Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

This was critically savaged and/or ignored at the time of release. In his one-star Guardian review, Peter Bradshaw wrote: “You will have had handfuls of wet sand in your swimsuit less irritating than this supremely irritating romantic dramedy.” But I liked the title and the concept – in three weeks the Earth will be destroyed by an asteroid. As society breaks down, everyone has to address the question of how they use the time they have left.

Penny (Keira Knightley) and Dodge (Steve Carell) are neighbours in the same apartment block. When looting and rioting hits their street, they take off together on what turns out to be a sort of road trip. They are opposites in many ways – she’s English, he’s American; she’s 28, he’s middle-aged; she’s giddily naive, he’s reliable, worldly and wise – but inevitably they begin to fall for each other as their time runs out. The blossoming love story points at bigger questions: what really matters in these extreme circumstances? Why does it matter? Who should you spend your last few hours with? Friends and family? A lover? Or a random stranger in the new climate of anything-goes lawlessness?

I can see why Peter Bradshaw was irritated, but I think Keira Knightley’s scatty, free-spirited persona is deliberately annoying. She needs to be, initially, because the film is partly about her character’s progression to maturity as she finally meets someone she really cares about.

One thing fails to ring true, though. She’s supposed to be a music fan and she saves a selection of records from her apartment during the riot. (There are prominent displays of LPs by Herb Alpert, John Cale, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed and Scott Walker at various points in the film.) But there’s something oddly unconvincing about K.K. as a record buyer, even given the faddishness of vinyl in younger consumers. She even self-consciously says: “I love records. You really have to take care of vinyl.”

It’s not a masterpiece – it could certainly have been funnier, and some of the scenes could have worked better – but it seems more relevant than ever during these dark times of a global pandemic. And despite the unevenness, I was both moved and amused.

Darling (1965)

Julie Christie stars as Diana Scott, a young model who doesn’t know what she wants from life. She leaves her husband to be with a literary interviewer (Dirk Bogarde), only to find herself soon becoming involved with an advertising executive (Laurence Harvey), who may be able to boost her career, and then with an Italian prince (José Luis de Villalonga), who will transform her into royalty. Each of these relationships fails her in some way, and the film is deliberately ambiguous about whether she is using these men or they are using her.

It’s visually striking and the music by John Danworth adds a further dimension. It’s unpredictable, too, rather than simply opting for cosy kitchen-sink Englishness – such as when a party in Paris proves to be a transgressive experience featuring unsettling identity games.

Julie Christie is excellent as the young dreamer who is deeply confused. The film is all the more effective and engaging as a character portrait because it doesn’t seek to moralise.

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Extremely sophisticated comedy-drama. John Cusack plays a paid assassin who returns to his hometown to attend a school reunion and to meet up with the girlfriend (Minnie Driver) he abandoned a decade previously. When old friends and colleagues ask what he does for a living, he tells them he’s a professional killer and they think he’s joking. But he is finally maturing and beginning to question his “moral flexibility” – despite having one more job to do. Meanwhile, a rival assassin played by Dan Akyroyd intends to finish him off.

The humour is of the very blackest sort and the film balances the laughs and the tension with such expertise that it works. Supporting characters such as his terrified therapist Dr. Oatman (Alan Arkin) and his assistant Marcella (John’s sister, Joan Cusack) add further depth and wit.

Original music is by Joe Strummer and there’s also an excellent 1980s indie-pop soundtrack (Specials, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure) in line with the “reunion” theme.

Hugely entertaining, and it makes you think too.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

James Cameron’s follow-up to his 1984 classic pulls off the unlikely feat of matching that film. It’s a much higher budget, but the spirit of it is very similar.

John Connor (Edward Furlong), who the original Terminator failed to prevent being born, is now a 10-year-old child. His mother, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), is confined to a mental institution because no one believed her tales of tech-monsters from the future and impending global meltdown. In the present day of the film, two further Terminators are sent to kill John Connor. In a neat twist, there is a “bad” Terminator (T-1000) played by Robert Patrick and a good one played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (the villain of the first film). In another twist, the T-1000 is way more advanced. He has shape-shifting abilities – a liquid-metal chameleon able to take the form of anyone he wants to impersonate. As if all this wasn’t enough, Sarah and John have to prevent the technological advances that will lead to the future nuclear conflict that Skynet will use to dominate the planet.

