The Living Daylights (1987)

Initially, I thought that the first film with Timothy Dalton as James Bond was perhaps even more ridiculous than the others in the series. There are exploding milk bottles, a man who looks like David Bowie who murders people with his Walkman and a chase down a snow-covered mountain in a cello case. But then I realised that they are all this ridiculous. 

Dalton – an unpopular Bond – is actually fairly strong in the part, even if his throwaway comments after killing people continue to reinforce the notion that 007 must be a psychopath. There’s only one Bond girl, as this was the era of AIDS consciousness, and Maryam d'Abo is weak in the role. Jeroen Krabbé is OK-ish as a troublesome Soviet general, although the same actor was more convincing when he played the villain in The Fugitive. Joe Don Baker is too "pantomime" as American military enthusiast Brad Whitaker.

Overall there’s a slightly low-budget feel about it, but that actually gives it a more appealing back-to-basics quality (it’s not all exotic locations and super-yachts). But the plot – regarding the KGB, arms dealers, drug dealers and the Mujahideen – is too convoluted and I’m still not sure it entirely made sense.

Dante’s Peak (1997)

Another film viewed on TV while on holiday. Pierce Brosnan plays a volcanologist who recently lost his girlfriend in a volcanic eruption in Colombia. He now has to convince the town of Dante’s Peak to evacuate before everything kicks off. Then everything kicks off.

It’s a compelling disaster film with a genuinely dramatic visualisation of a town being destroyed by an eruption, with its ensuing rivers of lava, toxic ash clouds and devastating pyroclastic flows. Brosnan is just right for the role – it’s partly a James Bond action scenario, partly a step forwards into a more “human” part. The “love interest” is the town mayor, played by Linda Hamilton.

My only criticism is that there seemed to be a scene missing near the end at the very climax of the film. While it’s not emotionally gruelling or upsetting like The Impossible (with which it shares a family-in-peril theme), it’s an entirely believable thriller.

Romancing the Stone (1984)

Another film watched on TV while on holiday. This is an action-adventure romp starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. 

The plot is ludicrous, but it’s also charming and fun. Turner is terrific as the lonely romantic novelist from New York who finds herself in her own romantic saga in Colombia. Douglas is passable as the male lead, an American bird smuggler. I like the line when – reading an old magazine in a crashed plane – he exclaims “Dammit, man” having finally learned that “the Doobie Brothers broke up!” 

I could have done without Danny DeVito, who seems to play the same part in every film he’s in, but even with his unfunny antics this is still highly enjoyable fluff.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Finally saw this on TV, 37 years after it came out. Disappointing. It’s a good-natured swashbuckling romp that veers on pantomime in places (daft running around and escape scenes, camp bald man who takes off his shirt to have a fight, a monkey who works for the Nazis), with cartoonish violence (like James Bond, Indiana Jones can be sprayed by machine-gun fire and never be hurt). There’s also queasily intrusive music by John Williams, who lazily recycles his themes from other films (including Star Wars). On the plus side, Harrison Ford is always watchable (he was at the height of his good looks) and Karen Allen is impressive as the love interest Marion Ravenwood. The ending is utterly preposterous, with the semi-realist narrative suddenly turning supernatural. As with all Steven Spielberg films except for Duel and Jaws, I couldn’t quite see what all the fuss was about.

12 Angry Men (1957)

Courtroom drama directed by Sidney Lumet. This is a slow-burner set in one (sweaty) room. It’s all about the dialogue. One man in a jury of 12 attempts to challenge a guilty verdict and makes his colleagues begin to question what they believe they know and the prejudices informing the ways they think. It should be a set text for all students of law or psychology, studying as it does the way people behave in groups and how we are all swayed by one another and the power of the mob.

Henry Fonda is excellent as the voice of reason who gently but persuasively begins to make a difference in a group of people ready to send a young man to his death. In an era when democracy and freedom is under threat, it’s more relevant than ever.

Emma (1996)

Disappointing version of the Jane Austen novel starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the meddling girl who manipulates the affairs of those around her. The incidental music is intrusive, and dialogue that sparkles on the page somehow fails to come alive. At times there is a tired Sunday-evening-TV-drama feel to it. I’m still not sure if Ewan McGregor can act. There are flashes of wit, but not enough of them – baffling given the richness of the source material. It improves as Emma undergoes her character development, but Clueless, which adapts and updates the same story, is a far more entertaining and successful tribute to Austen’s talent.

Dirty Dancing (1987)

I had never seen this before. Almost a third of a century after its release I spent £1 to find out what all the fuss was about. Nineteen eighty-seven is the year of 1980s films. This film is so 1980s that it simply cannot convince you it is set in 1963. Not only does the music lurch between the decades, but also the fashions. Patrick Swayze acts with his sweaty muscles (he’s topless for much of the film), while Jennifer Grey is charming as the wide-eyed daddy’s girl who learns how to dance – and live her life.

Thematically, there’s plenty going on: a thread about class prejudice, the young vs. old generational divide and the sense of a new, more liberated world about to arrive. One flaw is the way that – as per the style of the times – it breaks down into a pop video at certain points, including the narrative climax when you get the big hit ‘(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life’ by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes.

Curiously, the mother of the family is almost entirely absent from the narrative. She barely gets to speak. Only the father’s opinion matters regarding their daughter’s behaviour. I hope this was the filmmakers making a point about sexism rather than forgetting to develop an integral character. That said, there’s plenty to enjoy – the period detail of a simpler time, the soundtrack (when it stays in the correct era) and the warm evocation of a long-gone American innocence at a Catskills resort.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Despite the confusing title, this is the second film in the rebooted series. It’s incredibly intense. Ten years have passed and human civilisation has been decimated by the Simian Flu. The apes are living in the forest outside San Francisco in an advanced civilisation beyond that of cavemen, with buildings, developed relationships and basic language. Inevitably, this fragile human/ape coexistence is threatened when the humans intrude on the apes’ living space in their quest to restore a local power source at a hydroelectric dam. Before you know it, there’s all-out war.

As with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the CGI is remarkably convincing. There are hefty themes about war, peace, trust, power, politics and social organisation. And there’s a lot of shooting. The film challenges the usual monsters-are-bad logic by letting the apes and humans be equally complex, with factions of both species intent on seeking conflict and peace. It’s gripping throughout, as well as strangely moving.

Steel Magnolias (1989)

Moving comedy-drama adapted from Robert Harling’s play. Indeed, it works very much as a theatrical piece with long, set scenes and acts. The story concerns six women in a small Louisiana town and examines how their lives interact. At the heart of it is a mother–daughter relationship. There are laughs and tears aplenty. Dolly Parton is a natural as the local beautician. Daryl Hannah proves she really can act as the timid newcomer who gets religion. Julia Roberts is the just-married daughter battling severe diabetes and Sally Field is her endlessly worried mother. Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis are also just right for their parts as older members of the community. The male characters (including Sam Shepard as Dolly Parton’s distant husband) are deliberately played down, allowing the film to keep its focus on the six women. Things are slow to get going and I didn’t think I was enjoying it, but matters improve when the narrative kicks in and ultimately works round to an emotional and satisfying conclusion.