Howl’s Moving Castle (2005)

The 2005 release “Howl’s Moving Castle” is my third Hayao Miyazaki film in as many months, and it’s as out-of-this-world magical as its sister films (“Spirited Away“ and “Ponyo”). A girl who works in her late father’s hat shop encounters in a single day a kindly but eccentric wizard named Howl and a self-fawning, cruel witch. The former saves Sophie’s life, while the latter sets a spell that turns lass into old lady. The stricken Sophie flees home, only to encounter the titular structure, a (literally) roaming mishmash of dozens of castles, houses and cottages. "Howl" casts its own spell with a surreal plot, shifting character loyalties and -- hands down -- some of the best animation I’ve ever laid eyes on. Miyazaki’s films have become my favorite film fantasy outlets of recent, and “Howl” delivers: The sites, images and many places see here have never been done before. The American dub has Christian Bale as Howl, Emily Mortimer as (young) Sophie and Billy Crystal as a fireplace demon. The last thankfully low key. A

An Education (2009)

In early 1960s England, a 16-year-old girl named Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is wooed, romanced and whisked off to Paris and more by a much older man, 30-ish David (Peter Sarsgaard). It’s heaven to Jenny, who’s finishing a religious high school and looking forward to Oxford, then marriage and kids, and that’s it. (Certainly not a career.) With such a romance, it can’t end well, especially when Jenny learns David and his troupe of friends steal to pay the rent and jet to the Continent. Directed by Lone Scherfig and written by Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity”), the film is a stunner. And not just in acting, with Mulligan giving a magical debut, and Sarsgaard continually being a grade A star. It races past the possibly icky child molestation drama by tossing clichés and most expectations on their ears: Jenny’s parents approve, while her teachers rightfully vehemently disapprove, even as they show bigotry (David is a Jew). As with Jenny, who faces few to no choices in a sexist society, and makes mistakes in trying to (wouldn’t you?) break free, “Education” is a complicated joyful, heartbreaking film. A

Hudson Hawk (1991)

Bruce Willis just doesn’t star in the notorious action-comedy flop “Hudson Hawk,” he struts around like he’s the love-child of James Dean and John Belushi. He plays a cat thief who’s roped into (wait for it) one last job by the mobster Mario Brothers. Get it? Mario. Brothers. They’re Italian. (That’s the level of humor here.) One’s played by Frank Stallone. Sly was busy, I guess. Twenty or so minutes in, I thought the film was just somewhat awful. Then Willis and partner-in-crime Danny Aiello break into a museum to steal some Da Vinci art, and they … sing. Literally. Bruce Willis sings. And dances. As he robs a museum. It gets worse: Villain Richard E. Grant announces, “I’m the villain.” Sandra Bernhard is set off her chain. Andie McDowell is a nun who at one point impersonates a dolphin. Rome looks boring. (!) The whole film is one of those self-satisfied “ain’t we having fun?” toss-offs by actors too powerful to be told “No.” The last shot has Willis smirking into the camera. His face says, “Don’t like it? Fuck you.” Right back at you, Bruce. But I ain’t smirking. F

The Lovely Bones (2009)

I’ve not read the wildly popular book “The Lovely Bones.” So I entered this Peter Jackson adaptation aware only of the plot: 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is murdered in 1973 by a neighbor (Stanley Tucci) and watches from her own fantastical mini-heaven as her family (parented by Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz) grieves. Oscar winner? Not. The problems come quick: Jackson references “The Lord of the Rings” in a bookstore ad, and it’s just one hint of a director obsessed with his own past. To wit: In Susie’s heaven, we are served a “Heavenly Creatures” redux, but cloying and over-stuffed with CGI dancing penguins. The fantasy puff overwhelms the drama. In heavy makeup, Tucci is the most generic child murderer I’ve ever seen on screen: Bad blond comb over. Giant "I kill" eye glasses. Loner. Openly glares as teenage girls pass by. He builds doll houses. Doll houses! The guy would flag crazy in 1973, 2003 or 1773. Worse, his denouncement is bizarrely supernatural, tasked by Susie’s spirit? God? Only the performances gel, with Ronan proving “Atonement” was no fluke. Weisz shines, always. Tucci menaces, but all in one key. Only Wahlberg falls short. Surely the book must be better than this. C+

District 9 (2009)

“Avatar” may be the biggest, most eye-popping sci-fi film of 2009, but it’s not the best. Or the boldest. That crown belongs to “District 9,” a low-budget genre masher that outpaces James Cameron’s epic on every front -- writing, acting, brains, brawn and infection -- that really matters to a true cinephile. By infection, I mean this South African-made film got in my blood system and hasn't left. It’s also a razor sharp satire on politics, racism and society, without being obnoxious.

