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.
A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969, Bill Melendez)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 31, 2017
A Boy Named Charlie Brown gets by on a lot of charm. It takes writer and creator Charles M. Schulz forever to get to the story. It takes Schulz so long to get to the story–Charlie Brown, spelling bee champ–it seems like there isn’t going to be a story. Schulz lays the groundwork for the story, read more
Horse Feathers (1932, Norman Z. McLeod)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 30, 2017
Horse Feathers finally finds its funny sometime in the second half. The film plays like the main plot has been removed and just a subplot remains, so it’s impressive it ever does. And when it does, it’s depressing–director McLeod and (wow, four) writers Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, S.J. Perelman, read more
The Incredible Hulk (1977, Kenneth Johnson)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 30, 2017
The Incredible Hulk opens with a montage of lead Bill Bixby’s martial bliss. It goes on for quite a while, just Bixby and (an uncredited) Lara Parker being a happy married couple. Then tragedy strikes. Like most tragedies in The Incredible Hulk, it involves a car tire blowing out. There are three read more
Brenda Starr (1976, Mel Stuart)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 29, 2017
It’d be nice if there were anything good about Brenda Starr. Stuart’s direction is–at its best–medicore. It’s always predictable, it’s sometimes bad. He has familiar patterns–over the shoulder, close-up, walking two shot. He repeats them, every time with a bad cut from James T. Heckert read more
In the Bleak Midwinter (1995, Kenneth Branagh)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 29, 2017
In the Bleak Midwinter is a sweet movie. It’s kind of a Christmas movie–it takes place at Christmas–and it’s this gentle, thoughtful, sweet but never saccharine or even really acknowledging its sweetness sweet movie. Writer and director Branagh puts a lot of work into the plotting of the film, read more
Super 8 (2011, J.J. Abrams)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2017
Sometimes special effects are just a little too much, especially with CGI composites letting director Abrams set so much of Super 8 in gigantic action sequences. The film’s about a bunch of tweens in 1979 Ohio making a Super 8 zombie movie when they witness a train crash. The train crash, with trai read more
Alien Nation (1988, Graham Baker)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2017
A film like Alien Nation encourages a lot of thought. For example, I think I’ve decided I want to say the film is badly directed (by Baker) while being poorly lighted (by Adam Greenberg). I already know I wanted to say it was atrociously edited. Kent Beyda’s cuts don’t just jump (there’s a car read more
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, Robert Wise)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 26, 2017
The Day the Earth Stood Still opens with these sensational titles. 3D text jumping out, set against the backdrop of space, Bernard Herrmann’s score at its loudest; the titles suggest the film is going to be something grandiose. It is and it isn’t. For the first act, director Wise moves quickly, read more
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976, Nicolas Roeg)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 25, 2017
The Man Who Fell to Earth is an endurance test. The film runs 138 minutes and has a present action of… dozens of years? Eventually Candy Clark and Rip Torn are in old age makeup, milling about the film from scene to scene, like being forgotten by it would be worse. Everyone’s a drunk by the end, read more
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966, Ben Washam and Chuck Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 25, 2017
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! has three rather distinct things going on throughout the twenty-six minute television special. It also some some indistinct things going on–the Whoville songs, while charming, are nowhere near as impressive as the big things. First, but not foremost, is Washam and Jo read more
The Night Stalker (1972, John Llewellyn Moxey)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 24, 2017
The Night Stalker moves with ruthless efficiency. It’s a TV movie, so it’s got a mandated short runtime–seventy-four minutes; Richard Matheson’s teleplay has a brisk pace, something director Moxey embraces. There’s rarely a dull moment in The Night Stalker. It’s always about waiting for read more
The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978, Steve Binder)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 22, 2017
The Star Wars Holiday Special elicits a lot of sympathy. Not for the goings on, but for the cast. The easiest cast members to pity are Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford. Not only are they stuck in this contractually obligated ninety-some minute nightmare of terrible television, director read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 17, 2017
Brenda Starr, Reporter never has a chance. Worse, lead Joan Woodbury never has a chance. Of all the characters in Brenda Starr, Woodbury gets the worst. Well, wait. No. Lottie Harrison gets the worst part. She’s Woodbury’s cousin (and roommate) and she’s constantly making fat jokes at her own read more
Incubus (1966, Leslie Stevens)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 15, 2017
Incubus is the day in the life of a dissatisfied succubus (Allyson Ames) who, after killing three men in the ocean and condemning their souls to hell, decides she wants a challenge. Her sister, also a sucbus (and played by Eloise Hardt), counsels her against the impulse. But Ames won’t be dissuaded read more
Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 15, 2017
There are no clocks in Do the Right Thing. The film takes place over a twenty-four hour period; all the action is on one block, most of the characters live on the block. It’s a Saturday. Some people are working, some people aren’t. It’s a very hot day. And for the first ninety minutes of the film’s read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 13: The Mystery of the Payroll
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 14, 2017
While most of the thirteen chapters of Brenda Starr, Reporter don’t deal with it, The Mystery of the Payroll is what the whole thing is supposedly about. And it gets solved in the last chapter. Though not really. I mean, it’s solved, but not satisfactorily. In fact, one of the big twists just raisi read more
Hammer, Slammer, & Slade (1990, Mark Schultz)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 13, 2017
Hammer, Slammer, & Slade is a television pilot spin-off of a movie (I’m Gonna Git You Sucka). It has the same writer as the movie–Keenan Ivory Wayans–and much of the movie’s cast. The three “leads” all return from the movie–Bernie Casey is Slade, Jim Brown is Slammer, and Isaac Hayes read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 12: Murder at Night
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 13, 2017
Murder at Night features two murders at night. It doesn’t, however, have much night. Ira H. Morgan’s day-for-night photography is so inept, most of the action seems like it’s taking place late afternoon. The visual cues run contrary to the script, which has all the action taking place over hours. read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 11: On the Spot
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 12, 2017
This chapter has Joan Woodbury not just getting out of a trap, she executes a great plan for it too. A surprising one. Not a lot of surprises in Brenda Starr, Reporter, so getting any of significance–even this late (On the Spot is the penultimate penultimate chapter)–is nice. Overall, it’s not read more
Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945, Wallace Fox), Chapter 10: A Double-Cross Backfires
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 11, 2017
Brenda Starr is rallying in its last third–A Double-Cross Backfires is a solid serial chapter. Sure, Joan Woodbury gets interviewing and kidnapped duty, but there’s some good action and some actual suspense. The chapter opens in Marion Burns’s house–rigged for her psychic scam–and no one except read more