Cape Fear (1991)

Martin Scorsese’s remake of the 1962 film creates something bigger, louder and a lot more scary than the original. This time around the psychopath Max Cady is played by Robert De Niro, who is fuelled by his own version of religion as well as a desperate craving for revenge. The plot is very similar – ex-con terrorises lawyer and his family – except that Scorsese builds in more moral ambiguity. Sam Boden (Nick Nolte) is not a squeaky-clean lawyer. Instead, he has acted unprofessionally by concealing a report relating to Cady’s case and is unfaithful to his wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) with a legal clerk called Loti (Illeana Douglas). 

The biggest difference is that the Bodens’ daughter, Danielle (a particularly superb Juliette Lewis), is a 15-year-old who is drawn into an ambiguous understanding with Cady. He exploits her dawning sexuality as well as her feelings of being misunderstood by her parents. 

In many ways it’s a film about family and – like Cady himself – it cleverly explores the threads that tie them together as well as probing into the cracks that pull them apart. 

The music, based on Bernard Herrmann’s score for the original, has a high drama, helping to drive the dynamism and the tension on screen. 

There’s also the slight novelty of cameos from three of the original cast – Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck and Martin Balsam all appear in minor roles. 

If there’s a criticism it’s that it’s a little overwrought at times, but I like that quality: Scorsese turns up the drama and makes it almost unbearable. Then he turns it up some more.

Junior Bonner (1972)

Charming Sam Peckinpah film about a rodeo rider (Steve McQueen) hoping to make his fortune while juggling family problems. My copy came free with a newspaper a few years ago.

It’s shot in a remarkable way that juxtaposes fast, feel-good country tunes with insanely dangerous horse and bull manoeuvres.

The highlight is a surreal extended barroom brawl that gets out of hand while Junior quietly gets to know his new girlfriend Charmagne (Barbara Leigh). The scene is given a weirdly trippy feel with dubby sound effects mingling with the country band playing in the room – another striking juxtaposition.

The quirky narrative keeps you guessing until the end. Will Junior’s alcoholic dad get back with his mother? Or will he realise his dream of moving to Australia? And will Junior win the big prize money by lasting eight seconds on the most terrifying bull? And will he get the girl?

The ending isn’t obvious at all, but it is satisfying.

The Living Daylights (1987)

Initially, I thought that the first film with Timothy Dalton as James Bond was perhaps even more ridiculous than the others in the series. There are exploding milk bottles, a man who looks like David Bowie who murders people with his Walkman and a chase down a snow-covered mountain in a cello case. But then I realised that they are all this ridiculous. 

Dalton – an unpopular Bond – is actually fairly strong in the part, even if his throwaway comments after killing people continue to reinforce the notion that 007 must be a psychopath. There’s only one Bond girl, as this was the era of AIDS consciousness, and Maryam d'Abo is weak in the role. Jeroen Krabbé is OK-ish as a troublesome Soviet general, although the same actor was more convincing when he played the villain in The Fugitive. Joe Don Baker is too "pantomime" as American military enthusiast Brad Whitaker.

Overall there’s a slightly low-budget feel about it, but that actually gives it a more appealing back-to-basics quality (it’s not all exotic locations and super-yachts). But the plot – regarding the KGB, arms dealers, drug dealers and the Mujahideen – is too convoluted and I’m still not sure it entirely made sense.