There are lots of laughs, some of them subtle and some of them silly, but it’s surprisingly sophisticated in places.
Ian “Emperor Palpatine” McDiarmid plays a butler.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
The Black Dahlia (2006)
The performances are hammy and one-dimensional. The “1940s” look is self-conscious and over-stylised, but also inconsistent. None of the characters engage. You end up not understanding what’s happening and not caring either.
Pale Rider (1985)
Western.
His charisma is undeniable, so when a mother (Carrie Snodgress) and her daughter (Sydney Penny) both fall in love with him you can see why. The complex relationships between the preacher and the various family members are expertly explored.
The tension builds in a subtle way and the ending is hugely satisfying.
Body of Lies (2008)
The CIA operative on the ground is Leonardo DiCaprio and his superior is Russell Crowe. They are attempting to track down a terrorist called al-Saleem.
Mark Strong plays the head of Jordanian Intelligence. Oscar Isaac is a CIA field operative in Iraq. And Rahavard Farahani plays a nurse who DiCaprio falls for and thus endangers.
All of these actors are superb in their roles.
It’s a complex web of connections and locations. It’s extremely violent for a “15”, with scenes of torture and close-ups of shootings. The use of drone-sourced visuals gives it an appealing tech-heavy feel.
Every Which Way but Loose (1978)
Clint Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe, a trucker and fighter who lives with an orangutan called Clyde. When he meets a country singer he falls for (Sondra Locke), he ends up taking off after her – despite the fact that he himself is being pursued by a cop and a biker gang who want to beat him up.
It’s difficult to describe what genre this is. There’s comedy, but it’s also a sort of road and adventure film. It ends up being a deeply strange hybrid.
Some of it works very well – Eastwood is reliably cool and watchable. Some of it is awkward – the farcical, annoying character of “Ma” (Ruth Gordon), who really doesn’t need to be there. And some of it is plain bizarre.
There’s a lot about masculinity and gender. Oddly, it promotes drinking and fighting and yet it makes the bikers look weak and silly.
The country soundtrack – with the distinctive main theme by Eddie Rabbitt – is enjoyable, too.
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
The performances are reasonable (James Earl Jones and Joss Ackland also have roles), but there’s something missing. It’s probably unfair to compare this film to Das Boot or K-19: The Widowmaker, but I never once felt I was aboard an actual submarine. It’s oddly lifeless, with a lack of atmosphere and a certain stilted quality. This isn’t helped by Connery, whose “calm” manner is taken to extremes, resulting in merely an expressionless mask.
Motivations stay mysterious: we don’t learn why Connery wants to defect or how his staff feel about it. Nor do we discover why one of the sub’s cooks wants to sabotage the mission.
Another oddity is the use of subtitles in the early stages of the film. Once it has been established that these are Russians speaking, the subtitles cease and their dialogue reverts to English. That creates confusion later when subtitles return and it’s actually unclear which language Baldwin and Connery are meant to be speaking in. It would have been better to use the standard film trope of a non-English language simply being spoken in English – but with accents.
While there’s nothing really wrong with the film, and you could argue that it ticks all the right boxes for a Cold War thriller, ultimately it falls flat. But a more inspired director than John McTiernan could probably have made it work.
The Golden Child (1986)
The plot is thin indeed – a quest for the mystical Ajanti Dagger, which can defeat evil – but that’s not really the point. It’s a good-natured romp with a few (but not enough) laughs. As with Coming to America, the scenes featuring Eddie Murphy are dynamite. He’s incredibly watchable. All the rest is a daft contrivance that you tolerate to get to the next scene he appears in.
Life (2017)
A crew of six aboard the International Space Station intercept samples from Mars that turn out to contain a deadly organism. This life form quickly grows in size and power, endangering the crew, the mission and possibly humanity itself.
Life was criticised for being reminiscent of Alien and Gravity and it’s true that there are similarities with both of those classics. However, what it does it does extremely well: it’s suspenseful and even has a hint of the blackest humour – especially in the bitter twist of the ending.
