032. となりのトトロ / My Neighbour Totoro (Japan - 1988)

A piece of art that is both cute and contemplative. My Neighbour Totoro often engulfed me in the atmosphere that it creates of peaceful living, bucolic disinterest in luxuries, family's comprehension and loving, and the cutest little girls there have ever been in cinema. Hayao Miyazaki doesn't disappoint with all the reputation that precedes him. The wonderful lines of purity and heartiness, and the soft soundtrack that accompanies the storytelling. A true children's story in its core, but which carries you with it all along, as though you forgot you were a grown-up (if you are).

Director: Hayao Miyazaki.

Score
Cinematography: 8.5
Voice Acting: 8.0
Editing: 8.5
Sound: 8.5
Text: 7.5
Concept: 9.0
Premise Execution: 8.5

Average Score: 8.3

027. Dressed to Kill (United States - 1980)

What a waste of a great concept. The idea of a psychiatrist tormented by his sexual identity and gone murderer. Dr. Elliott/Bobbi (Michael Caine) is a double-character that feels impulse to kill any of his patients who happen to seduce him anyhow (oops, spoiler, lads and lasses!). That's a nice thriller in itself. The problem is that Brian de Palma is as confuse concerning narrative as his main character is concerning his sexuality. A messed up experience, full of odd, "silent film dragged out of history's line" scenes and bad close-ups and suspense triggers. A critique by Roger Ebert states that "Dressed to Kill is an exercise in style, not narrative; it would rather look and feel like a thriller than make sense, but DePalma has so much fun with the conventions of the thriller that we forgive him and go along". I don't, Roger. I'm sorry. It's not just because Brian is such a big name in the industry that I'll forgive his bizarre plotline presentation, the bad performances (except for Caine, sure) and obtuse photography.

Big names behind mediocre films don't buy out my point of view.

Score
Cinematography: 7.0
Acting: 6.5
Editing: 5.0
Sound: 6.5
Text: 7.0
Concept: 8.5
Premise execution: 4.5

Average Score: 6.4

025. The Shining (International Co-production - 1980)

This is one of the films I felt ashamed of never having watched before. We watched it on Sunday, and it was a curious experience. I expected more, having heard previously about the innovations it brought to the field of suspense/horror films. I didn't see much, to be honest. What I saw was a great acting by Jack Nicholson, and some nice props and brilliant editing and photography. That I already expected from Kubrick. But the annoying soundtrack - although it's highly atmospheric and composed to provide a purposefully bothersome sensation, it's way too loud for my ears to balance it with the images and text; it becomes a sensorial mess - and the predictable suspense disappointed me. I didn't see anything that special. It is, by far, the "least good" Kubrick film I've watched so far. Considering Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, Barry Lydon and the two short documentaries. I know, there's more to come.

Director: Stanley Kubrick.

Score
Cinematography: 9.0
Acting: 8.5
Editing: 9.0
Sound: 6.5
Text: 8.0
Concept: 7.0
Premise execution: 7.5

Average Score: 7.9

013. Top Secret! (United States - 1984)

(Finally back after several days of hiatus; the next five or so films were watched about one week ago)

A wave of good and bad. Mostly bad.
Val Kilmer is decent in this film, especially seeing as how comedy isn't his forte, he carries on a consistent character and seldom fails in his performance. And it all begins well, with nice parodies of spy movies in the 50s and 60s, and with reference to American stardom of the same era. This is the same style as Airplane!; actually, made by the same director, Jim Abrahams; so you can't expect much, since the options for comedic passages in such films quickly vanished in the very 80s that begot them. As the film progresses, it just gets bad and with silly mistakes of continuity. It just gets old quickly.

Director: Jim Abrahams

Score
Cinematography: 7.5

Acting: 7.0
Editing: 6.0
Sound: 6.5
Text: 6.0

Average Score: 6.6