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.
Giant (1956, George Stevens)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 25, 2018
Giant has a fairly good pace for running three hours and twenty minutes. Even more so considering almost the entire second act is told in summary, with stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean gradually getting more and more old age makeup. At his “oldest,” Hudson has a bulk harness, read more
An American in Paris (1951, Vincente Minnelli)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 20, 2018
For most of An American in Paris, Gene Kelly’s charm makes up for his lack of acting ability. Even after it turns out the story’s about him stalking Leslie Caron until she agrees to go out with him. It’s okay after that point because she falls immediately in love with Kelly once she does. He makes read more
Black Panther (2018, Ryan Coogler)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 19, 2018
Black Panther moves extraordinarily well. It’s got a number of constraints, which director Coogler and co-screenwriter Joe Robert Cole agilely and creatively surmount. It’s also got Coogler’s lingering eye. The film can never look away from its setting–the Kingdom of Wakanda–for too long. read more
Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 16, 2018
Double Indemnity is mostly a character study. There’s the noir framing device–wounded insurance salesman Fred MacMurray stumbling into his office and recording his confession on a dictaphone. Turns out he met a woman and things didn’t work out. MacMurray narrates the entire film. Occasionally read more
Creation (2009, Jon Amiel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 9, 2018
Creation is the not the story of how Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany) and the ghost of his oldest daughter (Martha West) collaborated in the writing of On the Origin of Species. That story would make a much better movie. The film opens with a title card explaining it will be about Darwin writing that read more
Superman (1978, Richard Donner), the extended cut
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 4, 2018
The extended version of Superman runs three hours and eight minutes, approximately forty-five minutes longer than the theatrical version (Richard Donner’s director’s cut only runs eight minutes longer than the theatrical). The extended version opens with a disclaimer: the producers prepared this read more
Puppet Master 5 (1994, Jeff Burr)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 3, 2018
Puppet Master 5 opens with the series’s (unfortunately) standard lengthy opening title sequences. There’s nothing exciting about it, just white text on black and Richard Band’s theme in the background. The film’s single surprise in the titles is Band just getting an “original music by” credit. read more
Dirty Harry (1971, Don Siegel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Feb 2, 2018
Dirty Harry only has one significant problem. It has a bunch of little problems, but it gets past those–sometimes manipulatively, sometimes just nimbly thanks to director Siegel and star Clint Eastwood–but the big one. It can’t overcome the third act. Villain Andy Robinson (I can’t forget to read more
Harvest (1953, James Sheldon)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 28, 2018
Dorothy Gish isn’t just top-billed in Harvest, host (and narrator) Robert Montgomery introduces the episode hyping her presence. So it’s a tad disappointing when it turns out Gish gets less and less to do throughout the hour-long television play. When she does get things to do, they happen off-scre read more
Thor: Ragnarok (2017, Taika Waititi)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 28, 2018
Why does Thor: Ragnarok open with Chris Hemsworth narrating only for him to stop once the title card sizzles? Literally, sizzles. Ragnarok is delightfully tongue-in-cheek and on-the-nose. Director Waititi refuses to take anything too seriously, which makes for an amusing two plus hours, but it does read more
Puppet Master 4 (1993, Jeff Burr)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 27, 2018
Puppet Master 4 is in a race with itself. Can it deliver on the animate puppet action before the cast becomes too intolerable? Can it deliver before the stupid scenes get to be too much? No, as it turns out, it can’t. Puppet Master 4 doesn’t succeed. Not even a Frankenstein making-the-monster homag read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 27, 2018
Superman is a long fifteen chapters. The first two chapters are the “pilot.” They set up Kirk Alyn as Superman. He comes to Earth as a baby–with the Krypton sequences in the first chapter the most impressive thing in the entire serial–and grows up through montage to become Alyn. The first chapter read more
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018, Sam Liu)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 26, 2018
The first act of Gotham by Gaslight is rough. It establishes Batman (Bruce Greenwood) in the Victorian era. He’s fighting with Fagin-types while “Jack the Ripper” is attacking prostitutes. Jim Krieg’s script, which will go on to impress at times, is rather problematic with the first Ripper victim. read more
Enemy Mine (1985, Wolfgang Petersen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 26, 2018
Enemy Mine has one great performance from Louis Gossett Jr., one strong mediocre performance from Dennis Quaid, one adorable performance from Bumper Robinson (as a tween alien), and terrible performances from everyone else. The film’s most impressive quality is a tossup. It’s either Gossett’s read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 15: The Payoff
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 25, 2018
The Payoff presumably refers to this chapter being the finale of Superman. There’s not much payoff otherwise. Spider Lady Carol Forman isn’t out to blackmail the city, she’s out to cause destruction. She’s given the Daily Planet four hours until she destroys it. She’s has to give them four read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 14: Superman at Bay
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 25, 2018
Superman is never at bay in Superman at Bay. In fact, Superman’s barely in it. When Kirk Alyn does done the tights, it’s stock footage of him changing in the stock room and flying out the window. Same footage as last chapter. The cliffhanger resolution is actually pretty good, with Pierre Watkin read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 13: Hurled to Destruction
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 23, 2018
Hurled to Destruction once again has the Spider Lady’s goons outsmarting the Daily Planet reporters. In the latter category is also Superman, who delivers a dangerous criminal to the Planet for questioning instead of the police. Said criminal attacks Pierre Watkin, leading to a pretty good fist fig read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 12: Blast in the Depths
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 22, 2018
Blast in the Depths resolves the previous chapter’s cliffhanger with a reveal–something happened the viewer didn’t get to see, changing the outcome. It’s a cheat, but Superman hasn’t had a decent cliffhanger so it doesn’t really matter. In fact, the serial’s structured not to have them. read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 11: Superman’s Dilemma
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 21, 2018
Superman’s Dilemma has a scene where Kirk Alyn, as Superman, talks to a conscious Noel Neill. She’s telling him how Tommy Bond stupidly has gotten himself in trouble with the goons again. Bond’s apparently trouble-proof to some degree, however; at the end of the previous chapter, he was being read more
Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge (1991, David DeCoteau)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 21, 2018
Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge is Puppet Master Origins. Set in WWII Berlin, Guy Rolfe is a concerned old man. He sees his neighbors in fear of the Nazis so he got some string and he got some wood, he did some carving and he was good. Anti-Nazi civilians–mostly kids–came running so they could read more