The six characters are well drawn and Rebecca Ferguson is especially convincing as Dr. Miranda North. The only thing that pulled me out of the film was that Jake Gyllenhaal plays a character who is too “weird” and “troubled” to fit the easygoing well-balanced profile of an astronaut. He would never have passed the psychometric tests for selection.
The music, by Jon Ekstrand, is terrific and does a lot to build the mood.
Coming to America (1988)
Eddie Murphy plays an African prince who – in order to escape an arranged marriage – travels from the fictional country of Zamunda to New York City to meet his bride. He wants to find someone who likes him for who he really is and not just for his money.
Murphy is hugely appealing, as usual, but he’s operating on a higher level than everything happening around him. The “plot” is fairly lame and there aren’t enough laughs. It’s enjoyable if you can accept the usual 1980s aspirational fixation of upward mobility.
What doesn’t work is that Murphy and co-star Arsenio Hall play a range of other minor parts for no apparent reason. It’s directed by John Landis, who certainly likes an in-joke (all of his films feature the phrase “See You Next Tuesday” in some form). He even revives the characters of Mortimer and Randolph (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) from Trading Places, which also starred Eddie Murphy.
It’s entertaining fluff that’s fun to watch, but it’s probably not a film you need to see twice. Surprisingly, perhaps, a sequel was released in 2021.
Morgan (2016)
A “risk-management specialist” (Kate Mara) is sent to a scientific facility in a rural location where the L-9 artificial being has been created. This being (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) is a super-advanced augmented human but with a violent side that begins to cause problems when she turns on one of the staff. To complicate things further, those members of staff have personally invested in Morgan as their precious daughter and seem bewitched by her incredibly advanced development.
Like Blade Runner, the film raises moral questions about the value of human life when it’s not entirely human. Unlike that innovative classic, it has a rather unpleasant aesthetic – a deliberate cold, nasty quality. It’s also extremely violent – which is kind of the point – but the later sections make for horrible viewing. Expertly made as it may be, I found it difficult to take much away from the film.
The Bourne Legacy (2012)
They could have had more fun with the title: how about Bourne to Run, I Wasn’t Bourne Yesterday or Bourne to Be Wild?
Ricki and the Flash (2015)
It’s a study of class prejudice that expertly highlights social differences without offering simplistic solutions to the problem.
Streep is at her best, seeming to really relish the role. The band sections (during which she actually sings) are stirring and full of energy.
Rick Springfield plays her bandmate and boyfriend Greg.
Director Jonathan Demme directed Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense, so clearly knows how to film musicians. That skill pays off here as the performance sequences are watchable and dynamic.
Unforgiven (1992)
Clint Eastwood plays William Munny, who was once a dangerous outlaw but who has now cleaned up and settled down to lead a quieter life. His wife has died but he's looking after his young children and working on his small farm. When he decides to take on one last job he finds himself back in trouble, and before long he’s drinking and killing again.
In some ways this is a film designed to appeal to old people, with ageing actors and ageing tropes. Eastwood plays alongside Morgan Freeman (his partner), Gene Hackman (a slightly crazy sheriff) and Richard Harris ("English Bob"). It cleverly examines the myth of the cowboy while also showing the grim reality of the truth behind it, i.e., bullets actually hurt and there’s no glory in taking a man’s life. There’s a certain irony in Clint Eastwood presenting that message after making so many cowboy films, but you hope he was aware of that.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Matt Damon continues to pace around and cross the road a lot, escaping from vicious killers and generally evading capture again and again. Julia Stiles appears for the third time as the CIA’s Nicky Parsons and Joan Allen returns as CIA deputy director Pamela Landy. The baddies working within the agency are played by David Strathairn and Albert Finney. There’s even a journalist (Paddy Considine) who works for The Guardian.
It’s fast cut, with director Paul Greengrass using the same jerky-camera “documentary” style he employed in United 93 and The Bourne Supremacy. The action sequences are brilliantly done, and you end up glued to the screen as you try to fathom how Bourne can possibly stay alive through these increasingly desperate situations.
As with The Bourne Supremacy, the title makes no sense.
