The Hyperions - 3/5

This movie is a quirky indie super hero film that comes through with a lot of heart in the end. It’s consistently chuckle-funny, never reaching the hilarity to which it seems to aspire. It does a good job working around its tiny budget, though some of the seams show in the finished product. There’s a heavy layer of style that masks many budget restraints, and how that style strikes you will largely determine your mileage with this film.

Closest comparison: It’s like Umbrella Academy directed by Wes Anderson.

Setting: Super Hero
Plot: Family Drama
Tone: Indie Comedy

Hot Shots! (1991) - 2/5

This is a tired product of the Jim Abrahams machine, cranked out after all-time comedy greats Airplane! and Police Squad! generated the interest. Most of the jokes are non-sequitur visual gags like the ‘instruments’ joke in Airplane!, which work for sparse surprise comedy but here get redundant with overuse. Many of the jokes will elicit a chuckle, but none really merit the gut-busting laughs like previous films did. It’s worth watching for fans of Jim Abrahams, but everyone else can give it a miss.

Closest comparison: It’s Top Gun getting the Airplane! treatment.

Setting: Action
Plot: Action
Tone: Screwball Comedy

The Cat Returns (2002) - 4/5

This movie is exactly the sort of adorable modern fairy tale we’ve come to expect from Studio Ghibli. It’s cute and funny, and has the lyrically anomalous pacing emblematic of the Ghibli line. It’s directed by Morita, but if you like Miyazaki movies and haven’t seen it, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

Closest comparison: It’s somewhere between Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro and My Neighbor Totoro.

Setting: Fairy Tale/Modern
Plot: Adventure
Tone: Fairy Tale Adventure

Whisper of the Heart - 3/5

This is a slower, more tranquil movie than most Studio Ghibli films, but that pairs well with the hyper accurate day-to-day nuance captured in the animation. It’s directed by Yoshifumi Kondo, not Hayao Miyazaki, so it’s less fantastical than My Neighbor Totoro and more of a realistic coming-of-age tale like From Up On Poppy Hill. It’s just a lot of fun to see a few slices of everyday life in ‘90s Japan with enough of a trickle of a plot to keep everything moving.

Closest comparison: It’s more From Up On Poppy Hill than The Cat Returns

Setting: Coming of Age
Plot: Coming of Age
Tone: Tranquil