Porco Rosso (Kurenai no buta)

another amazing hayao miyazaki animated feature

i simply love good anime films. especially miyazaki's masterpieces. porco rosso is the story of porco, a seaplane fighter in the 1920's who looks like a pig-man. he ends up in need of repairs to his plane in order to challenge curtis,an american pilot, for his honor, and ends up meeting a young girl engineer named fio. the plot is simple and not that important. the animation is amazing and the action is great. just a wonderful animated film that is more mature in nature.

The Lovely Bones

good moments, but overall crappy

peter jackson has been one of my favorite filmmakers since i saw the frighteners as a kid. my favorite films of his also include dead alive, meet the feebles, bad taste, and the first lord of the rings. this latest opus of his has some great elements, but seems too much like a shitty knock off of 'what dreams may come'. susie salmon is a young girl who gets murdered, and the film is about her journey through the afterlife trying to lead her father to the killer. it's original and all, but not necessarily a great setup for a film. the scenes with stanley tucci (the killer) are great and all, but all the afterlife stuff is lame and played. mark walburg breaks a bunch of class bottles with model ships in them in an obvious act of rage. it's just not a good original film at all.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

guy ritchie makes a more commercial film

robert downey jr. seems to be able to do no wrong these days. he stars as sherlock holmes in this action packed film based on the classic detective character. he and watson (jude law) are through with their final case as partners, a supernatural satanist serial killer is finally brought to justice... but days after his execution, he rises from the dead and it's up to holmes to figure it all out. the funny parts are funny, the action scenes are cool, and overall it's a well made film. it just feels a bit too 'hollywood' and commercial. i really enjoyed guy ritchie's early films, and this one has elements of his style, but quite mainstream. this is a good start for a new series of sequels to come though.