Ransom (1996)

Thriller in which Mel Gibson and Rene Russo star as the wealthy parents of a boy kidnapped by Gary Sinise and his gang. Rather than pay the $2 million, Gibson's character takes matters into his own hands and creates a bounty for the kidnapper. 

It’s taut if trashy, and it keeps you engaged. Russo and Sinese are watchable, as always, but Gibson is oddly overwrought. It’s partly the character – he plays a loose cannon reckless enough to take the ransom process off-piste and gamble his son’s life in the process – but it’s partly just his odd acting. 

There’s a sort of theme about macho behaviour, with the two male characters trying to dominate each other, but it’s not entirely believable. Gibson simply isn’t convincing as a dad or husband, and he has remarkably little chemistry with Russo. In fact, his character comes across as a total weirdo. (What kind of parent thinks he knows more about kidnap strategy than the FBI?) A plot thread about him having lied to his wife promised to take the film in a more interesting direction – i.e., with the criminal exploiting their divisions to play the couple off against one another – but strangely that possibility isn’t explored beyond an initial hint. Also, it fails my standard test of a film’s quality in that the minor characters are cardboard cut-outs instead of being developed and given their own motivations.  

Slow-motion action sequences are never a good sign in a thriller, and there are too many here. I also found the black-and-white treatment applied to the closing moments a little naff and unnecessary. 

Ron Howard is usually a dependable director, but you can’t help feeling that this one somehow got away from him.

Collateral Damage (2002)

Action thriller. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a fireman whose wife and son are killed by a Colombian terrorist known as The Wolf (Cliff Curtis). Inevitably, Arnie takes the law into his hands to seek revenge, travelling into the heart of the Colombian guerrilla operation and teaming up with The Wolf’s wife (Francesca Neri) and son. 

It’s sort of exciting despite never bothering much with a script or any fresh ideas. The characters are fairly one-dimensional and it’s arguably quite racist, too. There are visual and thematic hints of Apocalypse Now, but without any of the sophistication or flair of that film. And when Arnie has to show emotions – as this plot demands – not very much happens.

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Superb biographical whistleblower thriller/human drama starring Julia Roberts as the young legal clerk who took on Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and sued them for water contamination in Hinkley, California. 

Roberts is remarkable in this role – she makes every moment of every scene count. It’s such a vivid and entirely believable performance that it's difficult to imagine anyone else doing it better. Albert Finney is excellent, too. He plays her boss, a lawyer nearing retirement, whose cynicism is challenged by Erin’s refreshingly unorthodox approach. 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, it looks good too. He really captures the beauty of the dusty California landscapes that contain an ugly secret. It’s a long film, but every detail matters and contributes something to the unfolding drama. Character and story are kept central throughout.

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Unusual Hitchcock thriller. 

A retired jewel thief (Cary Grant) living on the French Riviera has to track down a new “cat” burglar whose crimes are being wrongly attributed to him. Grace Kelly plays the young woman he romances along the way. 

It’s not as exciting as Hitchcock’s best films, despite the rooftop drama at the climax. There’s jarringly odd lighting, too, with super-bright studio shots and less-bright location shots often clashing when edited together in the same scenes. It seems unfair to criticise these technical limitations, but the juxtaposition is striking enough to jolt you out of the narrative again and again. 

Grant and Kelly have a certain easy charm, but for some reason the whole thing seems a little lacking.

Confidence (2003)

Thriller about a group of con artists (led by Edward Burns) who get mixed up with a creepy crime boss called The King (Dustin Hoffman) and plan an elaborate banking scam. 

James Foley’s direction is flashy and a little tricksy, but the story – although complex – is a good one. Also, the acting is uniformly strong. Paul Giamatti and Rachel Weisz are both effective as members of the con team, while Andy García is convincing-but-underused as Special Agent Gunther Butan. 

The plotting can be difficult to keep up with, but it just about holds together if you don’t ask too many “But what if…” questions about timing and motivation.

Arabesque (1966)

Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren star in a silly comedy thriller about an archaeology professor thrust into a criminal adventure when tasked with decoding some ancient hieroglyphs.

