American Gangster (2007)

Biographical drama by Ridley Scott. 

Russell Crowe plays Richie Roberts, a detective trying to track down and capture the gangster Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). Lucas has made his fortune by smuggling heroin into the USA on military planes servicing the Vietnam War. 

The historical context is interesting and the film gets better as it progresses, but I found that the first half dragged. Crowe is always captivating, but Washington doesn’t boast the kind of charisma that his character would surely have needed to be such a powerful and controlling figure. 

Not up to Ridley Scott’s usual levels of skilled storytelling.

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) puts his career first and neglects his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) and son (Justin Henry). When Joanna walks out, Ted is left to juggle his job with the demands of parenting. And just as he seems to be getting the hang of the latter, a custody battle begins. 

It’s a powerful drama. To the credit of director Robert Benton, it’s not really about the end of a marriage. It’s more about the parent–child relationship and how that is affected by a divorce. 

Hoffman is his usual mannered, nervy persona with little self-awareness. You can see hints of his autistic Rain Man character in all his roles and this one is no exception. Streep's character is undeveloped – the main flaw of the film. It would have been good to see more of it from her point of view, but she's denied much screen time, which limits her character development.

Shirley Valentine (1989)

Funny and poignant drama written by Willy Russell.

Pauline Collins is stunningly good in the title role as a 42-year-old woman who leaves her dreary Liverpool life to "find herself" in Greece. Tom Conti plays Costas, the Greek man who actually listens to her in a way her husband hasn’t done for years. But beyond a holiday romance she realises she’s rediscovered who she is. 

It’s adapted from the stage play, in which Collins also starred, and you can see how well it would have worked before an audience – especially as she constantly breaks the fourth wall. In places it’s simply a monologue in which she talks about her life. 

What makes the feel so affecting is how real she seems as a character and how universal her predicament is. It’s handled with great sensitivity and wit.

There are also roles for Joanna Lumley, Alison Steadman and Julia McKenzie.

Although the scenes of England in the 1980s look horribly dated, the writing is so sharp that this remains a timeless gem.

The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)

Romantic drama adapted by Harold Pinter from the John Fowles novel and directed by Karel Reisz. 

Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons play two couples: one in Victorian times and one in the present day. They are different people but their relationships, then and now, have many parallels exploring the nature of obsessive love. 

I’m not entirely convinced that the interweaving of the two stories works. Both would have been enough for a film in themselves, and the present-day narrative is sketchier, meaning that motivations and character are less fleshed out. Also, it's distracting that the some of the same actors (but not all of them) appear in both stories, but in unrelated roles that I imagined would be connected. I would have hoped to see more of Penelope Wilton (who bafflingly only appears in one of the two tales), but that might just be because I like Penelope Wilton. 

Despite some tricksy aspects, it’s compelling and the acting is first rate. 

Labyrinth (1986)

Fantasy adventure directed by Jim Henson, recycling story elements from Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz and adding in a bunch of grotesque Muppets. David Bowie is the goblin king Jareth (why Jareth, of all names?), while Jennifer Connelly plays a teenage girl on a quest to save her baby brother imprisoned in a castle within a maze. In doing so, she throws off the trappings of childhood and embraces adult responsibilities. 

The sets are often inspired – in particular, the camera trickery that brings to life a series of impossible Escher-like staircases – and some of the puppets are highly inventive. But the aesthetics are ugly and parts of the plot seem stilted or disjointed. It’s less than a sum of its parts. The script went through multiple rewrites and it’s fascinating to see glimpses of plot threads that were either cut or left undeveloped. 

Bowie seems uncomfortably miscast, lost in the labyrinth of his mid-1980s career. Even when he gets to sing, he’s performing some of his weakest material – so Labyrinth doesn’t work as a musical either. He should have been more extreme – nastier and funnier, hamming it up like a pantomime villain. Instead, it’s an oddly tepid performance. 

Beyond those points it’s difficult to say why it ends up being a bit of an awkward mess – albeit an enjoyable mess. Indeed, it’s nearly brilliant, but the difference between nearly brilliant and actually brilliant turns out to be a huge one.

The Dictator (2012)

Sacha Baron Cohen stars as Admiral General Aladeen, the dictator of the fictional Republic of Wadiya. When he visits the USA, he is replaced by an imposter and – in order to regain his position as leader – ends up associating with a human-rights activist Zoey (Anna Faris). 

There’s a strong thread of political satire, but you have to wade through some crude and deliberately uncomfortable material confronting racial and gender prejudices. 

There are enough genuinely funny lines that it just about works, but Baron Cohen delights in walking a tightrope when it comes to taste and you will either find that intriguing or just off-putting.

Escape from New York (1981)

It’s 1997 and Manhattan has been turned into a maximum-security prison because crime has risen by 400%. A convict named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is recruited by Lee Van Cleef to rescue the US President (Donald Pleasence), who is trapped there by a gangland boss (Isaac Hayes). 