It sounds complicated, but the storytelling is lucid and easy to follow. Tonally, it’s all over the place – there’s extreme gun violence but there are also attempts at humour, such as a young boy (who wears a Public Enemy T-shirt throughout) trying to teach a machine to smile. I rather liked that oddness.

Still not sure whether Linda Hamilton can act, but she gets the job done. Arnie is more impressive as a cold machine than he is when he goes for warmth or comedy.

Further films would follow. The third, fourth and fifth episodes were rendered invalid by the sixth, which claimed to be a direct sequel to Terminator 2 and which essentially erased the timelines of the interim sequels. But given the subject matter, you can just about accept all of them as alternative timelines set in motion by different yet related events.

Papillon (1973)

An epic adaptation of Henri Charrière’s autobiographical novel, with Steve McQueen starring as the author and Dustin Hoffman playing his friend and companion.

It’s compelling and fairly downbeat, although it possibly suffers from trying to squeeze a huge book into 150 minutes of screen time. So much happens. Papillon's time in a prison in French Guiana includes two brutal spells in solitary confinement. The first is of two years, and we are shown in detail how devastating that experience is for him. The second spell lasts for five years, and this is not shown at all – a brilliant decision that serves to underscore the unimaginable horror of battling starvation and madness for so long a time. We also see his various incredible escape experiences, which involve lepers, nuns, island tribespeople and a raft made of coconuts.

Given his rivalry with Paul Newman, it’s tempting to see this as McQueen’s attempt to “do a Cool Hand Luke” – a Cooler Hand Luke, perhaps? – and it’s certainly a role with depth to it. The extremes of suffering he is expected to depict make for more of a soul-searching performance than usual. As usual, though, he hardly has any dialogue. It’s rare that you ever see a McQueen character deep in conversation.

Distinctive and memorable, it’s an odd film that stays with you.

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

The third and final film in the reboot series significantly escalates the drama of the first two (Rise of... and Dawn of...), ramping it up to apocalyptic levels while retaining sharp focus and intelligence.

Apes and humans are now at war, with “Caesar” (Andy Serkis) and his companions being hunted down by army forces to determine the dominant species on Earth. These soldiers are led by Colonel J. Wesley McCullough (Woody Harrelson), a crazed messiah-like figure clearly modelled along the lines of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. (Oddly enough, the film makes that connection explicit with graffiti in a tunnel that reads “Ape-pocalyse now”.) The showdown intensifies when the apes are enslaved and a rival human faction comes to the military facility to attack the Colonel and his men.

It’s an emotional story with a surprisingly satisfying ending. I had no idea how it could be resolved, but director Matt Reeves pulled it off as he did with the previous instalment.

As with the rest of the trilogy, this film asks profound questions about human behaviour. It repeatedly shows the apes as being more compassionate than the destructive humans intent on their self-defeating struggle for power. There’s a disturbing brutality for a “12”-certificate film, made all the more affecting because the CGI apes seem so uncannily real.

At a key moment close to the resolution, Caesar finds himself in a position to obliterate the Colonel but acts more “humanely” than any of the humans. It’s a sobering message for all of us that animals might actually be more sophisticated than we like to believe we are.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

Excellent crime drama with a refreshing visual flair.

Steve McQueen is a wealthy Boston playboy who masterminds elaborate bank robberies for his own amusement, rather than because he needs the money. I like the manic laughter he emits on a few occasions. Faye Dunaway plays the independent insurance investigator who knows that he did it but – while attempting to find proof – begins to fall for his charms. It’s a deliberately ambiguous romance. Can they trust each other? Is she just doing her job or is she in love with him? And does he love her in return? We don’t know and it’s unclear whether they do either.

There’s a brilliant scene in which the couple play chess. It works on both a literal and metaphorical level, with each trying to outwit the other. It’s also a sort of seduction, with hands and eyes sublimating sensual presence as the game unfolds.

There’s an unusual, stylish use of split-screen techniques. Sometimes these are used to convey multiple action scenes occurring simultaneously. At other times they are purely a visual effect, used for artistic reasons only.

