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.
Oscar (1991, John Landis)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 31, 2017
Excluding prologue and epilogue, Oscar has a present action of roughly four hours. The movie runs just shy of two hours. A lot happens with a lot of characters. And, while the film’s based on a play–which explains the limited setting–and even though it’s not like director Landis does anything read more
Duck Soup (1933, Leo McCarey)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 29, 2017
Duck Soup is madness. It’s not divine madness or sublime madness. It’s comedic madness, which is fine, but it’s a tad frantic and a tad distracted. The film opens with Margaret Dumont’s wealthy widow getting Groucho Marx installed as a head of state. Turns out evil Louis Calhern–a neighboring read more
Love & Friendship (2016, Whit Stillman)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 29, 2017
Love & Friendship opens with some non-traditional portrait cards for its cast of characters. The actors all appear in the opening titles, but then director Stillman breaks out introductions to the characters. Along with some narration. There’s some narration early on, which goes away almost imm read more
A Connecticut Yankee (1931, David Butler)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 28, 2017
A Connecticut Yankee fumbles on pretty much every level, including wasting lead Will Rogers. The big problem is the script, from William M. Conselman. It doesn’t help any director Butler can’t mount an action or comedy sequences, because there’s nothing else in the picture. It doesn’t even work read more
The Wind in the Willows (1983, Mark Hall and Chris Taylor)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 27, 2017
The Wind in the Willows has an undeniable charm about it. Directors Hall and Taylor send the first act of the film focusing on lovely details. Wind is stop motion, with a lot of intricate “set” decoration. And they do occasionally utilize their control over performers and location to get some excel read more
T2 Trainspotting (2017, Danny Boyle)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 27, 2017
T2 Trainspotting is a victory lap. John Hodge’s screenplay is thorough, thoughtful, cheap, and effective. It goes so far as to integrate unused portions of the original Trainspotting novel to try to get build up some character relationships. Because T2 is an expansive sequel. It’s got a contrived read more
Voodoo Black Exorcist (1974, Manuel Caño)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 26, 2017
Voodoo Black Exorcist is exasperatingly dull. In the first scene, which is before the opening titles, after a few seconds it becomes clear seventh century Haitian lovers Aldo Sambrell and Eva León aren’t just star-crossed, they’re also in blackface. Voodoo Exorcist Black is not a Blaxploitation read more
The Meaning of Life (1983, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 21, 2017
Terry Jones’s The Meaning of Life is a seven-part rumination on The Meaning of Life. At least the title cards for each part suggest its a seven-part rumination on the Meaning of Life. Not to spoil anything, but if the film does get around to addressing said meaning… well, it acknowledges you don’t read more
Valentino (1951, Lewis Allen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 19, 2017
Valentino opens with lead Anthony Dexter (whose resemblance to Valentino got him the job, not his acting abilities) doing the tango. It’s the trope’s rehearsal and it’s fine. It’s not concerning, which is sort of cool for the film, because most of the scenes are concerning. George Bruce’s read more
Private Benjamin (1980, Howard Zieff)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 14, 2017
Quite a bit works in Private Benjamin, which makes all the creaky parts stick out more. Even though the film runs 109 minutes, a lot seems cut out. Characters just fade away, especially as the film rushes in the second half. But even lead Goldie Hawn just ends up staring in various montages–happy read more
xXx (2002, Rob Cohen)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 13, 2017
Maybe if there were anything good about xXx–there are a handful of things not bad about it–but if there were anything good, the sky’s the limited compared to the mess director Cohen finishes with. As is, xXx is an overlong, boring, James Bond-knockoff. It starts with a James Bond stand-in getting read more
The Bridges of Madison County (1995, Clint Eastwood)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on May 12, 2017
The Bridges of Madison County is many things, but it’s definitely an adaptation of a best-selling novel. Thanks to director Eastwood, it’s not a cheap adaptation of a best-selling novel, but it’s still an adaptation. There’s still a frame. No matter how much Eastwood deglamorizes it, no matter read more
Tunnel (2016, Kim Seong-hun)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 30, 2017
Tunnel is a small scale disaster movie. It’s also not. It’s about a small scale response to a big disaster. Writer and director Kim takes some time introduce threads about craven reporters, craven government officials, craven capitalists, but most of the movie is lead Ha Jung-woo stuck in a tunnel. read more
Sheena (1984, John Guillermin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 28, 2017
Deconstructing Sheena could probably be its own intellectual pursuit. The film’s so many terrible perfect things in one. It’s inverted misogyny, it’s colonial racism, it’s misapplied camp. It’s bad acting from actors with no business in film so it’s this example of bad Hollywood trends. read more
The Fate of the Furious (2017, F. Gary Gray)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 19, 2017
What is the Fate of the Furious? It’s unclear screenwriter Chris Morgan knows–it comes up in the script a little–but it’s a needless portent. The Fate is the cast sitting around listening to Vin Diesel talk about family after they’ve gone through high action and zero character development. read more
Absolute Power (1997, Clint Eastwood)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 16, 2017
Absolute Power has a number of narrative issues. Well, less narrative issues and more narrative slights. As the film enters the third act, director Eastwood and screenwriter William Goldman decide the audience has gotten enough out of the movie and it’s time to wrap things up. It’s a shame because read more
Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970, Don Siegel)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 16, 2017
Two Mules for Sister Sara opens playfully. Then it gets serious. Then it gets playful. Then it gets serious. Then it gets playful. Director Siegel never lets it keep one tone for too long, not until the end, when he shows what happens when you take it all too seriously. After a hundred minutes of o read more
The Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah), the director’s cut
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 15, 2017
The Wild Bunch opens with a methodically executed heist slash shootout sequence. Director Peckinpah quickly introduces cast members, partially due to the dramatic plotting, mostly due to Lou Lombardo’s fantastic editing. All juxtaposed with some kids watching ants kill scorpions. The Wild Bunch ope read more
The Bastard (1978, Lee H. Katzin)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 14, 2017
Somewhere in the second half of The Bastard, the mini-series starts to wear you down and you just give in. The first half is set in 1772 Europe, first in France, then in England. Andrew Stevens is a French boy with a secret. His mom might just be Patricia Neal, inn keeper, but Stevens is actually h read more
Shin Godzilla (2016, Higuchi Shinji and Anno Hideaki)
The Stop Button Posted by Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 10, 2017
Shin Godzilla is the story of hard-working bureaucrats responding successfully to a national crisis. When the giant monsters invade, you can’t do better than the able public servants of Shin Godzilla. And for most of the film, directors Higuchi and Anno pull it off. The first act of the film, with read more