Produced by Peter Jackson and directed by newcomer Neill Blomkamp, “District 9” is set on an alternate Earth in which a massive alien ship entered South African airspace and hovered over Johannesburg in 1982. It has stayed stranded there ever since, with its alien passengers left to live in openly fetid anarchistic slums. The presence of these aliens, which resemble Greedo from “Star Wars” meshed with a lobster, upended Apartheid's bloody era by giving black Africans and ruling white invaders new ground in which to bond: Hatred and oppression of the visitors.

Our lead character is a xenophobic Haliburton-type, right-wing-patsy company man named Wikus (newcomer Sharlto Copley), who dearly loves his wife, but giggles happily as he watches and listens to alien eggs burn. (He likens the sounds of abortion-by-fire to cooking popcorn.) A pathetic, vest-wearing nerd, Wilkus is charged with clearing the city’s alien slums, thus shipping the residents to a countryside camp, not unlike a Nazi mantra. But something gets in his blood system … and the movie blasts off in a 100 directions.

Told in a mixture of faux documentary interviews inter-cut with straight forward movie narrative, “District 9” is staggering in its suspense and the character arch of Wikus. It’s also a treat after “Avatar” (despite my liking it quite well), to see special-effects treated as haphazard: The ship hovering over the city is just part of the landscape, a common site to every one on screen.

But it’s the satire here that really sells: Dig the interview scene where a woman speaks about the "evil" visitors: “They’ll take your shoes right off your feet” and “kill you” without a thought, she claims. As she speaks, a nearby alien desperately and hopelessly scrambles through a dumpster in search of food. The kicker: The woman is a poor black. Not a rich snooty European. That’s film-making with balls, not to mention the second smart blockbuster of the summer to re-do history (the other is "Inglourious Basterds").

It’s wild that a sci-fi film made halfway around the world, with no American actors and mostly in subtitles, can remind us that this genre is at its most glorious when it’s not just tickling our eyes and ears, but striking at our hearts and minds. But, I’ll take it. A

Avatar (2009)

Let’s get two things clear: The plot of “Avatar” is lean. As others have said, it’s “Dances With Wolves” in space. Sam Worthington ("Terminator: Salvation") is akin to the Kevin Costner soldier of conscious, Zoe Saldana of “Star Trek” plays his culture-(dare I say star?)crossed lover. We have tall blue aliens replacing Native Americans, and corporate soldiers-for-hire steeping in for 1860s Union troops. There’s even a winged-horse similar to Cisco that heroically dies in a hail of bullets.

But all that doesn’t matter, because of the second thing: Director James Cameron is the king of the world. Well, cinema. Hands down. Because what "Avatar" lacks in story-telling, it breaks new ground and tops untoppable expectations in special-effects and eye-candy cinema. As in “Aliens,” “The Abyss,” and the "Terminator" films, “Avatar” drop-kicked the child inside my brain, the one who still wants to be Spider-Man. (In addition to DWW, Cameron also borrows -- ironically and quite well -- from the climax of his own "Aliens.")

The CGI aliens in here, created by a new high-tech motion capture camera developed by Cameron, have full, real personalities. The aliens’ eyes are deep and glisten with the spark of life. Skin has pores, cracks and creases. Blood smears sloppily. Other than Gollum from “Lord of the Rings,” I’ve never seen that before. Mountains float, as do hairy little jelly fish that glow florescent bright. Plants, mountains, strange creatures and moons abound, all in seemingly photo-realistic clarity. The stunning battles, especially in the 3-D version, left me breathless. (Cameron also redesigned the entire 3-D process.)

And as with “Titanic,“ Cameron has toppled my movie-snob brick wall to the ground. I literally cared about every alien, shrub, flying horse and tree from start to finish in this openly "tree-hugger" film (Republicans will cringe). In 3-D and the 2-D version, both times. No "Avatar" isn't as deep as "Hurt Locker" or even "District 9," but it's the purest cinematic experience I've had all year. Cameron makes films that belong in theaters. Huge cinemas. To be seen with an audience. Not at home on DVD, safe in the living room with the lights on. That’s out-of-this world movie-making talent. A-

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975)

Following “The Producers“ (Broadway), “Blazing Saddles” (western) and “Young Frankenstein” (classic horror) -- all made by Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder starred, wrote and directed the spoof “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother” on his own. Some veterans of the prior films, mainly Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise and Madeline Kahn, appear in supporting roles in this story about a case too lowly for the pipe smoking great detective. Sherlock instead kicks it to his kid brother, Sigerson Holmes (Wilder), a musical-loving wannabe who ought to be in the same therapy class as Leo Bloom. What the case is all about is irrelevant. The gags count here, none better than a Moriarty (Leo McKern) who must commit an evil act every 24 minutes, cannot add and has a height issue. McKern steals the film, even from the likes of the great cast. There are solid laughs all around, but as a whole this falls short of Brooks gold. The ending is choppy, as if Wilder couldn’t decide how to roll credits. B