The music was composed by Michel Legrand and the hit song “The Windmills of Your Mind” – somehow perfect for the film – was recorded by Noel Harrison.

In typical Steve McQueen style, he’s cast in such a way that he’s once again the elegant and effortlessly cool loner. You do wonder how he might have fared in a less flattering role.

A superb remake came out in 1999.

Rebecca (1940)

Stunningly dramatic Alfred Hitchcock drama adapted from the Daphne du Maurier novel.

A young woman (Joan Fontaine) meets a widower (Laurence Olivier) and they marry after a whirlwind romance. But when they return to his mansion in Cornwall, they find that the shadow of his dead wife Rebecca still haunts everyone who came into contact with her. Then there’s the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who has a dangerous obsession, and Rebecca’s lover Favell (George Sanders), intent on seeing her death investigated as a murder.

In typical Hitchcock style, the tension builds to almost unbearable levels. The film is noirish and verges on horror in places. Unusual framing and camera angles help to unnerve and unsettle.

Fontaine is wonderful as the woman trying to come to grips with a new life as a married woman who can never live up to her predecessor. Olivier is intense but could be more so. He doesn’t quite have the presence his reputation would suggest.

It’s perfectly paced and dynamic to the moment of the shocking conclusion.

Ghostbusters II (1989)

A sequel that doesn’t disappoint. Following the events shown in the first film, the Ghostbusters have been sued for property damage, put out of business and forced to work as party entertainers for uninterested children. But then their old friend Dana Barrett sees her baby’s pram being wheeled into traffic by mysterious forces, and at the art gallery where she works a painting comes alive with the spirit of a 16th-century tyrant named Vigo the Carpathian. Meanwhile, a river of pink goo now runs beneath the city. After five years in obscurity, the gang reunite to face this new menace.

It’s slightly less packed with laughs than the 1984 film, but only slightly. The main cast are all superb and the writing by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis is excellent. The snivelling head of the art gallery (Peter MacNicol as Janosz Poha) is too annoying to be pleasurable to watch, but when Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Sigourney Weaver are on screen together everything clicks and comes to life. Rick Moranis and Annie Potts reprise their roles as accountant Louis Tully and secretary Janine Melnitz respectively, but this time they become an item.

There’s a nice theme about the soul of New York City, which has become corrupted but which recovers enough to defeat evil. As with the original film, it’s a feel-good story that’s also intelligent and funny.

Letter to Brezhnev (1985)

Extremely charming comedy-drama about two young women from Kirkby. Elaine (Alexandra Pigg) and Teresa (Margi Clarke) go for a night out in Liverpool in search of love and adventure, and for once actually encounter it in the form of two Russian sailors.

There’s plenty of sharp wit, and tough, fast-talking Clarke is especially funny. There’s also some subtle social commentary: times are hard in Liverpool. Unemployment is high as Thatcher’s influence is increasingly being felt. It’s an unvarnished, unsentimental portrait of a city struggling with poverty.

Like classic kitchen-sink narratives such as Billy Liar and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, it draws on the juxtaposition between humdrum working lives in the town where you grew up and the dreams of moving on to bigger and better things in the world beyond. It’s extremely moving and the closing scenes are unexpectedly satisfying.

Only one complaint: the shot-on-videotape film quality was poor and fuzzy.

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

Directed by Stephen Frears, this is an adaptation of the 1985 play of the 1782 novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos set in pre-Revolution France. Glenn Close and John Malkovich play a pair of scheming socialites who use and abuse human relationships for their own sadistic ends, ultimately destroying the lives of everyone they meddle with.

The all-star cast includes Peter Capaldi, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keanu Reeves and Uma Thurman, but for various reasons, the film simply doesn’t work. The entire plot hinges on John Malkovich’a character being so charming and irresistible that Close, Pfeiffer and Thurman all want to throw themselves at him. But instead of charming, he’s quite incredibly creepy – in fact, downright repulsive. He’s supposedly full of passion, but his seductions seem clinical – almost a technical matter he has to apply himself to.

