My Favorite Movies

This film is my #1 choice for greatest movie of the 20th Century, its such a tremendous story and so beautifully told. This movie set the bar so high that very few films ever reached that level again. Certainly nothing in the last 30 years has ever come close. Its exceptionally well made, I had no idea how well made it was until I saw the Documentaries on the extras discs. Alot of trick photography was used, but it was done so well that you'd really have to examine the footage closely to notice it. Some things added to the fore- and Backgrounds look seemless, I actually believed that those things were real. I never realized the level of creativity and ingenuity that went into films like this, its absolutely amazing.

They went through so much over the 3 years it took them to get everything together and then film it. They were working so hard to get everything right, they put so much money into it even though they didn't have to with certain things and they did it anyways. Ann Rutherford recalled getting fitted for her costumes, and she noticed all the detail that went into things that the audience is never going to see. She said "Mr. Selznick, you really shouldn't bother with the little things that the audience won't even know is there" and he told her "they won't know its there, but you will and thats all that matters". Who thinks like that nowadays? No one, they are all too money conscious, but even if they weren't its not like anyone is writing anything of this calibur today anyways

Vivien Leigh was born to play Scarlett O'hara, she was absolutely perfect for the role. She was able to be Bratty, scheming, selfish, proud, passionate, strong willed and determined, She was everything that made Scarlett so compelling. She made you hate Scarlett when she was being a bitch, but she also brought out the redeeming qualities of the woman, Which helped the audience to sympathize with her. Leigh was brilliant and beautiful, its hard to imagine Scarlett being played by anyone else, even someone as equally beautiful as Paulette Goddard (who was just barely inched out by Leigh for the role). Its hard to believe that certain radio pundits of the time tried to incite a boycott on this movie because Vivien was british. Thankfully no one listened to the crackpots, otherwise this magnificent film would have probably been tossed into the vault to gather dust, never to be seen again.

Clark Gable was the only one people could see as Rhett Butler, and the people made a good choice. Gable was Gable, and thats how people imagined Rhett to be, there could be no subsitutes. Incidentally Gable was greatly worried that his performance would ruin the film, that fans would stand up and say "Thats how he thinks Rhett would be like!? What a Jerk!". He proved himself wrong, even though he still wasn't satisfied with his portrayal.

Olivia De Havilland as Melanie was ,again, perfect. I guess alot of great actresses could have pulled that role off, but could they beat Olivia's performance? thats something we'll never know. personally I don't think so. Melanie was a really important character to the story, she was the glue that held everyone together. Olivia nailed that part, she was just so right for it.

Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes was again the only person they had in mind for it, even though he was too old to play Ashley, and he had no interest in the part in the first place. David Selznick just couldn't see anyone else as Ashley, and did everything he could to get Les on board. They did a good make-up job on him, he looks alot younger than he actually was.

Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen were both very good, Hattie was so good she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress over Olivia De Havilland! Butterfly was excellent in her role, she really took it seriously, and she took a stand when it came to things she didn't want to do, like eating Watermelon or being slapped. Many Black actresses of the time would have just done what they were told, even if they didn't agree with it, she stood up and said No and they listened to her.

Some may not like the film because its not action packed, there isn't any gratuitous sex or nudity. Its a very dramatic film, which will also put off alot of the hipsters who think drama is not cool. Its 4 hours long which unless it has alot the stuff I just said it doesn't have, will be too long for alot of folks. Its a brilliant film that will stand for all time, even if the youngsters don't appreciate it, its still the Top grossing movie of all time (adjusted for Inflation).

Ah Casablanca, Considered by many to be the best movie ever made, and it has a great case for it. Its hard to believe that this film became what it is completely by accident, isn't it? It started out as just another picture, 1 of the 50 that Warner Brothers made every year, but after all the work was finally done it would be the #1 picture of 1942, standing out over the other 49 pictures they made that year. When you hear about how hectic this production was you'd never think this movie would have been as good as it is. With the constant work on the script, No one really knew where the film was going or how it would turn out. But somehow it all came together to make a master work.

