Welcome to BlogHub: the Best in Veteran and Emerging Classic Movie Blogs
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You can rate and share your favorite classic movie posts here.
Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s05e10 – The Great British Fake Off
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 29, 2020
Okay, “Legends” is going to fifteen episodes this season; this one is episode ten and it feels like they’re getting really close to resolving the season’s main plot and I’m really hoping they don’t meander this season like they did last. They got lost meandering. This episode is split between read more
City Streets (1931, Rouben Mamoulian)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 29, 2020
The first third of City Streets is this awesome bit of experimenting from director Mamoulian as he tries to figure out how to make a sound picture. Lots of great shots and camera setups, usually with too dawdling cuts. William Shea holds everything just a few seconds too long. But the montage image read more
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e12 – Murder in the Dark
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 28, 2020
It’s truly amazing what they’re able to get away with this episode in terms of red herrings, shoehorned subplots, shock tactics, exploitative tension, and so on. Director Daina Reid and writer Ysabelle Dean put everyone through the ringer—with a couple really obvious questions left open at the read more
Frasier (1993) s01e18 – And the Whimper Is…
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 28, 2020
“Frasier,” the show, has made a few references to the popularity of “The Frasier Crane Show,” the in-show radio program Kelsey Grammer hosts. At one point it seemed to be on the ropes, with Grammer and producer Peri Gilpin worrying they’d get cancelled, then it was getting better ratings than read more
Overnight (2003, Mark Brian Smith and Tony Montana)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 27, 2020
Overnight is occasionally amusing, often mortifying, never contextualized enough to be interesting, and always compelling. But it’s compelling only if you’re somewhat familiar with the subject of the film, Troy Duffy. Specifically, Duffy’s directorial debut, The Boondock Saints. In 1997, Harvey read more
Frasier (1993) s01e17 – A Midwinter Night’s Dream
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 27, 2020
Mid-Winter Night's Dream has another wonderful script from Chuck Ranberg and Anne Flett-Giordano, showcasing Jane Leeves and David Hyde Pierce’s range while relying on Kesley Grammer and John Mahoney’s… well, reliability. Ranberg and Flett-Giordano play with audience expectation and their read more
The Boondock Saints (1999, Troy Duffy)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 26, 2020
What’s so incredible about Boondock Saints is how David Della Rocco’s atrocious performance distracts from lots of other terrible things going on in the film. At least when Della Rocco is onscreen. When he’s off… well, then the omnipresent deficiencies proudly scream their presences. Della Rocco read more
Frasier (1993) s01e16 – The Show Where Lilith Comes Back
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 25, 2020
Bebe Neuwirth’s visit to the new show, coming in the back nine of the first season, is everything it could and should be. Writers Ken Levine and Davis Isaacs craft this perfect plot, which showcases Neuwirth and gives her a relationship—active or not—with all the regulars, then still manages to read more
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e11 – Blood & Circuses
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 25, 2020
It’s a very intense episode, with Phyrne (Essie Davis) in constant danger—whether she knows it or not, usually yes but not the extent of it—in addition to being in a very traumatic headspace. We finally find out what happens to her little sister (or at least as much as Davis knows) when Davis read more
Fist of Fear, Touch of Death (1980, Matthew Mallinson)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 25, 2020
Either there’s a good story behind Fist of Fear, Touch of Death’s production or it’s exactly what it seems to be, some producers got ahold of the rights to an old Chinese movie, 1957’s The Thunderstorm, starring a teenage Bruce Lee in a non-martial arts role (in fact, it’s incest melodrama), read more
All That Jazz (1979, Bob Fosse)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 24, 2020
There are few secrets in All That Jazz; the film immediately forecasts where it’s going, with clear shots of star Roy Scheider in the hospital amid the other quickly cut montage sequences. But these are flash forwards, as opposed to the present action and then we’re seeing flashback. Because we’re read more
What We Do in the Shadows (2019) s02e03 – Brain Scramblies
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 24, 2020
This episode leaves me with grave concerns—no pun—over Harvey Guillén’s continuing vampire hunter storyline. Vampire familiar Guillén has not only learned he’s a Van Helsing, he’s also proven himself a master vampire hunter already—killing off the Nosferatu sent after his familiar and read more
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e10 – Death by Miss Adventure
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 24, 2020
It’s hard to know where this episode goes “wrong.” It’s not a bad episode, but it’s not a great one either. It’s nowhere near as good as the last, whatever, five. And it’s co-written by Liz Doran, who adapted one of those previous excellent ones. So maybe it’s the source novel not just read more
High Tide (1987, Gillian Armstrong)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 23, 2020
During High Tide’s final twist, I began to wonder just how different the film would be with different music. Sometimes Peter Best’s score is fine—or even good—sometimes it’s very much a product of its time and using way too much saxophone. The film’s biggest melodrama beat, where it commits read more
Legends of Tomorrow (2016) s05e09 – Zari, Not Zari
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 23, 2020
It’s an unexpectedly strong episode. Not everything goes off without a hitch—teaming up Jes Macallan and Dominic Purcell as they go through time trying to make it seem like Purcell was a present dad ought to be a great comedy subplot but instead just seems rushed. And, despite some really good acti read more
Frasier (1993) s01e15 – You Can’t Tell a Crook by His Cover
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 23, 2020
Would it be a spoiler to comment on the presence of always a cop character actor Ron Dean being in a “line-up” of three people where two are cops and one’s an ex-con? It’s fun to see Dean in a slightly different context, especially since he gets a punchline (he knows about a fancy serving plate read more
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e09 – Queen of the Flowers
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 22, 2020
It’s a very intense episode. Miss Fisher (Essie Davis) is mentoring a group of underprivileged girls for a pageant and they’re the mystery, so they’re the ones in danger. It’s the first time “Miss Fisher’s” has really done the child or youth in grave danger thing and it’s a lot. Both read more
Frasier (1993) s01e14 – Can’t Buy Me Love
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 22, 2020
It’s a packed, but never frantic episode–Chuck Ranberg and Anne Flett-Giordano are the “Frasier” all-star writers right now and they’ve got a lot of inventive work here, both the plotting and character arcs. Every development is combination delight and surprise. The episode starts with read more
Justice League: The New Frontier Special (2008) #1
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 22, 2020
It would be wrong to describe Justice League: The New Frontier Special as hack work. Darywn Cooke’s art on the feature, even his plotting of it, is not hacky. Neither is the Robin and Kid Flash story’s art, courtesy Dave Bullock and Michael Cho. Even the Wonder Woman and Black Canary go to a Playbo read more
Frasier (1993) s01e13 – Guess Who’s Coming to Breakfast
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 21, 2020
It’s incredible how well Kelsey Grammer is able to play Frasier making social faux pas. It should run counter to his character, but never does. When Grammer’s digging himself his deeper and deeper hole this episode—as Peri Gilpin looks on, astonished—it just makes sense. Of course he’s going read more