1988

Easily one of the greatest action movies of all time, up there with Aliens, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Matrix. I laughed as often as a gasped at McClane's one-liners and stunts. Hans Gruber makes an intelligent villain, endowed with wit and subtlety by Alan Rickman. It's forumla, maybe, but it's the best at what it does.

One of the great spoof movies. Very funny.

One of my favorite Disney musicals for its spunk and energy, plus great songs by Huey Lewis, Billy Joel and Bette Midler.

There's a certain magic and whimsy very specific to Miyazaki's films. There's always a point where you feel like a kid again, and there's usually also a point where you wonder if you're on shrooms (for me this was when the catbus arrived). Totoro is a little low key in comparison to some of this director's other films, but there are some truly outstanding moments, and I loved the overall warm and trusting tone of it. The mother, however, has one of the most mysterious and convenient of movie diseases; hospital bound with no apparent symptoms.

A movie so average that it's really, really average. It isn't shocking (with the exception of one unexpectedly violent image), and while it certainly deals with sad and tragic events it didn't manage to convey that to me in any kind of experiential way. Granted the movie should be taken on its own merits but it's hard to get past the hype as the saddest movie of all time, an emotionally devastating cartoon. I felt nothing when it ended, except glad that I could send it back to Netflix. What's with like 4 lines of narration the whole time? Shouldn't the main character be a little more realistic and take the necessary measures to prevent tragedy in his life? Why don't we ever find out how the scene at the beginning comes about?