Humphrey Bogart plays Rick, and he plays him like no one else could. Bogie gave us one of the best if not the best performance of his career. I could see the pain in his eyes when he remembered the good times back in Paris with Ilsa, I could hear the venom in his words when he spoke to Ilsa when he was drunk. The anger of having her come back into his life after what she did to him. he was great, no doubt about it.

Ingrid Bergman plays Ilsa, and there really wasn't anyone else who could have nailed this role. No one could look the way she did at a man, with love an tenderness. Gods, she was wonderful, You could see in her eyes how she felt when she heard "As Time Goes By" and she reminiced about the good old days. You could feel her admiration for Victor and the love she had for Rick, and how it tore her up to have to make the choice between the man she loves (Rick) and the man she admires (Victor).

The supporting cast were all wonderful in their roles, Claude Raines was exceptionally good, but then he always was.

There are so many memorable scenes and lines in this film that it has become deeply intwined with our Popular culture. The most powerful scene in the movie was the La Marseillaise scene, where The German soldiers are singing "Wacht am der Rhein" and Victor Laszlo tells the band to play La Marseillaise, the French National Anthem, and all the refugees and Free French people start to sing along and completely drown out the germans. I had tears in my eyes when I saw that, and the playwright whoe wrote it said he cryed when he wrote that scene. Not only that but many of the extras and lesser cast members were refugees either from Germany or France so this was a particularly emotional scene for them as many of them wept during and after that scene. A wonderful moment to be sure.

The Dialogue is wonderful too, so much wit and verve. Alot of great humourous lines, and memorable exchanges. The Epstein Brothers did a magnificent Job with the dialogue, if only writers today had half the wit they had, Hollywood would be in much better shape right now.

Certainly this film deserves its great reputation, and I hope anyone reading this and hasn't seen it yet will go out and get it right now.

The origin story of one of Anime?s most enduring heroes, Captain Harlock. And what a movie this is! This is the embodiment of everything that is so great about Matsumoto?s work.

The Earth has been conquered by the evil Illumidus Empire with parallels drawn to the post World War Two occupation of Japan. Captain Harlock with a group that will become his life long friends begin their fight against this tyranny visited upon the planet earth with no regard to the costs the struggle will have on them, caring only for the ideal of restoring freedom to the people of earth.

This film cemented Harlock?s and Matsumoto?s godlike status with me. Everything just works so well here, like GE999, it had great story, characters, music, and atmosphere. I think I cry more watching this movie than any other, there are just some scenes that overwhelm me. Harlock is one of my biggest heroes because no matter what, he does what is right in his heart. Even after the Earth Government banishes him because of his defiance against the Illumidus occupational forces, he still hangs around to protect the earth and its lethargic citizenry when the Mazone empire invades in the original TV series, even when they don?t deserve it. To me, thats what being a hero is all about, doing the right thing no matter what has happened to you.


Leiji Matsumoto has provided me with hours of great entertainment, I wish I could thank him personally for all his hard work. Modern fans tend to not understand his style, such as when 2 starships battle it out in an old fashioned Broad-sides duel, or How a starship can be on fire and billowing smoke in the vacuum of space. The explanation is simple, Matsumoto uses these things for dramatic effect. He knows these things are improbable or downright impossible, but its all to create this grand atmosphere his films have. The Fire and smoke gives everything a sense of urgency, you can see they are in trouble without going through every room on the ship. Its these touchs that really give the film a grand old Hollywood feeling, and I love that.

I loved it, but I think that one needs to put themselves into the time when these things took place. Things that seem mundane to modern eyes seem amazing to someone from Ziegfeld's time. If you look at it that way you can really get into this film. If you can't do that you might as well skip it

It was a great film in 1936 and it remains a great movie. Its just hard for modern folks to relate to nowadays

Those familiar with Robotech will know that Macross is the original version of the first section of Robotech. Macross was a great show that got hacked to bits so Harmony Gold could make some quick cash off of the 80s anime boom. Macross was so much more than a saturday morning cartoon, it was a romance story masquerading as a space opera, and it was very well done considering the problems that plagued its production.

