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.
Jour de fête (1949, Jacques Tati)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 1, 2018
It’s about fifteen minutes before lead (and director) Jacques Tati appears in Jour de fête. The film opens with a travelling fair arriving at its destination and starting to set up. Paul Frankeur and Guy Decomble are the two main fair workers–actually they’re the only fair workers with anything read more
You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown (1979, Phil Roman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 30, 2018
You’re the Greatest, Charlie Brown is the unlikely tale of Charlie Brown (Arrin Skelley) participating in the school’s track meet–doing the decathlon–and doing well. It opens with Peppermint Patty (Patricia Patts) trying to sucker one of her classmates into doing the decathlon; Charlie Brown read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 29, 2018
While The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand doesn’t start strong, the first chapter certainly isn’t any indication of how bad the serial is going to get over its fifteen chapters and five hour total run time. It’s never Amazing, there are rarely Exploits, but there is some Cl read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 15: The Lone Hand
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 28, 2018
I was expecting Clutching Hand to have a bad ending. It was inevitable. But I didn’t expect them to entirely ignore one of the major plot threads. If Clutching Hand has two plot threads, which it spends fourteen chapters suggesting are intricately connecting, The Lone Hand entirely ignores one of read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 14: The Silent Spectre
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 27, 2018
The Silent Spectre surprised me. I didn’t think Clutching Hand would be able to surprise me after they did the boat stuff–and there’s a lot more ship-based fisticuffs this chapter–but then it goes ahead and surprises me the very next chapter. I had no idea lead Jack Mulhall could be so exceptionall read more
Sleepwalkers (1992, Mick Garris)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 26, 2018
Sleepwalkers is a very peculiar motion picture. Director Garris never quite composes the shot right, even though he’s really close. Maybe he needs a wider frame or just to zoom out a bit. Instead it always looks like he’s shooting for the home video pan and scan. Rodney Charters’s photography read more
What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown! (1978, Bill Melendez and Phil Roman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 25, 2018
What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown! is not about Charlie Brown (Liam Martin) having a nightmare. He does get told, eventually, about a nightmare, but he’s only in the special at the beginning and the end. He gets the bright idea to play “sled dog” with Snoopy and have Snoopy lead him around like read more
Creed II (2018, Steven Caple Jr.)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 24, 2018
At no point in Creed II does anyone remark on the odds of Michael B. Jordan boxing the son of the man who killed his father. It’s all matter-of-fact. The sportscasters all seem to think it’s perfectly normal Dolph Lundgren spent the thirty-ish years since Rocky IV training his son to someday defeat read more
The Dark Tower (2017, Nikolaj Arcel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 23, 2018
The Dark Tower is the story of unremarkable white kid Tom Taylor–wait, he’s supposed to be eleven? No way. Anyway, it’s the story of unremarkable white teenager Tom Taylor who discovers, no, his visions are real and he is a wizard and he’s going to travel to another dimension and bring a legendary read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 13: The Mystic Menace
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 22, 2018
I stand corrected. Clutching Hand does do something with the ship. There’s a large scale fist fight between Jack Mulhall, Rex Lease, and their pals and the mutinying crew of the ship. It’s not good–though there are some decent stunts–but it’s there. I was wrong. I was right, however, about read more
Frankenstein (1910, J. Searle Dawley)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 21, 2018
In its opening title card, Frankenstein warns it will be a liberal adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel. It’s only going to be sixteen minutes after all. But Frankenstein hits most of the big events–it opens with Frankenstein (Augustus Phillips) leaving for university, where he becomes obsessed read more
Haywire (2011, Steven Soderbergh)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 20, 2018
Haywire’s plotting is meticulous and exquisite. And entirely a budgetary constraint. It’s a globe trotting, action-packed spy thriller with lots of name stars. The action in the globe trotted areas, for instance, is more chase scenes than explosions. Haywire doesn’t blow up Barcelona, lead Gina read more
Widows (2018, Steve McQueen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 19, 2018
Widows is very real. You know it’s very real and not Hollywood because it takes place in Chicago and it’s real Chicago and not Hollywood Chicago. Though Robert Duvall, who gives a fine performance, does make it feel a little like Hollywood Chicago. But it’s also real because Liam Neeson has nose read more
It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown (1977, Phil Roman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 18, 2018
It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown is a little weird. Not only because the opening establishing shot has adults (albeit in extreme long shot) but also because Snoopy’s helicoptering around on his ears and Woodstock is his cameraperson. And it’s about the homecoming game, where Charlie Brown is read more
All That Heaven Allows (1955, Douglas Sirk)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 17, 2018
The third act of All That Heaven Allows is all about agency. Who has it, how they avoid it, why they avoid it. For a while it seems like it’s about Jane Wyman having it, then about Rock Hudson having it. Wyman’s always implied agency, right from the start. Hudson, who doesn’t have a scene from read more
The Apartment (1960, Billy Wilder)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 16, 2018
The Apartment does whatever it can to remain a dramatic comedy when it shouldn’t be anymore. And sort of isn’t. When the film shifts into real drama, there’s no going back. Director Wilder gets it too. The film has a good comedy opening, a breathtaking dramatic middle, and a decent comedy end. read more
Halloween II (2009, Rob Zombie)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 15, 2018
The only good thing about Halloween II are the end credits. They run like nine minutes, meaning the movie is closer to ninety-five minutes than 105. Even though the ninety-five minutes feels like an eternity. The movie starts with director Zombie making fun of the idea of making another Halloween I read more
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936, Albert Herman), Chapter 12: Hidden Danger
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 14, 2018
Not only is twelfth time the charm for Clutching Hand as far as chapter title matching content–there is a real Hidden Danger–this chapter also has master detective, constant cosplayer, and general goof lead Jack Mulhall actually solve a crime. And the solution is really, really clever. The reveal read more
Halloween (2007, Rob Zombie)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 13, 2018
Halloween is very loud. It’s about the only thing director Zombie keeps consistent throughout. It gets loud. It starts kind of quiet–comparatively–then gets loud. Jump scares always have some noise. But once the jump scares are every two seconds, there’s just loud noise. Giant spree killer Tyler read more
It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (1976, Phil Roman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Nov 12, 2018
It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown opens with Charlie Brown (Dylan Beach) and Linus (Liam Martin) making vaguely sexist cracks about Linus’s mother’s ability to ride her bicycle. Just as you’re thinking writer Charles M. Schulz is taking it a little far, he cuts to baby Rerun (Vinny Dow) on the back read more