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
It’s ridiculously exciting – probably even more so than The Bourne Identity. Director Paul Greengrass really understands how to make this kind of film work. The action sequences are superbly filmed and the pacing is spot on. The car chase in Moscow is especially thrilling. Also better in this film is the CIA boss (Joan Allen), who has a commanding presence.
Matt Damon plays it just right: charismatic but understated. It makes the James Bond films (even the Daniel Craigs) look a little old hat.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Matt Damon plays a man found shot, floating in the sea, just about alive but suffering severe amnesia. He tries to discover who he is and track down the agents (including Clive Owen) trying to kill him. In the process he uncovers a complex CIA conspiracy centred on a mysterious black-ops programme called Treadstone.
There are elements of James Bond (international locations, fast and thrilling chase sequences), The Fugitive (smart guy outwits authorities chasing him) and Memento (attempts to piece together a forgotten life), but it still feels fresh. The action never lets up and Damon’s subtle, low-key performance is easy to like. His Mini-driving German girlfriend Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente) is also appealing.
A string of sequels would follow.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
It’s a classic, obviously, but it’s not entirely successful. Dean’s presence is undeniable. But the scenes with his conservative parents – who of course don’t understand him or his generation – seem overwrought. There’s an oddly ponderous and stilted quality to the film in places, but then there are exciting scenes such as the daredevil leap-out-of-the-car-before-the-cliff-edge competition (which ends badly). Natalie Wood's character is also poorly developed and her problems aren’t really explored.
The melodrama of macho fighting (of which there’s plenty) has a certain racy thrill, but the film seems genuinely muddled about what it’s trying to say and who it’s saying it to. If it was made for teenagers, you wonder whether that audience felt cheated by the ending and its affirmation of family values.
Still Alice (2014)
The film focuses on her struggle with the disease, and also on the relationships with her insensitive, career-focused husband (Alec Baldwin) and three grown-up children. There’s particular emphasis on her daughter Lydia (Kristen Stewart), who initially seems the most estranged but who then gives up the most to care for her mother.
Moore is fantastic, as always. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else playing this role with more empathy. I could believe her totally. Stewart is also nuanced and sensitive, and the scenes with the pair together are by far the most affecting.
If there’s a failing it’s that the family’s life of privilege is never really in question. The crisis of the disease would be an altogether different outcome for someone who wasn’t successful, wealthy or beautiful, but – this being a film – those options are not even considered.
Shine (1996)
A child prodigy, he struggles with an abusive, controlling father and mental illness problems that are presumably not unrelated to his difficult family life.
We see him as a boy (played by Alex Rafalowicz), a teenager (Noah Taylor) and as an older man (Geoffrey Rush). Each of these three actors tackles a complicated role brilliantly.
John Gielgud is funny and charismatic as his London tutor, guiding him through the seemingly impossible feat that is playing Rachmaninoff’s third concerto.
For a film about mental illness, it’s surprisingly uplifting and joyous – especially after he meets Gillian, played by Lynn Redgrave. If there’s a criticism it’s that this later part of his life is rushed through. A shame that the focus is on the unhappier times, although you can understand why his formative experiences would be prioritised. Plus, this is a pitfall of biopics in general: how do you cram a life into two hours without ignoring substantial amounts of it?
The Man with Two Brains (1983)
Steve Martin plays a brilliant but naive brain surgeon with the unpronounceable name Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr. Kathleen Turner is Dolores Benedict, who marries him for his money. The doctor meets an eccentric scientist (David Warner), who is keeping human brains alive and may have found a way to transplant them into other bodies. He then falls in love with one of the brains (voiced by Sissy Spacek) and ends up running off with it.
It sounds ridiculous and it is – deliberately. There are some funny moments and a few scenes that fall flat. It’s not quite as sharp as The Jerk (1979) or Lonely Guy (1984), but Martin and Turner are both hugely appealing and watchable throughout.
Cape Fear (1991)
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.
A Star Is Born (1976)
The music is lively and the concert scenes seem convincingly “real”. The couple have chemistry and charisma. It was a wise move to cast two genuine singers to play these two performers, as they seem so natural on stage.
