When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

"Well, that's the good thing about depression; you get your rest."

You know how you can tell when a movie is a classic? When you haven't seen it in years, yet you still remember it as vividly as if you saw it the other day.

Directed by Rob Reiner* and scribed by Nora Ephron, this perfect marriage of romance and comedy explores 12 years of a platonic relationship through chance encounters, and the eternal question of whether men and women can just be friends. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are effortlessly charming in the roles of two complete opposites, where the timing never seems to line up.

Along with Annie Hall, I consider it to be one of the best rom-coms of all time.

5 of what she's having out of 5

*The director of what I would consider to be five 5-star movies:

This is Spinal Tap (1984)

Stand by Me (1986)

The Princess Bride (1987)

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Misery (1990)

R.I.P. Rob Reiner and good riddance to this terrible year...

Throw Momma from the Train (1987)

Danny DeVito's directorial debut is a pitch black comedy about a nebbish middle-aged man who lives with his overbearing mother and plots her demise when he becomes inspired by Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train and gets a struggling writer (Billy Crystal) to do his dirty work for him, in exchange for doing his ex-wife in. It's a comedy of errors that is frequently funny, and Momma (portrayed by Anne Ramsey) is a hilariously terrifying presence.

3 "The night was...moist" out of 5 

THE PRINCESS BRIDE [1987]

Rob Reiner delivers a heavily quotable comedic fantasy/romance with The Princess Bride, based upon William Goldman's novel of the same name.
Framed around the story of a grandfather reading his grandson the novel about a dashing mysterious farmhand who must rescue the love of his life from a dastardly smug king, while running into all sorts of interesting folks & creatures along the way.
Reiner & co. do a fantastic job of balancing sweetness, silliness and adventure without ever tipping to far into any tone to become a unbalanced parody of itself.  Blessed with a wicked yet silly sense of humor, a passionate love for fantasy material and a wonderful cast that is safe for all ages.

4½ rodents of unusual size out of 5

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY [2013]

Dan Scanlon, director of Tracy, brings a lot of color and flair to the prequel to the 2001 Pixar hit Monsters, Inc. with the equally as entertaining Monsters University.
Like the first film, it doesn't quite meet the imaginative high standards of other Pixar films like Up, Wall-E or the Toy Story series but it has a thoughtful charm and thoroughly wholesome energy that leaves you smiling.  I can easily say I quite enjoyed this one and would watch it again to feel the warm & fuzzies.

3½ fifty foot tall librarians out of 5

SMALL APARTMENTS [2012]

Director Jonas Åkerlund's insanely weird black comedy Small Apartments is the type of film that could fall flat on it's face if not for it's perfect casting of each character.
It centers around Matt Lucas as a strange little bald man, who lives alone (with the exception of his landlord's corpse) and wears nothing but his undies & a new wig with each venture into the cruel world that surrounds him.  Åkerlund seems to have a firm grasp on his characters, as each aren't particularly great people but all are interesting and sympathetic.  The only problem is the narrative occasionally loses it's balance with some wonky pacing.  All in all, it's an enjoyable, sad and thoughtful quirky comedy that disturbs just as much as it makes you laugh.

3½ merkins out of 5

MONSTERS, INC. [2001]

It might not be one of Pixar/Disney's best films but Monsters, Inc. is most definitely one of it's cutest.
From Finding Nemo director Lee Unkrich and The Simpsons director David Silverman, this film is guaranteed to charm the pants off you with it's lovable characters, colorful visuals and vivid imagination.  It lacks the finesse of previous Pixar films or really any jokes for the older crowd but it's still a pretty fun ride, even if the kids will probably enjoy it more.  John Goodman and Billy Crystal's chemistry is just as good as Tom Hanks and Tim Allen's in Toy Story and that makes me eager for more of these delightful characters and their hijinks.

3½ yellow snow cones out of 5

THIS IS SPINAL TAP [1984]

Rob Reiner's theatrical feature length directorial debut, This Is Spinal Tap is probably one of the funniest rock music satires ever.

This mockumentary cult classic captures the lifestyles of the '80's heavy metal band so well, many real metal musicians of it's time failed to see the humor in it, some going so far as to saying "it's exactly like us. Why is it so funny?"

Spinal Tap members themselves, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer are top-notch ab-libbers and seem like the genuine thing, something they would only get better at at they prove in Guest's future films.  

4 crotch zucchinis out of 5

Analyze This (1999)

De Niro takes the NY gangster persona that Scorsese gave to him and sucks all the gravitas out of it. He plays it for laughs. It felt insulting at first that he would disrespect the genre so dismissively, but as it went on I stopped caring. He plays a mob boss with crippling emotional problems. He believes they can be solved by going to see a shrink. Billy Crystal, the shrink, drifts through the film and thinks he’s in a Woody Allen production much of the time. He was more irritating than irritated. It spawned a sequel. I won't be watching it.

2 hits of the pillow out of 5