Get Shorty (1995)

Clever mixture of crime and comedy, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and adapted from the excellent novel by Elmore Leonard. 

John Travolta plays Chili Palmer, a loan shark from Miami who starts getting involved in the film world after going to L.A. on a job. He meets a horror director (Gene Hackman), a famous Hollywood star (Danny DeVito) and a glamorous B-movie actor (Rene Russo). But unfortunately there are gangsters out to get him (Dennis Farina, Delroy Lindo and James Gandolfini). 

It’s punchy and witty, with the twists and turns of Leonard’s plot captured well. Travolta is perfect in the lead role, and Russo has an easy charm. They both add to the appealing quirkiness.

Apollo 18 (2011)

“Found footage” horror sci-fi directed by Gonzalo López-Gallego. 

Three astronauts are sent on a secret Apollo mission, and the two men that land on the lunar surface find evidence of sinister alien life. 

Even though the aliens are essentially rock creatures, the film never turns silly. There’s a lot of threat and tension, made more extreme by the “authentically” fuzzy, distressed footage. 

It’s a little like a cross between The Blair Witch Project and Alien, but it's refreshingly different too.

The only criticism is that it’s never explained how the footage is recovered.

The Happening (2008)

Comically bad disaster film starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel as a couple on the run from a mysterious airborne virus that has something to do with wind and trees. 

The logic doesn’t really make sense. There’s a theme about planet Earth being angry at the way we’ve treated it. But the story can’t seem to tell the difference between the chemistry of trees and the weather that causes the wind that makes them move. 

The two stars are poorly directed and end up seeming laughable. It’s a shame because the premise – people in parks inexplicably kill themselves – could have been an interesting one. 

Somehow, The Happening grossed $163 million worldwide.

Snake Eyes (1998)

Superb conspiracy thriller directed by Brian De Palma. 

Nicolas Cage stars as a crooked detective at an Atlantic City boxing match when an assassination of the Defence Secretary takes place. He’s there with his best friend – a U.S. Navy Commander (played by Gary Sinise), who knows more about the killing than he initially lets on. Carla Gugino plays an analyst who gets mixed up in the drama. 

It’s brilliantly and flamboyantly directed, from the long, uninterrupted opening shot to the overhead views looking down into the hotel rooms. It’s flashily done, but never at the expense of lucid storytelling. The multiple viewpoint shots used to revisit the crime scene and reveal what really happened were also a nice touch. 

Cage is incredibly magnetic and hugely watchable. There’s so much going on in every moment of his performance that it's really quite remarkable.

The Others (2001)

Deeply creepy supernatural thriller. 

Nicole Kidman is a mother of two children living in Jersey in 1945. The family begin to hear strange noises and see odd things in their large old house. They are joined by a new housekeeper, a gardener and a mute girl, and the inexplicable happenings become more frequent. It’s difficult to say more without spoil the film, which all hinges on one massive plot twist. 

Kidman is superb as a woman on the edge, driven by love for her children and a profound sense of loss after her husband failed to return from the war. Fionnula Flanagan is perfect as the housekeeper Bertha Mills – an initially reassuring and later fairly unsettling presence. The suspense is built up expertly, with added tension coming from the reactions of the children to the way events unfold. 

Music by writer/director Alejandro Amenábar adds to the sense of threat, and the uncanny atmosphere – big, dark echoing spaces, the persistently swirling mist outside – is sustained well.

Margin Call (2012)

Finance thriller set at the beginning of the 2008 monetary crisis. 

When a management division head (Stanley Tucci) is fired from a Wall Street investment bank, he passes a memory stick to a junior banker (Zachary Quinto). It turns out that he has uncovered the perilous state of the company. The matter is escalated up through the ranks of bosses played by Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore and Jeremy Irons

Set in a 24-hour period, the film builds its drama from the human situation alone. There are no car chases or guns, no explosions or fights. It examines the ethical issues of the company selling off worthless packages in order to save its own privileged few. 

Spacey is brilliant as seemingly the only employee with a conscience, not coincidentally making him the one character you can emphasise with. Bettany is highly watchable as the (possibly suicidal) head of credit trading.

It’s very nicely shot, too: lush and stylish in a way that really understands the faceless aesthetics of the corporate world.

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

Written, produced and directed by H. B. Halicki, who also stars and serves as the stunt coordinator, this is one of the strangest films I’ve ever seen. In many ways, it's not really a film at all. In places it merely seems like raw camera footage.

The “plot” – what there is of one – focuses on a group of thieves who need to steal 48 different cars in just a few days. The lengthy set-up is muddled and poorly done, with almost zero drama in terms of the human interactions. The thread about insurance isn't properly explained, and a thread about discovering bags of heroin is needlessly thrown away. 

It's unusual on a technical level, too. The basic production values are shoddy and amateur-ish, as if it’s a home-made film or school art project. Camera work is blurred, framing is poor and the “dialogue” (much of it not even scripted) is difficult to hear. The sound of a creaking chair, meanwhile, is all too audible.

Where the film redeems itself is with the 40-minute car chase that fills the second half. Suddenly Halicki reveals himself to have a real talent for action sequences. The Mustang car named Eleanor evades police and other pursuers in increasingly improbable and remarkable ways, while becoming progressively more battered and ruined. 