I like the fact that John Norman Howard’s untimely demise in a high/speed car crash can be interpreted as a reckless accident or a suicide, depending on how you choose to read the character and the emotional/chemical state he’s in. Unlike the 2018 Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga film (in which there’s no doubt that he’s a tragic addict who kills himself), this more nuanced version has the confidence to allow some ambiguity – rather than spelling everything out for you – and I admire that quality. In the same way, the managers in this film (whose roles are handled well by Gary “Buddy Holly” Busey and Paul Mazursky) aren’t simplistically ruthless or exploitative. They seem much more like real people with real conflicts.
Joan Didion had a hand in writing it, which may account for the refreshingly intelligent approach.
Cape Fear (1962)
It’s highly suspenseful, pretty much from beginning to end, and the two leads are both ideal for the parts. Mitchum has just the right amount of wry, amused cool and psychopathic edginess. Peck is perfect as his stiff, somewhat uptight opposite. Polly Bergen and Lori Martin are both compelling as the wife and daughter who quickly get pulled into the escalating drama. And Telly Savalas (with hair) is likeable as the private detective.
It’s edge-of-the-seat stuff and I like the way the somewhat downbeat closing seconds get you thinking.
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
Josey Wales sees his family killed and sets out to get revenge. Along the way he meets some colourful characters, who join him despite his “wanted man” status. As bounty hunters track and trail him, you wonder if he can ever truly be free.
It’s superbly cast all round. Every character is perfectly drawn – especially Chief Dan George as Lone Watie. There’s a quietly comic aspect and a tenderness to his manner that makes him hugely appealing.
I like the way Wales uses his spitting as a form of punctuation during his various encounters and conversations. That tic forms a sort of running joke that gets funnier as the film progresses.
The landscapes look beautiful and even the music is strong, although you do wish they had booked Ennio Morricone to compose the soundtrack.
While it starts out as a simplistic tale of revenge, the film goes on to become something so much broader and richer. I'm looking forward to watching it again.
Secretary (2002)
It’s not for the prudish or the easily startled, but there’s a touching drama contained within this deliberately disturbing and very black comedy. Gyllenhaal is so expressive that she perfectly evokes her transformation from suffering victim to the liberated master of her own destiny. A slightly surreal, absurd aspect enhances the film rather than making it less believable.
Adapted from a short story by Mary Gaitskill, Secretary covers themes that most films won't go near. It does so with wit and charm, so it doesn’t feel exploitative – even when exploitation is part of the subject matter.
The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
Probably the worst lighting I’ve ever seen in a film. It lurches from dim and grainy, with a “glow” around objects on the screen, to brighter but still somehow “wrong”-looking, and then back again.
It’s supposedly based on real-world events, but it’s very difficult to believe some of these episodes are true, especially when cartoonishly stupid Nazis are so easy to evade and outwit. None of the guards ever seem to look round.
Kirk Douglas does his best with the material, and his charm just about survives, but there’s no character for him to explore.
Too many scenes consist of our heroes running about in the snow – and for far too long, with minimal dialogue – as if the script was never actually completed. Likewise, there are lingering, ponderous scenes of them setting up a bomb, fiddling with wires, applying tape and generally pottering around. These go on and on, without dramatic tension, and end up being unintentionally funny.
Richard Harris is appallingly wooden as resistance leader Knut Straud. Michael Redgrave is completely unnecessary as a seemingly random uncle: I knew his character would die because he had no dramatic function in the story whatsoever. Ulla Jacobsson is passable as Kirk Douglas’s ex-wife, but she’s still given minimal personality and even less function in the narrative.
Despite this somehow appearing on lists of the greatest war films, it’s a long way from essential. But it might give you a good chuckle.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
The plot is fairly similar, although Crown’s playful crimes take place with valuable paintings instead of him orchestrating a bank robbery.
Brosnan is perfect for the role: a sort of clinical charm. He’s better here than he was as James Bond, perhaps simply because the script is superior. Russo also gets it spot-on as the insurance investigator who slowly begins to fall for the man she should be incriminating. She’s stylish, sharp and sexy, always just one step behind him in their perpetual cat-and-mouse game.
