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Reviews
Tonari no Totoro (1988)
An almost perfect film
This is a quiet and charming film that almost perfectly captures childhood fantasies. Although this is animation (done by a master) there are moments of cinematic graces throughout the film. Pay special attention to the scene where Mai and her sister wait for the Nekobus with Totoro. The comic timing is perfect, and Miyazaki allows for a lot of silence that allows the characters to "act" in ways you may not have thought possible in an animation.
One of my favourite films ever, and highly recommended.
Showtime (2002)
This must have been a good screenplay
This movie never really decides what kind of film it wants to be. It attempts to be a bit of a clever cop-movie spoof, but stumbles early on and never regains it's footing.
Clearly, there must have been good material here at one time to attract the talent. Russo, Murphy and DeNiro play well enough together, and they get a lot of help from the supporting cast. They do a decent enough job with what is basically an "unlikely-cop-duo-versus-the-euro-trash-bad-guy" film (or a clever play on one, we are never sure). Lots of things go *boom* and bad guys are assumed to be bad, justifying further explosions.
The real crime here is that it could have been better. The ham-handed directing and haphazard editing destroyed what small amount of clever pacing and ironic humour that _may_ have been intended by the author.
The screenplay must have been better and, judging from the "outtakes", made a lot more sense than the finished product.
Don't blame the actors on this one. This film may be an example of what happens when a writer gets a chance to produce his own picture, and hooks up with a bad director.
Pretty bad film. The pacing is awful and the editing is criminal. Rent it to have a laugh and eat some snacks.