The Italian Job (1969)

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This is rightly regarded as a classic, but I never knew what all the fuss was about until I finally watched it today. No one told me how hi...

Mannequin (1987)

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Ludicrous romantic comedy about an enterprising young man in Philadelphia who discovers he has a gift for window-dressing, then falls in lo...

The Secret of My Success (1987)

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From the DVD box: “ Can a kid from Kansas come to New York to conquer the business world and manoeuvre his way from the mailroom to the boa...

The Fugitive (1993)

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Harrison Ford is highly watchable as the smart Chicago doctor Richard Kimble, on the run after being wrongly accused of murdering his wife...

Thelma & Louise (1991)

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What a great film. The two stars – Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon – are so compelling to watch. The scenery is stunning. The story works on...

The Impossible (2012)

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Scary and moving true story of a family caught in the 2004 tsunami that redrew the map around the Indian Ocean. It shows the shocking bruta...

A Single Man (2009)

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Christopher Isherwood novel filmed with Colin Firth in the main part. A university professor in L.A. in 1962 mourns the death of his gay l...

Cast Away (2000)

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Yet another Tom Hanks film. A FedEx engineer has his plane crash and survives four years on a desert island before making a raft and attem...

Casablanca (1942)

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Deservedly regarded as an all-time classic. It’s both unsentimental and hugely romantic. Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains are especially ch...

The Theory of Everything (2014)

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Very moving biopic of Stephen Hawking, charting his medical decline, his scientific achievements and his complicated personal life. That’s ...

Like Crazy (2011)

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Starring Felicity Jones (of Star Wars: Rogue One fame), this is a refreshingly different love story. Its main selling point is the super-...

You've Got Mail (1998)

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A sort of remake of the 1940 James Stewart film The Shop Around the Corner . Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are reunited from Sleepless in Seattl...

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

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Wonderful romantic comedy. It’s extremely well-written and would work well as a play – it’s all dialogue. No helicopter crashes here.  Meg ...

Clueless (1995)

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Alicia Silverstone is wonderful in this Beverly Hills teen comedy, written and directed by Amy Heckerling and partly based on Jane Austen’s...

Captain Phillips (2013)

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Terrifying true-life story about a Maersk cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates.  The film steadily ramps up the tension to unbearable leve...

Inception (2010)

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Barnardo’s , Whetstone. Baffling Christopher Nolan thriller about espionage conducted within dreams – on multiple levels. Buried within a ...

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

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The third Pierce Brosnan James  Bond film. The pros: • A better script than  Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) • A vulnerable villain ( Rob...

GoldenEye (1995)

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The first of four Pierce Brosnan James Bond films is an interesting attempt to introduce some knowing irony to 007 being a sexist anachron...

Die Another Day (2002)

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The fourth and final James Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan showed that the series was desperately in need of a rethink (which it would ...

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

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Bond film #18 and Brosnan film #2. The tech-lord villain attempting to start World War III is ridiculous. The wisecracks are daft and unf...

Quantum of Solace (2008)

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Not a promising title, and it’s never really explained either. Daniel Craig is excellent again (this was his second of five Bond films )...

Casino Royale (2006)

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Daniel Craig ’s first James Bond film can be found on DVD in every charity shop in the land. The opening section – designed as a flashback...

The King’s Speech (2010)

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King George VI ( Colin Firth ) has a crippling stammer. Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist ( Geoffrey Rush ), tries to help him o...

Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991)

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Dire. Had the feel of a stilted TV movie. Unbearable, despite the presence of Helen Mirren and Helena Bonham Typecast . The latter has gone...

Local Hero (1983)

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Directed by Bill Forsyth, this is one of the best films ever – a subtle, heartwarming comedy with great performances and a genuinely touchin...

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

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The script is wonderful, as is the strangely suitable Burt Bacharach music. There’s no sentimentality, but there’s plenty of wit and emotio...

Vertigo (1958)

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Alfred Hitchcock classic. There’s a theme of how hard life is for women when men hold all the power. Worth seeing if only for the lovely ...

Rear Window (1954)

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Masterful suspense thriller by Alfred Hitchcock . Confined to his room owing to an injury, a man stares at his neighbours and uncovers a te...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

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Surprisingly enjoyable franchise reboot. Scientists test Alzheimer’s treatments on chimps, with miraculous effects on their intelligence. ...

The Wooden Horse (1950)

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Posh British officers plan to escape from a German POW camp using a vaulting horse to conceal a tunnel. This is an entertaining and excitin...

The Iron Lady (2011)

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Not just a biopic  of the British Prime Minister. It’s also a portrait of Alzheimer’s and mental decline, a history of late-20th-century B...

Titanic (1997)

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I enjoyed this far more than I expected to. I have always found disaster stories fascinating, and this one is especially well done. The sl...

Splash (1984)

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Hugely entertaining film about a mermaid and a young New Yorker who fall in love. There’s lots of comedy value in the “life viewed through...

Aliens (1986)

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Ridley Scott ’s original 1979 Alien film managed to be amazingly subtle for a space-monster horror film. It was built on excellent pacing,...

Your Sister’s Sister (2011)

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Memorable comedy-drama that wisely explores the sister–sister relationship rather than go down more standard “rom-com” routes. Some very fu...

Gravity (2013)

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This space drama is deeply moving. I’ve seen it three times and every time I found it emotional and stirring in a way that’s hard to articu...

Cinderella (2015)

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“Have courage and be kind” is the simple message behind this live-action Disney film. It’s incredibly faithful to the original fairytale. I...