As a neat little reference to the original, Faye Dunaway returns – but as Thomas Crown’s shrink. The only problem is that the film gives no inkling as to why a man so supremely confident and perfectly accomplished might need a shrink in the first place. Denis Leary is also impressive as the Detective Michael McCann, and the progression of his relationship with Russo’s character is developed nicely.
Whereas the original has a slightly impressionistic element, this version is crisp and precise – tightly plotted and excellently done all round. Probably the best remake I have seen.
The Insider (1999)
It’s entertaining and fairly gripping, if a little too long at 158 minutes. Director Michael Mann turns in something more sophisticated and less trashy than Heat, which also featured Pacino and the actor playing Wigand’s wife, Diane Venora.
Pacino is terrific, even if (or because) he plays the same character in all his films: a hardboiled-yet-sensitive tough guy with integrity.
It’s a little thin on the topic of Wigand’s marriage and the strains placed upon it. That thread could have been explored better. Otherwise, it's difficult to fault.
The Hustler (1961)
Adapted from the novel by Walter Tevis, it feels closer to a play at times. There’s a gritty, low-key quality to the scenes, which are built around character and dialogue. Newman is wonderful, oozing an easy charm even when things start to go wrong for him.
Martin Scorsese filmed a sequel in 1986 called The Color of Money. Paul Newman reprised the role of Fast Eddie, but unfortunately his young protégé was played by Tom Cruise.
Trivia: Bob Dylan borrowed these lines spoken by Piper Laurie for his 1985 song “Seeing the Real You at Last” : “I've got troubles, and I think maybe you've got troubles. Maybe it'd be better if we just leave each other alone.”
Broken Flowers (2005)
Don Johnston (played by Bill Murray and with a name that gets him deliberately confused with the Miami Vice actor) is a lonely, retired man who used to work in computers. On the day that his girlfriend Sherry (Julie Delpy) leaves him, he receives an anonymous letter that tells him he has a 19-year-old son. With the help of his neighbour Winston (Jeffrey Wright), a fan of detective stories, he sets off on an investigative trip to meet four women who might have been the mother of the child he never knew he had.
The bulk of the film deals with these four encounters, which meet with varying degrees of success. One of the former lovers (Sharon Stone) spends the night with him. Another (Tilda Swinton) gets him beaten up. All of these four women (Frances Conroy and Jessica Lange play the other two parts) are convincingly portrayed.
It could have been funnier. Some of the deliberately “low-key”, contemplative scenes just fall flat, even though that’s probably the point. The detective aspect is a bit silly, which undercuts some of the power of the serious relationship material. And while I appreciate that it was deliberately left ambiguous, the final “twist” at the very end is an in-joke that slightly spoils the open-ended conclusion.
It’s ultimately a third-rate Lost in Translation, but without as much originality, dry wit or warmth.
The Girl on the Train (2016)
Emily Blunt plays an alcoholic divorcee who stares out of a train window and obsesses over two couples she passes. This obsession ultimately implicates her in a murder mystery for which she ends up the prime suspect.
It’s a good idea, but it just doesn’t work. It’s excessively melodramatic, veering on the horror genre at points. Blunt walks around like a zombie, pale, trembling and rather frightening. While that makes sense in the light of her drink problem and the emotional state that caused it, it doesn’t make for a very appealing film and it adds to the ugly aesthetic all round.
The “patchwork” approach to times and events is effective and just about comes together. The related device of only certain parts of the story being recalled owing to booze-induced blackouts also gives it a Hitchcockian dimension, allowing us to piece together what really happened at the same time as Blunt. But these elements are weakened by characters that just don’t convince. The behaviour of the bearded shrink (Édgar Ramírez) seems unlikely, somehow, and other characters’ motivations, such as those of Megan (Haley Bennett) are not fleshed out satisfactorily.
The biggest flaw is this: of the four people she observes, Blunt is more obsessed with a pair of strangers than she is with her own ex and his new partner, who live two doors away. How could that be? She’s oddly oblivious to the interaction between the two couples, which is at the heart of the plot.
But if you are seeking something trashy, gripping and escapist (and often I am), it will certainly keep you entertained.
The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
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.