It’s shot in an inventive way, with the use of mirrors and reflections, plus strange angles and vantage points. There’s a great scene in which a drugged Peck weaves in and out of motorway traffic, with the film rendering his altered perception. 

The problem is that it’s just not very entertaining. The parts played for comedy simply aren’t funny. The script is poor, and – other than Peck and Loren – the acting is woeful. Worst of all, the villain (played by a hammy Alan Badel) is absolutely awful.

Would I watch it again? Absolutely not.

Suddenly (1954)

Rather unexceptional drama about a fake FBI agent (played by Frank Sinatra) who attempts to kill the US President. He and his henchmen take over the Benson family’s house in the town of Suddenly, California, in order to aim their gun at the railway station where the President is shortly due to arrive. 

Although there’s some excitement in the ticking-clock countdown to the planned assassination at 5pm, the performances are mainly wooden and/or half-baked. Sinatra has a definite magnetism and out-performs everyone else, but there’s a B-movie feel that it cannot rise above. 

It’s mostly interesting for its attitudes. Ellen (Nancy Gates) wants to prevent her son playing with a toy gun, but her boyfriend, the sheriff (Sterling Hayden) tells her “Stop being a woman!” Shocking stuff. The “moral” seems to be that guns are great – unless a psychopath happens to get hold of one – and that masculinity is incomplete without them. 

The most remarkable aspect of the film is explained by Wikipedia: “Sinatra asked United Artists to withdraw Suddenly from circulation because he heard the rumor that Lee Harvey Oswald had seen it before shooting President Kennedy. According to Hollywood legend, Sinatra bought up all remaining copies of Suddenly and had them destroyed, but this was not true.”

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

The way John Travolta walks, talks and moves in this film is so effortlessly cool that you can only imagine the entire role was constructed around him. By day he works in a hardware shop in New York. At night, he dances in the local clubs where his astonishing moves have earned him a level of respect he cannot find in regular society, nor in his home life.  

It tackles issues including religion, class, social mobility, gender roles and the state of New York in the 1970s, but never in a heavy-handed manner.

Both incredibly dramatic and desperately sad, in some ways it’s a New York version of the sort of stories told in Billy Liar and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – a young man tries to rise above his background to make his way in the world while negative forces conspire to keep him down.

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)

John Hughes teen drama that ranks as the very best example of its kind. 

Looking like a young Luke Skywalker, Eric Stolz is Keith, a sensitive artist and mechanic from a blue-collar background in suburban Los Angeles. Keith resists his father’s wishes to send him to college. Mary Stuart Masterson is Watts, his tomboy best friend who loves drumming and who has been secretly in love with Keith for years. And then there’s Lea Thompson as Amanda Jones, the girl Keith thinks he’s in love with. But nasty guy Hardy Jenns (Craig Sheffer) has other ideas about who Amanda should be dating. 

It's hugely entertaining and very charming. The storytelling is superb. The three leads are all spot-on. It’s extremely earnest and it takes itself very seriously, which seems absolutely the right approach because that’s how teenagers are too. It’s romantic and silly at the same time. The usual 1980s preoccupations with social mobility dominate, alongside some morals about being your own true self rather than being fake with others. 

Note: the names Keith, Watts and Amanda Jones are all Rolling Stones references. Presumably the drumming gimmick was also added in reference to Charlie Watts.

I haven’t enjoyed a "youth" film this much since Teen Wolf.

Presumed Innocent (1990)

Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) is a prosecutor who is charged with the murder of his colleague and mistress Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi).

Adapted from the novel by Scott Turow, this film is directed – slowly and unremarkably – by Alan J. Pakula. The two leads are strong but it’s a little flat overall. Worse than that, the motivation of the killer is muddled and there are loose ends that mean the plot doesn’t really work. 

There’s a greeny/brown, turgid quality to the visuals. Overall, it’s surprisingly workmanlike and unrewarding. Yet somehow it made $200 million.

Would I watch it again? No.

The Light Between Oceans (2016)

In the aftermath of World War I, Tom (Michael Fassbender) goes to work on a remote lighthouse on Janus Rock, off the coast of Australia. He marries a local woman (Alicia Vikander) but their wish to have children is thwarted when Isabel twice miscarries. Then they find a baby lost at sea and washed up on their beach. The decision to keep it and pretend it’s their own child rather than report the discovery becomes the defining moment of their lives. 

