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The film’s cardinal sin is that it demands sympathy for two characters who are effectively responsible for the apocalypse. That said, kids make mistakes and I feel like in a post-Covid world it’s easier to overlook government regulations. 

The rest of the film? Mega fun. The opening sequence is a shaky cam masterpiece, the central slaughter scene is horrific and the helicopter scene is sick. The film also introduces a few Hollywood cliches: Jeremy Renner as a sniper (one of four roles) and Idris Elba as an apocalypse-cancelling general. 

So stoked for 28 Years.

Few things more emotionally devastating than the harmonies in this film. 

An absolute gem for British cinema. Tim Key continues to prove that comedians have phenomenal range. Tom Basden is a mega talent. Carey Mulligan is luminous. 

Witty beyond measure but so very honest. 

A great film to watch before climbing the wooden hill to Bedfordshire!

Cameo of the year goes to the Dutch angle in a Wes Anderson film. 

My dad found this ‘very very odd’ (he loved Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs?) and I found this mostly quite funny. Benicio Del Toro in a leading role is great to see, and I’m proud for how far Richard Ayoade has come. 

Loved the bird’s eye opening credits shot and the final scene. 

“Don’t buy good paintings, buy masterpieces.”

Unrelated, the cinema has an Open Air summer season. Even though it was chucking it down, 8 people were laying in blankets with raincoats watching 2001 outside. 
There were 7 people in the warmth of the cinema for The Phoenician Film - and one of whom was basically De Niro in Cape Fear laughing maniacally and sneezing repeatedly.

Despite its name, this film accomplishes an awful lot in its 80-minute runtime - including making me beam at the thrill of watching a Western that achieves the impossible: it feels fresh. 

Like most great Westerns, it begins with the slaying of three men. It’s just executed in a different way that announces it as a more intimate story. Great music keeps things flowing in its zany way, and Michael Fassbender is compelling as the gunslinger curiously getting the narrator role rather than the fresh-faced and friendzoned Kodi Smitt-Mhee. 

Lots of moments of genuine wit and surrealist humour, complete with two of the funniest scenes the genre has produced. Rare to see so much spark added to the oldest of film genres, but this is a true cult classic. 

When a film is a co-production between Film4, the BFI and the New Zealand Film Association, you know you are in good hands - and when you shoot on the South Island naturally the locations enter the sublime. 

I haven’t got a best Westerns of the 21st century list, but this absolutely makes the cut.

Has there been a worse crime committed on film than in this, where the villain guns down an entire barnyard of watermelons. Red explosions of water and seed and fruit everywhere. The pops. The sogginess. The spray. The waste! Appalling behaviour!

My main takeaways from this are:

- Witty Bronson is better than stoic Bronson 
- Elmore Leonard is catching up with Stephen King as the author responsible for the most banging films 
- 70s car chases are the best 
- Never mess with a man’s melons

An incredible bottom shelf charity shop find to make up for the news that my local HMV has closed. 

In Ulzana’s Raid, director Robert Aldrich dissects the way ideology impacts battle strategy in this violent tale of a search and destroy mission. The target: Apache legend Ulzana, who has fled a reservation. The brutality of his tactics forces the young US captain, barely six months out of West Point to the point that he doesn’t know any of his soldier’s names or skills, to confront his ‘turn the other cheek’ ideology into something darker. Burt Lancaster is the seasoned guide who teaches the US how to fight dirty - one standout shootout sees the soldiers focus more on killing their own horses than they do on the Apache. 

Aldrich demonstrates how US soldiers struggled to adapt in the home terrain of their enemy, even with the help of a native guide, but he also sets up a darker future where the young captain doesn’t make the same Christian decisions; the next time he’s on a search and destroy mission, the results will be bloodier - this time for the natives. Extreme prejudice indeed.

Discovery of the century - Charlie Bronson teaming up with Toshiro Mifune for a gunslinger/samurai Spaghetti Western directed by the herald of James Bond and also starring the one and only Ursula Andress…

Not sure heroes and villains needed to be united by the common enemy of Comanche - another bandit clan would have been more appropriate.