Another problem is that Close and Malkovich are almost cartoonish in their pantomime-villain love of cruelty. Maybe that works in a French novel written hundreds of years ago, but it seems overwrought and silly when brought to the screen in this way.

Malkovich’s character blackmails and manipulates people into sleeping with him in a way that is aggressively predatory. Could it have been made in the “Me Too” era? Certainly, it’s particularly uncomfortable to watch in a post-Weinstein context.

On the plus side, Glenn Close acts well. She’s given little depth (we could have done with some wider context of who she is and how she got there), but she does “evil villain” as well as anyone. Indeed, some of her facial expressions and mannerisms are spot-on for a nasty piece of work barely able to contain her delight at ruining others. But ultimately Dangerous Liaisons feels one-dimensional and oddly uninvolving. Even the victims of the arch-manipulators (such as the wronged lover played by Michelle Pfeiffer, who I generally always like) are difficult to care about.

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Excellent drama starring James Cagney as Eddie Bartlett, a World War I veteran who turns to crime during Prohibition. He’s in love with a young singer who wrote to him during the war (Priscilla Lane) and ends up in business with another ruthless veteran (Humphrey Bogart) he cannot trust. As gang culture escalates, so do Eddie’s problems. Unsurprisingly, there isn’t a happy ending.

Cagney is excellent as the gangster who can’t make the girl he loves love him back. Lane is endearing and seems incredibly young as his would-be sweetheart. Gladys George is particularly convincing as Panama Smith, a cabaret club hostess and Eddie’s one true friend. Like her, you end up rooting for Eddie – despite everything – rather than moralising about his life choices.

The film covers a lot of ground, moving from the end of WWI to the early 1930s. Newsreel footage shows the changes in America that directly affect the characters. And while there’s an epic sweep, and plenty happens, it never feels slow or laboured because the pacing is so well judged.

The Go-Between (1971)

Brilliantly evocative and resonant adaptation of L.P. Hartley’s 1953 novel, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. Dominic Guard is Leo, the 12-year-old spending the summer of 1990 with the Maudsley family in their large Norfolk country house. He finds himself becoming a go-between for Marian Maudsley (Julie Christie) and Ted Burgess (Alan Bates), the local farmer she’s secretly having an affair with.

Like the book, it focuses on issues of social inequality. Marian’s affair transgresses class boundaries and is therefore taboo. It also probes into sexuality and how naive young Leo’s own consciousness of adult relationships is crippled by the way he is used to facilitate a union he cannot understand.

Julie Christie is excellent as the charming-but-manipulative Marian. Edward Fox is also strong as the posh-but-dull Hugh, unable to compete with the “savagery” of Ted.

The hot summer is expertly conveyed and you can feel the heat building to the inevitable storm that marks the climax. As child actors go, Guard is right up there (he was also in Picnic at Hanging Rock). The music, by Michel Legrand, is perfectly judged – sometimes lovely, often foreboding.

With the vivid way it’s shot and soundtracked, at times it has the feel of a horror film. But the horror turns out to be an emotional one. Rather than manifesting itself in sudden scares, it’s a terror that echoes down through the decades.

Ghostbusters (1984)

This supernatural comedy is close to perfect. There’s so much that’s great about it. The three main characters – Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler – are terrifically well drawn, and Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis play them perfectly. The theme tune by Ray Parker Jr. is memorable and distinctive. The visuals are superb for the time, rendering neon ectoplasmic ghosts that gobble down plates of sausages and “slime” their victims. The run-down “Ecto-1” car (a converted hearse) is iconic. Sigourney Weaver seems effortlessly seductive and sophisticated as Dana Barrett, the woman possessed by an evil spirit and who Venkman falls for. Rick Moranis provides endearing slapstick as a nerdy accountant taken over by a demon. There’s an evident love of New York that permeates almost every frame. It’s a quirky film that’s unlike anything else. And, giving hope to all of us, its heroes are not glamorous or good-looking. They are flawed humans you can laugh with and relate to. A masterpiece.

The Sure Thing (1985)

Sweet teen romance directed by Rob Reiner.