It’s a harrowing drama that’s brilliantly done. Both of the stars are entirely believable. You can feel their love for one another and their pain when things go wrong. Rachel Weisz is also excellent as the child’s actual mother. 

The landscapes look beautiful, with a special kind of light. The music, by Alexandre Desplat, is fitting for a story that’s – at various points – romantic, moving and emotional.

Before I Go to Sleep (2014)

Psychological thriller.

Nicole Kidman stars as Christine, a woman who lost her memory 10 years ago. Each morning her husband Ben (Colin Firth) has to tell her who she is and what happened to her, because she can’t remember anything from before the last time she slept. What trauma caused her to forget everything? Why is Ben concealing certain facts? And what are the motives of the neuroscientist (Mark Strong) who offers to help her without Ben’s knowledge?

It’s an intriguing premise – somewhere between Memento and Groundhog Day. Plot-wise there were some questionable aspects. Why doesn’t Christine simply keep a notebook and add information as she learns it? There’s a digital camera (supplied by the neuroscientist), but how does it get new batteries? What stops its memory from filling up? And how are the photos on the wall explained once the big twist has been revealed?

On the plus side, the English landscapes (such as Greenwich Park) look better than they usually do in films.

Outbreak (1995)

Disaster film detailing the outbreak of a deadly virus brought from Zaire to the USA by an infected monkey. Army virologist Dustin Hoffman and scientist Rene Russo play a divorced couple who team up again in their attempts to save the world. They are helped by Kevin Spacey but hindered by army generals played by Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland. 

It’s a fast-paced thriller that’s a little trashy but nevertheless exciting. A surprising number of helicopters feature, with James Bond-like copter chases providing some of the action. Unlike Contagion, it’s not especially illuminating in regard to the Covid-19 pandemic. The focus is more on the military response to the problem rather than individuals’ experience of it.

Script-wise it could have been stronger, but there’s so much happening, so quickly, that you don’t really notice.

The Commuter (2018)

Former New York cop Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson) has taken the same daily train in and out of the city, morning and evening, for 10 years. On the day he loses his insurance job, he is approached by a stranger (Vera Farmiga), who recruits him to commit a crime in exchange for money. 

This is a taut action thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who also made 2014’s Non-Stop. In fact, it’s quite similar in many ways: Neeson confined to a speeding vehicle while needing to solve a mystery to save his own life – and the lives of others. 

It’s both silly and exciting, and it keeps you guessing to the end. Sam Neill is underused as a police chief, and Elizabeth McGovern is underused as MacCauley’s wife.

 Neeson looks really old. He was about 65 at the time, and seems increasingly unlikely as an action hero by this point. But he does have charisma and there’s something compelling about watching him yet again work his way out of a fix.

As Good as It Gets (1997)

Superb comedy about a bitter romantic novelist named Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), who insults everyone he meets. He also lives with OCD, avoiding the cracks in the pavements and disposing of soap bars after a single use. When he’s forced to look after a neighbour’s dog, his compassionate side slowly begins to emerge. A lesser film would have made the most of that and gone no further than a simple man-with-pet comedy, but this complex character study evolves into something deeper and goes a lot further into exploring human behaviour. 

Helen Hunt is absolutely superb as the cafe waitress that Nicholson falls in love with but is unable to articulate his feelings towards. Her three-dimensional character seems entirely real. Less convincingly Greg Kinnear plays Melvin’s gay artist neighbour, who Melvin slowly begins to accept and like – despite all his prejudices. 

It’s an intelligent film with no easy answers. It works as a romantic comedy, but it’s the least formulaic example of that genre I can imagine. 

It leaves you with a lot to think about, not least whether the OCD community think it’s a fair portrayal of that condition.

Love Actually (2003)

Comedy-drama written and directed by Richard Curtis. Utilising an all-star cast, it weaves together several narrative threads with a common theme of love set in the days leading up to Christmas. Some of them work better than others, but the problem with having so many stories running in parallel is that they all get merely superficial treatment. 

