100 Film Favorites – #58: Harry and the Hendersons (William Dear, 1987) “When you can’t believe your eyes, trust your heart.” I’ve mentioned my passion for cryptozoology several times already in this Countdown. Well, Harry and the Hendersons is probably the best cryptozoology movie out there. Bigpaw may claim to “supersede” your everyday, run-of-the-mill sasquatch,…
100 Film Favorites – #59: Mickey’s Christmas Carol (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1983) Okay, so technically this is a short film, and not a feature. But since I’ve already included made-for-TV movies and even half-hour television specials, I hope you’ll excuse me playing fast and loose with the selection criteria once again. Those of you who have…
100 Film Favorites – #60: Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, 1986) “On the 21st day of the month of September, in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence. And this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often…
100 Film Favorites – #61: Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison, 1971) “Here in Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune…without breaking his neck. You may ask, why do we stay up there, if it’s so dangerous? Well, we stay…
100 Film Favorites – #62: O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen brothers, 2000) Today’s entry is probably well-known to many of you, so I won’t belabor you with an over-detailed plot synopsis. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a loose retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey set in the Depression-era American South. George Clooney stars as…
100 Film Favorites – #63: “Wreck-It Ralph” (Rich Moore, 2012) This is the most recent film selected for the list, but it definitely belongs here. I’m going to make a somewhat controversial claim now, so excitable nerds get ready. I hereby declare Wreck-It Ralph the best “video game movie” ever made (though honorable mention is…
100 Film Favorites – #64: Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999) Buzz Lightyear, Ellen Ripley, and Severus Snape crew a spaceship. That’s really all I should have to say to convince you to watch today’s selection. I first saw Galaxy Quest on the last day of Civics class in 8th grade. Well, I saw the first…
100 Film Favorites – #65: We’re Back!: A Dinosaur’s Story (Phil Nibbelink & Simon Wells, 1993) In 1993, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment produced two dinosaur movies. One was an epic in which dinosaurs are reintroduced to the modern world, and terrifying action sequences alternate with tender moments of survival and enduring humanity. The other was…
100 Film Favorites – #66: The Adventures of Milo and Otis (Masanori Hata, 1989) Sometimes foreign films will be re-packaged for release in America, and get rather sneakily passed off as something more “home-grown.” This is a particularly frequent occurrence in entertainment media aimed at children. Films I remember from my childhood which were less…
100 Film Favorites – #67: The Road to El Dorado (Eric “Bibo” Bergeron & Will Finn, 2000) Sometimes Disney and Dreamworks release films with very similar subject matter at roughly the same time, and you have to wonder what’s up. A Bug’s Life and Antz. Finding Nemo and Fish Tale. Madagascar and The Wild. And…