General

The Barefoot Contessa

An often cynical look at the machinations and egos behind creating a film celebrity.

Basic Instinct

"She's dangerous, she's evil!" She did it - but then was there ever any doubt? A nicely edited and directed erotic thriller that doesn't run for too long.

Ben Hur (1927)

The acting may have dated more than the 1959 remake, but the sea battles are more realistic, and I still think the final chariot race is superior.

Bringing Up Baby

One of the best screwball comedies of the period.

Everything by Tim Burton (except Alice In Wonderland)

Cat People (1942)

Probably the best thing producer Val Lewton & director Jacques Tourneur ever did. Superb camera-work, and shadows that suggest and threaten without revealing, make this far better than the silly 1982 remake with Nastassja Kinski, whose only good points are the inclusion of a beautiful black panther and a nice title song by David Bowie set to Giorgio Moroder's music.

Cutthroat Island

Adding to my list of films I like that bombed at the box-office (explosions but no spaceships or god bless america so it was doomed from the start), this is another fun film that's simply a modern re-make of the Burt Lancaster / Tyrone Power / Errol Flynn / Doulgas Fairbanks swashbucklers.

Das Boot

I don't really like war films, apart from the 'epic' ones such as Tora! Tora! Tora! which aim to be accurate as well as entertaining, but this German production has to be one of the best ever made, despite a couple of occasions of very shoddy model work. The DVD edition is superb, and revealing - Robert Redford as the captain when Hollywood wanted to make their own film of the book? And of course the Americans had to be in the film otherwise they wouldn't make it, so change the date from 1941. Pity the 6-hour TV version wasn't released, but this Director's Cut is, at 200 minutes, a vast improvement on the original cinema film, and the sound is claustrophobic.

Flesh And The Devil

Gilbert & Garbo generating more erotic passion fully clothed than any amount of modern nudity.

Fight Club

Wonderful black humour which, unlike Heathers, doesn't chicken out at the end, and it's the first film I've seen where the changed ending is actually better than the book, where (if you've not read it) the narrator shoots himself but no buildings are blown up because he didn't make the explosives correctly; another change (why?) is that here Marla doesn't have cancer but in the book she does, which makes far more sense of the line about the tragedy of her life being she didn't die. As for the various over-reactions to it, does anyone seriously think that bunch of no-hopers represents a group of fascists, brainlessly chanting Tyler Durdan's sayings like mantras? Yes, they are a 'lost' generation, alleged victims to advertising, but if they are stupid enough to believe it, whose fault is that?

everything by Terry Gilliam

Although usually on the pessimistic (realistic?) side, nevertheless a truly unique series of visions.

Gilda

Dark and glamourous film noir wrapped around a daft plot (weren't they all?).

Heat

Two modern actors giving their best and not up-staging one another, with superb support from the other performers.

Holiday

The third of four films Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant made together, this is almost like a dry-run for The Philadelphia Story, though worthy in its own right.

Intolerance

One of silent cinema's best and overlooked masterpieces, with magnificient sets and a series of inter-cut stories.

everything by Buster Keaton

Dead-pan humour with a dead-pan face. Unlike Chaplin he expected no sympathy, and didn't try to manipulate the viewer's emotions with obvious ploys like crying children.

Laura

Another noirish story which helped to launch the careers of its stars.

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp

The film that Churchill censored because of its anti-war message.

The Long Kiss Goodnight

So over-the-top that it succeeds (apart from the numerous continuity errors), as long as you don't try and think about what's happening.

Orphée

And its sequel, Le Testement D'Orphée, modern mythology with all the elements of ancient, water & mirrors as portals to other realms, a radio that tunes in to the thoughts of the dead, and death riding not a horse but in a car with her angels on motorbikes.

Pandora's Box

This and Diary Of A Lost Girl are probably the only two films Louise Brooks is remembered for, but what films they are! Luminous photography and hypnotic performances place these in the top 10 silent films (and I'd argue that Pandora should be in any top 10 regardless of genre).

Pandora And The Flying Dutchman

One of the most bizarre love-films ever made, with lots of surrealistic imagery and a wonderfully tortured performance by James Mason.

The Philadelphia Story

Rather stagey film of the play but still better than the inevitable remake (and a musical version at that - Frank Sinatra in the Cary Grant role?!).

