Alien (1979)

Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece still looks fantastic and is just as chilling as ever. 

Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley, a warrant officer on the cargo ship Nostromo. The ship picks up a signal from a moon, indicating unexpected life. While investigating, the crew accidentally adopt an alien creature that threatens not just all of them but humanity itself.

Weaver is great in the main role – tough but compassionate, and smart and intuitive in a way that her colleagues aren’t.

It works because it’s mostly about the suspense rather than the monsters, although what you do see of the aliens is terrifying enough.

A long line of sequels and prequels would follow as Alien developed into a franchise, but none of them came close to this original.

Carlito’s Way (1993)

Superb crime thriller.

Al Pacino plays Carlito Brigante, a Puerto Rican ex-con who is trying to make a fresh start. But his post-prison efforts to clean up are thwarted by a corrupt, drug-addicted lawyer friend (a suitably sleazy Sean Penn) and other remnants of his former criminal lifestyle. 

The story is told in flashback so we know what happens from the very beginning – which is a shame, in a way – but it’s fascinating to see how the plot winds back around to that point. 

Penelope Ann Miller is superb as Pacino’s love interest, who helps to redeem him. Brian DePalma’s direction is imaginative, utilising unusual angles and a fresh feel. Pacino as usual is hugely watchable – magnetic even – and oddly funny at the same time. It’s a masterful performance – one of his best.

The Hunt (2012)

Superb Danish drama directed by Thomas Vinterberg. 

Mads Mikkelsen stars as a nursery school teacher wrongfully accused of abusing one of the children in his care. 

It’s harrowing to watch his life fall apart as a result of a story made up by a child. Mikkelsen is extremely compelling in this heartbreaking role, which can’t have been easy to film. 

The almost documentary quality makes it seem even more real. It's a mark of the sophistication of the filmmaking that there's space for humour and warmth while addressing such a difficult topic.

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

Romantic comedy directed by Sharon Maguire and starring Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. It’s co-written by Richard Curtis and adapted from the popular 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. It’s also a sort of reinterpretation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. 

It’s funny in places, although Hugh Grant is given all the best lines. Colin Firth seems less well catered for in terms of the script, with the unfortunate result that you aren’t rooting for him when the plot suggests that you should be. Zellweger has a bumbling charm, and is perfect as the heroine everyone can relate to, even if her English accent doesn’t sound quite right. 

Some of the references wouldn’t have made it to a modern-day film, which makes it all the more interesting now. 

Gemma Jones is absolutely awful as Bridget’s mother – a misconceived role, badly handled. Jim Broadbent is marginally better as her father, but he’s not given a great deal to go on.

Phoenix (1998)

Highly watchable crime thriller directed by Danny Cannon. 

Ray Liotta plays Harry Collins, an Arizona detective whose gambling addiction is getting him into trouble. His three colleagues in the same department also have their own problems and their needs don’t always coincide. 

I like the way that Harry is portrayed as a deeply moral character, despite the mess he’s in. This nuanced script allows him to add real depth to the performance. 

Angelica Huston is excellent as Leila, the mother of a girl he nearly dated and someone he becomes quickly attached to.

You guess fairly on that there’s not going to be a happy ending, but it is at least a satisfying ending.

Michael Collins (1996)

Biopic of Michael Collins (played by Liam Neeson), the revolutionary Irishman who leads a guerilla force against the UK during the Irish War of Independence.

Neil Jordan directs, but it doesn’t feel like a Neil Jordan film. 

For some reason, I found it difficult to sustain interest. The narrative didn’t make a strong enough case for why these events were important or why we should care. And it doesn’t explain how Collins, out of so many people, rose to prominence. 

Liam Neeson wasn’t at his best. Julia Roberts has charm but was underused as his love interest. The accents were distracting – especially in the case of Alan Rickman’s awkward portrayal of Éamon de Valera. Only Stephen Rea, as Ned Broy, was truly convincing.

Beautiful Creatures (2001)

Usual drama/thriller directed by Bill Eagles. 

Rachel Weisz and Susan Lynch star as two women victimised by men – until they take the law into their own hands. 

It’s a black comedy that’s a sort of Glasgow-based Thelma and Louise. But unlike that film, it doesn’t develop the relationship between them fully enough. There are some good lines and it’s well plotted, though. But with additional work it could have been so much better.

Premonition (2007)

Sandra Bullock stars in this mystery thriller directed by Mennan Yapo. 

Linda is told that her husband has died in a car crash. When she wakes up the next morning, he’s still alive and it’s as if nothing has happened. But then she wakes up again and he’s still dead. Is she dreaming? Is she losing her mind? This alternating pattern repeats itself, with Linda trying to piece together which of these realities is real while simultaneously trying to prevent her husband from dying. 