Because Halicki was essentially just “winging it”, many of the extras are real people doing real things in real places. (Halicki’s wife introduces the film and explains that actual policemen, fireman and members of the public were included.) That gives the film an extra value – it's like peering into 1974 and seeing what it was actually like, without the usual artifice Hollywood serves up. 

Michael Clayton (2007)

Confusing “corporate wrongdoing” thriller starring George Clooney and Tilda Swinton

I found the plot needlessly complicated, with a few loose ends, and the “four days earlier” contrivance made that worse.

Clooney is always highly watchable, even if his perfect, unruffled hair looks too good to be true. Tom Wilkinson is compelling as an attorney in the middle of a mental meltdown.

But storytelling that loses you so early on can be frustrating to play catch-up with, and for that reason I never felt fully engrossed.

The Five Pennies (1959)

Musical light drama based on the true-life story of Loring “Red” Nichols (Danny Kaye), a cornet player who rises to fame but has to juggle his career with his responsibilities to his wife (Barbara Bel Geddes of “Miss Ellie from Dallas” fame) and daughter (played by both Susan Gordon and Tuesday Weld). The Dixieland jazz is lively and entertaining, and Louis Armstrong (appearing as himself) is a delight.

The human drama material is slightly less convincing, with Bel Geddes seeming oddly stiff and inanimate – the very opposite of Danny Kaye. You wish they’d hired Doris Day instead for that part, but perhaps they wanted someone who wouldn’t upstage the main star. 

It’s vividly colourful and there’s a lot of charm. In some ways it’s similar to Young Man with a Horn

Danny Kaye is a treat to watch, and genuinely funny too.

Contact (1997)

Sci-fi directed by Robert Zemeckis, adapted from the Carl Sagan novel.

A radio astronomer, Ellie (Jodie Foster) discovers deep-space signals of intelligent life. These turn out to include instructions on how to visit their distant system. 

The slow build-up is interesting. I like the way that political and religious interests get in the way of the pure science that Ellie represents, as this seems quite “real” in terms of how people might react to this sort of news. 

The “space” content of the film occupies only a few minutes of the lengthy running time. In some ways that’s disappointing, and what you actually see feels like a cop-out, but really this is a story about humans’ reactions to learning we are not alone in the universe – rather than a saga about aliens. 

Foster is highly convincing in the lead role. Cameos from John Hurt and Rob Lowe don’t add a great deal, but James Woods is always enjoyable to watch. Matthew McConaughey is OK as Foster’s love interest, a Christian whose spiritual leanings meet in the middle with Foster’s scientific rationality.

The Mexican (2001)

Foolish amateur gangster Jerry (Brad Pitt) has to perform “one last job”, which involves transporting a legendary gun from Mexico back to the USA. Predictably, nothing goes to plan. Events are further complicated when his girlfriend (Julia Roberts) is kidnapped by another gangster (James Gandolfini) and the pair develop a strange friendship. 

This is a comedy thriller with an unusual tone. It flits between tense moments and genuinely funny ones – a tricky balancing act that director Gore Verbinski pulls off with skill. 

Brad Pitt is better than usual because he’s playing an idiot and therefore doesn’t need to seem credible. Roberts is terrific – vividly full of life and personality – and her evolving relationship with Gandolfini provides the heart of the film. 

Gene Hackman has a cameo. Plus, there’s a nice sub-plot about a ferocious dog.

Hereafter (2010)

Drama directed by Clint Eastwood

Matt Damon stars as George Lonegan, a psychic who has chosen to no longer give readings. But then he’s brought into contact with a French journalist (Cécile de France) and a London schoolboy (played by the twins Frankie and George McLaren), both of whom have had close brushes with death. 

It’s an extremely unusual film that’s in no way typical of Clint Eastwood’s usual themes or narrative style. The three threads take a long time to join up. For most of the time we follow their stories in parallel, wondering how they can possibly come together. It’s oddly lit, too. Some of that is down to the poor English weather, but even the sections in San Francisco seem strangely washed out. It’s not clear if this was an aesthetic choice or some kind of technical failing.

Bryce Dallas Howard appears as a possible love interest for Matt Damon, while Derek Jacobi has a surprise cameo as himself doing a reading at the London Book Fair in Alexandra Palace. 

It’s strange and quirky, with neat details. Matt Damon is a Charles Dickens fan. Best of all, it doesn’t try to explain or glorify the supernatural gift. Instead, it’s a fact of life that Lonegan feels burdened by. And that makes it all so much more believable.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

A sort of fairy tale for adults, set in 1944 just after the Spanish Civil War. 

Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her pregnant mother live with the sadistic and psychopathic Captain Vidal (Sergi López), who is locked in combat with the local resistance fighters. Ofelia finds herself drawn into a strange fantasy world by a faun who assigns her three challenges. 

It’s deeply strange, working on the level of political allegory as well as being a sort of horror story full of symbolism that invites multiple interpretations. 

I don’t usually enjoy “magical” or fantasy stories, but it’s so unusual and imaginative that it draws you in. Plus, there’s some pretty strong stuff – torture, maiming, close-range shootings and constant threat.

Pork Chop Hill (1959)

During the Korean War, Lieutenant Joe Clemons (Gregory Peck) leads a regiment to capture and hold Pork Chop Hill for the Americans. Casualties are heavy and supplies are dwindling. Meanwhile, ceasefire negotiations are underway and the battle may be called off – despite all those men apparently dying for nothing.

