The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

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Ninth Bond film and the second with Roger Moore, who, throughout the film, wears suits that are too big for him. Bond pursues the “Solex A...

Spectre (2015)

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The opening sequence in Mexico City is one of the most exciting and visually striking you will ever see, with a glorious long, uninterrupte...

From Russia with Love (1963)

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In the second James Bond film , Sean Connery is reasonably credible if you can accept his character’s psychopathic tendency to make wisecr...

Footloose (1984)

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Ren McCormack ( Kevin Bacon ) is a Chicago teenager who comes to the town of Bomont, Utah, where rock music and dancing have been banned a...

Carnage (2011)

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Set in one evening in a New York apartment, Carnage features two couples rowing over an incident between their children. Directed by Roma...

Frankie & Johnny (1991)

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Intelligent, highly engaging romantic comedy-drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino. It’s adapted from a play (by Terrence McNally...

Interstellar (2014)

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Sci-fi mind-bender directed by Christopher Nolan . Earth is in peril as dust storms threaten to wipe out crops and humanity. Cooper (Matth...

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

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Modernisation of the Shakespeare play starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the main roles. They are both excellent and their lov...

Pretty in Pink (1986)

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John Hughes teen drama. The plot is simple: poor girl dates rich boy while social prejudice threatens to tear them apart. Molly Ringwald ac...

City of Angels (1998)

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A remarkable romantic drama. Nicolas Cage is an angel, who guides the dying to heaven. In a Los Angeles hospital, he meets a human doctor ...

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

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Meryl Streep is the editor of the highly influential New York fashion magazine Runway . Anne Hathaway plays the young assistant who risks...

District 9 (2009)

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Astonishing alien film that brings huge intelligence and empathy to its subject. A vast alien spaceship arrives and hovers over Johannesb...

Dumb and Dumber (1994)

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The title says it all. An absolutely stupid film that ends up being very funny. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels play two of the most infantile...

American Sniper (2014)

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Powerful and disturbing Iraq War drama that tells the story of “the most lethal sniper in US military history”. Bradley Cooper plays Chris...

Star Trek (2009)

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J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the iconic franchise injects new vitality into the tired space saga. It deals briefly with the early life of James T...

Joy (2015)

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Highly intelligent drama – with welcome flashes of subtle comedy – directed by David O. Russell , who also made the excellent Silver Linin...

Speed (1994)

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Terrific action thriller. The concept is simple: a Los Angeles city bus is armed with a bomb that will detonate if the vehicle’s speed dip...

Spartacus (1960)

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I had never seen this Stanley Kubrick classic, so was curious. It deserves all the hype, pretty much. Kirk Douglas is shiny and reasonably...

I, Tonya (2017)

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Terribly sad biopic of Tonya Harding, the Olympic ice skater whose career was ruined by her ex-husband’s alleged involvement in the 1994 as...

Citizen Kane (1941)

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I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and now I can. This film tackles big themes of power, celebrity, love, truth, integrity, lonel...

The Robe (1953)

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Watched on TV while on holiday, this is a sword-and-sandals biblical epic. Richard Burton is super-magnetic as the Roman Marcellus, who cru...

All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)

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Based on the classic novel by Erich Maria Remarque, this is a powerful WWI drama that sets out to show war as a pointless, futile, cruel wa...

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

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Brilliant adaptation of the Harper Lee novel. A seductively appealing small-town atmosphere turns nasty when a lawyer (Gregory Peck) defend...

9 to 5 (1980)

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Office-based comedy about sexism in the workplace. Jane Fonda , Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton are fairly entertaining in the main roles, pl...

Down by Law (1986)

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Hypnotic black and white comedy drama directed by Jim Jarmusch. Three men – Jack, Zach and Bob – find themselves unjustly held in a New Orl...

The Great Escape (1963)

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A classic, of course, but it’s a stranger film than you might think. I don’t like the relentlessly chirpy, intrusive music, which often tri...

Prizzi's Honor (1985)

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The blackest black comedy about the Mafia isn’t really funny enough. It’s very slow, too. Although Jack Nicholson , Kathleen Turner and An...

Licence to Kill (1989)

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The second and final Timothy Dalton   Bond film is surprisingly good – almost a proper thriller . Unusually, the plot has an arc that you ...

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

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On Valentine’s Day, 1900, a bunch of girls from an Australian boarding school go on a day out to the ominous Hanging Rock. It soon becomes...

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

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I overcame my Steven Spielberg prejudice (haven’t liked one of his films since  Duel  or  Jaws ) to watch this World War II epic. The batt...

WarGames (1983)

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Genuinely exciting thriller about a teenager (Matthew Broderick) who accidentally triggers the countdown to nuclear armageddon by hacking i...

The Big Short (2015)

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This highly stylised account of the investment schemes devised in the weeks leading up to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 follows three p...

Touching the Void (2003)

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Documentary film version of Joe Simpson’s 1988 memoir detailing Simpson and Simon Yates's 1985 climb of the 6,344-m (20,813-ft) Siula ...

Robin Hood (2010)

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As with Gladiator , Ridley Scott directs and Russell Crowe is the main man. But the magic of that earlier film is not repeated. It’s En...

Coriolanus (2011)

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Directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes , this one alienated me at first and I hated it for about 45 minutes. Set in modern Rome (although ...

The Jerk (1979)

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Wildly original comedy starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters. It brilliantly parodies the familiar rags-to-riches life story that ma...

The Main Event (1979)

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The goodwill built up by Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal in the hilarious What’s Up, Doc? is quickly dispersed in this lame “comedy” th...

Elysium (2013)

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Dystopian sci-fi action thriller. It’s 2154, and Earth (specifically, Los Angeles ) is a ruined slum whose inhabitants live in desperate p...

The Revenant (2015)

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Unrelentingly grim and bloody tale of North American frontiersman Hugh Glass ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) trying to survive against all the odds. ...

What’s Up, Doc? (1972)

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Ingenious “screwball” comedy starring Barbra Streisand (as Judy Maxwell) and Ryan O’Neal (as Howard Bannister). The script is hilariously...

Passengers (2016)

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Engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is accidentally awakened 90 years too early from long-term hibernation on the spaceship Avalon on the w...

Gladiator (2000)

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This  Ridley Scott -directed modern classic set in AD 180 seemed even better second time around. It looked more impressive at the cinema in...

The Perfect Storm (2000)

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Based on the true story written by Sebastian Junger , The Perfect Storm details the drama of the Andrea Gail , a fishing boat from the sma...

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

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Historical naval drama set in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars and adapted from Patrick O’Brian’s popular fiction series. Russell Crowe pl...

Alien Covenant (2017)

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Ridley Scott ’s follow-up to Prometheus (the second in the Alien prequel saga) is an all-out space-action-horror affair. Michael Fassbend...

Prometheus (2012)

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Ridley Scott ’s prequel to his Alien series is a philosophical sci-fi/horror hybrid. It looked beautiful at the cinema – the storm rollin...

Troy (2004)

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Epic retelling of Homer’s Iliad . It’s Troy (Turkey) in the 13th or 12th century BC , when men will fight for honour, for king, for countr...

Working Girl (1988)

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Intelligent and amusing Wall Street comedy-drama about a working-class stockbroker's secretary who dreams big. Like so many American fi...