I would have liked more detail on the plots involving Colin Firth/Lúcia Moniz (couple fall in love but speak different languages), Hugh Grant/Martine McCutcheon (Prime Minister falls for junior member of staff) and Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson (married managing director is tempted by his secretary). The Bill Nighy story (past-his-prime rocker attempts comeback) is silly but occasionally amusing. However, the threads concerning Keira Knightley (new husband’s best friend is in love with her), Martin Freeman (acts in nude scenes with a girl but becomes paradoxically shy when asking her out) and Kris Marshall (goes to America to find a female who’ll sleep with him) could all have been ditched entirely to let the other parts breathe a little. 

The worst segments involve Liam Neeson’s precocious stepchild – a horribly self-conscious little know-all played by Thomas Sangster. This child is apparently unruffled by the recent death of his mother, but lectures his stepdad on the nature of relationships. There’s also a daft airport scene in which his antics would have probably got him shot by anti-terrorist security guards. 

It was also baffling that the same song (“Love Is All Around”) had to be revived from an earlier Richard Curtis film: Four Weddings and a Funeral. Maybe it was a self-referential joke, but couldn't they just have come up with another love song? There’s no shortage. 

I admire the ambition, and there were some genuinely funny moments, but it ended up being a sprawling mess. Woody Allen could have done much more with the raw material and handled the complex storytelling with greater skill.

Gloria (1999)

A brilliant hybrid of crime thriller and human drama. 

Sharon Stone plays a woman who has just got out of prison and returned to see her gangster boyfriend (Jeremy Northam) in New York. But one of his henchmen has just shot dead a family, leaving only a seven-year-old boy alive. Gloria grows attached to the child and tries to save him – and herself – from a life of crime. 

It’s a touching and funny story. Both Gloria and the boy have a brash, smart-talking exterior that masks their true vulnerability, and they bring out the best in each other. 

Directed by Sidney Lumet, it’s lively and exciting but also full of unsentimental warmth and charm. The script is sharp, and Stone gets some witty lines. She’s magnetic and highly convincing. Jean-Luke Figueroa is superb for a child actor, too, simultaneously expressing toughness and fragility.

Gloria lost money and was critically panned – perhaps because people were more fond of the 1980 film it remade. It deserves more credit, though, as it’s hugely enjoyable.

Lucy (2014)

Generally entertaining but extremely silly sci-fi thriller. 

Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) gains extraordinary mental and physical abilities when the full capacity of her brain is unleashed by a wonder drug. Unfortunately, a bunch of South Korean gangsters want to kill her. Morgan Freeman, meanwhile, plays a well-meaning scientist who tries to help her. 

The plot, which includes dinosaurs and time travel, only works if you go along with the premise that unlocking brain power would essentially make you a superhero. And as with superhero films, it suffers from a problem – that is, once anything is possible, nothing really works as drama. Someone who can do anything is no longer a protagonist you can relate to. 

The main draw is the visual flair that director Luc Besson brings. It looks imaginative and psychedelic even if it makes little real sense. There’s also a lot of violence that we could probably have done without. 

A far stronger film on a similar topic is Limitless (2011), which not only keeps to its own “rules” but also creates engaging characters you can actually relate to.

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Alternative title: An Hour Too Long. 

During World War II, Operation Market Garden was an Allied operation that took place in September 1944. It aimed to secure key river crossings, enabling a route from the Netherlands into northern Germany – culminating with the strategically vital Arnhem bridge. 

That real-life saga is brought to life with mixed results. Unfortunately, at nearly three hours it’s excessively drawn out. The film gets off to a very slow start, too, and it’s a full 52 minutes until the first shot is fired. There are a lot of characters and plenty of time is used up introducing them and generally setting the scene. It’s an extreme example of the all-star cast, cramming in key roles for Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O'Neal, Laurence Olivier and Robert Redford. The ensemble approach works reasonably enough and it adds scope, but it does mean you don’t get to know – or care about – any particular individual very well. 

Despite the jaunty music at times and the sense that for the posh Brits it’s all just a jolly jape, there’s a strong message about the brutality of war and the film doesn’t hold back from showing the realities of injury and death. 

It’s superior to the likes of The Great Escape and The Longest Day, although still oddly unsatisfying. It fails to convey why these battles are so important or to provide a wider context of how they fit into the war.