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.
Puppet Master II (1990, David Allen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 20, 2018
Puppet Master II opens with a mostly successful animate puppets resurrect their long-dead master in scary graveyard sequence. It’s a mix of stop motion and live effects; it just has a nice tone about it. Then the endless opening titles start up and the film loses track of that tone. The Richard Ban read more
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017, Seshita Hiroyuki and Shizuno Kôbun)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 19, 2018
The first half of Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters is surprisingly good. The film sets the scene during the opening titles–giant monsters attack in 1999, followed later by unstoppable Godzilla, two different space aliens show up to help in exchange for residency on the planet. Godzilla kicks everyb read more
Cop Land (1997, James Mangold)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 19, 2018
Cop Land either has a lot of story going on and not enough content or a lot of content going on and not enough story. Also you could do variations of those statements with “plot.” Writer and director Mangold toggles Cop Land between two plot lines. First is lead Sylvester Stallone. Second is this read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 10: Between Two Fires
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 18, 2018
Between Two Fires does indeed feature two fires. The opening fire is when Noel Neill has been knocked out and captured. Kirk Alyn–and a nicely animated Superman–save her. Of course, the rescue does come with Alyn’s most unlikely change of outfit. And Neill’s asleep for the whole thing, so no read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 8: Superman to the Rescue
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 18, 2018
Superman to the Rescue fails to feature one thing–Superman to the rescue. The cliffhanger resolution goes from sped-up film fistfight to Kryptonite gas filling a room. Tommy Bond saves himself–lucking out because apparently a convener belt is poorly designed–while Kirk Alyn’s Superman stumbles read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 9: Irresistible Force
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 18, 2018
Again, a Superman chapter where the title really has nothing to do with the content. Unless the Irresistible Force refers to Superman vs. train, which is one of the serial’s better composite effects sequences. At least ones involving Kirk Alyn and not the cartoon Superman fill-in. But after resolvi read more
Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 16, 2018
Most of Goodfellas is told in summary. After an opening scene introducing leads Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci, the action flashes back to Liotta’s childhood. Liotta narrates. Christopher Serrone plays the younger version. Liotta’s narration guides Serrone around the neighborhood, lettin read more
Puppetmaster (1989, David Schmoeller)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 15, 2018
Puppetmaster has some great stop motion. The stop motion is nowhere near enough to make up for the rest, but there’s some excellent stop motion. The stop motion is so good, in fact, the lighting on it is better than Sergio Salvati’s lighting for the rest of the film. Salvati’s lighting is a problem read more
Doctor Strange (2016, Scott Derrickson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 14, 2018
The only particularly bad thing in Doctor Strange is the music. Michael Giacchino strikes again with a bland “action fantasy” score. The score feels omnipresent; I’m not sure if it really is booming all throughout the film or if I was just constantly dreading its return. Dread is something in read more
The Goodbye Girl (1977, Herbert Ross)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 12, 2018
The Goodbye Girl is excessively genial. Usually at the expense of lead Marsha Mason. It’s her movie too. Not hers to lose, because it’s so much her movie–she’s The Goodbye Girl–instead hers to be taken away. And take it away writer Neil Simon does. The film starts being about single mom Mason read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 7: Into the Electric Furnace!
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 11, 2018
Into the Electric Furnace starts with Noel Neill in trouble and ends with Tommy Bond in trouble. In between, Pierre Watkin yells at Neill, Bond, and Kirk Alyn for not working together in their attempts to capture an escaped mad scientist (Charles Quigley) before the cops. Quigley’s working with Spi read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 6: Superman in Danger
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 11, 2018
Superman in Danger opens with another fine action sequence from directors Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr with the animated flying Superman. It leads into another really short scene between Noel Neill and Kirk Alyn. Then there’s another action sequence, involving Alyn and kryptonite, with Aly read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 5: A Job for Superman
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 10, 2018
A Job for Superman has the serial’s first enthusiastic use of the cartoon flying Superman. Kirk Alyn has just ditched Tommy Bond with a goofy excuse so he can put on the long-johns (behind rocks this time, not shrubbery) and he’s flying between rock outcrops to get ahead of the bad guys’ car. read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 4: Man of Steel
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 9, 2018
Man of Steel opens with a good scene for Kirk Alyn, as both Clark Kent and Superman, as he has to decide if he’s going to reveal his secret identity. He’s trying to convince scientist Forrest Taylor to destroy kryptonite. Unfortunately, Taylor’s got an assistant who’s more interested in personal read more
Actor | Eleanor Parker, Part 2: Technicolor
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 8, 2018
When Eleanor Parker left her Warner Bros. contract in early 1950, she did so before any of her films of that year released. There were three–Chain Lightning, Caged, and Three Secrets. All three were successful. She was top-billed on the latter two (and second-billed only to Bogart in Lightnin read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 3: The Reducer Ray
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 8, 2018
The Reducer Ray drags. It opens with an okay, not great, cliffhanger resolution–with the best use of the animated Superman action so far in Superman. The resolution’s truncated so the action can get back to the Daily Planet so Noel Neill can meet Kirk Alyn (as Clark Kent). She already met Superman, read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 2: Depths of the Earth
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 5, 2018
Depths of the Earth opens with Superman saving a train. Only on a budget. Yet everyone acts like it’s the second coming, from Noel Neill’s Lois Lane to the stunned rail worker. All the rail worker saw was Kirk Alyn run out of the bushes in his Superman costume and kneel next to the train tracks. read more
Superman (1948, Spencer Gordon Bennet and Thomas Carr), Chapter 1: Superman Comes to Earth
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 4, 2018
Superman Comes to Earth starts on the rocky, barren planet of Krypton. Which has just experienced a tidal wave, according to the narrator. There’s a little incongruity between the narration and the dialogue. It ceases to be an issue once Krypton’s elders start heckling Nelson Leigh for telling them read more
V (1983, Kenneth Johnson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 3, 2018
About half of V is quite good. Unfortunately, V was a two-night mini-series and the first half is good part. The second half, not so much. The first half has human-like alien visitors arriving on Earth, in hopes of making a chemical compound to take back home to save their planet. Turns out they’re read more
Lizzie Borden Took an Ax (2014, Nick Gomez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Jan 1, 2018
A horrific crime. An infamous suspect. An unrelenting prospector and his search for the truth. Or not. I mean, technically most of the above statements could be used to describe Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, but none of them accurately captures the ninety-one minute TV movie. There is some time spent o read more