Classmates Walter “Gib” Gibson (John Cusack) and Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga) take a road trip from their New England college to Los Angeles. Gib (spontaneous but sloppy) is being fixed up with a “sure thing” – a girl who will definitely sleep with him – while Alison (a super-organised but stuffy academic) is meeting her extremely dull boyfriend. But the trip doesn’t go to plan and inevitably the bickering pair end up falling for each other, despite or because of all their differences.

It’s a fairly dialogue-heavy story, which is to be applauded, with lots of funny moments. Both of the leads are easy to like. It’s much smarter than teen films such as Pretty in Pink or St. Elmo’s Fire, and there’s something genuinely endearing about their stumbling relationship. It works as a road movie, too, although we don’t see enough of America as they cross it.

It’s a nice touch that you see a film poster for Reiner’s own This Is Spinal Tap in someone’s bedroom.

Headhunters (2011)

The highest-grossing Norwegian film ever is a brilliantly tense thriller about a corporate headhunter (Aksel Hennie as Roger Brown) who leads a secret life as an art thief. When Roger meets Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), the owner of a Rubens painting worth tens of millions, he decides to steal it – even though Greve is an ex-military specialist in tracking people. The plot quickly escalates via a series of remarkable twists and turns, and Roger’s life spirals out of control.

Sometimes it seems far-fetched, but the storytelling is handled so well done that the narrative totally works. At other times it seems to toy with a strange sense of humour – the blackest imaginable – such as when Roger takes off in a farm vehicle with a dead dog impaled on the front of it, or when he has to bury himself in human sewage to avoid being detected.

The drama is remarkable, but it also manages to be a love story of sorts. And the film cleverly plays with the hero/anti-hero conundrum. You find yourself rooting for Roger, despite everything he’s done.

Visually, it’s a little underwhelming. You wonder what a director such as Denis Villeneuve might have done with the same scenarios, but the thrills are such that it doesn’t matter at all.

I first saw this in the cinema, and a woman next to me was literally squirming in her seat with horror and delight at the unrelenting escape/pursuit scenario. At the end, I asked if she was OK and we laughed about how it was so ridiculously exciting.

Sicario (2015)

Tense drug thriller starring Emily Blunt as an FBI agent who gets mixed up in a Mexican gang war beyond her comprehension. Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin play the assassin and CIA agent she finds herself working with. In fact, she soon learns that she’s simply being used to grant legal authority to their actions.

It’s brutally violent and makes for uncomfortable watching. The two male leads are convincingly ruthless, but Blunt seems an odd choice and is slightly awkward as tough-but-sensitive Kate Macer – although that awkwardness may well be the point.

Director Denis Villeneuve gives even the grittiest scenes a panoramic lavishness, as he did in Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.

You are left despairing at the drug wars – a problem that only seems to escalate over time – and this grim, super-realist film is easier to admire than to enjoy.

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Extremely enjoyable and ultimately very moving prison drama starring Paul Newman as the ridiculously charismatic lead. Rarely will you see an actor with such presence on screen.

Locked up for a petty offence, war veteran Lucas “Luke” Jackson joins a road chain gang. He refuses to behave like the other men (including Harry Dean Stanton as Tramp), but slowly earns their respect with his liberated, nonconformist outlook. There’s a painful and emblematic scene in which he boxes against the leader of the men (George Kennedy as “Dragline”) and is repeatedly knocked down. But such is his strength of mind that he gets up again and again. Another remarkable interlude features the prisoners betting on whether Luke can eat 50 eggs in an hour and Luke then carrying out the challenge. It’s surreal and hilarious.

The second half of the film introduces a more serious tone. Luke tries to escape and the prison guards try to break his spirit. The narrative becomes richer and sadder as the essence of his personality – and even his humanity – is steadily eroded.

A remarkable soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin adds further depth to an extremely affecting story.

Grease 2 (1982)

“Grease is still the word,” claims the extremely lame slogan. Couldn’t they have come up with a new one?

Grease 2 is ridiculed as being a turkey, but if you approach it with low expectations and forget about the original masterpiece it’s actually a fairly enjoyable teen musical. It’s now 1961 and Rydell High School is opening for a new term. The T-Birds and the Pink Ladies are still the top gangs of boys and girls within the school caste system, albeit with entirely different members. English newcomer Michael (Maxwell Caulfield) falls for Samantha (Michelle Pfeiffer), but she tells him she’s only interested in cool biker types. To woo her, he then becomes one – keeping his true identity secret – and she doesn’t realise that the greaser hunk she’s attracted to is the same sensitive academic who helped her with her Hamlet essay...