There are elements of Groundhog Day and Memento about it, but the premise is intriguingly original and I was fascinated to see how it would play out. 

Premonition touches on themes of freewill and determinism, love and trust, faith and belief. 

The semi-religious aspects that develop towards the end made me wonder if it was funded by the Catholic church.

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

An intelligent, compassionate drama directed by Tom Ford. 

Amy Adams, as usual, is absolutely perfect in the role of Susan Morrow, an L.A. art gallery owner leading a wealthy but shallow life. Out of the blue she is sent the manuscript of a novel written by her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). Reading this narrative sets her off on a series of reflections on her own life. 

We also get to see the drama of the novel itself, in which the “fictionalised” Gyllenhaal and his fictionalised wife (Isla Fisher) and daughter are terrorised by a gang who force them off the road at night in West Texas. It’s harrowing stuff. 

A third thread explores how Susan and Edward came together and fell apart. 

The multiple connected stories are handled beautifully, with no confusion about what’s happening where or when. The transitions between the various plot lines are expertly realised, with the director finding images and motifs that mirror and echo each other. There’s emotional depth in the performances as well as some episodes as terrifying as any thriller. 

One point deducted for slightly intrusive music, and also for the horrible opening sequence of naked obese people dancing.

The Next Three Days (2010)

An intelligent thriller directed by Paul Haggis. 

Russell Crowe stars as a man who wants to spring his wife (Elizabeth Banks) out of prison after she’s wrongly convicted of murder. It’s fascinating because he’s a school teacher – not your standard film action hero – and he makes mistakes.

It’s tense and exciting. To the film’s credit, there are sufficiently imaginative twists that I could never guess where the plot was going. 

Crowe has an elaborate chart on his wall revealing all of his illegal plans and I found that slightly ridiculous, but the fate of this chart is cleverly worked into the story in such a way that makes you appreciate it. 

Liam Neeson has a curious cameo as an expert at escaping from prisons. I thought he would return to the film at some point but he only features in that one scene.

Inside Man (2006)

Directed by Spike Lee, this is an unusual and original thriller focused on a hostage siege during a New York City bank robbery. 

Clive Owen masterminds the heist. Denzel Washington is the detective and hostage negotiator, who finds that the case is stranger than his usual tasks. Jodie Foster plays a mysterious power broker who tries to help the bank’s founder Christopher Plummer protect something in his safe deposit box. 

It’s edgy and dynamic, and also occasionally funny. 

The music by jazz musician and trumpeter Terence Blanchard is oddly jarring at times, but it works. 

The three leads are all at their best, although I would have liked more dialogue from Clive Owen.

The Hurricane (1999)

Directed and produced by Norman Jewison, this is a biopic of the boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who was falsely imprisoned for a New Jersey murder because of racial prejudice. 

Denzel Washington is excellent in the main role, with a compelling intensity that makes him highly watchable. Vicellous Reon Shannon is good, too, as Lesra Martin – the young man who identifies with Rubin and befriends him after reading his autobiography. Unfortunately, the secondary plot about the boy’s carers – a group of three Canadians who help him get a fair trial – is leaden and awkward. When we see them pinning notes on their noticeboard that say things like “Liar” and “Guilty”, it becomes clunky and almost laughable. It’s as if there are two films badly sandwiched together – a hugely powerful character study that elegantly tackles weighty themes, and a rather pedestrian B-movie about some amateur investigators. Even more odd is that it’s never explained why the three Canadians live together. What’s their domestic arrangement? Are they romantically connected? Friends? Members of a liberal communal-living project? On the plus side, you get to hear Bob Dylan’s song “Hurricane” and even see an archive clip of Bob himself. 

It’s a shame it’s all a bit of a mess, because the best parts – such as Hurricane talking about transcending his confinement – are genuinely inspiring.

The Rose (1979)

Drama loosely based on the life and death of Janis Joplin. 

Bette Midler plays Rose, a troubled singer who enters a downward spiral of addiction and self-hate. Alan Bates plays her promoter, but not very well. 

I found it strangely compelling despite it being overwrought. Bette Midler cries and shouts a lot. The onstage song performances are probably the best aspect of the film, and Midler really puts everything into them.  

It’s set in the late 1960s but the period detail is muddling and everything looks very 1979. Worth seeing – if only once.

The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

Crass, unfunny comedy starring Ben Stiller as a man who marries a woman he’s not suited to (Malin Åkerman) only to then meet the woman of his dreams (Michelle Monaghan). 

It’s almost entirely devoid of humour. There are “jokes” at the expense of gay people, fat people and Mexicans. Even worse is a section in which Stiller attempts to cross the US border illegally. This ends up troubling and not remotely amusing.  