Queen Christina

Enigmatic Garbo at her best, acting as a mirror for the audience's emotions.

Ronin

One of the best modern thrillers with an overall pace and direction that needs attention (no plot-revealing voice-overs here, thank you very much) but offers many rewards, and under-stated performances from all involved.

The Stranger Left No Card

A beautifully realised short film.

Science-fiction & Fantasy & Horror

A Matter Of Life And Death

Pure hokum, but still good fun, with some nice visual ideas.

The Abyss (director's cut)

A techno-freak's paradise, and an ending that actually makes sense, unlike the original version.

Ace Of Wands TV Series

Like much of British TV of the 1960s and 1970s (Dr. Who, Timeslip, etc), consistently good ideas succeed in overcoming appalling budgets.

Aliens

More of James Cameron's large-scale high-tech backdrops to what are usually personal battles.

Altered States

Another 80's film that's somewhat dated, but still rather powerful and involving once you suspend disbelief that the whole thing is just plain silly and accept it on its own terms.

The Avengers TV Series

Quintessential quirkiness with nicely self-mocking performances from both leads and most of the guests.

Babylon 5 TV Series

A sci-fi series that finally has a multi-threaded plot, and apart from a few hiccups doesn't insult the viewer. Brilliant graphics, too, but then I'm biased as I also use Lightwave.

Batman & Batman Returns

The Dark Knight's latest and best incarnation, before it sank into a comic-strip more reminiscent of the 1960's TV series.

BladeRunner

Difficult to add to everything that's already been said. Even after all this time it's still powerful and effective, and apart from a few obsolete brand-names stands almost alone in its total depiction of a fully-realised future (I don't count The Fifth Element as the whole film was played for laughs, and didn't even manage to do that very well).

Brainstorm

Loses its impact on video but still an interesting variant on the story. For those who never saw it in the cinema, the 'real life' sequences were shown in the equivalent of a normal 35mm 1:1.33 ratio, and the brain-recorded sequences shown in 70mm 1:2.35 that jumped out at the audience and made them feel immersed in a hyper-reality.

Brimstone TV Series

A rare series that concentrated on characters and situations rather than flashy effects, and had a nice line in dark humour as befits its premiss. It also acknowledged there were and indeed still are deities other than Yahweh, as worshipped by Ashe/Ashur. Another series that wasn't very popular and so was cancelled. Ho-hum.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV Series

This highly entertaining and consistently good series (complete with sometimes very poignant teenage angst) has drawn the wrath of various po-faced christers of the kind who want to ban Hallowe'en, and for the same reasons: because they believe in spirits and devils and witches and all the other monsters that children know are only make-believe, the holier-than-thou's want it banned as being a bad influence on their already deluded (and sometimes terrified) offspring. It's 'evil', it's 'satanic', it's… wonderfully self-mocking with a nice line in droll, at times almost sarcastic dialogue and throwaway one-liners. It's also unusual in that most of main characters are what would be called nerds, and even Buffy goes to class: what are they trying to do, promote education?

The Changeling

Almost as good as The Haunting.

The Company Of Wolves

A wonderful adaptation of the novel, this 'coming of age' tale set in a story-book landscape where nightmares lurk in the unexplored shadows. The film that began my love of wolves.

Contact

Though necessarily shortened and diluted from the book's strong anti-pseudoscience stance, and an international team reduced to "they still want an American", an intelligent look at pure sci-fi.

Everything by David Cronenburg

The Crow

More mindless violence, but the abysmal so-called sequels only illustrated Lee's grace and presence in this first film.

Daughters Of Darkness

Seductive vampire film that's become a classic.

Dark City

A year before all the hype of The Matrix, was this short film. The only thing wrong with it was a stupid voice-over at the beginning. (Hollywood studio executive: "our domestic test audiences didn't have a clue what was going on because they're not used to thinking for themselves, so we'd better tell them the ending at the beginning and ruin it for the rest of the world.")

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Still one of the most intelligent sci-fi films ever made, with a message that probably more relevant today than ever. With Michael Rennie's character Klaatu taking the name of Carpenter, and after being shot apparently coming back from the dead (though in about 3 minutes rather than 3 days), there are obvious Christ references, and a mention of God as the 'almighty spirit' was forced in by the censors.