There are lots of things wrong with this film. The chronology feels odd (the term flashes past within 90 minutes) and the script doesn’t sparkle. Musically and lyrically, the songs simply aren’t in the same league as those in the 1978 original and there’s a harshness and lack of warmth about them. One kicks off during a biology lesson, with the whole class singing about reproduction. Another takes place in a nuclear bunker, with the guy urging the girl he’s trying to seduce that they “do it for America”. In fact, there’s a lot about nuclear fears and John F. Kennedy – a political context that was absent but not missed last time around.

A handful of the actors from the first film reprise their roles. Didi Conn returns as Frenchy (but isn’t given a role), Eve Arden is once again Principal McGee, while Sid Caesar is still the sports coach, and so on. But it badly lacks the charisma of a John Travolta or a Stockard Channing. There simply isn’t anyone with real star quality.

For all its faults, there are plenty of plus points. Patricia Birch’s choreography is dynamic, as it was in the first film. The story is possibly more credible because it doesn’t end with a fairground ride taking off into space. There are some laughs. Michelle Pfeiffer is easy to like in the main role, even though she’s clearly no Olivia Newton-John. And trashy teen dramas full of youthful exuberance are always fun if you are in the mood. 

Hideous Kinky (1998)

It’s 1972 and Julia (Kate Winslet) has gone to live in Morocco with her two young children. She leaves behind her old relationship and hopes to “discover herself”. She becomes involved with a kindly drifter named Bilal (Saïd Taghmaoui), who turns out to be more complicated than he seems.

Winslet is strong as the endearingly naive and earnestly questing young mother. Bella Riza and Carrie Mullan are excellent as the precocious children able to cut through their mother’s hippy-dippy aspirations and speak the truth. They are among the most impressive child actors I’ve seen.

It’s a plot that seems to unfold sideways in almost unrelated episodes, so you can never guess what will happen next. Adapted from Esther Freud’s novel, itself autobiographical, it benefits from seeming “real” because the events it depicts actually took place.

There’s an excellent soundtrack – Canned Heat, Richie Havens, Nick Drake, Incredible String Band – that brings 1972 alive. The colours are rich and vital, making it even more pleasurable to watch.

The Reader (2008)

Intriguing and moving drama. In Berlin in 1958, 15-year-old Michael (David Kross) begins a brief, passionate love affair with 36-year-old tram conductor Hanna (Kate Winslet) that will come to haunt his entire life. Fast-forwarding to 1966, Michael is now a law student who gets to observe a trial of female SS guards who allowed 300 Jewish women to burn to death while locked in a church. He is horrified to see that Hanna is one of the accused women.

The film asks questions about morality and identity. One of the law students suggests that everyone in Germany is complicit in these crimes, and not just those in the court, but The Reader doesn’t try to offer any simplistic answers.

With his usual skill and elegance, Ralph Fiennes plays the older Michael. Bruno Ganz (who was Hitler in Downfall) plays a Holocaust survivor who teaches law), while Alexandra Maria Lara (Hitler's secretary in Downfall) gives evidence in court.

Directed by Stephen Daldry and written by David Hare, it’s a hugely powerful story that gains gravitas as it speeds through the decades towards the present.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Trashy, unrewarding hybrid of two sci-fi/horror franchises. The Wiki one-liner reads: ”scientists are caught in the crossfire of an ancient battle between Aliens and Predators as they attempt to escape a bygone pyramid”, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. There’s a lot of monster action, but very little suspense.

It’s let down by a terribly lazy script. Characters waste valuable moments stopping what they are doing in order to tell the aliens things like “Die, you ugly son of a bitch!” before firing at them.