Stiller and Monaghan are OK and nearly develop some chemistry, but the ugly sentiments of the script deny them any real depth or warmth.

Howards End (1992)

Brilliant adaptation of E.M. Forster’s so-so classic novel. Directed by James Ivory, it seems more nuanced and subtle than the book. The actors are skilled enough to bring out a sense of humanity that is rarely evident in Forster’s rather cold prose. 

The plot is thus summarised by Google: “Helen Schlegel falls for Paul Wilcox, but is rebuffed. Her sister Margaret becomes friends with his mother, who promises her the family house, Howards End. Unfortunately, after her death, the will disappears and it appears the inheritance will disappear. Until the widower, Henry Wilcox, becomes attracted to Margaret.”

It’s a tale about class and prejudice. 

Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham-Carter and Anthony Hopkins are superb as the primary characters, with Thompson in particular delivering an astounding performance. She also acted alongside Hopkins in Remains of the Day (1993), and the two seem made to work together. There are also roles for Vanessa Redgrave, Jemma Redgrave and Prunella Scales.

There are some slightly odd cuts and edits, but these actually work to punctuate the story and provide narrative focus.

Man on the Moon (1999)

Directed by Miloš Forman, this is a brilliant biopic of the wildly original comedian Andy Kaufman. 

Jim Carrey is superb in the main role, but he’s expertly assisted by Paul Giamatti (as Kaufman’s best friend) and Danny DeVito (as Andy’s manager). The film traces Kaufman’s career, but it escapes the trapping of bog-standard biopics by embracing the playful qualities of the comedian’s work. 

Courtney Love plays his girlfriend well, but isn’t really given enough lines.

The famous R.E.M. song is the theme tune.

Cinderella Man (2005)

Powerful biopic of world heavyweight boxer James J. Braddock, directed by Ron Howard. 

Russell Crowe plays the poor New Jersey man who tries to fight his way out of poverty for the sake of his wife (Renée Zellweger) and children. Paul Giamatti portrays his coach and manager, with empathy and depth. 

It’s a compelling saga, and Crowe judges the role perfectly. I like the fact that it’s also a love story in which the love is never in question. As with all Ron Howard films, the storytelling is lucid, with plot and character to the fore. 

The boxing scenes are extremely well filmed, with a brutality that makes them difficult to watch.

Money Monster (2016)

Tense and original thriller starring George Clooney as Lee Gates, the presenter of a finance-themed TV show. 

Gates is taken hostage, live on air, by a viewer who lost his money by following investment advice given on the programme. Julia Roberts, meanwhile, is the show’s producer, speaking into Lee’s ear and trying her best to keep him alive. 

Directed by Jodie Foster, this is a hugely entertaining film. Clooney and Roberts are at their best. The film does a good job of sustaining the tension, and the show-within-a-film device works extremely well.

Serendipity (2001)

Romantic comedy directed by Peter Chelsom and starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. 

John and Sara meet by chance in a shop in New York and hit it off. Both are involved with someone else, but they cannot ignore their mutual attraction. For reasons not fully explained, Sara won’t give John her full name or number. Instead, she says they can trust it to fate to bring them back together – if that’s what’s “meant to be”. It’s quite a forced premise, but it would have worked better if the film had Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks and a better script. You can imagine Woody Allen doing great things with the same material. 

In addition to the lack of sparkle in the script, Serendipity falls down on several levels. In particular, for the pair’s one evening together to have been so life-changing it would have needed to be more remarkable than the rather ordinary set of events we saw them share (shopping, some chat, ice skating). Cusack does his best but Beckinsale seems barely present in certain early scenes. Also, her boyfriend – a silly rock star who has got into “eastern” self-discovery – is a ludicrous figure who she would never have been drawn to in the first place. You know that the film has to make him unappealing so that you’re rooting for her to get together with Cusack, but they could have at least made him credible. Cusack’s fiancée, meanwhile, is too blandly sketched out to prompt any kind of response at all. Again, that must be deliberate – the plot won’t work if we side with her – but it does make for some two-dimensional characterisation. 

All that said, the film slowly grew on me as it progressed. I like the way the intricate plotting shows destiny always pushing the pair together without them even realising. I also liked the escalation towards their inevitable reunion. It’s actually quite romantic, if you overlook the shortcomings, and makes for a fairly entertaining 91 minutes.

Now You See Me (2013)

Highly entertaining but totally unfeasible thriller. 

Four street magicians are brought together by a criminal mastermind to pull off large-scale tricks – such as robbing a bank in another country – as part of their glitzy stage show. 

It’s an unusual concept and it just about works, provided that you never question a sequence of highly unlikely scenarios in which the magicians exercise almost god-like powers. You also need to overlook a couple of enormous plot holes.

