Zhang Yimou (Hero, The Road Home, Not One Less) outdoes himself in this sumptuous combination of Tang dynasty era martial arts, romance, changing seasons, terrific clothes, bamboo forests, and physics-defying flying objects (and people).
Zhang Yimou's HERO
This is without a doubt the most boring film I’ve seen in months.
Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez's "SIN CITY"
It was the dame’s earrings … They kept jangling in my mind, like tolling Easter bells out of some giant, hollow, cavernous cathedral … dark, inky shadows … except for those damn earrings… like golden beacons in a monochrome Dark City …
Mike Leigh’s “Vera Drake”
One depressing thing about this movie is what it points out about "developed" Western societies: there are two levels of access to medical services, one for the rich, and one for the poor.
Are there people in the U.S. who still believe that Fox News is "fair and balanced"? I don't really think so, and that's the weak point of this "documentary" with an editorial point of view.
When I read about this movie I knew I had to see it —- demons, hellfire, angels, exorcism, all duking it out for mastery over human souls.
Thoroughly undistinguished music aside, Yuva is an engrossing melodrama that combines politics with brutality, intellectualism, social activism, soap opera, and young love.
Ishirō Honda's “THE MYSTERIANS”
In 1957, Toho Studios released Akira Kurosawa’s epic The Hidden Fortress, a film that George Lucas has stated strongly influenced his creation of the Star Wars saga. I wasn’t paying attention. That was also the year that Toho released Inoshiro Honda’s sci-fi epic The Mysterians.
Lynn Hershman-Leeson's TEKNOLUST
This movie is like a breath of fresh air. The story is original, the acting is uniformly engaging, the dialog is witty, and it looks cheap in all the right places. It’s an in-your-face-reminder that you don’t need a bezillion dollars to create something fresh, entertaining, and original.
Hayao Miyazaki's “NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WINDS”
What is it about Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli that are so consistently impressive? Seeing 1984’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds for the first time reminded me of some of the answers to this question.
Michael Mann's "COLLATERAL"
COLLATERAL is a smashing example of how to take a standard story line and turn it into a fresh, provocative, exciting, and even at times, beautiful tale of violence and self-revelation.
Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie
How many movies can show the main characters getting drunk on ice cream?
I Heart Huckabees
I'm a big fan of "quirky" movies, but this one didn't tickle my funnybone. Nor did it make me pause and think.
By all rights it should have, given the wonderful cast. I mean, Isabelle Huppert and Tippi Hedren in the same film -- what could be more sublime?
Akira Kurosawa's “HIGH AND LOW”
There is a scene in Kurosawa’s High and Low where police emerge from the house of a man, played by Toshiro Mifune (Red Beard), whose lost kidnapping ransom, paid to recover the son of his chauffeur, has caused his total financial ruin. Yet there he is, calmly mowing his lawn with his power mower, while his life collapses around him. He seems to be enjoying himself. Life goes on.
The theme of this movie is religious intolerance. What starts out as “forbidden love” between a small-town Hindu boy and Muslim girl becomes a horror story as they take their “forbidden love” to the big city, Bombay. There they land right in the middle of the vicious religious cultural riots of 1992-1993.
Sue Brooks’ “Japanese Story”
Toni Colette (About a Boy) shines in this fishes-out-of water story.
Guy Maddin's THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD
This is my first Maddin film. What first came to mind as I was watching it, trying to figure out what to compare it to, was "This looks like what the residents of Nightmare Before Christmas's Halloween Town would have dreamed up had someone asked them to create a sensitive comedy about human sadness."
Ray
I remember a couple of years ago Diana Krall came to the DC area, headlining for Ray Charles. I didn't go to the concert, I was only interested in Krall. Paying so much to see what I considered to be a "vintage" act just didn't seem like a good idea.
Masayuki Suo's SHALL WE DANCE
A ballroom dancing class can be filled by a lot of different types of people - young and old, fat and thin, all different colors, sizes, and shapes. Many of the men are there because their women want them to be. It seems it's the same in Japan as it is in the U.S.
Alien vs. Predator
Okay, Sanaa Lathan is no Sigourney Weaver, I still enjoyed this movie a great deal, despite the pedestrian story and lack of character development.