A.D. 2009: The human race is in the middle of a three-way war with a race of giant humanoid aliens split into the Zentrans (males) and Meltlans (females). After executing a space fold that sent it and part of South Ataria Island to the edge of the Solar System, the space fortress Macross is on its way back to Earth. During a small skirmish with Zentradi forces, young pilot Hikaru Ichijyo rescues idol singer Lynn Minmay and their relationship develops as they?re stranded somewhere within the ship. But shortly after returning to Macross City, Minmay is captured by the Zentradi, and Hikaru and female officer Misa Hayase end up back on Earth?only to view the aftermath of the destruction of their civilization. Only a song discovered eons ago?along with Minmay?s voice?can determine the outcome of the war.

this is essentially a retelling of the TV series down in a classic Hollywood style, and IMO it surpasses the series. As much as I love that show, this was just so much better. Unfortunately, this was only licensed on Dubbed and Edited VHS a long time ago. Harmony Gold started a big legal battle with Big West, Studio Nue, and Tatsunoko studios over who had the US distribution rights for all things DYRL?, and as a result the winner Big West has decided that no Macross will be licensed in the US after HG?s license runs out. So no DYRL? for us sadly, but there are fansubbed versions that can be acquired, thankfully.

My Favorite of all the UY films, Its the only one that captures the Wacky spirit of the series. The others are great, but they all seem to try and be more than what UY is. This is Pure Takahashi lunacy and I love it

This was the first film I ever saw starring Rita Hayworth, up until then the only thing I ever saw of her was a short clip from the beginning of Gilda, and a A&E Biography about her. That was years ago, and for the life of my I don't know why I waited so long to see her movies, because I love so many of them now.

Rita plays a duel role here, first as young Rusty Parker, the afformentioned Showgirl, who loves Danny Mcguire (Gene Kelly) the Night club owner and Choreographer. Secondly she plays Maribelle Hicks, Rusty's Grandmother, in Publisher John Coudair's flashbacks. In both roles she is absolutely stunning, The classic 1900's attire suits here just as well as the then contemporary 1940's styles. She plays both roles very well, and performs beautifully in both time periods' musical numbers.

Gene Kelly, as I said plays Danny Mcguire, Rusty's fiance/boss/choreographer. This was his breakout role, before this he did alot of small time roles over at MGM. When MGM couldn't figure out where to put him in 1944, they loaned him to Columbia Studios for this picture. Little did they (MGM) know that they had been misusing him all this time, and Columbia finally let him shine. Columbia gave him full control of his dance numbers, and he wowed the world with them. This was a great role for Gene, it showed his acting chops and it finally let people know what a great hoofer he was.

The supporting cast was very good too, particularly Eve Arden and Phil Silvers.

Eve Arden is now mostly remembered for her role as the Principal of Rydell High in Grease, but she had alot of good supporting roles in her younger days. she was quite adept at playing the wise-cracking side-kick, and she really had great timing and delivery of her witty quips that she became known for. She also did quite a bit of Radio work and some TV work in the 1950s.

Phil Silvers was a great comedian in Radio, film, and Television. He's mostly remembered as Sgt. Bilko, his most famous character, which also inspired the cartoon Top Cat. Phil was a great talent, as we see here, he cracked jokes, he sang, he danced, its just too bad he didn't get alot of solo work in films like Bob Hope or Jerry Lewis did.

This film is classic 1940's musical fare, and it was a real priveledge to watch it. It remains one of my favorite musicals of all time along with the work of MGM Producer Arthur Freed. Its a very sweet film (in a good way), go check it out.

Wow, this takes me back. Back to a time where if I loved a movie, I never hesitated to see it over and over again in the theater, and this and Batman monopolized my summer movie time in 1989. We saw both movies so many times that summer it was insane.

However, I can't help but agree with some when they say the TLC was almost a retread of Raiders. They are very similar films with only one really key difference aside from the McGuffin they are searching for, and thats the father/son relationship.

Don't get me wrong, I love this movie, but after 20 years it doesn't grab me nearly as much as Raiders or ToD still does. But this is no fault of the cast or the director, they all did a terrific Job. Perhaps I just don't get as excited about the Holy Grail as I did for the Ark or the Sankara stones. The grail seemed like such a let down after all that build up.