Mark Ruffalo is appealing as FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, and Mélanie Laurent is likeable as French Interpol agent Alma Dray. Morgan Freeman is a little silly as a professional debunker of tricks. Michael Caine doesn't have enough to do as a dodgy insurance magnate. The magicians themselves – played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco – are a little too slick and self-satisfied. They can behave like superheroes, and we could have been given more of a sense of their motivations. 

The film is itself a sort of magic trick and it keeps you guessing to the end. It’s very silly indeed – but fun.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Imaginative student Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) pretends to be ill so that he can skip high school. He spends the day with his best friend and girlfriend instead, despite his sister (Jennifer Grey) and the Dean of Students (Jeffrey Jones) catching onto his elaborate range of tricks and deceptions to make them believe he’s still at home in bed. 

This is the best of the John Hughes teen films, probably because it’s much funnier than the others. But I find it fascinating that even his comedy film has to have some serious “self-discovery” drama. This is played out as Ferris’s best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) learns to face up to his fears after trashing his father’s sports car. 

The fourth-wall device works well – especially since it’s only Ferris, the narrator, who talks to camera. 

The music is prominent, as always. You get songs by Yello, Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Big Audio Dynamite. There’s also an especially memorable sequence in which Bueller mines "Twist and Shout" by The Beatles from a carnival float. 

Like all Hughes’ films, adults are represented as one-dimensional authority figures to be scorned. And like The Breakfast Club, it mourns the passing of youth as the kids simultaneously want to join the adult world yet view that world with mistrust and contempt.

Hope Floats (1998)

Directed by Forest Whitaker, this is a bland romantic drama that’s not very romantic or dramatic. 

The oddly named Birdee Pruitt (Sandra Bullock) is humiliated on national TV when her husband reveals he’s having an affair with her best friend (an uncredited Rosanna Arquette). Birdee takes her young daughter Bernice (Mae Whitman) and goes to live with her mother Ramona (Gena Rowland) in her hometown of Smithville, Texas. While trying to come to terms with the changes in her life, she falls for former classmate Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr).  

It’s extremely uneven. The script is poor and the characters aren’t developed much. That said, there are a couple of good moments – Sandra Bullock does the “throwing up and feeling ill on the bathroom floor” scene fairly well, and the daughter being abandoned by her shallow father felt all too upsettingly plausible. 

There are various oddities in the film:

1. Ramona is a taxidermist, so her large house is full of creepy stuffed animals – a quirk that's apparently unrelated to everything else in the story.

2. Ramona is bringing up another abandoned grandson, Travis, who spends all his time dressing up in silly costumes. Why? It's unclear how we're meant to feel about that.

3. Harry Connick Jr seems sweaty in every scene, even when he's not doing anything.

4. Some of the shots are out of focus – even basic technical stuff seems to have been problematic for the filmmakers.

5. Birdee works in a shop developing photos, but messes up most of them. Meanwhile, her boss says that he likes looking at the dodgier images they are given, which he makes copies of and keeps in a special drawer. That makes him seem pervy and weird, but this thread is never followed up.

There’s an overall strangeness about Hope Floats that’

s difficult to pin down. On one level it seems quite reasonable. But on another level, there's almost nothing about it that actually works.

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)

Flawed romantic comedy. 

Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a New York journalist who is addicted to buying fashionable clothes. She ends up working as a finance columnist for Successful Saving magazine in a role where her lack of knowledge or pretension is welcomed as a refreshing asset. Meanwhile, she also falls in love with her boss (Hugh Dancy, as a sort of fifth-rate Hugh Grant) and tries to avoid a debt collector. 

The film has many failings and it’s a bit of a muddled mess in terms of its views on consumerism. It can’t decide whether it’s a critique or a celebration. That said, it’s a little unfair that it was criticised for being tone deaf to the fall-out of the global financial crisis. Is it really the film’s job to reflect the changing economic and political landscape?

Pretty much everything about Confessions of a Shopaholic is clumsy and awkward, and in particular Rebecca’s parents – annoyingly and bizarrely portrayed by John Goodman and Joan Cusack. Kristin Scott Thomas seems out of place, too. The major plus is Isla Fisher, who has a real radiance. Each time she smiles, she lights up the whole film and transforms a mediocre scene into something full of charm and charisma.

Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

Absolutely superb drama. 

Sisters Rose and Norah (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) go into business clearing up after suicides and murders. This, in turn, leads them to contemplate their own mother’s suicide and how it has affected their lives and social interactions. 

