[rating: 3] The American Film Institute puts Yankee Doodle Dandy at number 100 on its list of the all-time best movies. On any list this large, the 100 spot tends to be more of a "we've got to start somewhere" point than anything else, and that's as true in this case as in any other. That's not to say that it's a bad movie—it isn't—but I don't know that it's one of the "best." It's an enjoyable picture, but no better or worse than, nor particularly different from, countless other films of the period. By that I mean it's got a song and dance every few minutes, a moment of slapstick, fall-out-of-your-hammock style comedy here and there, and a cast of people who all talk at about five thousand words a second. The movie presents the road to success life story of actor/songwriter/playwright George M. Cohan, with James Cagney, the original side-of-the-mouth talker, giving an Oscar winning performance in the lead role. Thanks largely to this movie, there's this incredibly odd dichotomy in people's minds when they think of Jimmy Cagney; on the one hand he's a tough-guy gangster who'd as soon shoot you as look at you and on the other ...

[rating: 5] AFI puts The Wizard of Oz at number six. While I’d rate it even higher (number three, perhaps even number two), at least they gave it a spot in the top ten. While some may object to the inclusion of a children’s fairy tale so high on the list among films of deeper meaning and greater importance, that is a mistake; The Wizard of Oz is the ultimate example and perfect realization of “movie magic.” It will not surprise you to learn that The Wizard of Oz is the story of a Kansas farm girl who travels via cyclone to the marvelous land of Oz where she has a Grand Adventure and learns an Important Lesson. By the time you’re old enough to have learned to read these words, you’ve already seen the movie, probably more than once. But this long-term (the film fast approaches its seventieth anniversary) near constant exposure has not caused it to shine any less brightly—it may, in fact, have made the movie even more relevant, as it paints a picture of innocence and purity of heart we often feel we’ve lost, acting as a sort of oasis of wholesomeness in morally bankrupt times. Is it even ...

[rating: 5] If you want to watch an animated feature, this is the one to watch. Don't screw around with such latter-day cinematic turds as Treasure Planet, Rugrats in Paris or Pocahontas. For sheer enjoyment, and for appreciation of the amazing things the art of real, hand-drawn animation can do, you can't beat the Disney classics, and Fantasia is the best of the best. The concept behind Fantasia is familiar to nearly everyone now that more than sixty years have gone by since the film's original release. That familiarity could make us forget just how innovative and downright daring this project, this "concert feature," was. Just in case you've grown up entirely under a rock or with marshmallow creme tightly packed into your eyes and ears, I'll explain Fantasia to you. It's not a motion picture in the conventional sense; there's no unifying story, or for that matter any story at all. Instead, Fantasia presents a series of animated vignettes set to eight pieces of classical music. Between the vignettes there are brief narrations by Deems Taylor (Deems? He's gotta be making that up.), but it's the drawings and the music that drive this picture. Combining animation by the Disney studio and ...

[rating: 2.5] Stanley Kubrick was a filmmaker of tremendous foresight. While making 2001: A Space Odyssey in the late 1960s, he was able to think to himself at great length of the way the movie would hold up in the future. “Self,” he thought, “this is something of a dilemma. Though dazzling at present, the special effects I’ve created in the ‘Beyond the Infinite’ sequence will one day be surpassed by those on even a television cartoon. Though it is now the norm for science fiction to use electronic instruments to create an odd, otherworldly score, in less than ten years symphonic soundtracks will again come into fashion, leaving my use of pre-existing classical music to seem like a trite underachievement. Furthermore, my monkey costumes will soon seem utterly absurd, not up to the quality of even a bad Planet of the Apes spoof.” Fortunately, Kubrick was a genius when it came to making movies and a brilliant solution occurred to him. “I know!” he thought. “The only way to offset these potential difficulties is to make each and every scene in this movie run in excess of 18,000 minutes! It’s perfect!” Of course, you can tell this is merely conjecture on my part. ...