Moonraker (1979)
It’s difficult to believe Roger Moore can be running around on a space shuttle and in a space station, but that’s exactly what we see.
The pros:
• There are some genuinely funny moments.
• Roger Moore is as charming as he ever was.
• Lois Chiles is appealing as space scientist as Holly Goodhead.
• The special effects are fairly good – especially when you see the shuttles taking off.
• The Shirley Bassey theme is one of the better Bond songs.
• M (Bernard Lee) and Q (Desmond Llewelyn) are reassuringly excellent.
• Jaws (Richard Kiel) is terrifying when he poses in costume at the Rio de Janeiro carnival.
The cons:
• It’s plain silly when Jaws gets a girlfriend (Blanche Ravalec as Dolly), falls in love at first sight and instantly changes personality.
• The moment when the film briefly becomes a western (Bond wearing a poncho and riding a horse to silly music) seems misjudged.
• It’s not clear why any of this needs to have taken place in space. Surely the billionaire villain Drax (Michael Lonsdale) could have just protected his “master race” specimens in some kind of bunker and poisoned Earth from ground level. It suggests that the success of Star Wars (1977) meant they just wanted to make a film with sci-fi elements, no matter how far-fetched.
Das Boot (1981)
Hugely atmospheric, it perfectly captures the claustrophobia of being on a submarine for weeks on end. It’s incredibly tense, too. Interludes of boredom for the crew alternative with highly charged action sequences. The seemingly endless moments in which the sub prowls the sea listening for movement and avoiding enemy depth charges are quite terrifying.
The interior set is entirely convincing, and the scenes in which they run the length of the submarine are brilliantly shot. The external shots are noticeably less “real”-looking, but they still work.
Jürgen Prochnow is superb as the captain, bringing out a multi-dimensional aspect to his character. Herbert Grönemeyer as great as Werner, who has been sent to observe and document the mission. Klaus Wennemann is perfectly cast as the chief engineer – a sympathetic character, whose relationship with the captain is explored with sensitivity. Their understated performances make them easy to believe in and relate to.
There are poignant moments, too. It’s heartbreaking when you see how many letters one of the crew has written to his sweetheart and not been able to send.
This director’s cut runs to over 200 minutes and is probably the best war film I have seen.
Sideways (2004)
Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) are friends who go on a wine-tasting trip around California. Miles is divorced and Jack is about to marry. Then they meet Maya (Virginia Madsen) and Stephanie (Sandra Oh), and things become much more complicated.
It reminded me a little of a Woody Allen film, not least because of the light jazz soundtrack, but it’s not as well plotted or well-written and there’s definitely something missing. Plus, the music is annoyingly intrusive throughout. I found it difficult to believe that the two friends were actually friends, so little chemistry did they display.
Things improve a little when they begin their new relationships, but it’s difficult to warm to characters who have been deliberately shown in such an unappealing light. And it just needed more laughs.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The “plot”, what there is of one, concerns the presence of an enigmatic monolith found on Earth in early human times, on the Moon and near Jupiter in the present day – presumably an artefact of extraterrestrial life. And a manned mission to Jupiter becomes increasingly precarious as the onboard computer, HAL (voiced by Douglas Rain), increasingly takes control of life-and-death decisions involving Bowman (Keir Dullea) and the rest of the crew.
The film becomes increasingly abstract as it progresses. It’s impossible to say how it ends or “what happens”. It insists on you interpreting what you see.
Visually, it’s ridiculously ahead of its time. It still looks stunning now. Musically, it’s also awe-inspiring, with the classic “Also Sprach Zarathustra” being the perfect choice to express the epic, visionary quality of the film. The same goes for every piece of music chosen. It couldn’t be better matched to the visuals and the narrative.
I also love the audacious slowness of 2001. Unlike so many films made now, it has the complete confidence and assurance to unfold at a glacial pace – often very quietly. And yet it’s never less than captivating. Let’s hope no one is ever silly enough to remake it.