Peck has a compelling authority, as always, but overall the film is low on dramatic tension. There’s a lack of context that means questions go unanswered about the strategic value of the battle. In some ways that’s the point – it may be an entirely insignificant conflict that cost so many lives. 

George Peppard and Harry Dean Stanton appear in minor roles, although I didn’t even recognise the former.

Disappointing all round.

My Old Lady (2014)

Written and directed by Israel Horovitz, who adapted this film from his own play, this is an extremely powerful drama. 

Kevin Kline plays Mathias, an American who travels to Paris to claim an apartment his father has left him in his will. But he finds living there the 92-year-old Mathilde (Maggie Smith), who – because of a “viager” arrangement – is legally entitled to live there for the rest of her life while being paid a monthly fee to do so. Things become more complicated when Mathias meets her daughter Chloé (Kristin Scott Thomas) and he begins to learn more about their pasts. 

There are comic moments throughout, but the film becomes more serious and poignant as it progresses. All three leads are superb and it’s striking how “real” it all seems, with the emotions and pain seeming entirely convincing. The characters grow deeper as the plot moves along. 

The only aspect that I didn’t really like was the slightly clichéd “French” music on the soundtrack. But that aside, it’s pretty much flawless.

Shall We Dance? (2004)

Romantic comedy drama. 

Richard Gere plays a Chicago lawyer who feels a little jaded with life, despite his successful career and his lovely wife (Susan Sarandon). He secretly takes up dancing, inspired by a moody-looking dance instructor (Jennifer Lopez) he sees from his train window while commuting. He’s also encouraged by his work colleague (Stanley Tucci), who reassures him (and presumably the male viewers) that it’s “OK” for straight men to dance. 

It’s a lightweight piece of fluff with plenty of charm. Director Peter Chelsom handles the dance scenes extremely well. The script is adequate-to-good, with the best lines going to Sarandon. She memorably describes love as the idea of bearing witness to a life that might otherwise go unnoticed

Only Lopez lets the side down. She acts “troubled” but – other than being able to dance – brings little depth to the role.

Contagion (2011)

A pandemic thriller made fascinating by the real-world events in the era of Covid 19. 

Matt Damon’s wife (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) contracts a mysterious virus and is quickly dead. From this initial beginning spin off a variety of threads and characters as we see the virus spread around the globe, accompanied by panic and social disorder.

The narrative perspective shifts across an ensemble cast also featuring Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle and Sanaa Lathan. Director Steven Soderbergh just about holds it all together. 

Knowing what we now know, it’s almost uncanny to watch scenes in which the “R” number is explained. It also deals with the conspiracy theorists – in this case, Jude Law, who’s told “Blogging is not writing, it’s graffiti with punctuation” – who try to scare people from taking the vaccine.

Forrest Gump (1994)

Masterful comedy-drama directed by Robert Zemeckis

Tom Hanks plays a simple but kindhearted man whose life unexpectedly touches those around him. He also finds himself accidentally woven into key moments in American history of the 1960s and 1970s. 

It’s sweet and touching, romantic and sad. Hanks is perfect in the role – he keeps it on the right side of the endearing/annoying divide. 

As in Back to the Future, Zemeckis handles the storytelling with almost supernatural empathy and skill. The pacing is spot on and there’s not a moment of filler nor a line out of place. He also handles the changes in tone superbly well, so comedy can turn to poignancy without jarring – and vice-versa. 

Robin Wright and Gary Sinise are excellent as the love of his life and his former Vietnam lieutenant and long-standing friend, while Sally Field is wonderful as his wise, caring mother. 

The shaggy-dog story takes in his spell in the army, his time as a table-tennis champion, working on a shrimp boat, and his three years of running across America. 

There’s a message about kindness being more important than anything else, which is hard to disagree with, and a great soundtrack, too.

The Monuments Men (2014)

A handful of military misfits go to Germany towards the end of World War II to locate and retrieve fine art stolen and hidden by the Nazis. (In reality, there were 300 such people working on this project, but the film doesn’t acknowledge that.)

George Clooney stars, writes and directs but unfortunately can’t decide if he’s making a comedy or a drama. It falls somewhere in the middle – neither very funny nor very exciting, with too much rather stilted sitting around. The all-star cast seems underused, with Matt Damon, Bill Murray and the dreaded John Goodman in underdeveloped roles and not really getting a chance to shine. Only Cate Blanchett (a sympathetic curator with an inconsistent French accent) comes out of it unscathed. 

The tone is all over the place. The film flits between trying to make serious points at certain times and seeming like Dad’s Army at others, with “jaunty” music that’s especially jarring. Even the central message – art is so important that it might be worth dying for – is watered down by the way it’s something we’re repeatedly told rather than meaningfully shown. 

The final scene – a modern-day glimpse of Clooney’s Lieutenant as an elderly man appreciating Michelangelo in a gallery with his grandson – is particularly awkward and naff.

The Constant Gardener (2005)

Thriller adapted from the John Le Carre novel, with an emotional dimension you wouldn’t usually expect from that genre. 

Ralph Fiennes plays Justin Quayle, a mild-mannered diplomat whose Amnesty International activist wife (Rachel Weisz) is murdered. In investigating her death he learns that she was killed for what she has discovered about the British government’s collaboration with pharmaceutical companies in Africa.

The acting is tremendous all round, and Fiennes and Weisz are completely believable. The former’s sense of loss is unbearable to behold. Bill Nighy plays Sir Bernard Pellegrin at the Foreign Office and Pete Postlethwaite plays the creator of a deadly drug. 