Dead Like Me

Funny and poignant, touching but not yucky, and concentrating as much on the family left behind as the main reapers, this wasn't given enough time to develop properly, though given the current US attitude, it's perhaps a miracle it ever got made in the first place. And it has an English person who's not the bad-guy, which makes a refreshing change.

Dream Demon

Short and claustrophobic, successfully playing on fears of dreams within dreams, and of being stuck inside, unable to know what is real or not.

eXistenZ

Already covered by saying I like all of Cronenburg's films, but this is probably the best so far.

Forbidden Planet

The Tempest in space.

The Haunting (1963)

One of the best, if not the best, haunted-house films ever made. As for the re-make… well, the production design was superb, and the production design was superb.

The Hunger

Why do film-makers always insist on changing (usually by reversing) the endings? Streiber's book was perfectly adequate, though it was about the last good thing he did before he started believing his own fiction and being 'abducted'. Nice music by Schubert and others helped set the atmosphere of timelessness.

Ladyhawke

An nice romantic story wrapped around a supernatural curse, courtesy of the church.

Lord Of Illusions

More occult nastiness with some nice character development of the noir-ish investigator, and distinctions between 'real' and stage magic.

The Magic Toyshop

Another modern fairy-tale by Angela Carter.

The Matrix

Despite all the hype and over-use of 'style' for its own sake, the effects were so well integrated into the movie (and, gasp, the story) that it stands repeated viewing just for the sheer fun of it all.

Night Of The Demon (a.k.a. Curse Of The Demon, which was a cut (butchered) version.)

Utter tosh of course, but an effective little occult thriller that builds the malevolence to a suitably demonic climax.

Night Of The Eagle (a.k.a. Burn Witch Burn)

A nice spooky story about witchcraft, with a neat twist.

The Prophecy Trilogy

A weak middle and progressively lesser casting doesn't detract from a very interesting series of films with an overall consistent style that has an interesting outlook on theology, and lots of quotable dialogue.

The Prisoner TV Series

Still powerful after three decades with its dealing of the myths of freedom, democracy, & education, if a little dated in its style.

Quatermass TV Series

Pushing forward the boundaries of TV sci-fi at the time. The later Hammer films were sort of OK.

Robocop

Sheer mindless violence and good fun all round.

Sapphire And Steel TV Series

Weird and at times subtly disturbing, this intermittent series was probably one of the most unique ever made on British TV, with what at the time were good video effects, though let down by the atrocious mechanical ones.

Stargate

With my fondness for Egyptian architecture, how could this not be included? James Spader was good, too.

Starship Troopers

A neo-Nazi America portrayed with all the flashy one-dimensionality of a comic-strip, and it works wonderfully because it was made by a European; even so, it's still unsettling in parts, but the black humour is biting. It would have been even scarier (and I not talking of the superb CGI bugs) had it been made by someone who sympathised with Heinlein's fascism. A rollicking good time was had by all.

This Island Earth

Pure space-opera succeeding as tragedy despite acting that's as wooden as the sets.

Three Cases of Murder

Included here rather than the General section because of the splendidly horrific story, "The Picture", in which art-museum visitors are kidnapped into a painting.

Total Recall

More mindess violence from Paul Verhoeven wrapped up in a very good attempt at showing what living on Mars might be like.

The Uninvited

The attempts at levity grate, but doesn't detract from a nice supernatural who-done-it.

VR5 TV Series

Sacrificing content for style just about worked, but it never had a chance to develop.

The X Files TV Series "A conspiracy to hide the truth from the American public" which also affects "every man woman and child" on the planet, but who cares about them - they're not Americans.

