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
Sea Salts (1949, Jack Hannah)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 7, 2012
Sea Salts opens with a framing device, which doesn’t make much sense from a story point of view. Well, wait, maybe the frame is to show the viewer Donald Duck (as a sea captain) is a likable greedy, selfish jerk, not a dangerous one. The protagonist is actually a beetle, one of Donald’s read more
Non-Stop New York (1937, Robert Stevenson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 6, 2012
I’d almost say Non-Stop New York has to be seen to be believed, but it might imply someone else should suffer through the film’s endless seventy-some minute running time. It’s a completely idiotic British attempt at an American proto-noir. The film opens in New York, so you have a read more
Haunted Spooks (1920, Hal Roach and Alfred J. Goulding)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 5, 2012
Haunted Spooks is a disjointed experience. It starts well enough, with unmarried Mildred Davis inheriting a mansion… so long as she’s married. Her lawyer promises to get her a husband, which the title cards have already revealed will be Harold Lloyd. Then Haunted takes its time bringing read more
Feed the Kitty (1952, Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 4, 2012
A tough bulldog adopts an adorable kitten in Feed the Kitty; a story Jones liked so much he remade it. This one, the original, manages to be charming without saccharine, maybe because of the really strange objectification of the dog’s lady owner. She kicks up her skirt at one point, revealing read more
Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941, Walter Forde)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 3, 2012
For the final Inspector Hornleigh picture, the filmmakers go propaganda. They do have some fun with it—the film’s first sequence is Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim on an army base, undercover as aged privates, investigating scrounging. It’s all played for laughs, sort of wasting some of the running read more
An Inspector Calls (1954, Guy Hamilton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 1, 2012
For the majority of An Inspector Calls, I thought Alastair Sim’s delicate, thoughtful performance was out of place. The film’s incredibly melodramatic and contrived. After the twist ending… well, I’m pretty sure it’s still melodramatic and contrived, but it gives the i read more
Golden Yeggs (1950, Friz Freleng)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 31, 2012
Once again, the boys at Warner Bros. have some problems with basic gender realities. Not only does Daffy Duck lay eggs (something he strongly infers in Golden Yeggs without getting graphic), neither do ganders. That incredible plot problem aside, Yeggs is a lot of fun. It starts on Porky Pig’ read more
Inspector Hornleigh (1939, Eugene Forde)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 30, 2012
It would be interesting to know how much of Inspector Hornleigh features Gordon Harker (playing Inspector Hornleigh) on screen. While Harker does get a fair amount of the running time, a lot is spent on his sidekick, played by Alastair Sim, and the villains. The script’s approach to narrative read more
An Eastern Westerner (1920, Hal Roach)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 29, 2012
In An Eastern Westerner, Harold Lloyd plays a Manhattan playboy whose antics land him out West. Not the antics where he destroys a dance hall in the opening sequence, which nicely establishes the character, but the ones where his parents catch him. Westerner‘s opening sequence, where Lloyd is read more
Food for Feudin’ (1950, Charles A. Nichols)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 28, 2012
Food for Feudin’ has some really strong animation, but also some weak. There’s a great sequence where Chip and Dale crawl into these gardening gloves and confuse the heck out of Pluto. During that sequence, the animation is spectacular. Earlier, when the chipmunks are gathering nutsR read more
Bubbles (1930, Roy Mack)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 26, 2012
Bubbles might be of modern interest because to Judy Garland fans, as an eight-year old Garland and her sisters show up at one point. But to anyone else? Well, it may also be interesting as an early sound short. There’s a lot of coordinated tap dancing in the short and I kept wondering if the read more
Grand Canyonscope (1954, Charles A. Nichols)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 24, 2012
In Grand Canyonscope, Donald Duck is the typical disrespectful, annoying American tourist. What’s funny about the cartoon is how–in 1954–it was one in every bunch of tourists… whereas now it’s the inverse. The cartoon’s in CinemaScope and director Nichols uses th read more