It’s an exciting romp, blending action-thriller and sci- fi. The “futuristic” sets are generally impressive and the pace never lets up. Script-wise it’s fairly underwhelming, but then you probably wouldn’t watch it for the dialogue. 

Ernest Borgnine plays an irritating cabbie, while Harry Dean Stanton plays an engineer nicknamed "Brain".

Director John Carpenter provides the music himself, and it’s pretty good.

State of Play (2009)

Thriller adapted from a BBC TV series. 

Russell Crowe plays a Washington Globe journalist investigating a series of deaths that are linked to his friend, a congressman (Ben Affleck). 

It’s an exciting drama that touches on a lot of themes. There’s political and corporate corruption. There’s also a celebration of old-school news reporting, with a nice platonic relationship between the experienced journalist and the young recruit (Rachel McAdams), who represents the world of blogs and digital news. 

Crowe is as good as ever, but all of the main actors are excellent. Helen Mirren is the tough newspaper boss who is to Crowe what Judi Dench’s M was to Daniel Craig’s James Bond. Jeff Daniels is a Congressman with secrets. Robin Wright plays the politician’s wife, who has a “history” with Crowe. 

Director Kevin Macdonald had previously made films about mountaineering disaster, Mick Jagger and the 1972 Munich Olympics, and you can see a certain documentary style applied to this fiction too. 

Only the generic, interchangeable title lets it down.

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

Romantic melodrama with a strong religious agenda, based on a novel by Lloyd C. Douglas (who also wrote The Robe). 

When a wealthy playboy named Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) crashes his speedboat, he is saved by use of a resuscitator belonging to nearby Dr. Phillips. But the doctor himself requires it at the same time and dies as a result. Merrick falls in love with the doctor’s widow, Helen (Jane Wyman), and tries to change the course of his life through acts of kindness and generosity to her and others. 

There’s a strong (heavy-handed) message promoting Christianity. One character, Edward Randolph (Otto Kruger) even takes on a God-like role, offering spiritual guidance and saintly encouragement. 

It’s a strange film because the main plot thread hinges on Helen going blind and not being able to see that the kindly gent helping her is the same man who inadvertently led to her husband’s death. I thought it was working up to a big moment “reveal” of his true identity, but when it arrives that moment is thrown away and completely peters out. 

Odd as it is being sold an advert for the Christian life, it’s worth watching for the strong performances by Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. The former in particular has charisma.

The Interpreter (2005)

An interpreter at the United Nations (Nicole Kidman) overhears a conversation that suggests the leader of an African state is to be assassinated when he arrives to make a speech. A recently widowed Secret Service agent (Sean Penn) investigates and senses that she’s not telling the full truth, but the pair are drawn together by their shared losses. 

Directed by Sydney Pollack, it’s a smart and sensitive thriller that’s very nicely shot. Kidman and Penn are both excellently drawn characters and their relationship is subtle and nuanced. Catherine Keener is great as Penn’s professional partner, but doesn’t get given enough lines. 

The plot is complicated and there might be a few loose ends. For example, the phrase that the interpreter overhears doesn’t make sense in the light of what ultimately takes place. But that doesn't spoil an excellent thriller.

Galaxy Quest (1999)

Sci-fi comedy. 

The cast of a TV show that's very similar to Star Trek find themselves in a real-life space adventure when their episodes are intercepted by aliens who regard them as “historical documents”. 

Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman are all superb as the faded celebrity actors who are required to become their fictional counterparts. 

It works as both a satire and an example of a sci-fi story. It's silly and in places very funny.

Gremlins (1984)

Comedy-horror. 

A boy is given a small, furry creature for Christmas. But his new pet spawns further little cuties that become a lot less appealing when they then transform into mischievous, giggling little monsters. 

It’s a clever film that works as a sort of fairy tale and also as a homage to previous monster films, many of which are seen on TVs in the background of this film. 

It’s inventive how each gremlin is given its own identity, and the scene in which they take over an entire cinema is an imaginative delight. 

Plot-wise, it only works because no one ever asks what species the creatures are or seems especially surprised to see such a remarkable life-form. But it's not really about the plot. It's more of an excuse to cram as many different gremlin scenarios as possible into 106 minutes and it achieves this in a way that's hugely entertaining.

The Terminal (2004)

Baffling Steven Spielberg comedy-drama. Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, an Eastern European man who ends up stuck in J.F.K. airport when his country suffers a coup and war breaks out. Unable to return there or to gain access to New York City, he begins a frustrating, surreal life within the airport itself. 

It dabbles with romantic comedy when he falls for an air hostess (Catherine Zeta-Jones). He also has to deal with the Acting Field Commissioner (Stanley Tucci), who wants to get rid of him. In the meantime he becomes a sort of celebrity among the airport staff, which include Diego Luna, Kumar Pallana and Zoë Saldaña. 