It’s beautifully shot, with the beauty of the African landscapes contrasting against the ugly goings on perpetuated by corporate greed. 

It’s tensely dramatic and desperately sad, but also achingly romantic. That’s a lot to weave together, but director Fernando Meirelles pulls it off.

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017)

Biographical drama detailing an unlikely romance between American actress Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) and a Liverpudlian half her age (Jamie Bell). 

Their romance is shown in flashback during Gloria’s final days after she comes to stay with her young lover’s mother (Julie Walters) and his family while dying of stomach cancer. 

It’s a poignant love story that examines youth, age, celebrity, sexuality and other themes with a lightness of touch. 

It’s shot in a deliberately dream-like way, with the Hollywood sunshine deliberately contrasting with the “grim oop north” English light.

Flood (2007)

Disaster film. 

A storm surge causes flooding and mass destruction in London. Robert Carlyle has to save the city with the help of his estranged father (Tom Courtenay) and his estranged wife (Jessalyn Gilsig). 

It’s nice to see familiar locations such as the Thames Barrier, but unfortunately – despite moments of genuinely gripping drama – parts of the film are unintentionally funny. There’s something oddly stilted and false about the whole thing, with a TV-like quality to the way it’s filmed and directed. It’s like an extended episode of Casualty. Nigel Planer is especially awkward as a guilt-ridden forecaster for the Met Office.

Enjoyably daft as it is, you're left wondering how the film attracted so many relatively big names. David Suchet, Joanne Whalley and Tom Hardy also pop up with varying levels of success.

Eddie the Eagle (2016)

Good-natured comedy-drama telling the true story of Michael “Eddie” Edwards, a British ski jumper who represented his country at the 1988 Winter Olympics. 

Taron Egerton is endearing as the well-meaning, socially awkward anti-hero, who became an unlikely star despite – or because of – the fact that he came last. 

Hugh Jackman is his coach, a surprisingly wholesome alcoholic, and Jo Hartley and Keith Allen play his mother (supportive) and father (repressed). Improbably, Christopher Walken has a brief role too. 

There are funny and poignant moments and the film sidesteps having to deal with any of the more difficult topics it encounters (addiction, social disorders, etc), opting for a more lightweight, frothy approach. An idealised but enjoyable portrait.

Fame (1980)

Alan Parker’s engaging drama tells the story of a group of teenagers at the New York High School of Performing Arts. We follow them from the initial auditions through to their eventual graduation, getting to know their personalities and backstories through their social interactions as well as their musical, dancing and acting talents. 

It’s strongest for the first three quarters. The characters are developed well, and – unlike the spin-off TV show version – it doesn’t shy away from depicting the grittier aspects of their lives. The ending left me a little unsatisfied, though, and a few of the threads were left unresolved. 

It’s almost a musical, but not quite. On two occasions, spontaneous music and dancing breaks out (in the canteen and in the streets), but given that they are all performers it just about works within the “realist” framework. 

Performances are uniformly strong. Irene Cara (who sings the well-known theme tune) is Coco Hernandez, Lee Curreri is keyboard wizard Bruno Martelli, Barry Miller is troubled comedian Ralph Garci, Gene Anthony Ray is skilled-but-illiterate dancer Leroy Johnson, and Maureen Teefy is the “ordinary” Doris Finsecker who, inevitably, finds out that she's not so ordinary after all.

Crocodile Dundee (1986)

The internet: “A journalist travels to Australia to interview a unique crocodile poacher. When he rescues her from an attack, she invites him to New York and, despite the cultural differences, they fall in love.”

It’s an endearingly simple story that really hinges upon the appealing character created by Paul Hogan. He’s oddly believable as the unreconstructed bushman who can wrestle with or tame wild beasts. 

The film would never be made now because of various un-PC lines about race and gender.

Like Splash, it works as both a fish-out-of-water comedy and as a sweet romance. Linda Kozlowski is charming as Sue Charlton, who falls for the subject she researches. And Mark Blum is appropriately unlikeable as the man she thought she was in love with. There are enough laughs to keep you watching.

The Princess Bride (1987)

Fantasy comedy romance directed by Rob Reiner presented as a fairytale story within a story. A grandfather (Peter Falk) reads a book to his grandson (Fred Savage), and we see those events playing out as the film’s main narrative. 

It’s an enjoyably silly saga about an evil prince (Chris Sarandon), who wants to marry a princess named Buttercup (Robin Wright). But Buttercup is in love with farm-boy Westley (Cary Elwes) a.k.a. Dread Pirate Roberts. 

The action plays out in castles, forests, a swamp and a pit. It’s deliberately slightly ridiculous, and yet it’s played straight – which makes it funnier. It’s both a good-natured action romp and an expert parody of that sort of thing. 

Christopher Guest is impressively “evil” as Count Tyrone Rugen, and there are also roles for Mandy Patinkin, Peter Cook, Mel Smith and Billy Crystal.

An American in Paris (1951)

Musical.

An American artist falls in love with a woman who is already involved with a man he knows. Meanwhile, a wealthy heiress promotes his art and wants affection in return. 

In fact, the plot is almost irrelevant. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, this is really designed as a showcase of extravagant dance set pieces, in which Gene Kelly demonstrates his full range of abilities. The magical/dream sequences take you out of the narrative, but are spectacular in their own right. Most notably, there is a 17-minute impressionistic dance sequence at the very climax of the film, where you might expect there to be some acting. 

