner cartoon since I was a kid, but watching Hook, Line and Stinker, I couldn’t figure out the appeal. Oh, Jones’s direction is outstanding and the animation is great, but it’s a long series of gags. They’re not laugh out l read more
Never Weaken (1921, Fred C. Newmeyer)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 12, 2012
Never Weaken combines two of Lloyd’s favorite features (at least from his shorts of the era)… skyscraper derring do and failed suicide attempts. While the former is definitely thrilling, the latter is unpleasant and, in terms of narrative, rather lazy writing. The short starts strong, w read more
By Word of Mouse (1954, Friz Freleng)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 11, 2012
I feel like By Word of Mouse should be better. It turns out it’s a Sylvester cartoon–not without good gags–but the concept deserves more. A German mouse heads to the U.S. to visit a relation; free market capitalism–well, American consumerism, wows him and the two cousins fin read more
Tarantula (1955, Jack Arnold)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 10, 2012
Science may make monsters, but the morale of the story–according to Tarantula anyway–is the Air Force will always be there to bomb such monsters back to the Stone Age. The problem with Tarantula is fairly simple… it’s not a movie about a giant tarantula. Oh, it might have ro read more
High and Dizzy (1920, Hal Roach)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 9, 2012
Sometimes low concept is the best concept. High and Dizzy concerns a drunken Harold Lloyd and his adventures about town with his sidekick, played by Roy Brooks. Lloyd and Brooks get into all sorts of trouble, some predictable, some not, and it just makes for a pleasant comedy. It helps, of course, read more
The Woman on Pier 13 (1949, Robert Stevenson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 8, 2012
The politics of The Woman on Pier 13 are more interesting than the film itself. While it’s rabidly anti-Communist, the film is pro-Union. It sets up the Communist Party (the USA branch—there’s no mention of Soviet ties) as an unimaginably devious and effective organization. There’s no motive read more