The Father and Son interaction is really the selling point of this movie I think. Because some of the best dialogue is between Connery and Ford. If you go into this with that in mind, You can't possibly be disappointed. However the trademark Indy set pieces are pretty thin on the ground in this one, which is what probably makes it a little less memorable for most, seeing as it really hasn't entered that level of recognition that Raiders and ToD both enjoy. You never see references to Crusade anywhere these days, in the same way that you see for Raiders and ToD. Its kind of sad that its not as well remembered in that sense, but it is more of a personal story this time around so I guess its a trade off.

This is the last dignfied ride off into the sunset for Indiana Jones, and the perfect end to one of cinema's greatest franchises. Too bad they had to spoil it all.

The Quintessential Adventure movie. Its been copied many times but no one has ever been able to top it, or even duplicate this great film. It embodies what all great adventure movies should be, but very often fail to become.

Lucas and Spielberg built this off of their knowledge of classic adventure comics and pulp fiction stories, as well as the old Republic serials of the 1930s. They knew what they wanted and how they wanted everything to look. Thats something that I don't think is considered in the modern day attempts to capture this lightning in a bottle. The modern directors want to make this movie, but they don't have that wealth of knowledge to work from so they never quite get it right.

The cast is great, I simply can't imagine anyone else filling any of these roles. Imagine, Indy was almost played by Tom Selleck, Sallah by Danny Devito, and Marion by Sean Young. Somehow I don't think it would have worked, as much as I like those people in the various shows and films I've seen them in, I don't think they could have pulled Raiders off at all. This film could have so easily been another disaster from Spielberg, like 1941, but they were able to find the right cast to make it work for themselves and the audience.

As for the film itself, Its iconic, it has become a part of out popular culture the way great films like Gone With The Wind, Wizard of Oz, and Casablanca have. It is timeless, it hasn't really aged at all, it still looks and feels as good as it did almost 30 years ago. I can't imagine many films from this decade or even the 1990s will hold up anywhere near as well. Raiders IS adventure, pure and simple, it is the pinnicle of the genre.

its quite amusing to see myself writing such a glowing review, since I saw it way back in the early 80s (not in theater sadly), this film scared me so much that until I bought the box set a couple of years ago, I never watched it again. As much as I love this movie today, that end sequence still gives me the willies.

This is the first of the series I saw in theaters, and man did it scare the crap out of me. But it is a wonderful, thrill-packed ride that never lets you go. Lucas and Spielberg were really trying to out-do themselves with this one, and they very nearly did IMO.

This films draws even more influence from the old comics, Pulp stories, and classic 30s serials and adventure films (Gunga Din, in particular). I get the feeling that this is even closer to what they wanted to do with Raiders. This film however has a much darker tone to it, and for many that ruins the film for them (though I never will understand why). This is one of the reasons some critics didn't enjoy it, other reasons cited are Kate Capshaw's character of Willie Scott and Ke Huy Quan's character So Wah Mu a.k.a. Short Round.

People seem to find these characters so annoying that it kills the picture for them, and I think those folks just missed the point of the characters, personally. But whatever, to each his own I guess. I thought they played their parts very well and kept the film from becoming too heavy. Luckily the people who hate this movie are only a small vocal minority on the internet, so they don't speak for everyone (like some of them think they do).

Amrish Puri played Mola Ram, the sadistic Thuggee leader with a penchant from removing hearts the hard way, and I think he was the best villain of the entire trilogy. The Man is pure evil. I'm told he was the richest villainous actor in all of India, he played alot of heavies in many many bollywood films before and after this.

The sad thing about ToD, is the fact that both Lucas and Spielberg seem to have disowned it, saying it was their least favorite. I think thats a real shame because like Raiders, it is part of our popular culture to the point where you see many many references to it all the time. I think in general, people loved this movie just as much as Raiders, and they should be proud of it.

One of Matsumoto?s greatest works is Galaxy Express 999, and its a shame that in never got a chance in the US. I became acquainted with GE999 when I was about 12 or so, flipping through channels I stopped on the Foreign language channel which split its time up between Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and Spanish. It was a thursday evening, and I saw a familiar looks show, because of the character designs I knew it was something by the creator of Yamato, and even though there were no subs, I watched it anyways. It was pretty good and I only wished I had subs so I knew what happened exactly. School got on top of me, and I didn?t get to see the show again. But later in life, I saw that Viz Entertainment had licensed the movie, so I grabbed it. GE999 has been a beloved favorite ever since.