Playing into the hands of every conspiracy-theorist (let's face it, there are viewers who consider it a documentary exposé) without losing its sense of humour, though the episodes that deliberately try to be funny are just embarrassing.
Addendum: Having just sat through the 'comedy' episodes which overwhelm the beginning of series 6, (Triangle, Dreamland pt 1 & 2, How The Ghosts Stole Christmas), it seems as if the bubble has finally burst, and whilst I know the core storyline is returned to later with Two Fathers and One Son and individual episodes of note include Tithonus, news of the 7'th series probably being the last is now a good thing if this is typical of the falling output. It might have been better had there only been five series, with the film not being a bridge to the sixth but rather ending the whole 'mythology', and a TV film once a year or so as a continuing adventure. The potential of Dreamland was totally wasted, and had it been done by anyone else the lead characters would have tried to perform as each other), but it was mostly played for laughs - witness the 'hilarious' scene with the bedroom mirror.
Arrgh! Series 7… what with both leads almost sleepwalking through their roles and previous episodes never mentioned again (CSM killing his son in the FBI's own basement wasn't even spoken of in passing, or the significance of the spaceship in 6'th extinction), this has now gone so far down the drain it's just pandering to every self-righteous ("Amen brother!") viewer in the bible-belt ("Halleluiah! Praise the lord"), what with resurrected corpses and, in a pathetic display of attacking people who question organised religion, having a tolerant pastor who encourages his people to think for themselves depicted as the devil. Contrast this to the first few series where they deliberately took the piss out of the small-town mentalities who bleated about non-existent Satanic cults (Syzygy) and back-woods hysteria in War Of The Coprophages.
Series 8… finally back on track with Gillian Anderson being given the opportunity to act physically as well as emotionally, and Mulder's thankfully limited return only demonstrates further how much of a self-centred smug he was. If anything, the entire X-Files series has been about Scully rather than Mulder's seach for his sister (and what an obvious / silly ending that was), as she changed from sceptic to victim to survivor to empowered believer.

Animation & Graphics

Æon Flux

A rather weird anime with plenty of S&M imagery whose central character makes Lara Croft look like a wuss. Locked in a perpetual battle against her lover / enemy, she and Trevor Goodchild represent near-extremes of freedom as chaos, and stability as order. Yet another show that's been censored to the point of idiocy, as what is probably the most bizarre episode (Chronophasia) has what seems to be mud or oil in some scenes and makes no sense until you realise it's meant to be blood.

Fantasia

Still the only Disney animated film I can watch without wanting to retch at how 'cute' it is. As far as I'm concerned, everything went downhill from here, and whilst Gerald Scarfe's contributions to Hercules would have normally made me want to see how badly they had treated his work, the thought of having to suffer the songs had me walking in the other direction.

Ghost In The Shell

Seamless blending of traditional and computer animation provide a back-drop for another personal search - this time questioning what it is to be alive (the 2501 program), and to be human (the cybernetically enhanced police). The film is short but never rushed, with a wonderfully atmospheric musical interlude. The subsequent Stand Alone Complex episodes continued the themes well.

Insektors

I don't know about the French original, but the English version has wonderfully droll dialogue with cliched regional accents, and the animation (and more importantly, the characterisation) is far better than more serious programmes.

John Lassiter

Until now. Bugs was so 'cute' it was awful; though the textures and lighting surpassed Antz and I can't stand Woody Allen, will someone show me a four-legged grey ant? Redeemed by Finding Nemo.

Malice @ Doll

I found this heart-breakingly beautiful and sad and wonderful all at the same time.

Winsor McCay

The master of early drawn animation, the technical perfection of his movements still impress today.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Although I've already mentioned Tim Burton, this deserves its own entry simply because of its sheer quality, appealing to children and adults alike, with catchy songs that wouldn't be caught dead in a Disney romp.

The Pink Panther (original silent series)

The Brothers Quay

Street Of Crocodiles is endlessly watchable (The Cell stole from it as from everything else), and Institute Benjamenta is like being inside someone else's dream.

Ladislaw Starewicz

The pioneer whose work has largely been reduced to back-drops for modern pop-groups whose music is also a copy of someone else's work. He animated everything from insects to skeletons, and in some scenes had dozens of models moving at once.

Jan Svankmeyer

The master modern animator: if it can be moved, he'll animate it. His Alice and Faust in particular were very good.

Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust

Didn't think much of the first one, but this combination of post-apocalyptic ruins and monumental art nouveau architecture mixed with Maxfield Parrish rewards multiple viewing.

Yellow Submarine

Even after all these years I still find it fresh and entertaining.