Aside from Kelly, the leads are played by Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary and Nina Foch. There’s very little that’s “French” about it. 

An amiable if inconsequential affair.

Bachelorette (2012)

So-called comedy that didn’t make me laugh even once.

Three friends who seem to have nothing in common (Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher) plan a pre-wedding party for their school pal Becky (Rebel Wilson), formerly known as “Pigface” because of her weight. Then they accidentally ruin her dress and have a night of silly adventures while trying to fix it. Yes, it really is as unfunny as that sounds. 

Writer and director Leslye Headland, adapted Bachelorette from a play, but it’s difficult to see how such weak material could have worked on stage. The characters are cruel and unengaging, vain and unlikeable. Maybe it’s meant to be titillating that they take so much cocaine, but they are too annoying to seem anything other than shallow and poorly drawn. That goes for the vacuous, self-obsessed male characters they interact with too. 

I was especially disappointed with Dunst and Fisher, who usually impress in their other films.

Mystic River (2003)

Compelling drama directed by Clint Eastwood

Three Boston-based childhood friends are reunited in unhappy circumstances. They discover how the events of their youth have shaped their lives and relationships, and continue to do so as events play out in the present day. 

Sean Penn is the gangster-like Jimmy Markum. Tim Robbins is Dave Boyle, who has become a damaged, haunted man after being abused as a child and now finds himself the prime suspect in the killing of Jimmy’s daughter. Meanwhile, Kevin Bacon is a detective named Sean Devine (assisted by a further detective played by Laurence Fishburne). 

The performances are hugely credible, leading to an unbearably tense couple of hours as this painful human tragedy plays out.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Western. 

Arizona, 1884. Christian Bale plays Dan Evans, a rancher who – desperate for money – takes on a job escorting a dangerous criminal named Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to the train that will transport him to Yuma Territorial Prison. There, he will be hung. But Wade is a psychopath with an uncanny intelligence and has other ideas. 

Crowe is absolutely perfect for the role because the plot hinges on the power of his charisma and magnetism. He bewitches those around him and somehow gets inside their minds, like a cowboy version of Hannibal Lector. 

Adapted from a short story by Elmore Leonard and directed by James Mangold, it’s excellently paced and visually impressive. There are strong performances by Ben Foster (as a truly nasty member of Wade’s gang), Logan Lerman (as Evans' teenage son) and Gretchen Mol (as Evans’ wife). Peter Fonda also appears.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

The plot is a little tricky to explain, so here’s what it says on the internet: “A teenager from the slums of Mumbai becomes a contestant on the show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati?’ When interrogated under suspicion of cheating, he revisits his past, revealing how he had all the answers.”

This clever premise allows us to see, in flashback, the life story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), his brother Salim (Madhur Mittal) and his friend and lover Latika (Freida Pinto). This includes being orphaned, being exploited by a gangster who blinds children so they can beg for him, and dabbling with the criminal underworld. 

It becomes incredibly gripping, as well as often painful to watch. The intensity is such that I felt quite shaken by the end of it. The DVD box has a quote calling it “the feel-good film of the decade”, but for most of the time it’s actually fairly dark and disturbing. 

Director Danny Boyle’s usual visual energy is in abundance. Initially I felt that his high-speed, high-colour treatment was trivialising the drama, but then I came to understand that this approach perfectly evokes Jamal’s lifetime of vivid recollections. It’s a memorable and often brilliant film.

Hidden Figures (2016)

Based on a true story, Hidden Figures focuses on three female mathematicians who worked for NASA during the Space Race. Despite their brilliance as individuals, their careers were stifled as a result of racial prejudice and segregation.

Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe star alongside Kevin Costner, who portrays the director of the Space Task Group. Meanwhile, Kirsten Dunst is oddly cast as an unsympathetic supervisor.

The film combines their stories with that of the space race itself, bringing to life the nail-biting events of John Glenn’s first American orbital spaceflight. 

There's no getting away from the seriousness of the subject matter, but there are funny and tender moments too.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)

Romantic comedy-drama. 

A fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) attempts to help a Yemeni sheikh (Amr Waked) with the expensive and improbable task of introducing salmon to the Yemen desert. He’s assisted by the sheikh’s financial adviser (Emily Blunt), whose soldier boyfriend has just gone missing in action. Romance ensues. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s press secretary is keen to exploit the situation for its publicity value. 

It’s an odd film. Some of the awkwardness is presumably deliberate because it’s suggested that McGregor’s character has Asperger syndrome, although that’s never really explored. Everything remains thin and surface-level. 

Blunt is her usual charming self, seemingly able to do this stuff in her sleep. McGregor exhibits more versatility than usual. The sheik is saintly and one-dimensional. And Kristin Scott Thomas’s brash, pushy character, presumably designed for comic relief, is just annoying. 

Overall, it doesn’t really work. The unlikely love story is nice enough but otherwise it’s just a bit weak all round.

Brassed Off (1996)

The Yorkshire mining community of Grimley is threatened when the mine risks closure. Gloria Mullins (Tara Fitzgerald) is sent there to assess the profitability on behalf of British Coal. She grew up in the village and rekindles her childhood romance with Andy Barrow (Ewan McGregor). She also joins the miners' brass band, led by Danny Ormondroyd (Pete Postlethwaite), who is clearly not well after his years working at the pit. Meanwhile, Danny's son Phil (Stephen Tompkinson) is having his own problems with his marriage and finances.