Various sub-plots are expertly woven in, involving their father (Alan Arkin) and other relationships. Especially good is Mary Lynn Rajskub as Lynn, who Norah follows and then befriends after she learns that she too is the daughter of a suicide. (Director Christine Jeffs also directed Sylvia, suggesting that female suicide is a recurring theme in her work.)

The writing is subtle and sophisticated. There’s real warmth in the acting. Amy Adams delivers an incredibly sensitive and nuanced performance. You really feel what she’s feeling because she makes it seem so believable. 

It’s gently funny, as well. A real gem.

Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)

A charming film that’s superficially for children but which actually has a far wider appeal. 

A 10-year-old American girl named Opal Buloni (AnnaSophia Robb) has just moved to a new small town with her preacher father (Jeff Daniels), while trying to accept the loss of her mother. She struggles to make friends and to fit in – until she adopts a stray dog, who changes her life. She, in turn, transforms the lives of the people in the neighbourhood.

It’s surprisingly touching, and not only because of the cute, shaggy dog. The film builds a strong sense of place, and the friends that Opal makes – the librarian (Eva Marie Saint), the ex-con running the pet shop (Dave Matthews) and a blind lady who the local ruffians call a “witch” (Cicely Tyson) – seem real and three-dimensional.

Robb is among the more watchable child actors I have seen. She’s sweet without being annoying, and cheekily funny without seeming contrived. There are no irksome “stage school” mannerisms.

Jeff Daniels is great, too. In some ways it’s a similar role to the one he played in Fly Away Home. He seems to be an expert at playing dads of girls who lost their mothers.

Definitely, Maybe (2008)

A sweet and tender romantic drama directed by Adam Brooks. 

A young girl (Abigail Brealin) quizzes her political consultant father (Ryan Reynolds) about his love life prior to her birth and his subsequent divorce. In flashback, we see three interconnected romance stories – his relationships with his college sweetheart (Elizabeth Banks), a friend she had a brief fling with (Rachel Weisz) and a fellow worker on the Bill Clinton political campaign (Isla Fisher). 

Structurally, it’s reminiscent of a Woody Allen film and could even be seen as a sort of homage. In lesser hands it could have been formulaic, but it’s actually very touching. I found it romantic and hugely enjoyable. 

The closing theme, Badly Drawn Boy’s ‘The Time of Times’, strikes exactly the right note of reflection and poignancy.

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Directed by Ben Affleck, and based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, this is a brilliant, extremely gritty thriller that’s also a moving domestic drama. 

Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan play a couple who agree to investigate a missing girl in a poor part of Boston. They do so in parallel with the police, who are led by Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman. 

There are plenty of surprises as the plot twists and turns, but the resolution is satisfying and none of the threads collapse under scrutiny – as tends to happen with lesser storylines. 

One criticism: a lot of the dialogue is difficult to make out.

In Bruges (2008)

Directed and written by Martin McDonagh, this is a drama that also functions as a black comedy and a tense thriller. 

Two hitmen (Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) travel to Bruges to await instructions for their next job from their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes). While passing the time as would-be tourists, they try to come to terms with who they are and what they do for a living – until a call from Harry changes everything. 

It’s brilliantly written – a superb character study with some very funny lines. It’s also extremely sad, as we see the pair wrestling with their consciences and questioning whether they are entitled to strive for a better kind of life.

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

A quirky comedy. 

Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow star as two friends who travel from Los Angeles to Tucson, Arizona, to attend their school reunion, anxious to impress the peers who snubbed them 10 years previously.

As with so many American films, there’s a lot about status anxiety. It’s a story about aspiration and class. It’s also about the importance of friendship. While some of the jokes miss the mark completely, and the writing could be sharper, there’s enough charm in the two leads’ performances that it works. 

I’m still not sure if it’s forgettable fluff or a satire of forgettable fluff. It certainly doesn’t have the edge of Clueless, but it’s in the same general universe.

The World's End (2013)

Directed by Edgar Wright, this is the third in a loose trilogy that began with Shaun of the Dead and continued with Hot Fuzz. 

The story concerns five friends, who – encouraged by Gary King (Simon Pegg) – return to their hometown to take part in a nostalgic pub crawl. Unfortunately, Newton Haven has been taken over by blue-blooded aliens. 

Once again, there’s an obsession with small English towns and the way people behave in them. 

The usual team of Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Julia Deakin, Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy all appear, alongside Rosamund Pike and Pierce Brosnan.

It’s not quite as strong as the first two films, perhaps because you know what to expect already. But the performances are all first-rate and there are many funny lines.

Nightcrawler (2013)

Grimly funny and deeply unsettling, this is a masterful crime drama that dabbles with the blackest comedy imaginable. 

Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) goes into business selling video footage of crime scenes to a TV network. He also has designs on their news editor, Nina (Rene Russo). But his work takes him into some extreme situations that reveal his amoral ruthlessness. 

