The War of the Roses (1989)

Black comedy directed by Danny DeVito, who also plays a lawyer narrating the plot. The story deals with a couple, Oliver and Barbara Rose, who plan to divorce but cannot agree on who will keep their large house. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are reunited from Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, both of which also featured DeVito, although this is a very different kind of film. As the couple’s rivalry intensifies, they end up effectively trying to kill each other.

The comedy isn’t really funny enough, with some of the slapstick seeming very extreme. It badly needs more laughs. Instead, it’s certainly interesting and memorable but it’s tonally quite peculiar.

Shining Through (1992)

Ludicrous wartime thriller written and directed by David Seltzer, and based on a novel by Susan Isaacs. 

A secretary with a major law firm (Melanie Griffith) falls in love with a spy (Michael Douglas) and takes on her own spy mission in Berlin. Her only qualification is that she speaks fluent German (although, unlike the other actors, she doesn’t even try to put on a German accent) and has learned about intelligence work from enjoying films at the cinema. On this ridiculous premise, the film wobbles along in a highly entertaining manner. 

Liam Neeson isn’t too bad as the Nazi officer General Franze-Otto Dietrich. John Gielgud isn’t very well used as the agent “Sunflower”. And Joely Richardson is fairly watchable as the double agent Margrete von Eberstein. 

There are plenty of implausible moments but the film does have a few things in its favour. There are a few exciting sequences and Douglas and Griffith both have charm. But it’s so far-fetched and silly (with several unintentionally funny moments) that you wonder if it would’ve been better played as a comedy.

Wonder Boys (2000)

Google: “A college professor tries to overcome his writer's block and finish his novel while dealing with divorce, his affair with the chancellor's wife, a thieving student and his expectant publisher.”

The disheveled Michael Douglas is excellent in the main part, and his mid-life crisis is highly watchable. I wasn’t too keen on the queasy blend of comedy and drama, which sometimes feels awkward. The presence of a dank Tobey Maguire doesn't help.

The soundtrack is for men of “a certain age”: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison all feature. 

Directed by Curtis Hanson and adapted from the 1995 novel by Michael Chabon, this is a celebrated film that doesn't quite live up to expectations.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Oliver Stone’s disappointing and unnecessary sequel to his original 1987 Wall Street hit, which was itself patchy. Michael Douglas returns as Gordon Gekko. He’s out of prison and says he wants to reconnect with his estranged daughter (an unconvincing Carey Mulligan). That daughter’s fiancé (Shia LaBeouf) is himself a Wall Street wizard and begins his own wheeler-dealing with Gordon Gekko. Josh Brolin plays a smooth, ruthless banker who gave evidence against Gekko in the past.

It’s a frustrating film that feels slow in parts and plain odd in others. Naff visuals don’t help: sometimes there are fussy split-screen effects, and at a couple of points we see crudely literal representation of “dominoes falling” and “science”. 

Susan Sarandon has a bit part that doesn’t really work, and Charlie Sheen has an awkward cameo purely as a nod to his role in the first film. He wasn’t very good in that either. 

Michael Douglas is always compelling, but it’s a genuinely baffling story that simply did not need to be told. The bolted-on happy ending suggests that Oliver Stone is muddled about how he feels about Gordon Gekko. He seems to be in love with the character and unable to make up his mind about whether he’s a nice guy or a baddie. Instead, he gives him a line about all of us being mixed bags who should give each other a break. After two films, that just seems like a cop-out.

The American President (1995)

Directed by Rob Reiner, this is a charming film about the US President (Michael Douglas) attempting to balance the challenges of his job and his personal life. Annette Bening plays an environmental lobbyist who he falls in love with. Martin Sheen and Michael J. Fox play members of the presidential staff. And Richard Dreyfuss is the political opponent who tries to build a scandal around the new couple and their unexpected relationship. 

It works as drama and romance, with flashes of comedy. It’s also gently political and makes you wish that politics was that simple and idealistic today. 

All of the leads are on top form, and Douglas demonstrates once again that he's more versatile than people might think.

Haywire (2012)

Dreadful thriller. 

Private intelligence agent Mallory Kane (a fundamentally miscast Gina Carano) is double-crossed by the people who recruited her, and has to go on the run. 

Directed self-consciously by Steven Soderbergh, it has an excessive use of filters and intrusive “funky” music by David Holmes in place of dialogue. Plus, despite all the fighting (Carano was a mixed martial artist), most of the “action” scenes are surprisingly dull. 

It’s remarkable that big names such as Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas and Michael Fassbender got themselves involved in such a clichéd mess. The script – what there is of one – is extremely poor. The plotting is confused. The complete lack of a character for the main part is conspicuous. Carano simply doesn’t have the screen presence or acting ability to carry off the lead role. She was better as a supporting character in The Mandalorian, except that Lucasfilm sacked her after she made anti-mask, pro-Trump statements.