Pixie (2020)
Superb comedy crime thriller set in Ireland. It’s funny, perfectly scripted and surprisingly violent. Olivia Cooke is fantastic in the role of the charming, intelligent and resourceful Pixie. Ben Hardy, so hopeless in Bohemian Rhapsody, is also excellent. Even Alec Baldwin, a disaster in It’s Complicated, is spot-on as the ruthless Father Hector McGrath.
The road-trip and shoot-out elements owe something of a debt to Quentin Tarantino, especially his True Romance, but Pixie feels so fresh that it doesn’t matter at all.
The scenery looks great, too.
Man of Steel (2013)
This Superman reboot starring Henry Cavill is faster, noisier and slicker than the 1978 version with Christopher Reeve, but it has none of that film’s charm. Nothing seems remotely real, either. This is partly because of the excessive CGI (it looks like a slick computer game) and partly because of the fast edits. There are no “rules” in terms of the powers we see the heroes and villains use: anything can happen and anything does happen, but none of it carries any real “weight” or actually adds up to anything. The thrown-through-a-building effect is used again and again and ultimately becomes completely mind-numbing – partly because, despite all the endless scenes of destruction, no one ever seems to get hurt
Michael Shannon underwhelms as the evil General Zod. Certainly he’s no Terence Stamp. Amy Adams does her best as Lois Lane, although she’s not given much of a character to develop. Diane Lane is credible as Superman’s Earth mum, while Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner are both watchable as Superman’s Krypton dad and Earth dad respectively
In visual terms, it’s excessively filtered – another distraction.
The joy of Christopher Reeve’s Superman was watching him save lives again and again. Man of Steel has surprisingly little of that. Also, the relationship with Lois Lane – so integral to the Reeve films starring Margot Kidder as Lois – is completely and coldly undeveloped here. There’s virtually no romance.
All in all it’s an expertly made yet completely empty experience.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
It’s more ambitious than A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More (with which it’s often grouped as a loose trilogy), with an ongoing, parallel narrative about the US Civil War. There are spectacular battle scenes involving a huge number of extras. It’s unclear whether you are supposed to take it as an anti-war film, or whether it’s again being morally ambiguous on purpose.
On the plus side, Lee Van Cleef (the “bad”) is charismatic as “Angel Eyes”. But the dubbed voices used for all of the actors – even the English-speaking ones – remain a barrier that prevents it from ever seeming even remotely real.
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Freddie Mercury is rendered without subtlety by Rami Malek. He somehow overplays the flamboyance while forgetting the all-important charisma. There are too many scenes showing his cats, and I like cats.
By the time the film climaxes at the 1985 Live Aid show it appears to have completely given up with the various plot threads. Instead, it contrives to go out on a high note without having to resolve anything.
Ultimately, you wonder why this film got made and who it was made for. There’s no real story to reveal, because the basics of their story is already so universally known. I was left wishing I had seen a comprehensive Queen documentary with concert footage and interview clips. That would have been so much more engaging.
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Nicolas Cage is perfectly cast as an alcoholic who leaves Hollywood and travels to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. He meets a prostitute (Elisabeth Shue), who is also at a low ebb. (It certainly isn’t Pretty Woman.)
The film suggests the possibility that the couple might somehow save each other from their fates, but it’s also intelligent enough not to present any easy solutions. It’s harrowing and heartbreaking to watch the situation unfold.
Cage and Shue are both stunning. I was completely convinced by them, together and apart. Their relationship is complex but believable, and the film follows it through to its logical conclusion without sentimentality or compromise.
Hope and Glory (1987)
When Britain declares war on Germany on 1st September 1939, everything changes for Billy Rowan (Sebastian Rice-Edwards) and his family. His father Clive (David Hayman) signs up, leaving his mother Grace (Sarah Miles) struggling to come to terms with her new circumstances. Meanwhile, his older sister Dawn (Sammi Davis) gets involved with a Canadian soldier (Jean-Marc Barr). For Billy, the war is a thrilling adventure that excites and troubles him at the same time.