The film expertly juggles various themes. There are the ethics of journalism’s involvement in personal tragedies, and questions about voyeurism. There’s also a brilliant strand of corporate satire, as Louis tutors and controls his assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed), lecturing him on business strategy and career advancement. It amuses and appals at the same time, because Louis seems simultaneously so utterly deranged and yet brilliant. 

It’s such an intelligent and well-paced film that you are immediately swept up into the protagonist’s murky world. Nothing you could add or remove would make it any better.

Made in Italy (2020)

An artist (Liam Neeson) and his son (Neeson’s real-life son Micheál Richardson) struggle to deal with the loss of their wife/mother while attempting to sell their run-down old house in Italy. 

The film tries to be poignant but isn’t well-written enough to inspire much of an emotional response – despite the tragic parallels with the actors’ own lives. Instead, it ends up being a sort of fifth-rate Richard Curtis homage – a rather tepid light drama with only one genuinely funny line.

Lindsay Duncan adds a little grit as a stern estate agent. Valeria Bilello seems rather idealised and one-dimensional as the son’s love interest. Neeson has his usual rugged appeal but sleepwalks through the role. 

It’s easy-to-watch, and of course the Italian landscapes are seductive, but ultimately it’s all rather mediocre.

The Life of David Gale (2003)

Thriller/drama directed by Alan Parker. 

David Gale (Kevin Spacey) plays a university professor and anti-capital punishment campaigner who finds himself on death row. A journalist improbably called Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) is sent to meet him and conduct his final interviews. Through their conversations, she begins to unravel what really happened in the crime he is accused of. We see those events unfold in flashback. 

It’s a tense and exciting story that’s slightly spoiled by the last five minutes, which offers one unlikely twist too many. As soon as you start asking questions about the plot logic, it collapses. 

Spacey and Winslet are both excellent, as is Laura Linney as Gale’s friend and colleague. 

The film makes some good points about the evils of capital punishment, although you can’t help thinking that those points would be stronger still without the final twist. A simpler, more believable plot would have worked so much better.

Blood Diamond (2006)

An engrossing drama directed by Edward Zwick. 

A diamond smuggler working in Sierra Leone (Leonardo DiCaprio) begins to examine his motives after meeting an American investigative journalist and a local man who has been separated from his wife and son. 

DiCaprio is compelling but not quite at his best. Maybe it’s his South African accent that makes him a little less convincing than usual. That said, his character development as the film progresses is extremely well done. I liked Jennifer Connelly as the journalist, too. 

The film makes some strong moral points about trading in "conflict diamonds", but because DiCaprio’s character is presented as amoral it’s not as heavy-handed or judgemental as it might have been.

Fly Away Home (1996)

Heartwarming drama.

A girl (Anna Paquin) loses her mother in a car crash and goes to live with her inventor father (Jeff Daniels) in rural Canada. After some of his land is bulldozed by developers, Amy rescues several abandoned goose eggs and nurtures the geese to adulthood. Ultimately, she uses a microlight plane to teach the birds to migrate south. 

Remarkably, this is based on true events. 

It’s an ecological drama that could have ended up cutesy and trite but for the fact that it also addresses bereavement and family relationships.

The flying scenes are stunning and you can’t see how they were filmed.

A Simple Plan (1998)

Superb drama. 

Brothers Hank (Bill Paxton) and Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), plus Jacob’s friend Lou (Brent Briscoe), find a crashed aircraft buried in snow in remote, rural Wright County, Minnesota. There’s $4 million inside it, which – after some debate – they decide to keep. That decision changes everything in their lives. 

This is a devastating story. It works as an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but really it’s a profound morality tale. 

Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton are excellent as the conflicted brothers with little in common. Bridget Fonda is great, too, as Hank’s wife who becomes increasingly pulled into the drama of their own making. The escalating situation is perfectly handled by director Sam Raimi. 

The novel, by Scott Smith, is even better.

The Road (2009)

Brilliantly bleak disaster/survival story adapted from the novel by Cormac McCarthy. 

An unnamed man and his son (Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee) travel across the wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America following an unnamed disaster. 

It’s horrifying in places (there’s a recurring thread about vigilante bands of cannibals roaming the land), but it’s also a tender drama about the love between a boy and his father. 

The film asks you to consider what value life has after everything else has been lost. I like the way it doesn’t try to explain the event that led to this chaos. Instead, it just puts you straight into the situation and lets you stare it in the face.

My Fair Lady (1964)

The “classic” musical turns out to be a huge disappointment. 

A conceited professor of phonetics (Rex Harrison) tasks himself with taking a working-class girl named Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) and educating her sufficiently so that she can pose as a member of high society. 