There’s literally not one good thing about Haywire – that title bears no relation to anything in the story – except that parts of it are unintentionally funny. The worst film I’ve seen for quite a long time.

Fatal Attraction (1987)

Brilliantly tense thriller. 

Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) and Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) strike up a brief but intense affair in New York City. It soon transpires that Alex is slightly mad, and rather than allowing herself to be merely being dismissed after their weekend fling instead wants more commitment than Dan is prepared to offer. Events escalate and soon become nasty, and Dan’s wife (Anne Archer) and daughter find themselves in serious danger. 

Having heard lots about this film over the years I was surprised at how exciting it was. It’s excellently directed by Adrian Lyne, with perfect pacing, and the camera work makes it especially edgy. I like the fact that the story is so simple, without any distracting sub-plots or unnecessary back-stories. It’s a pure, fast-moving narrative that’s handled with great skill. 

The two leads are both superb, and Close is all too convincing in her demented/obsessive role. Something about her smile and her eyes makes you believe she’s capable of anything. Douglas is also pretty good as the harassed lawyer trying to hold his life together but watching it slide out of control.

The film sidesteps ethical issues – presumably to focus on being a taut thriller. We’re left unsure how to feel about Dan’s actions. Should his wife forgive him? And didn’t Alex have a point when she accused him of using and discarding her? But the decision to keep strictly to the plot may have been a wise one as Fatal Attraction rattles along excitingly, without any misjudgements, and ends in a satisfying, conclusive manner.

The Sentinel (2006)

Michael Douglas stars as Pete Garrison, a secret service agent who is both protecting the US president and having an affair with the First Lady (Kim Basinger). But when an assassination plot emerges, Garrison ends up being the chief suspect – investigated and pursued by his colleagues Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria. 

It’s a fairly exciting thriller with a few surprises. On a technical note it was odd that certain outside scenes were heavily filtered in the way that the bulk of the film wasn’t. In terms of the plot, it was difficult to believe that someone as old as Michael Douglas could still be doing a job so dependent on physical strength, coordination and reaction times. But then Clint Eastwood was even older in In the Line of Fire, which is a far superior treatment of similar themes. Also, the motives behind the assassination plot aren’t really explained and the characters aren’t really developed. The flawed presidential marriage isn’t explored. If the First Lady is unhappy enough to have an affair with her bodyguard, wouldn’t the president be at least aware that there were cracks in the relationship? And Keifer Sutherland’s initial dislike/distrust of Eva Longoria isn’t really referenced again after it’s first introduced.

The Jewel of the Nile (1985)

Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito reprise their roles from 1984's Romancing the Stone. Six months have passed and the couple now embark on a new adventure in Africa, seeking the "Jewel of the Nile" and tackling a demented dictator. 

It’s just as daft as the original and I enjoyed it a lot, despite the common consensus that it was a disappointing sequel.

It’s spectacular, silly and fun. There’s a particularly strong scene in which Douglas drives a fighter jet around crowded streets, causing havoc.

On the down side, DeVito doesn't really need to be there and the plot sometimes struggles to accommodate him. But Turner is endlessly appealing – charming and funny enough to rise above the good-natured but sometimes less than sparkling material.

Wall Street (1987)

There’s something not quite right about Oliver Stone’s stock-market thriller. Michael Douglas is actually fairly compelling as the corrupt Gordon Gecko and his much-discussed “Greed is good” speech remains an iconic bit of cinema. But Charlie Sheen is woeful as the young upstart who initially wants to be Gecko and ultimately wants to ruin him. Can Charlie Sheen act? Seemingly charmless, humourless and lacking emotional range, he’s almost exactly the same here as he was in Platoon. He simply does not convince and it's unclear whether or not you are meant to be on his side.

Daryl Hannah is oddly underwritten as Sheen’s interior-designer girlfriend. James Spader isn’t given enough of a role, either. He would have been a better choice for the main part. But the script is slightly clichéd all round.

The best things about the film are Martin Sheen, the on-screen and real-life father of Charlie, and the New York skylines and scenery. Terence Stamp is OK, but – absurdly – he’s made to say “mate” and “bloke” to accentuate his Englishness.

There’s a good film in there somewhere, but Oliver Stone – as usual, intent on making a Big Statement – cannot tease it out.

Romancing the Stone (1984)

Another film watched on TV while on holiday. This is an action-adventure romp starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. 

The plot is ludicrous, but it’s also charming and fun. Turner is terrific as the lonely romantic novelist from New York who finds herself in her own romantic saga in Colombia. Douglas is passable as the male lead, an American bird smuggler. I like the line when – reading an old magazine in a crashed plane – he exclaims “Dammit, man” having finally learned that “the Doobie Brothers broke up!” 

I could have done without Danny DeVito, who seems to play the same part in every film he’s in, but even with his unfunny antics this is still highly enjoyable fluff.