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.
Young Frankenstein (1974, Mel Brooks)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 7, 2010
Young Frankenstein does not feel like a Mel Brooks film. It’s so startlingly well-directed, one could almost believe he didn’t direct it himself. Brooks, for the film, has this way of keeping the camera mostly stationary and letting his actors and the sets do all the work–one can& read more
Clue (1985, Jonathan Lynn)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 5, 2010
I didn’t see Clue in the theater, so I haven’t got a… I have no idea how it played without the multiple endings. While it’s a cute idea–a different ending depending on where you see the film, all of them together on home video release–it gets tedious, especially read more
The Innocents (1961, Jack Clayton)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jul 2, 2010
I don’t get it. When I watched the film, I had no idea The Innocents was considered some masterpiece of British cinema. I’m actually rather surprised by the acclaim. Similarly, I’m shocked Deborah Kerr considered her performance in this film her best. It’s not a bad performa read more
Dr. Strange (1978, Philip DeGuere)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 16, 2010
Dr. Strange aired in September, Superman came out in December… and they both have the same flying techniques, at least for couples, though Superman does have a longer flying sequences… Dr. Strange just kind of hints at it. A number of things put Dr. Strange above the standard seventies read more
King Kong Lives (1986, John Guillermin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jun 14, 2010
Is calling a redneck hateful redundant? All other problems (acting, script), the biggest problem with King Kong Lives is how unpleasant the film is to watch. With the exception of the good guys (there are three of them), everyone else is a really bad person… it’s incredibly simplistic i read more
Psycho III (1986, Anthony Perkins)
The Stop Button Posted by on May 19, 2010
I’m a little upset. Anthony Perkins only directed two pictures and one of them–this one–was written by Charles Edward Pogue. Pogue’s a bit of punchline, but at least most of Psycho III is well-plotted. His dialogue, especially at the beginning, is iffy, but it might also hav read more
Rocky IV (1985, Sylvester Stallone)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 23, 2010
I rarely worry about how I’m going to get 250 words about a film. Rocky IV probably features 251 words of dialogue. Well, closer to 251 than not, anyway. Really, what is there to say about this one? Stallone directs it poorly? Stallone substitutes montages and music videos for actual narrativ read more
The Mummy (1959, Terence Fisher)
The Stop Button Posted by on Apr 4, 2010
I’ve long held there are no good filmic Dracula adaptations. I’m now going to say there aren’t any good Mummy pictures after the Karloff one. This Hammer production was an officially licensed remake of the Universal production… only not the Karloff title, instead the inferio read more
Tron (1982, Steven Lisberger)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 20, 2010
It’s easier to stomach Tron if you think about it as a video track to Wendy Carlos’s score. While there’s some technical innovation (shooting actors on green screen, now a norm, got some of its starts with Tron, not to mention the endless CG–except in Tron, at least it was f read more
Q (1982, Larry Cohen)
The Stop Button Posted by on Mar 1, 2010
Q is sort of ripe for a remake. Not because this version has shoddy special effects–while the film’s still effective with them, they look like something out of the 1925 Lost World–but because there are three great roles in the film and nearly a fourth. Michael Moriarty’s top read more
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943, Roy William Neill)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 26, 2010
Of all the Universal monster movies, The Wolf Man “deserved” a real sequel most. With Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Lon Chaney Jr.’s abilities to essay the Larry Talbot role really shine through. I’ve read (and maybe even repeated here) Chaney never gets credit for playin read more
Don’t Bet On Love (1933, Murray Roth)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 12, 2010
Ayres is a degenerate gambler (who cleans up nice) and Rogers is the girl who loves him, despite herself, of course, in this breezy melodrama. In terms of particulars, it has almost nothing to recommend it. Ayres is a little bit too believable as the callous lead, who purposely eschews all advice a read more
Remember Last Night? (1935, James Whale)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 10, 2010
I wish I knew if Remember Last Night? is supposed to be a knock-off of The Thin Man or if it’s just a highly coincidental release, coming a year later, with a similarly intoxicated, ritzy couple solving crimes as they get more intoxicated (Robert Young and Constance Cummings play the couple i read more
A Christmas Story (1983, Bob Clark)
The Stop Button Posted by on Feb 5, 2010
I don’t get A Christmas Story‘s continued success. I mean, I get its initial success (I grew up with it, on video, and remember my friends talking about it before I got to see it and the film living up to expectations), but it’s hard to believe people still like it. I mean, what d read more
Wolfen (1981, Michael Wadleigh)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 27, 2010
Even with Albert Finney’s hair style, which seems to be inspired by a drag queen who just doesn’t care, Wolfen is a beautifully made film. The big action sequence at the end (the film’s genre progresses from police procedural to horror to thriller–Finney’s investigatio read more
Christmas Vacation (1989, Jeremiah S. Chechik)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 25, 2010
It’s telling how Christmas Vacation is probably John Hughes’s best film and no one noticed it when it came out. I mean, it’s got its problems–the introductory first half, where all the characters are established and Chevy Chase and company drive around that part of Wisconsin with the big read more
The Evil Dead (1981, Sam Raimi)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 20, 2010
For whatever reason, Sam Raimi now has The Evil Dead released in a matted version (to 1.85:1 from 1.37:1). It looks awful. Raimi’s strength as a director comes from his constantly agitated camera; his static shots are–well, I guess the shots of the sun setting and the moon rising in Evil Dea read more
The Towering Inferno (1974, John Guillermin)
The Stop Button Posted by on Jan 13, 2010
For a disaster movie to succeed, I suppose all it really has to do is keep you interested for its running time. The Towering Inferno runs almost three hours and manages that task, so much so, the ending seems a little abrupt. It’s not like the first act breezes by, either. In fact, it only ma read more
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988, Tony Randel)
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 26, 2009
So, Hellbound is a British production, but it dubs over the British cops (who are dressed like American cops and carry guns and don’t know how to use them–because they’re British?) with American accents. It’s a lame decision and one of the few gaffs in the film not related t read more
Commando (1985, Mark L. Lester), the director’s cut
The Stop Button Posted by on Oct 19, 2009
There are a couple good things about Commando–the opening titles and James Horner’s score. Otherwise, I suppose Schwarzenegger isn’t bad in the film, which takes his being Austrian into account, something the majority of his blockbuster roles do not. What’s interesting about read more