Hepburn and Harrison have plenty of charisma and charm, but pretty much everything else falls flat. Elisa’s dustman father (Stanley Holloway) is an embarrassing disaster. The “chorus” scenes don’t really work, either, and the rather abusive treatment of Elisa is played for laughs in a way that you can’t imagine happening in a modern film. In narrative terms, the two transformative moments – Elisa learning to enunciate and the pair realising they are in love – are both completely thrown away, buried in pointless filler set pieces and side plots that drag out the running time. 

I liked Harrison’s talk-sing delivery of his song lyrics. The style almost approaches rap. But beyond a couple of memorable songs, all you’re left with is two talented actors struggling to rise above a drab and tiresome mess.

The Remains of the Day (1993)

Masterful slow-burning drama based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize-winning novel. It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. 

The story focuses on a butler (Anthony Hopkins) and a housekeeper (Emma Thompson), who develop a deep love for one another but are unable to declare it. We see their story in two time periods – when they work at Darlington Hall in the late 1930s at a point when Lord Darlington (James Fox) begins entertaining fascist-sympathising aristocrats, and their attempt to meet up again in 1958.

The two lead performances are astonishing and perfectly nuanced. There’s so much feeling and power in what they don’t say. There’s passion and tenderness, too, even though it’s all held back behind the mask of duty. 

It’s a superbly shot film, too, becoming hypnotic where a lesser director would have made it merely dull.

Hugh Grant is excellent as Lord Darlington’s godson and Christopher Reeve adds gravitas as US Congressman Jack Lewis.

One Fine Day (1996)

Rom-com about two single-parent New Yorkers. 

Journalist Jack (George Clooney) meets architect Melanie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and – across a hectic day involving career and childcare challenges – the pair have to put aside their differences and help each other. 

It’s nearly brilliant, but the script just isn’t sharp or funny enough. The two leads are both excellent, and there’s plenty of chemistry, but even with their considerable talents the dialogue cannot sparkle and the humour cannot hit home. For example, a thread about the couple accidentally switching mobile phones isn’t sufficiently mined for comic effect. A more skilled writer (such as Nora Ephron) would have done so much more with it. 

It’s a shame because Clooney and Pfeiffer exude charm and their performances are worthy of a better film than this.

Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)

Very sharp, very funny mockumentary about a beauty pageant in the small town of Mount Rose, Minnesota. 

Every member of the cast is outstanding. Kirsten Dunst is the sweet Amber Arkins, who wants to follow in the footsteps of her hero Diane Sawyer. Ellen Barkin plays Amber's mother, and Allison Janney is her mother’s friend. Kirsty Alley plays the head of the pageant’s organising committee and a former winner of the same competition. Meanwhile, her daughter (Denise Richards) may or may not be killing off her rival contestants.  

Surprisingly, the film wasn't a success. It’s in the style of This Is Spinal Tap and Best in Show, but it has a savage black humour and intelligence of its own.

The Butcher of Prague (2011)

Also known as Lidice and Fall of the Innocent, this drama tells the story of the Nazi massacre in the Czech village of Lidice. 

Karel Roden plays a man who returns to his village after a spell in prison, only to find that it no longer exists. 

Beyond the history lesson, I didn’t get a great deal out of the film. Not entirely sure why, as the performances were mostly strong. Perhaps I was just in the wrong frame of mind to witness more senseless killing and cruelty.

Dream House (2011)

Psychological thriller starring Daniel Craig as an editor who moves into a new suburban home with his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and two daughters. But all in the house is not as it seems and only his neighbour (Naomi Watts) seems to really know what’s going on. 

There are a couple of major plot twists, so it’s difficult to reveal any more about the story without ruining it. Craig and Weisz are OK (and it’s quite interesting to watch this real-life couple play a pretend couple), but Watts is oddly underused. The creepy premise isn’t quite followed through, so it slightly runs out of steam. 

Shutter Island is a better treatment of similar themes. Also, the main part of the film works as a psychological study, so it’s a shame that a genuine supernatural element is confirmed near the end. All that said, it’s a fairly entertaining romp.

Face/Off (1997)

Absurd body-swap action-thriller directed by John Woo and incorporating elements of sci-fi and horror. 

A criminal (Nic Cage) and an FBI agent (John Travolta) have their faces switched with the use of pioneering technology. Meanwhile, the criminal has planted a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles. 

Cartoonish and unbelievable, Face/Off ends up being possibly the strangest film I’ve ever seen. Cage plays it like a pantomime villain, hamming it up so much that you realise the film is nearly a comedy – and would perhaps have worked better that way. On the plus side, the action sequence involving speedboats is one of the best I’ve ever seen. 