It also suffers from an often nonsensical plot:
1. Why do the predators need to turn invisible when they are already deadly assassins? And if they are such high-tech beings, why is their invisibility only partial?
2. The motive of Weyland (Lance Henriksen) is never really explained. Did he just want to discover something “important” before he died? I was expecting a far more sinister motive involving world domination, but he turns out to be a disappointingly ordinary billionaire.
3. The Italian archaeologist (Raoul Bova) is able to glance at alien artefacts once and suddenly know all there is to know about them – leading to some unintentionally funny, laugh-out-loud moments.
4. The Scottish chemical engineer (Ewen Bremner) never stops going on about his kids, leading you to think he has to survive to be reunited with them – but he doesn’t and isn’t.
5. The heroine (Sanaa Lathan) is somehow able to make friends with a dreadlocked predator, even though they use humans for sacrificial purposes.
6. They are meant to be in Antarctica, but the humans can wander around without coats.

On the plus side, I did like the sliding, interlocking jigsaw pieces of the pyramid, which rearrange themselves every 10 minutes. This idea – a neat one – may have been “borrowed” for The Maze Runner (2014).

The aliens – gooey and nasty – are probably the best thing about the film, but the colour scheme, in which aliens, predators and the pyramid itself are all the same grey-black, makes everything less interesting to look at.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

A sequel to the 1982 masterpiece, set 30 years later. Ryan Gosling plays K, the replicant seeking answers about his origins. It transpires that in one unprecedented instance, a replicant gave birth. That replicant was Rachael from the first film. K’s discovery of this knowledge begins a quest that ultimately leads him to Deckard (Harrison Ford), who he believes to be his father. But the sinister Wallace Corporation also wants to understand replicant breeding for its own ends.

It's visually stunning – possibly even more so than the original – and asks similarly deep philosophical questions about life, identity and memory. For a few reasons, though, Denis Villeneuve's film does not satisfy in the way that Ridley Scott’s does. Firstly, it’s simply too long (163 minutes). Some of the scenes are ponderous and slow. You can sit back to admire the expansive, luxurious quality or you can become infuriated with the glacial pace. The villains (Sylvia Hoeks and Jared Leto) didn’t quite convince. And too much of the film was given over to Gosling’s time with his synthetic “hologram” girlfriend (Ana de Armas). I liked her as a character, but – other than filling in details of how relationships and technology work in 2049 – this plot didn’t really lead anywhere. 

Harrison Ford’s appearance was surprisingly successful. I had feared it would be a tokenistic attempt to drag the star of the original back on screen for the sake of “sequel credibility”, but they wisely built the plot around him – even though he’s barely in it. And unlike in Star Wars Episode VII, where he’s depicted as the same Han Solo except older, with no character development at all, here he seems wiser and not in any way ridiculous.

I’d like to see it again, and on a big screen. With the plot twists now fully understood, I think I could get more out of it on second viewing.

Jaws (1975)

I’ve seen this gem several times now and never tire of it. Steven Spielberg lost his way in later years, but with this film and Duel (1971) he could do no wrong.

There is no way that Jaws deserves its “12” certificate. In the first scene alone you see drug-taking and nudity. Then there’s a fair bit of “threat”, dismemberment, gore and all-out horror.

It’s full of great little details: Roy Scheider’s son copying his gestures at the meal table; that ultra-dramatic on-the-beach shot that zooms in and pans out at the same time; the iconic “shark approaching” music by John Williams; Quint’s war story; “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”; and the grisly fingers-down-the-blackboard moment at the town meeting.

It really kicks off when the three men go to sea to hunt the killer great white. There’s a macho issue going on between the guys, as well as a theme of class: tough-talking fisherman Robert Shaw is less than impressed with college-educated oceanographer Richard Dreyfuss. As the police chief, Roy Scheider somehow strikes a balance between them. Each man’s character is extremely well drawn. Also excellent is Murray Hamilton as the town mayor who prioritses Amity’s lucrative 4th July celebrations over beach safety.

The shark looks incredibly realistic. So convincingly did the film make these creatures look evil that a great disservice was done to the way they are perceived and their subsequent ecological protection.

My only other real criticism is the intrusively jaunty music used in some of the action sequences. In typical Spielberg style, on a couple of occasions he over-eggs the “adventure” aspect and makes the drama seem silly. But the damage is minimal here compared to in his later films.

Those points aside, it’s a masterful study in suspense.