I wasn’t too familiar with Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, knowing him only as a Japanese animator whose works are just now starting to see appreciation in the West.  I decided to rent Ponyo, his most recent film, mostly for the reason that Ponyo features no computer generated imagery, instead animated in the traditional 2-D style that Disney had made so popular.  With Ponyo, I learned that Miyazaki is rightfully acclaimed as a filmmaker and animator and, perhaps more significantly, the 2-D style of animation is far from dead.  Keep reading for the full review; minor spoilers ahead.

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It’s been awhile since I’ve written a review as part of our “Movie Vault” category, but Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was such an unexpected, unusual experience that I felt obliged.  I don’t recall hearing about this movie when it was released in the United States, which I suppose I can attribute to Perfume being a German film.  Directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), Perfume is one of the most original stories I’ve seen in a long time.  The film doesn’t try and cater to the audience’s expectation of what’s appropriate or what a protagonist should be, and the result is a film that, whether you love it or hate it, you will absolutely remember.  And really, what fate is worse for a film than being forgettable?  Keep reading for the full review; some spoilers ahead.

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Well the last figures in this feature were a little dated because I chose the movie City Slickers which was in 1991.   Well now I’m going back a further 2 years to 1989 that brought us Ghostbusters II.  At least you guys may have seen this movie on Comedy Central (I hope).   The movie itself was nowhere near as good as the first one.

In fact, it was pretty bad.  However, if I had to pick a shining moment in this movie (other than Bill Murray) it would clearly be Peter MacNicol’s character of Janosz Poha, the estranged foreign art director who gets possessed by the evil Vigo.

What’s incredible about this character is that you don’t know his country of origin and he has a ridiculous accent.  In fact in my eyes he has by far the best line in the movie.  In a scene where Bill Murray is kind of taunting him, Janosz storms in the room and shouts “Why are you came?”  You have to see this to understand the comedy of this moment but trust me, it’s funny.   There’s also a scene where Murray asks him where he’s from and Janosz says “The Upper Vest Side?”

It’s just his whole way of being a person that gets me and I find it hilarious.  If anything rent Ghostbusters II to laugh at this character.  He’s truly awesome, and MacNicol does a great job with the accent (whatever it may be).

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a “Movie Vault” review, or in plainspeak, reviewed a movie that has been released for quite some time.  I recently watched Secretary, a movie from 2002 of which I had never heard.  How did I miss this film?  While not the greatest movie - and the low budget shows throughout viewing - it’s got a very good cast that serve up great performances.  More importantly, though, it deals with a topic that is so taboo that I would have imagined it nearly impossible to make a watchable movie about that topic.  Director Steven Shainberg succeeded in that endeavor.  So, what just is Secretary about?  Keep reading the full review to find out.

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As I may have mentioned before, one of the best things about living in Manhattan is the chance to see foreign and indie films that are released only in New York and Los Angeles.  I had heard great things about the Swedish film Lat Den Ratte Komma In (Let The Right One In), so I was very excited to see that it was playing in a small theater right downstairs from my apartment.  The movie had been released in 2008, but I missed my chance to see it, so I was lucky that my neighborhood theater chose to show it again.  Very lucky, actually - Let The Right One In can be considered the best vampire movie ever made, but even classifying it as a “vampire movie” undermines the film as a whole.  Read the rest of my review after the jump.

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Pot has become mostly commonplace in our culture, so it should come as no surprise that marijuana has found its way onto the big screen.  Regardless of your feelings on Mary Jane, the portrayal of stoners in movies is usually pretty amusing.  There’s just something inherently hilarious (and for lots of us, um, familiar) about a dude with slowed speech and a penchant for getting all philosophical while ripping bong hits from a four-footer.  It sure makes me giggle, at least.  After the jump is a rundown of some of the most memorable stoners in movies.  Enjoy it with a fattie, OK Computer, and a bag of Cheetos:

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Just based on how much money this movie made, I’m guessing you’ve seen Transformers.  Did you like it?  Did you manage to get through the whole movie without rolling your eyes?  Did you feel like your intelligence was constantly insulted and that Michael Bay had launched a cinematic jihad against common sense?  Transformers, for all its success and special effects, is a steaming turd of a movie.  It’s a shame, too, because I really wanted to like it.  Keep reading to learn why Transformers sucks:

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If I wasn’t laughing so hard throughout this movie, I would have been insulted. The Transporter 2 was so preposterous that it made xXx look like an Oscar-winning documentary. And look, I can suspend disbelief and enjoy a film for pure entertainment value, but in this instance that was like asking someone on a diet to starve themselves for a year.  Read more after the jump:

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I was just a little kid when my dad let me watch the movie Alligator.  The movie changed my life.  The gore and killing and terror of a gigantic alligator eating people didn’t shock or traumatize me, but rather, it made me want to be an alligator.

I was infatuated with every single aspect of this movie, especially the killings.  Alligator embraces its status as a B-movie, masterfully delivering a dark, tongue-in-cheek humor and still conveying that the danger of a giant killer alligator was very real.

Read my review of this classic after the jump:

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