The big flaw of the film is that Stanley Tucci’s fixation with removing Viktor is never really explained. Surely a man that busy would have too many other important things to do. Another problem is that the romance plot fizzles out and a more sentimental quest to honour his father’s wishes takes over. Worse than that, there’s a big loose end relating to the way Stanley Tucci threatens to get rid of Viktor’s friends. Also, John Williams’ soupy music is too prominent. 

Despite all of this, Hanks is excellent and the premise is intriguing and unusual. It’s just a shame that Spielberg somehow lost his way in the second half.

Robocop (1987)

Brilliant satire of violence and corporate power by Paul Verhoeven, who would later direct the equally superb Starship Troopers. It’s a simple story – dead cop is brought back to life in cybernetic form to fight crime. But he also begins to recall his human life and feelings.

Peter Weller is excellent in the lead role, as is Nancy Allen as his cop partner. It's to the film's great credit that it develops the pair’s relationship without going down the obvious "romance" route.

It’s exciting, and also funny, with the blackest humour imaginable – cheerfully brutal. As the narrative evolves it becomes increasingly compassionate and surprisingly emotional.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Masterpiece directed by Miloš Forman and adapted from Ken Kesey’s novel.

Jack Nicholson stars as McMurphy, who is committed to a mental hospital after faking insanity. There, he disrupts the routine maintained by the controlling Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) and gives the other patients a sense of liberation through his freewheeling attitude and irreverent humour. 

It’s incredibly moving. As a human drama it is heartbreaking. It also tackles themes of power, identity and freedom, but in a subtle and sometimes darkly amusing way.

The in-mates, played by actors including Christopher Lloyd and Danny DeVito, are fully fleshed-out characters in their own right, adding real depth to the drama. Will Sampson has huge presence as the "Chief", who pretends to be deaf and dumb. Brad Dourif is superb playing the frail, stuttering Billy Bibbit, whose fears are exploited with devastating consequences. And Jack Nicholson is almost supernaturally potent in the lead role. You cannot take your eyes off him.

The Greatest Showman (2017)

This film is so different to anything I have seen before. Superficially it’s a musical biopic of the circus impresario P.T. Barnum. However it’s not really about the story at all, and there’s very little dialogue. It’s built around the songs and the spectacular choreography and lighting. It doesn’t look “realistic” and it doesn’t even try to. Instead it presents a kind of hyper reality in which the colours are more colourful and the lights are brighter and deeper. There is a fairly heavy-handed message about embracing diversity, and in that sense this film could only have been made now. With these themes there’s no way it could have been produced even 10 years ago. 

The songs are strong and it’s visually remarkable. Plus, Hugh Jackman is likeable in the central role – even if his character is given an almost Jesus-like level of idealisation. Michelle Williams is less impressive as his wife, mainly because she isn’t fleshed out as a character. You could argue that it’s emotionally shallow, but penetrating psychological drama is not what this film is about. Instead, it’s a big, loud, fast-moving in-your-face spectacle.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

This scared the pants off me – possibly even more so than on first viewing 30 years ago.

Adapted from the Thomas Harris novel, it’s a psychological thriller with more intelligence than your standard film from that genre. Trainee FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) tries to capture a serial killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) with the help of another killer, who is living out his life in prison – Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter (Anthony Hopkins).

Director Jonathan Demme’s masterstroke is to make it as much about the Starling/Lector relationship as it is about solving the case. He develops both characters brilliantly, sometimes filming them face-on for added intensity – without making it look like a tricksy fourth-wall device. Lector is a talented psychiatrist with the uncanny ability to get inside people’s heads, and Hopkins captures that quality with perfect menace. He plays the character as a refined gentleman who just happens to like eating people. Foster also gives the performance of a lifetime, being forced to confront the fears from her childhood alongside the very real terrors of her new job.

The climax, in which Starling is stalked by Buffalo Bill in total darkness while he wears night-vision goggles – accompanied by The Fall’s “Hip Priest” on the soundtrack – is as hypnotic and chilling as cinema ever gets.

The Jazz Singer (1980)

The 1927 film The Jazz Singer starred Al Jolson and went down in history as the first full-length “talking” motion picture. This remake casts Neil Diamond in the Al Jolson role of the synagogue cantor whose father (Laurence Olivier) wants him to follow in the family tradition of strict religious observance. Neil, however, has other plans and wants to become a rock star. He takes off to L.A., abandoning his wife (Catlin Adams) and hooking up with music agent Molly (Lucie Arnaz).

It’s a fascinating film because of the way it presents Neil Diamond. Is he credible as a rock star? Not really, but he does have undeniable on-stage charisma. It's not a musical in the Singing in the Rain sense, but it does feature lots of him singing on stage.

My DVD is incredibly grainy and low-res. Probably the film has been remastered since, but the version I have is almost unwatchable.