After the death of his mother at the hands of the evil robot Count Mecha, young Tetsuro has become a delinquent street urchin who dreams only of revenge. Tetsuro lives in a far future world in which humans have the choice to travel to another planet where they can exchange their bodies for immortal, robotic counterparts. His goal is to someday acquire (through theft) enough money to board the Galaxy Express 999, a train which is capable of traveling through space, and which will take him to the planet of robots. One day, after escaping from the police, he meets the beautiful Maetel, who resembles his mother. She offers to take him on the Galaxy Express 999 to get a robotic body and to get revenge on Count Mecha. Along the journey, the two meet many varied people (including Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas), and Tetsuro learns what it means to be human.

It has a great story, great characters, great music, and a great atmosphere. Its full of emotion, and like nearly every Matsumoto film I?ve seen, it brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it. Some people in today?s anime fandom would accuse Matsumoto?s work to be too long and slow moving, but its not true. These folks seem to not be able to watch anything that doesn?t have an explosion or a panty shot every 2 minutes.

I'm seriously surprised to this day that this isn't a more well known film in the anime fandom. To me, its the best animated Ninja film of them all, and I'm including Ninja Scroll in that remark. Ninja Scroll was good, don't get me wrong, but I think people latch onto it more because of the shock value, what with the sexual bits and huge amounts of gore. Kamui has a bigger, grander feel to it, it doesn't go the shock value route, it goes for a more historical look, while still maintaining a degree of fantasy (which is important to note.). the story is this (abit spoilerish, so marked in red):

A young boy named Jiro finds his mother and sister murdered in his home. Falsely accused of the crime, he flees from his village and meets a priest named Tenkai, who has him kill a rogue ninja named Tarouza. After fulfilling that task, Jiro undergoes training to become a master assassin. Many years later, Jiro finds out that he was an orphan and his real father was Tarouza, who had worked for Tenkai until he aborted his mission when he fell in love with an Ainu woman. The young ninja discovers that the Shogunate was to retrieve the lost treasure of Captain Kidd and use it to once again isolate Japan from the rest of the world. Using the clues that Tarouza had kept secret, Jiro - along with the female ninja Oyuki and a slave named Sam - travels to Russia and America to search for the treasure in hopes of using it to extract revenge from Tenkai.

There are moments where people bitch about how impossible it is historically because he meets so and so and does this or that, but seriously people, its fantasy! Lets have alittle suspension of disbelief shall we? These instances are not so major as to ruin the film, but some people make it a point to bitch and moan about one or two scenes in the whole movie as if the film was utterly destroyed by those moments. If you understand that this isn't meant to be a historically accurate film and that its based off of a series of novels, I think you can easily enjoy it. I say go to www.animeigo.com and go pick up a copy on DVD before they lose the rights to this film too.

Probably the first anime parody film ever made, this thing cracks on everything from Harlock to Hokuto and Macross to Yamato, Its insane. But its not just a parody film it has a pretty action packed story to go with it.

Sixteen years after a mysterious meteorite leveled Graviton City, the rebuilt metropolis faces an even greater threat to it?s architecture: two quarrelling schoolgirls whose superhuman powers threaten to tear the city apart. A-ko and her ditzy sidekick C-ko are the new kids at Graviton High School for Girls, and they ought to be pretty popular, given A-ko?s superhuman strength and speed. But things turn ugly when evil-genius classmate B-ko decides she wants C-ko for herself. Can A-ko defeat her rival?s army of giant mechs? How about B-ko?s Akagiyama supersuit, the world?s only flying, missile-launching bikini? Oh, and did we mention the huge alien warship heading straight for the downtown shopping district? Whatever the outcome, you can be sure of one thing: Not much of Graviton City will be left standing!

its totally crazy and totally awesome. If you know your anime, you?ll spot quite a few cameos, be they human, alien, or machine. You really need to know your anime to fully appreciate this film, but I like to think the zaniness is enough for those not in the know to appreciate. I don?t know if this can still be purchased, Central Park Media lost their distribution a few years ago, but I don?t know if they shut down or are just operating low-key at the moment.

