My Neighbor Totoro is probably my favorite Miyazaki film. It's not a complex story, nor is it his best or most detailed animation, but that doesn't matter ... this film is pure magic. I'm not referring to Totoro, Catbus or the soot sprites ... the magic is in the way it recreates the nostalgic atmosphere of childhood summers, those long and beautiful days of wonder when the world was all ours.

Set in rural Japan during the mid 1950s (the…

I really enjoyed this film as a kid, but with the passing years it hasn't aged well, at least for me. John Wayne and Lauren Bacall get caught up in the plight of a small village in post-war China when they need a pilot to take them down the coast to freedom in their stolen paddle-wheel riverboat. There's not much here that's believable, not the chemistry between the leads or the cold war politics or the scenario itself. We also…

Ric Roman Waugh's last film "Angel Has Fallen" didn't break any new ground in the action film genre, and "Greenland" certainly doesn't bring anything new to the disaster film genre, but on the plus side, it's a much better film than AHF.

With "Greenland" we're in for a suspenseful and serious ride without any of the little tension-breaking humorous asides you'd find in disaster flicks like "2012" or "Armageddon," and Waugh uses both tension and non-action screentime to good effect,…

There's not much new to be said about one of the best sci-fi action adventure flicks of all time. Quippy dialog and hammy acting rooted in the classic mid-20th century sci-fi serials, a fast-moving story, rousing music and spectacular special effects all combine in a nearly flawless way for the cinematic experience of a lifetime. The film industry has changed quite a bit since then in terms of visual technique and digital effects, but the basic storytelling really doesn't get…