The Lion King (1994)

As Disney’s Pixar continues to dazzle eyeballs with animated CGI fare such as “Incredibles” and “Toy Story” sequels, it’s easy to forget the unbeatable magic of hand-drawn animation, and “The Lion King” is absolutely one of the best of now extinct ink-and-paint glories. This is a jaw-dropping beautiful epic with a capital “E” movie with music catchable, happy, and chilling, and characters straight from Shakespeare. You know plot: Young African lion cub Simba is the apple of his father/king’s eye until the latter is killed, leaving Simba on the run, under the impression that he did in his daddy. It is, of course, the uncle, to blame. In other words, “Hamlet.” The voice cast is perfect, from James Earl Jones as the king/father, and full “Reversal of Fortune” evil Jeremy Irons as Uncle Scar, to Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick as young and adult Simba. But it’s visuals I love -– the exact strokes made by men and women, not computers, of a cub sinking in the grass in fear of dad’s wrath or the same cub trying to awaken his dead father. Breathtaking. Amazing. Art. The 18-year-old “King” has aged like royal wine. Classic. A+

Margin Call (2011)

“Margin Call” is an end-of-America disaster flick with a Too Big Too Fail Weapon of Mass Destruction: Lehman Bros., slightly fictionalized. The harbinger of doom is a literal rocket scientist turned stock market shark (Zachary Quinto) who discovers his firm is a monstrous pig gorged on a diet of bad mortgages, and a heart attack just hit. His revelation sets off a chain bomb up the corporate ladder, from the floor manager (Kevin Spacey) to the CEO (Jeremy Irons at his most “Dead Rigner”ish). The reaction is not a heroic effort, but a scam far more sinister than anything in “Glengarry Glenn Ross,” another great F.U. to the Capitalism at All Costs mantra that fuels America. (GOP cheer!) A guy named J.C. Chandor makes his writing/directing debut, and he plays as if a decade-old pro as “Call” races like a thriller, and sports an acidic wit (no one in charge understands math). Quinto produced, and is a major star here, not just through massive-high-IQ acting, but because he lets the lions (Spacey, Irons and Demi Moore among them) rule the den. Sick twist: It all happened. A

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

The movie "Dungeons & Dragons" is as exciting as the board game. Not at all. The dull plot has an evil wizard (Jeremy Irons) fighting a young queen (Thora Birch) for command of her realm, and it's up to two dullard thieves (Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayans) and a young woman (Zoe McLellan) to save the day. Or so I recall, I quit paying attention fairly quick. The level of bad acting is painful, even for a crap fantasy film. Irons doesn't chew scenery, he sucks it in whole and vomits it back up while screaming every line. Surprisingly, it's Birch ("American Beauty") who is the worst of the lot. Her queen has the personality of stool, and dresses like C-3PO. The VFX, the whole reason for these genre films, is pure 7-Eleven midnight sale. But there's one ray of hope: Wayans keeps the film from getting an egg. Seriously. I first thought his comedic performance as the token black sidekick was a horrible minstrel act not seen since the days of "Gone with the Wind." But it occurred to me that Wayans is far too talented ("Requiem for a Dream") for such nonsense. He's riffing off his brother's turn in Spike Lee's satire "Bamboozled." When his dead character is resurrected at the end, Wayans is smart enough not to appear on screen. Smarter than any dragon here. D+