i recommend 'treeless mountain' and 'the passenger' as (superior) alternatives respectively i love the imagery of 'grave of the fireflies' and i have a pretty sentimental attachment to it but i understand criticisms, it is rather mawkish and not particularly profound at the end of the day. there are things i like about it though, like the way it doesn't focus on blaming the adults for the war and actually goes as far as to give the kids a measure of responsibility for their own demise, that's a brave decision that you just wouldn't get in those midday weepies you mention. and yeah it's WAY worse as a dub. most animé dubs are unlistenable. haven't seen 'five easy pieces' in years so i could well be totally wrong, but i remember it being pretty great. i love those kinds of movies though.
you and everybody else. i don't really get it, there was a gritty realism to the filmmaking technique but that didn't stop the movie being both pointless and really contrived for me. i literally cringed in the scene where the guy is late for the flight and he runs up to the flight attendant and she goes 'you only just made it!' - that's awful, and there was more stuff like that. i'm not a big fan of paul greengrass in general, his 2 bourne efforts were inferior to the first one as well (still solid though). incidentally 'green zone' is by him too, not seen that one yet but the reviews have been pretty bad.
Interesting. Just out of curiosity, have you seen his film Bloody Sunday? It's one of his earlier works, and personally I think it's better than United 93 and any of the Bourne movies. It still features the "gritty realism" technique; but the British officers are portrayed in a suspiciously negative light, which is one thing I think you might dislike about it. Otherwise, I think it's a fantastic movie.
I won't argue with you about that, but I liked it. I found it much better than Django, at least. Someone recommend me one or more good movies about feeling lost, in a metaphorical sense. Something downbeat.
The Final Destination - I rather enjoyed the first 3 for inventive killing but this one took just a few too many liberties with physics for me to enjoy. The effects took a major step backwards, too.
Rashomon - A short Kurosawa film. I didn't think it held a candle to some of his earlier stuff but it did leave you trying to figure out the truth.