The film doesn't really bother to explore the complex identity questions it hints at: are we "ourselves" (with a consistent being at the core) or are we merely what we look like? It's so ridiculous that it takes cinema to a different level where different rules apply. Forget logic. It’s a thrilling, farcical mess that somehow works – despite Travolta’s creepy tic of touching the face of anyone he meets.

Chariots of Fire (1981)

A drama based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics. Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) is a devout Scottish Christian running to honour God, while Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) runs to overcome prejudice about his Judaism. Their stories are told in parallel, until they converge.  

Nigel Havers, Ian Holm, John Gielgud also star.

The film hasn’t dated especially well, but the synth soundtrack by Vangelis is excellent and I like the fact that the sci-fi synth tones jar with the 1920s visuals. 

Overall, I was disappointed. I'd expected something much more stirring and inspirational. Instead, the drama seems flat and the middle of the film really sags. The slow-motion effect is wildly over-used, becoming clichéd and almost almost comical. And, unfortunately, when Harold wins his all-important race it’s filmed and directed in a way that seems oddly anticlimactic.

Crazy Heart (2009)

A moving drama about a country singer "Bad" Blake (Jeff Bridges) whose career is on the way down and who is struggling with addiction. But when Bad meets a divorced young journalist named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), things start to change. 

It’s a touching romance that never gives in to mere sentimentality. The two leads are remarkable, with a very real chemistry. The music is excellent, too. Bridges seems every bit the grizzled country singer. You can truly believe him, whether he’s at his public best on stage or at his private nadir, passing out drunk in his hotel room. 

There are parallels with A Star Is Born, and particularly the Streisand/Kristofferson version from 1976, but Crazy Heart seems like a more credible attempt to present a fading performer in a desperate situation.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Cold War spy thriller adapted from the 1974 novel by John Le Carre. 

Gary Oldman is George Smiley, leading an all-star cast that also includes Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones and Mark Strong. 

The plot follows Smiley’s efforts to track down a double agent within the British secret service. I found it often too complicated to follow. I also got annoyed with the unrelenting greys and the deliberately grim visuals. Most of the “drama” comes from flashbacks or reported speech, making it less than compelling. I could appreciate that it was an expertly made film but it was too focused on mood and style to ever pull me in.

Water for Elephants (2011)

Romantic drama directed by Francis Lawrence. 

Robert Pattinson stars as a young veterinary medicine student, Jacob Jankowski, who joins a travelling circus in 1931. He meets the sadistic ringmaster (Christoph Waltz) and falls in love with his wife (Reese Witherspoon). 

It’s compelling. The circus crew live and travel on a train, and their micro-world is conveyed well. Waltz is convincingly multi-faceted and menacing. The love story is touching without being schmaltzy. And the CGI animals seem completely real. 

The one flaw – and it’s a big one – is the slightly cheesy framing device in which we see Jankowski as an old man (Hal Holbrook), looking back on his life and narrating the story. Why was this considered necessary?

Also, the title makes no sense. Maybe it works in the novel (by Sara Gruen), but it jars a little for this adaptation.

Shutter Island (2010)

US marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is sent to a Boston Harbour island. With his companion (Mark Ruffalo), he is looking into the disappearance of a patient from the Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. But he’s quickly swept into a deeper mystery about what’s really going on at the asylum. 

Directed by Martin Scorsese, this is a genuinely terrifying psychological thriller. Leonardo DiCaprio is superb as a complicated character making a horrible discovery. 

It’s closer in tone to Cape Fear than anything else I’ve seen by Scorsese. What seems to be a noirish thriller acquires extra depths as it becomes stranger and even more disturbing. It’s difficult to say any more without giving away the big twist. 

The superb cast also includes Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams and Max von Sydow.

Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)

Google: “In this fact-based film, distinguished U.S. Army Col. David Marcus (Kirk Douglas) is enlisted by the Israelis to perform the difficult task of preparing their fledgling nation for battle against the Arabs. Before long, he feuds with the local leaders, quits his post and goes back home to his pregnant wife (Angie Dickinson) in the United States. However, Marcus, who is Jewish himself, soon has a crisis of faith and decides to return to duty to help the untrained Israelis form an army.”

The film is slow and laboured. The sound quality is poor and the dialogue isn’t synchronised quite right. There’s a disjointed, awkward feel. 

John Wayne, Topol, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner all appear, but no amount of star charisma can make the script work. I do like Senta Berger as Magda Simon. She has a certain warmth and charm that is lacking elsewhere. Kirk Douglas is watchable, too, but seems much too chirpy most of the time, adding to a feeling that the whole affair is rather shallow.

On the plus side, there are a few good lines. For example, when David asks his wife why she’s up so late, she replies: “I worry better when I’m awake.”