Z/Web

Author: John Lasseter (story) and Peter Docter

Director: Ash Brannon and John Lasseter

Wow, was I impressed! I seriously doubted the guys at Pixar could top the original, but they did. What impressed me the most about the original was that it was grounded in such a good, old-fashioned story. Ninety-eight percent of Hollywood would have created an empty feast for the eyes with nothing for the brain. With Toy Story II, not only did Pixar improve on the amazing graphics of the first movie, they made sure they had a great story for the foundation! We’ve got humor, adventure, sentimentality, parody, everything. This time the scope of the film is much bigger: we take the same characters outside of the house and have them travel through the town! There’s a bit more focus on the humans, whose renderings are amazingly detailed. My very favorite scene was when the characters drive through the toy barn in a little car and stop to ask some Barbie dolls for help. “Tour Guide” Barbie jumps in to assist them, giving them a classic tour lecture as they weave their way through the aisles of toys! Priceless. Toy Story II has so much detail and moves so fast I need to see it again so I can drink it all in. Wonderful, and it will no doubt bear up to many, many repeated viewings.

Author: James Cameron

Director: James Cameron

It’s been a while since I’ve seen this, but it doesn’t lose much over the years. While it’s not quite as nail-bitting as Cameron’s The Terminator, it’s a great, pressure-filled action film. It doesn’t let up until the final frame. It’s basically a monster movie and nothing more, but done with such class, it’s a definite top 100.

Author: Darren Aronofsky (story) and Sean Gullette

Director: Darren Aronofsky

I original saw this in August, after renting it, and thought it was worth buying on DVD. It’s a fascinating experiment of a movie. It was made independently for an extremely low amount of money ($60K). It’s black-and-white and rather bizarre in places, but it’s weakest parts are when it tries to be too Hollywood and turn the movie into an action thriller (which it does toward the end). It’s basically the story about a mathematician who goes crazy while searching for the magic number that defines the pattern of the universe (represented by the stock market). It’s an intellectual movie, represented more by concept than anything concrete, and while it seems a bit incomplete, or falls short of its lofty goals, it’s a wonderful start for a budding filmmaker. It’s certainly like nothing you’ve ever seen. Excellent, if you’re in the right mood. (BTW, you don’t really need to know anything about math to understand it.)

Author: Mike Myers

Director: Jay Roach

I liked this one even better than the original. It’s not as innovative in scope, but it’s funnier, and way, way, way over the top. It’s totally crude, rude, and socially unacceptable, which just makes it all the funnier. Like Airplane did for the seventies/eighties, the Austin Powers movies are doing for the nineties. If you liked the first one, you’ll like this one.