The details are beautifully observed. Billy joins a gang of boys who go through the bomb wreckage taking delight in breaking things. His grandfather (Ian Bannen) is appealingly eccentric, and his role in a game of cricket is one of the highlights. Most moving is probably the moment when one of the children loses a parent in the bombings, only for the other children to leap on this piece of information as valuable gossip/currency to exchange. It seems inevitable that the film is semi-autobiographical. I especially like the way it presents the strange freedoms that the war offers – suddenly the old rules no longer apply – but doesn’t sentimentalise or romanticise the horrors either.
As good a film about WWII and its effects as any I have seen.
Yesterday (2019)
Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling singer who – owing to a mysterious electrical event it’s best not to ask too many questions about – suddenly finds himself in a world in which no one has heard of The Beatles. In fact, it appears that they never existed. He begins performing their songs, is recognised as a genius, and swiftly finds himself on the path to fame and fortune. But there are problems. He’s clearly not cut out for the life of a rock star – especially one whose success is built on a lie. And he also happens to be in love with his friend and former manager Ellie (Lily James).
It’s a sweet and touching story. The songs are wonderful, too, as you’d expect. The joy of the film is that through people’s stunned reactions it feels as if you get to hear The Beatles’ songs for the first time.
Patel and James are extremely endearing. You are rooting for them from the very beginning, able to identify with the pair in every scene.
Ed Sheeran appears as himself and is a feasible enough character in his own right rather than merely a walk-on famous-person role. Kate McKinnon is also fairly strong as Jack's ruthless new manager, who makes no secret of her desire to make a fortune out of the singer.
Fun and rewarding.
Drive (2011)
Ryan Gosling plays a getaway driver who becomes mixed up in a crime involving the husband of his neighbour (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan respectively). After a brooding, menacing start, it turns very, very violent indeed. Gosling seems superbly intense in the lead, initially, but his character development takes him down a path that means you can no longer identify with him.
I found the violence somewhat gratuitous. I know that violence was in many ways the subject of the film, but a couple of the scenes were horrifically drawn out in a way that they really didn’t need to be. It was difficult to know what I was supposed to take away from it.
On the plus side, the driving sequences were exciting and the locations were well chosen. Gosling and Mulligan had a certain chemistry, too. There are echoes of Taxi Driver, but it doesn’t have the consistent logic or magnetic pull of that masterpiece.
Pretty Woman (1990)
I’d heard a lot about this film but somehow never seen it until now. And what a gem it is. Gere’s acting seems to have improved exponentially since An Officer and a Gentleman. He has real presence. And Roberts has an effortless charm. Together, they have plenty of chemistry.
The story is simple but expertly told. It’s subtle, too, where it could have been obvious: Gere’s transformation is slow and realistically gradual, rather than a character U-turn.
There are two criticisms I would make. Firstly, it idealises Vivian's profession. She makes one reference to men always hitting her, but it gives little impression of the true dangers of her work. Secondly, it has the usual tropes of US 80s/90s films in that upward mobility is presented as the only real option to aspire towards.
Those points aside, it’s a pleasure to watch.
Oblivion (2013)
The plot is rather confused, but Google usefully summarises it as follows: “Jack Harper, a drone repairman stationed on Earth that has been ravaged by war with extraterrestrials, questions his identity after rescuing the woman who keeps appearing in his dreams.”
That woman is Olga Kurylenko, who, like Cruise, hardly gets any dialogue at all. Another barely filled-in, completely thrown-away character is played by Morgan Freeman, who struggles to convey the grizzled leader of a band of human survivors.
There are so many things wrong with Oblivion:
• As usual, Tom Cruise is a good-at-everything action-hero dullard who manages to save the world single-handedly. It’s Top Gun all over again.
• In the absence of dialogue – or any kind of personality – Tom spends much of the film staring moodily yet conveying little emotion.
• Almost every element is borrowed from another sci-fi film.
• We visit the remains of what used to be New York, but it’s nothing but lush, clean and green vistas. Where’s all the rubble and filth? Could it be transformed that thoroughly in just 60 years?
• There are plot holes aplenty. Best not to ask many questions.
• Attempts to be “philosophical” end up hollow and self-conscious.
• When we finally meet the alien presence, it’s a huge let-down.
• The title has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the film. It's like they wanted a high-impact, single-word title, but all of the relevant words had already been taken.
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