It's a tightly plotted kitchen-sink drama with flashes of comedy and a very strong political message. McGregor delivers one of his better performances, although – as usual – he never sparkles. Fortunately everyone else does. Postlethwaite is charismatic as the band leader who cares so passionately about music that he overlooks other priorities. Fitzgerald is great as the crispy, pretty outsider who turns out to be “management”. And Tompkinson is believable as a desperate man whose problems keep piling up.

I was never a fan of brass, but the music sounds potent and poignant. It takes on greater significance as the story winds towards its moving conclusion, with no easy resolution.

Sing Street (2016)

In Dublin in the mid-1980s, a boy named Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is sent to a new school because his parents – on the brink of separating – can no longer afford to keep him at the old one. At the Synge Street school, Conor is bullied by the headmaster as well as by the kids, but finds solace with a handful of friends with whom he forms a band. Mostly, he just wants to impress Raphina (Lucy Boynton), who he sees outside the school and immediately fancies. 

Written and directed by John Carney, this has the small-town charm and romance of Gregory’s Girl. It’s funny and endearing, and has you rooting for Conor from the very start. The music is terrific, too – both the original material that Conor writes with the band and also the records that his brother Brendan (Jack Reynor) “educates” him with (The Cure, Joe Jackson and so on). 

There are some priceless scenes, such as when the family watch and discuss Duran Duran on Top of the Pops, or when the band are encouraged to wear make-up to film a video. There’s also plenty of poignancy, and some of the school cruelty sections are unbearable. But without giving way to sentimentality, it resolves into a hugely satisfying and heartwarming conclusion.

Argo (2012)

Superb thriller regarding the real-life events of the so-called “Canadian Caper”. 

In November 1979, Iranian extremists stormed the US embassy in Tehran as a result of the USA (under Jimmy Carter) granting the Shah political asylum. A total of 66 staff were taken as hostages, but six diplomats escaped and were given shelter by the Canadian ambassador. Incredibly, CIA operative Tony Mendez (played here by Ben Affleck, who also directs) travels to Tehran in an attempt to rescue the six under the premise that they are making a science-fiction film, Argo, in the region. 

It’s tense and exciting stuff. The sense of threat is built up with real expertise. The storytelling is lucid. All of the characters are portrayed brilliantly, with no weak links. Even John Goodman, who plays a prosthetics expert (alongside Alan Arkin as a film producer), is reined in enough that he cannot mess it up.

Wimbledon (2004)

Peter Colt (Paul Bettany) is a British tennis player on the way down. Then he meets and falls for up-and-coming American Lizzie Bradbury (Kirsten Dunst) and suddenly his game improves. But Lizzie’s father (Sam Neill) doesn’t want her focus changed, so tries to put a stop to the affair. 

This is a surprisingly entertaining film, with some funny lines. Bettany and Dunst have real chemistry. It’s also quite exciting and dramatic in terms of the tennis itself – even though I don’t much care for the sport. As Colt moves up through the tournament it actually gets quite exciting. I like the way we “hear” his thoughts – all his self-doubts and hopes mixed up in a chaotic interior monologue. It’s also nice to see former champions John McEnroe and Chris Evert playing themselves as commentators, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is likeable as Colt’s friend Dieter. 

On the downside, the thread regarding Colt’s parents (whose failing marriage is rekindled by their son’s changing fortunes) isn’t really necessary and his mum and dad (Eleanor Bron and Bernard Hill) seem silly and oddly unconvincing. 

But overall it’s a charming story, excellently told.

Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

In the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II, six American soldiers planted a US flag on the Japanese island – a symbol of victory, even while the conflict remained ongoing. This film is based on the story of the men who raised that flag and became part of an iconic photograph reproduced all around the world. 

In the aftermath of the battle, three of the survivors are paraded around as “heroes” and cruelly forced to reenact the flag-raising as celebrities, with no thought for the psychological damage they sustained in battle. These three men are played by Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford and Adam Beach. The latter is especially strong as the deeply troubled, heavy-drinking Ira Hayes, who – in addition to crippling PTSD – had to endure racism because of his Native American background. 

In fact, there were two flags raised, leading to confusion about who did what. That ambiguity is at the centre of this saga. 

It’s a moving story and there are moments of great poignancy, but some of the storytelling could have been clearer. The narrative perspective keeps shifting and the use of multiple flashbacks sometimes muddies things further. We see the events of battle and the weeks afterwards, but did we really need to see the survivors in the present day as well?

I could have done without the heavy colour filter that leaves everything in a washed-out grey/green. This makes it harder to determine who’s who and even to work out what’s happening. That may well have been the point – reflecting the disorientation of battle – but it creates a sense of distance that takes you out of the film. 

It’s a shame because the core of the story is touching and profound. Seeing the shameful way these three soldiers are treated – and what it does to them – is affecting indeed. You just wish that director Clint Eastwood had taken a more linear approach to keep the focus on them, without allowing visual and narrative distractions to get in the way.