Good Fun & Bad

Air Force One (stands to attention, hand on heart, tear in eye, sob in throat, feeling of pride racing in chest)

What can I say? When not knowing which wire to cut to dump some fuel : "I'm counting on you red white and blue," and later when hanging off the back of the plane after a fuel tanker has exploded in rather spectacular fashion, someone says: "Let me save him - he's the president for god's sake!" I know it's extremely difficult for Americans to realise there is anyone living east of New York or west of Los Angeles, but do they really expect the rest of us to take this as anything other than a crude rabble-rousing call to arms, complete with music that alternates between a military-march and a national anthem? As for Gary 'try to decipher this week's accent' Oldman's performance, why didn't he go the whole way and give his character a Leon-style head-crick as well, just to complete the idiocy?

The Exorcist

Having finally managed to see this, all I can say is… what the hell was / is all the fuss about? Apart from the swearing (which at the time was very strong) it was so funny as to be even sillier than I'd anticipated, and whilst I know full well that there are people who still believe in this sort of thing (see Religious Reich Links), to everyone else it's just a stale joke which doesn't even manage to rise to the level of its own parodies.

Hook

"Hey my man, here's the Pan," or something equally vomit-inducing. This even manages to be worse than the Disney cartoon, what with Julia Roberts trying and failing yet again to be cute its only saving grace is that it finally comes to an end.

La Femme Nikita

An absolutely pathetic series that tries so hard to be stylish (cool, man) but just ends up stupidly funny, and at times just plain sick. All the men dress in black and whisper in flat monotones and all the 'baddies' speak in dodgy central European accents. As for the 'heroes' and 'heroines', all of them are government-sponsored murderers (sorry, 'assassins') working to protect all the poor innocent people from 'them'. In one episode, the chief torturer was herself kidnapped and tortured, and we were supposed to feel sorry for her? Nope.

Reservoir Dogs

Quentin 'I wanna be a nigga gangsta' Tarantino's idea of a group of supposedly grown-up men sitting at a table and swearing like a bunch of ten-year-olds who have just discovered expletives wears a bit thin after ten minutes, but then what do you expect from the most over-rated director since Hitchcock? City On Fire was far better, anyway.

The Sopranos

Ah, the poor mafia people have family troubles. All the murder and racketeering and prostitution and drugs and intimidation and bribery and threats and they still can't have a decent home-life. What is the world coming to when a hard-working criminal can't come home to some love and comfort from his wife and kids, coz he loves the little bambinos even though the children of other families are slaughtered along with their parents, but what do they matter? Ah, the poor, poor Sopranos. Boo-hoo.

War Of The Worlds (2005)

With loads of hilariously quotable dialogue, this has to be the dumbest mainstream film of the past decade, complete with a mandatory John Williams score that re-uses every music cue he's ever written. Samples of stupidity include :

Hero Father : "It's kind of fun, isn't it?" [Bright flashes of 'lightning'.]
Daughter : "No." [Unsettled.]
H F : "Come on, like the fourth of July." [Hero talk to bond family unit together.]
D : "No, it isn't." [Obviously scared.]
H F : "Oh say can — " [Oblivious of daughter's fear (and, later, her allergy to peanut butter!), his heart beats with pride, a lump sticks in his throat, a tear comes to his eye… then he panics.]

Local Idiot : "What is it, the subway?"
Hero Father : "There's no subway here." [Don't you even know the area where you live?]
L I : "F-train, maybe?" [So, you know, there's like, maybe a subway here, dude?]

Clueless Son : "What is it? Is it terrorists?" [Perfectly programmed response from a loyal citizen brainwashed by the DHS's 'war on terror'.]
Hero Father : "No, this came from someplace else."
C S : "What, do you mean, like, Europe?" [Yeah, payback's a bitch. Still, at least he knew we existed.]

Hero Father : "Look at the birds!"
Brainless Soldier : "I can't hear you!"
H F : "Look at the goddam birds!"
B S : [Turns to see crows pecking at the unsteady machine.]
H F : "No shield!"
B S : "I can't hear!" [And I'm too brainless to understand what I just saw.]
H F : "No shield!"
B S : [Oh, yeah, like, "no shields!"]

And who on earth decided that grainy film was 'realistic'? — If that's how you see the world then there's something seriously wrong with your eyesight, never mind if that's what you're aiming for, why not just shoot in in black-and-white super-8mm and add a slight tint every now and then? The motion-tracking and -matching was, however, incredibly well done, as was the echoing sound of the machines' calls to one another during the ferry sequence.

Performers & Personalities