Review of My neighbor Totoro

      Diving into Studio Gibley, Hayao Miyazaki creates a world we should live in rather than one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign.  A world where if  you meet a strange towering creature in the forest you curl up on it's tummy and have a nap.        
The movie tells the story of two young sisters Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe.  As the story open their father is driving them to the new house, near avast forest. Their mother, who is sick, has been moved to the hospital in their district.  When they move in, something peculiar happens.  when they let light into the glue, they get just a glimpse of little black fuzzy dots scaring to safety. "Probably just dust bunnies", says their father but there is an old nanny who has been hired to look after them, and she confides that they are "soot sprights" , which like abandoned houses and will pack up and leave once they hear the sound of laughter.  A few days pass by. Mei is playing in the yard, when she spots a small creature, no bigger than a kitten. After fallowing the creature for a bit,  it becomes aware of her presents and try's to give her the slip. After tracking it down again, Mei fallows it through a tunnel in the bushes then down a hole in a great big tree. When she gets to the bottom, she finds the great spirt Totoro, sleeping peacefully in its bed.  

This is an absolutely fanominal movie, from the beautiful watercolor backgrounds to fascinating story line, this is a masterpiece.  But it would not have one it's worldwide audience just because of it's warm heart. It is also rich with him and comedy in the way it observes the two remarkable convincing, life like little girls ( I speak of their personalities, not there appearance).  It Is awe- inspiring in the scenes involving Totoro, and chanting in the scenes with the cat bus. It is also a little sad, a little scary, a little surprising in just a little informative, just like life itself. If you haven't watched this movie already, I highly recommend it.

Review of Inglorious Bastards

     I know I have been on kind of a Tarantino binge but i figured that this movie was to good to postpone. The story starts in Nazi-occupied France early in the war, when the cruel, droll, Nazi Col. Hans Landa arrives on a dairy where he believes that the farmer (Denis Menochet) is hiding Jews. He is right, and after a long drawn out, suspenseful conversation, all hell breaks lose. A young woman named Shosanna (Melina Laurent) manages to escape the chaos and flee with her life. It is for this scene, and his performance throughout the movie, that shows why Christopher Waltz deserved all the praise he received from his character. He brings to life a character unlike any Nazi I have seen portrayed in a film: evil, sardonic, ironic, brilliant, and absolutely absurd.  Here is the link if you would like to watch the opening scene yourself  The Jew Hunter
                                              

     The hero of this story is Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) a hard-talking Southern boy who is the leader of the "Bastards" and wants each of them to bring back 100 Nazi scalps.                                           
The  "Bastards" themselves are a rag-tag group of Nazi killing machines dropped behind the enemy line. For years Aldo and his group have improbably survives in France, massacring and striking fear in the hearts of Nazis everywhere. Yet still manage to turn up in formal dinner ware in a moments notice. And who can forget Pitt's version of an Italian accent, which sounds about as authentic as Taco Bell's "Mexican food" tastes.

     I really like this movie, from the way it was shot, to the way QT brings the characters to life, making them so enjoyable to watch interact. Of cores tho its Tarantino, so you know there will be no shortage of violence, profanity, and absolute brutality.  I also really like this movie because QT provides WWII with a much-needed alternative ending. For once those Nazi bastards get what was coming to them. 

                   

Review of Kill Bill Vol.2

     Quinton Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol.2 is exuberant celebration of movie making. Coasting with heedless joy from one audacious chapter to another, working as a satire, working as a drama, working as irony, working as pure action. I would dare to say that Tarantino's fallow up to Kill Bill surpasses the original, being not so much a sequel as more of a continuation/backstory to Kill Bill Vol.1. The movie opens with The Bride (Uma Thurman) aka Beatrix Kiddo, behind the wheel of a car, explaining her mission; to kill Bill. As the movie progresses, you see the timeline jump from past to present, then back again. Giving a reminder and an explanation to the current events happening in the movie. It's almost like showing you a finished project, then going back and giving you all the gritty little details on how they made it, except way more interesting.
                                           
   
     Flashbacks remind us that the Bride, groom and entire wedding party were targeted by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad in a massacre at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel. Bill was responsible-- Bill who she confronts in the front porch of the chapel for a conversation that suggest the complexity and weirdness of their relationship. Bill is played by David Carradine, in a performance that shows that somehow the Bride and Bill had a real relationship, despite the preposterous details surrounding it.
                                                                               

     The Bride of course survives, waking up after a long coma. Swearing revenge on all those who wronged her, leading to long extended martial arts, sword swinging, fist to fist fight scenes, that are all extremely fun to watch.
                                          
     This is an all around great movie and I highly recommend it to anyone...Anyone 14 and up that is.