Like Walt Disney's Fantasia, this was a pretty bold project. And like Fantasia, it seems that people just didn't get it. Rarely do I see anyone in the fandom these days that has seen this and loved it, most have never seen it, and the ones who have just don't get it. There isn't much to get, it really wasn't that hard to understand, its just Art plain and simple. The idea behind it was this:

9 of Japan's leading animators were asked to create a short segment that followed the theme of "Robots," for their inclusion in this film. Essentially, this "movie" is 9 short films, all independant of one another. The common element is human interaction with robots, namely the consequences of creating life with one's own hands, played in nine very different ways.

Is it really that hard to understand? Anyway, its a beautifully made film with something for everyone IMO, serious moments, comedy, strange moments, scary moments, and poignant moments. I really love this film, I just wish it would get another R1 release.

When strange alien creatures attack experimental Vizorium refining facilities, The WWWA send the Lovely Angels (Don't call them the Dirty Pair if you know whats good for you) in to investigate. They discover that a loony scientist, who is trying to create a new race of perfect beings from the raw Sadinga ore, is responsible for creating the vizorium eating beasties. Now the must stop him before he turns every single piece of ore on the planet into these rampaging monsters!

A very good movie for the Angels, with some characteristically silly moments through out. I love the classic DP character designs by Tsukasa Dokite, Indicative of the 1980s style. And Kazutaka Miyatake's mechanical designs are always wonderful.

After establishing himself with Snow White, Walt moved on to his many other animated projects, and the first to be finished was Pinocchio. This film is every bit as wonderful as Snow White, with great characters and animation, and again, Stunning background art.

This film showed again, that Walt was not afraid to put some pretty unsettling things in his films. With Snow White, We had the Queen demanding that the huntsman murder Snow White and to bring back her heart in a box, and the transformation sequence when she changes herself into an Old Crone to trick poor Snow White.

In Pinocchio, We have characters like Stromboli and The Coachman, both rather sinister characters, who take advantage of Pinocchio's ignorance of the ways of the world for their own gain. We have Pleasure Island, which frightened me when I was very small, and we have the gigantic whale Monstro, who is quite a dangerous beast that wants to devour our hero and his father.

Today, many parents would seek to shelter their children from such films, in a misguided attempt to protect them. But these films needed those moments in order to get the story across, without them the film would be rather flat and lifeless.

Wow..............This film right here is the pinnacle of Walt Disney animation. I mean, I love Fantasia, Snow White, Pinocchio and many of the others, but Bambi just does everything perfectly. From the lovable characters to beautiful back, middle, and foregrounds to the wonderful music, this film just strikes a cord with me.

I think this is the closest they ever came to bringing their art to true life. Every Character was as anatomically correct as they could make them, they moved just like their real life counterparts, even the mannerisms were spot on. The Back/middle/foregrounds were not so much about the fine details but rather an impressionistic view of the forest, using the chinese style of landscape art brought to them by Tyrus Wong. The Forest gives you that feeling, the atmosphere that you feel when you are in a big forest, its truly amazing and awe-inspiring.

The music is used perfectly in the context of the story, it helps move the story along and doesn't get in the way. It creates emotion and helps bring scenes to life, and the moments when the music isn't there just enhances the feeling of those scenes.

To me, Bambi is the most perfect film Walt Disney ever made.

Disney returns to his roots with another classic Fairy Tale adaptation. In the same fashion in which he crafted Snow White, He didn't really sugar-coat it, no talking animal side-kicks, and a very frightening villain. There is still the trademark Disney comedy in there, but it doesn't take the spotlight from the main story.

This movie is Disney at his finest, much like his early masterworks. Sadly, there just wasn't an audience for his classic style anymore. The Advent of TV, and subsequently, Saturday Morning Cartoons changed the way animation was perceived by this time. Animation was now seen as something only for children, and the return to the classic Disney style was too frightening for the new audience brought up on more light-hearted fare.

Walt would never again make a film of this type again, and so ended the classic era for Disney Studios.