In Part 1 and Part 2 I covered the films that Tarantino directed solo. In this third and final part I'm going to discuss some odds and ends, including films he directed part of, films he wrote, and even a few acting appearances. These won't be in any particular ranking order, nor will it be all inclusive.

Co-Directed

1. Grindhouse: Death Proof ( Read more... )

In Part 1, I outlined what I thought were Quentin Tarantino's best four films. Today, I rank the remaining five films for which he was the sole director ( Read more... )

While I was preparing my 2019 Cinema Year in Review, I realized that while there are several franchises where I typically see everything that comes out (including the MCU and 007), there is really only one living director who is "must see" viewing for me. That director is Quentin Tarantino.

As I've previously done with Kurosawa's  samurai films ( Read more... )

Way back in 2012 I gave my opinions of the nine films directed by Hayao Miyazaki that I had seen. Then in 2014 he released what is to date his last film and I summarized that too. Of his eleven films, that only one that I hadn't seen was his very first film, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. Thankfully, they did a one night only stand at the ( Read more... )

Some time ago I summarized the films of Hiyao Miyazaki. At that time I ranked nine of his films, excluding only The Castle of Cagliostro because I have not seen it. Recently a new film titled the The Wind Rises was released. I saw the dubbed version yesterday. Where does it stack up against his other nine films? I would say that it comes down right ( Read more... )

Last week I summarized my four favorite films by Hiyao Miyazaki. By popular demand (really, khiron1416 asked!), Here are my quick opinions on the remaining five.

5. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind has one of the strongest female lead characters I've seen in an animated film. Nausicaä is smart, brave and marvelously competent. She has clearly earned the ( Read more... )

The Cleveland Cinematheque ran an extensive series on the films of Hayao Miyazaki in September and October. Miyazaki is rightfully seen as the premier Japanese director of animation. Since Japan has a long history of animation, this is no small accomplishment. Miyazaki was unknown to the American mainstream until 1997, when Disney distributed a ( Read more... )

I've never been much that interested in anime. This is admittedly odd given my love for both animation and Japanese cinema, but for whatever reason I never caught the bug. Oh, like most of geekdom I have some familiarity with Miyazaki, but although I loved Spirited Away I haven't liked much of his subsequent output that much, and Ponyo was ( Read more... )

Yesterday I discussed Kurosawa's most famous four movies, each of which featured samurai. I've also seen four of his six other samurai films. Here's the breakdown:

5. Yojimbo's sequel, Sanjuro, is less famous than its predecessor (probably because it wasn't remade by anyone notable), but in many ways it is even better. Two particular scenes stand ( Read more... )

Over the course of six decades, Akira Kurosawa directed 30 movies. Only ten of them featured samurai, but Barenaked Ladies could be forgiven for singingLike Kurosawa I make mad films ( Read more... )