Spaceballs (1987)

Daft and sometimes very funny parody of Star Wars, written and directed by Mel Brooks. The humour is so silly that it’s difficult to resist. For example, Rick Moranis plays the Darth Vader character, but he’s so weedy that anything he does seems utterly ridiculous. There are parodies of Princess Leia (Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa), Han Solo (Bill Pullman as the Winnebago-driving Lone Starr), Chewbacca (John Candy as the half-man half-dog Barf) and C-3PO (Joan Rivers voicing he droid Dot Matrix). Mel Brooks himself plays the Emperor Palpatine-influenced President Skroob and the Yoda-like Yogurt. There are also references to Star Trek, Alien and Planet of the Apes

It’s extremely self-referential and post-modern. At one point the characters have to watch Spaceballs itself to find out what happens next. 

The "story" is largely irrelevant. You just wait for the gags – some of them so basic and obvious that they can’t fail.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Ridley Scott is responsible for at least six great films (Alien, Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down, Body of Lies, Gladiator and Thelma & Louise), so it’s difficult to articulate just how disappointing this tepid 12th-century historical epic turns out to be. It’s a muddled account of power and politics set during the Crusades. 

Orlando Bloom underwhelms as the blacksmith hero descended from Baron Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson). After just one lesson from his dad, he becomes a master swordsman. There’s too much of him wandering around, ponderously contemplating his destiny and feeling “significant”. 

Eva Green (as Sibylla of Jerusalem) and Jeremy Irons (Raymond III of Tripoli) both try to do their best with the material, but – as with everyone in this film – their “characters” are sketchy outlines at best. They both look like they wish they were elsewhere. 

Even the visuals aren’t particularly impressive as the big battle scenes are ruined by endless slow-motion shots that take you out of the action rather than enhancing it.

Plot-wise, it’s confusing. Not only does it fail to provide any historical context about the Crusades, but it’s also completely lacking in terms of character motivations. You’re left unsure why anyone is doing whatever they are doing, and not really caring either.

The ending is a mess, too. The film peters out with very little resolved. A director’s cut adds 45 minutes that supposedly improve the film and help it to make sense, but if this standard edition wasn’t good enough it probably shouldn’t have been issued in the first place.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Directed by John Landis, this is a remarkable blend of comedy, musical, road-trip saga, crime caper and love letter to Chicago. It’s rightly seen as a classic. There’s absolutely nothing else like it.

Brothers Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Ackroyd) need to raise money to save an orphanage, so they plan to get their old band together – the Blues Brothers – to play a fundraising gig. The problem is that they are being pursued by the police, a country band, a bunch of Nazis and Jake’s angry girlfriend (Carrie Fisher). 

The action sequences are astonishing, with a huge number of police cars being trashed in the chase scenes. 

It’s especially notable for the song performances by jazz, soul and blues stars James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker and Chaka Khan. There are also acting roles and brief cameos for John Candy, Frank Oz, Steven Spielberg and – bafflingly – Twiggy. 

It’s so good-natured and silly that it quickly wins you over. You end up rooting for these two daft men “on a mission from God” despite the inevitability that they are heading for disaster.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

Uneven comedy directed by John Hughes and starring Steve Martin and John Candy.

Martin plays a tense marketing executive hoping to get home for Thanksgiving. He finds his efforts thwarted by severe weather, plane cancellations, traffic chaos and other frustrations. Candy, who travels with him, is a salesman who means well but has annoying habits. The film explores their strained relationship as Martin slowly becomes more tolerant and accepting of his companion. There’s also a class thing going on, with the well-to-do Martin sneering at someone who has less than him yet who is more in touch with his emotions. 

There are some very funny moments, but other parts don’t work – such as an aggressive scene in which Martin swears at a woman in a car-rental company. This really jars and stands out as a misjudgement. 

Kevin Bacon has a baffling cameo as a New Yorker running for a cab. Because he’s a famous actor I expected him to pop up again later, but he never did.

The Boat That Rocked (2009)

Highly entertaining ensemble comedy written and directed by Richard Curtis.

It focuses on a North Sea pirate radio station, Radio Rock, and the DJs and other characters aboard it. Their adventures are juxtaposed against the government’s attempts to make pirate radio illegal and shut down the whole operation. 

The all-star cast includes Gemma Arterton, Kenneth Branagh, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans, Bill Nighy, Katherine Parkinson and Emma Thompson, but the film is told from the perspective of a teenager, Carl (Tom Sturridge), who joins the floating team and gains the sense of family and identity that he’s been missing. There’s also a thread about him seeking his father, who he’s led to believe is on the boat. 

There are plenty of laughs but there are poignant moments too. And each of the characters is extremely well drawn, so you feel you get to know them all. 

The music is fantastic as you might expect for a film set in 1966–1967. Warm yet unsentimental, it works towards a dramatic and satisfying conclusion.

Jersey Boys (2014)

Clint Eastwood proves he can do pretty much anything by directing the film of the musical about the lives and careers of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

It’s an extremely well-told story, with the characters breaking the fourth wall to narrate their history as it’s happening. John Lloyd Young, who was also in the popular stage show, manages to sing with Valli’s distinctive falsetto – a voice that’s both iconic and a little ridiculous. Vincent Piazza plays tough-guy bandmate Tommy DeVito, while Christopher Walken is their gangster friend Gyp DeCarlo – a somewhat romanticised portrait in that you never get to see him do anything nasty (this isn’t a Scorsese film, even if it occasionally reminds you of one). 

It rightly puts the music to the fore, and you are left singing classics such as “Sherry”, “Walk Like a Man” and “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!)”. The final dancing-in-the-street sequence appears to emulate the curtain-call section of the musical, and is a blast of good-natured cheer.

