buster keaton | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On the “John Wick” Movies as a Love Letter to Stuntwork…

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the upcoming release of John Wick: Chapter 4, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the action franchise.

In modern Hollywood, the John Wick movies stand out from a lot of their competitors by embracing a very practical and material philosophy, leaning heavily on in-camera effects for maximum impact. However, the films are more than just a showcase for stuntwork as one of the industry’s most undervalued artforms. They are also an argument for stunt work as an artform unto itself, particularly in the way that they emphasis the importance of action as a means of storytelling and the way in which they frequently place their stunts in the context of more broadly-accepted forms of artistic expression.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, ballerina, ballet, buster keaton, charlie chaplin, history, hollywood, in the frame, john wick, Keanu Reeves, Performers, silent cinema, stunts, stuntwork, the escapist | Leave a comment »

217. Sherlock Jr. (#198)

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Andrew Max Tohline, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr.

In a small town, a movie projectionist (and janitor) falls in love with a beautiful woman. He dreams of ways in which he might win her love, turning to detective fiction and the silver screen for inspiration. However, sometimes the boundaries between reality and fantasy are more porous than they might appear.

At time of recording, it was ranked 198th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: andrew max tohline, buster keaton, fatty arbuckle, hollywood history, imdb, john wick, list, max tohline, metatext, postmodernism, Sherlock Jr, silent cinema, silent film, stunts, stuntwork, surrealism | Leave a comment »

47. The General (#151)

Posted on October 7, 2017 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This time, Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman’s The General.

Johnny Gray is a train engineer working in the South during the Civil War, with two loves in his life; the southern belle Annabelle Lee and the train engine known as The General. When a group of Union spies abscond with both, Johnny finds himself an unlikely hero on a quest that takes him down train lines and across enemy lines.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 151st best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: buster keaton, film, podcast, The 250, the general | Leave a comment »

In Good Humour: The Calamatous Case of the Comedy Classics…

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Darren

The wonderful lads over at Anomalous Materials are running a tournament over the summer to find the best comedy of all time. Think of it as a world cup, for film nerds. However, the competition – like our quad-annual footie fest – has had its share of upsets. Most notable in an early round where Galaxy Quest triumphed over Some Like it Hot or the trumping of Arsenic and Old Lace by A Fish Called Wanda another day (the same day The General went home empty handed, losing to Mrs. Doubtfire) or Bringing Up Baby getting trounced by Little Miss Sunshine. There are more borderline cases, with The Apartment beating The Circus or The Great Dictator losing to The Graduate. However, the only victory for a “classic” classic film I could find was that of City Lights over A Christmas Story. This sparked a bit of discussion between those taking part (which is, in fairness, the rather wonderful thing about events like this), but it got us wondering: Is comedy a fickle mistress? Has what the audience expected from a comedy changed dramatically with the times? Are what many consider to be “classics” of the genre subject to this winds of change and popular taste?