Evolution (2001)

Comedy sci-fi directed by Ivan Reitman. 

Arizona college professor (David Duchovny) and his geologist pal (Orlando Jones) investigate the site of a meteor landing. Exploring the site they encounter life-forms with the ability to evolve at high speed. Before long, all civilisation is at risk. 

Julianne Moore plays an epidemiologist who keeps tripping over and bumping into things, while Dan Ackroyd is the state governor, keen to avert an embarrassing disaster.

It’s extremely silly, but it’s quick-witted and there are enough laughs to keep you hooked in until the end.

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.

Trading Places (1983)

John Landis comedy starring Dan Aykroyd as Winthorpe, a wealthy commodities broker, and Eddie Murphy as Valentine, a poor street hustler. The social positions of these diametrically opposed individuals are switched because of a wager – hence the clever pun in the title. Valentine rises up in the firm while Winthorpe becomes a down-and-out. This cruel bet is staged by the Duke brothers (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche), who own the business and treat their employees as mere playthings. 

Denholm Elliott is the smart butler who is initially in on the scam, but who then helps Winthorpe and Valentine to outwit the Dukes. Jamie Lee Curtis is a “hooker with a heart of gold” character who helps Winthorpe when no one else will.

It turns briefly ludicrous when we get to the gorilla episode, but otherwise the plot plays out in a very satisfying way – until the ending. I was slightly disappointed that when our heroes get their own back, they merely enjoy their millions. They don’t do anything to reject the privilege, injustice and racism that determined their fortunes. Instead, Trading Places takes a lazier path and observes the usual 1980s film tropes in praise of upward mobility. 

That point aside, it’s sharp and funny. And all of the leads are superb.

Crossroads (2002)

A predictable “star vehicle”. Lucy (Britney Spears) and two other young women from Georgia take off on a road trip. One wants to go to an audition in Los Angeles, one wants to visit her fiancé and one wants to meet her estranged mother in Tucson, Arizona. In the process of taking the trip, they inevitably “find themselves” and rekindle their own childhood friendship. 

It’s formulaic in the extreme. Britney seems natural enough as an actor, but the script has no sparkle and the plot offers no surprises. I hoped they’d rob a bank or encounter a zombie apocalypse or something, but no such excitement occurs. Also, her dreary companions Kit (Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning) are presumably there to make her look better. Her parents are played by Kim Cattrall and Dan Aykroyd, but it’s a struggle to believe they are the actual mum and dad of Ms. Spears. 

Crossroads tries to deal with issues such as teen pregnancy, the pressures of gender roles and the value of family, but the abundance of cliché means that it does so only superficially. It’s designed as fan fodder (you can almost hear the focus groups behind it), and in that sense it achieves everything it sets out to.

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.

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.

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.