When Harry Met Sally...

Quintessential. That is the only term that truly captures the full depth of this film. It is the quintessential romantic comedy. It is, among a host of contenders, perhaps the quintessential New York movie, so much so that it can even make a dedicated urbanophobe see the appeal of living in Manhattan. It is quintessentially of its time—it was released in 1989, that enormously portentous year—and yet it transcends that moment and feels timeless. (A soundtrack that bursts with all-time great music helps in a big way to convey that sense of a work for the ages.) The entire presentation is flawless. Also, this is a very generous movie, with a script that shares the glory—and greatest lines—among the players, including a legendary line delivered by the director’s mother, of all people. Some of the concepts about romance that are established pieces of the lore today first came to our attention in this film: low/high maintenance girlfriends, transitional relationships, and can they/can’t they dynamics. It’s all a spectacular, rewarding viewing experience. Best of All hardly covers it, but there is no higher complement from the Bad Cat. Watch it again, watch it regularly, and just fall in love with it.

The Princess Bride

This may be the most superfluous review on this site. This film has long been a Best of All inductee; I simply wanted to add a review upon re-watching this classic. And in re-watching it, I approached it with as critical an eye as I could, looking to find the flaws instead of just rubber-stamping this flick's reputation. And guess what--there aren't any. This is as close to perfection as it's possible to get. Maybe one could quibble about the parts of the book that did not make it into the movie--but Goldman wrote both the novel and the screenplay, so those are his edits to his own work. Can't really complain about that. (And film is a different medium from books; some changes are absolutely necessary.) The re-watching was, all in all, an amazingly affirming experience: this movie is exactly as good, not just as you remember it, but as you dream it is. A monumental achievement, one of the best movies ever made, and worthy of its legendary status.

Monsters University

I watched this flick with little enthusiasm at first--I have an established bias against these later Pixar movies, for various reasons--but gradually I warmed up to this one. The story hit every college movie cliche imaginable, but the movie eventually comes out on top despite its deficiencies, mostly because of plenty of good gags and jokes, and one fairly unexpected twist towards the end that redeems a lot of the triteness.

America's Sweethearts

Mildly amusing. The ever reliable John Cusack comes through, for the most part, and no one particularly embarrasses himself or herself. But the humor doesn't cut nearly as deep as it should have; and the movie's satirical targets have already been shot to death a thousand times over.

Monsters Inc.

The nice part about watching this movie: listening to the terrified screams of children, of course. All cynical humor aside, this really is an entertaining and amusing bit of animated schtick. It's well-designed--naturally; Pixar has the template down pat by now--and witty, without trying too hard to be hip and "now"; i.e., no surfer- and/or jive-talking characters. Just funny stuff.

Analyze This

A few laughs; you could do worse with things with your time. Just don't expect greatness. Sorry, I'm just not a fan of DeNiro's perpetual gangster motif.