Elizabethtown (2005)

Slightly awkward comedy-drama directed by Cameron Crowe

Drewe (Orlando Bloom) works as a designer for a shoe company and somehow manages to lose them nearly a billion dollars. His boss (Alec Baldwin) fires him. About to commit suicide, Drew learns that his father has died. He travels to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to arrange the funeral, and reconnects with friends and family. He also meets and falls in love with Claire (Kirsten Dunst), who gives him a reason to live. 

It’s all very odd. There’s a strong performance from Susan Sarandon (as Drew’s mother), who brings the family together with a funny and moving speech at the funeral, but Bloom himself is weak and cannot carry the lead role. Unable to convince you that he’s suicidal, he’s extremely dull to watch – a problematic vacuum at the very centre of the film. Dunst is as magnetic and charming as ever, and it’s worth watching just to see her, but it was difficult to understand what her sparkly character would like about someone so featureless. 

Some of the humour falls a little flat. Also, there’s too much music (a lot of it by Tom Petty) as almost every scene seems to be punctuated by a “moody” rock song. That worked in Almost Famous, because it was about the music world, but it’s merely intrusive here. Sometimes less is more. 

Roger Ebert claims that Claire is actually an angel and not to be taken too literally. Certainly the story is a salvation saga and there are themes of life/death, being doomed/redeemed and so on. Maybe that’s the case, but this additional layer doesn’t make the film more vital or entertaining. It needs more laughs and a credible male lead. Plus, the whole business about the shoe company seems random and misjudged. There are no insights into that industry nor why Drew might have been working in it.

An actor who looks like Loudon Wainwright turns out to be the actual Loudon Wainwright.

Taken (2008)

Former CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) has to track down his teenage daughter (Maggie Grace) after she’s kidnapped by Albanians in Paris. (She’d gone to follow U2 on tour around Europe.)

There’s not a great deal more to it, beyond a lot of fighting and shooting. Director Luc Besson prioritises violent action over everything else. Fast edits and jumpy cuts give it a visual energy, but those effects soon become wearisome. Likewise, there’s something blunt and one-dimensional about the whole thing compared to the Bourne or Bond thrillers. It’s not subtle or sophisticated and it’s probably not intended to be. 

Neeson has a certain unlikely charisma, but his character – a tough thug who loves his little girl – isn’t very well developed. 

It’s arguably quite racist, and it’s morally all over the place, with Mills engaged in torturing villains while still being portrayed as one of the good guys. 

Two sequels followed but I’m not sure I need to see them. Then again, if I find them in another three-DVDs-for-£1 offer I might just be tempted.

The American (2010)

Stylish and refreshingly different thriller directed by Anton Corbijn, who brings his photographer’s eye to every scene with the effect that the film looks stunning. 

George Clooney plays Edward, a hitman who moves from Sweden to an Italian village after his cover is blown. Taking on a new job, he’s then commissioned to build a specialist gun by an assassin named Mathilde (Thekla Reuten). While working on the weapon, he develops a relationship with a prostitute named Clara (Violante Placido). He also gets to know the local priest (Paolo Bonacelli) and begins a process of redemption. But dangerous people are out to kill him and he’s unsure who he can trust. 

It’s a little slow, initially, but you are encouraged to luxuriate in the beautiful shots Corbijn sets up until the narrative starts pulling you in. By the final third, it’s edge-of-the-seat stuff. 

Clooney is at his very best as an amoral man who begins to discover new depths in himself and starts to hope for a better life.  

There’s a lack of cliché, with enough twists that the ending cannot be predicted.

No Time to Die (2021)


Famously much-delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic, the 25th James Bond film finally hit cinemas in September 2021 – five years after work on it first began. There was a lot of additional baggage because we knew in advance that it would be the final episode starring Daniel Craig. With plenty of threads to tie up, there was a lot it had to achieve to be a truly satisfying finale. Unfortunately, despite plenty of striking moments, it doesn’t quite deliver. 

On the downside there’s a somewhat muddled plot that lacks the graceful coherence of the storylines in Skyfall and Spectre. Some of the gimmicks are tired, too: a secret base on a remote island really wasn’t very original. And while it’s nice to see the familiar gang back together – with welcome returns for Jeffrey Wright (as Felix), Ralph Fiennes (M), Ben Whishaw (Q) and Rory Kinnear (Tanner), all of whom suddenly look a lot older – it’s odd that the roles of Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) seem to have been minimised. Other limitations include a silly Russian scientist played by David Dencik and a hammy main villain played by Rami Malek. The latter was unconvincing as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody and is just as unconvincing here – especially when delivering his ponderous speeches. The whole film seems a little underwritten, and even a rival “00” agent (Lashana Lynch as Nomi) doesn’t quite come to life as a character. 

On the plus side, the action sequences are vivid and exciting, and Hans Zimmer’s musical score maximises the drama. Daniel Craig has a magnetic charm, if a little less sparkle than usual. And Léa Seydoux is fully believable as Bond’s on/off lover Madeleine Swann. The introduction of a child character (Madeleine’s daughter) also adds a new dimension to the series. The most entertaining section features an evening-gowned Cuban agent named Paloma (Ana de Armas), who briefly assists Bond with martial-arts kicks and a cheery energy that’s otherwise lacking in a rather dour 163 minutes. 

The shock ending – really not what I expected – raises some big questions about the future of the franchise. I wish the film hadn’t concluded the way it does, but we are assured that somehow or other James Bond will return.