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Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) Directed by Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 7:48 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 24 December 2007)

These early Buster Keaton movies are always both fun and charming to watch.

The movie is mostly fun because of its physical humor and charming because of the almost childish innocence that is in Keaton's performance. The movie also has a lot of comedy in its dialog. Surprising for a silent movie. Like often, the movie also further more features a cute little love-story involving Keaton and the young Marion Byron.

The story isn't much special and it's very typical for a '20's silent genre movie. It's however fun and interesting enough to hold your interest throughout but of course the movie is not dependent of it. The concept and its settings provides the movie with a couple of entertaining, silly and also original moments.

Once more Keaton also shows us his skills as a stuntman. He does some extreme dangerous stuff here. Of course stunts in those days were also much more dangerous than now, no matter how often much more spectacular it's looking all. Some of the things he does in this movie are really amazing, with of course the spectacular classic ending as the highlight- and most impressive of them all, when a cyclone hits the town and Keaton manages to run across collapsing buildings without getting hit and without him getting blown away, while also other large object are flying at him.

A great watch.

8/10

Hollywood Party (1934) Directed by Richard Boleslawski, Allan Dwan, Edmund Goulding, Russell Mack, Charles Reisner, Roy Rowland, George Stevens & Sam Wood

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 6:03 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(Review originally written at 8 January 2007)

This really is a movie with a story you just couldn't care less about.

 The movie had some good potential, with a couple of at that time well known actors appearing at a Hollywood party. Sounds like enough material to make a fun and good movie with. The movie however isn't that much fun as you would expect. It's totally uninteresting to follow, with a bunch of characters and different love stories you just don't care about. The movie gets still fun and is somewhat saved toward the ending of the movie when Mickey Mouse and Laurel & Hardy appear in the movie (yeah a weird combination I known).

 The movie also features some horrible and typical signing and dancing routines that don't seem to end and at times go on for over 5 minutes. You know, songs that always sound the same and are about cheerful things, with lines that don't even sound musically. Thank goodness for the fast forward button.

 It's a real waste of some good potential and some good actors. Obviously Laurel & Hardy are underused, also because at the beginning of the movie they are falsely presented as two of the main characters. Jimmy Durante is a good and fun actor but it just isn't enough to spice things up in the movie. Guess that the highlight of the movie really is the animated chocolate soldiers sequence, presented by Mickey Mouse himself, who also gives a pretty good Jimmy Durante imitation.

 The move could had been so much more fun to watch but it still definitely has some moments in it that makes this movie a still perfectly watchable one.

 6/10

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