This movie is filled with angry, argumentative, strange, cruel, and just plain mean characters. Ultimately, it is profoundly humane.
Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds”
This movie gave me nightmares.
Intelligent speculation and scrupulous attention to detail are ruined by repeated depictions of instantaneous radio communications between Mission Control and the magnificently detailed Pegasus space ship as it tours the planets.
Christopher Nolan's “BATMAN BEGINS”
The story overall is a solemn and theatrical exploration of extended, troubled, guilt-ridden adolescence.
Peter Jackson's “DEAD ALIVE”
I’m not sure what this says about me and my taste in movies, but I think this film is some type of masterpiece.
Hayao Miyazaki's “HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE”
What did I like least about this film? The answer: the ending. It is too pat, too rushed, too abrupt. What do I like most? Just about everything else. In fact, I found myself smiling at what I was seeing on the screen more often than in any movie I’ve seen since The Incredibles — and that is saying a lot.
Appleseed
This anime epic now available on DVD successfully presents a convoluted story and a creative approach to the integration of 2D characters (shaded to look 3D) and 3D graphics.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
My favorite scene: Senator Palpatine talks with Anakin Skywalker and encourages Anakin to consider turning against the rest of the Jedi. Problem is, there aren’t any other scenes like this where emotion and drama actually surface.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
There's only one serious problem: the music itself is un-memorable. But this is made up for by an unusual story, interesting characters, vivid colorful photography, and amazingly choreographed song-and-dance numbers.
Lucky McKee's MAY
So don't just expect blood and guts with this movie. There's serious well-made weirdness going on here.
Zhang Yimou 's HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
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.