Part buddy cop, part undercover cop, part heist and all action - For a Few Dollars More is pure pleasure. 

Whereas the characters of John Wayne are figures of authority motivated by ideology and a self-righteousness that has limited his modern appeal, the cowboy characters of Clint Eastwood are motivated by either revenge or money. These are more relatable themes, which is why Clint has endured as an icon of masculinity compared to Wayne’s figure of rugged patriotism. 
In a For a Few Dollars More the two leads, Manco and Mortimer, are driven by money and retribution respectively, making for a compelling duo that only gets more charming every rewatch - I will never tire of their first scene in the street sizing each other up. 

I will also never tire of Clint’s cheekiness in this film. Whether expressing a genuine interest in the law (“you people need a new sheriff”) or winking at the prisoner after placing a TNT stick in the cell window, it’s the legend at his most youthful. 

Cinemas were built for the chimes finale: the way Clint strolls in, points the rifle, shakes his head at El Indio and then just scowls is sublime.  “Bravo.”

Saying all that, Lee Van Cleef steals the show and resurrected his career here.

Straight to DVD films have returned in a big way, except this time they make a billion dollars and are still shit.

The greatest action franchise comes to a close… with only two action scenes. 

Really should’ve stuck with the Part Two, shaved off all of the flashbacks, and trusted the audience to have seen all of the other Mission films or at least to understand why X Y and Z are important to this densely plotted story. The first 60 minutes really struggles to navigate the sprawling cast of government officials and IMF team , Gabriel still underwhelms and the lack of an action scene really hurts it. 

Yet even on a bad day the Mission franchise post-John Woo offers some of the grandest entertainment available. The Arctic and South Africa offer up some of the series’ most stunning vistas, and the build up to the underwater scene is electrifying; 10+ minutes of dialogue-free suspense with Cruise’s face displaying nothing but sheer fear through that crisp, well-lit helmet. That deep choral music and staggering set design, along with the inventive IMAX aspect ratio change, make it one of the most genuinely awe-inspiring set-pieces cinema can offer - and that includes Cruise fighting in his undies and kicking a guy whilst complaining about millennial internet usage. 

From this point on the film is in more capable hands: McQuarrie takes us up into the skies for some vertiginous spectacle, a brilliantly funny broken arm scene and lots of CGI (Cruise Goes Insane). Much like Dead Reckoning, McQ has found a way to provide old school, WWII-esque analogue action scenes within a modern day franchise. It’s breathtaking and ultimately moving. 

Excellent work from Pegg, Pom, Tramell Tillman, a returning Rolf Saxon and his onscreen wife Lucy Tulugarjuk - I could have done with a few more minutes of huskies and a poked Chekhov’s polar bear too. 

Thank you Mr Cruise not just for all the entertainment you have provided (he’s now the first person where I’ve seen 40 of their films) but also the amount of work you have brought to the UK - these films have felt increasingly British since Rogue Nation and using London as a base for most of the stories has always been welcome and great for our economy and film industry.

Been 7 years since I watched this and it’s better than ever. Famously known for John Ford’s reaction to John Wayne’s performance (“I never knew the son of a bitch could act!”), Red River is an essential American text, with Wayne’s classic movie star presence colliding with Montgomery Clift’s trailblazing Method acting, reinforcing the generational clash of the film’s story, a story that also skews the corrupting force of colonialism and the tyranny it creates. Also happens to be one of the best mutiny films, though that list isn’t too long. 

How this was filmed with all the cattle beats me; the buffalo chase in Dances With Wolves feels like the last big animal set-piece we’ve had. Lazy filmmakers since or more animal rights protection?

Currently reading Lonesome Dove and it’s made me appreciate the Texan geography and cattle drive difficulties tenfold.

“You ever hunt buffalo?”
“Apache.”
“I knew it. When?”
“Before I knew better.”

Many years ago my grandad reminisced about catching Valdez is Coming on the telly late one evening after a hard day’s work. He described it as a bloody thirsty tale of revenge, where a crucified Burt Lancaster returns to seek retribution against those that wronged him. In my head I was expecting a Western John Wick, filled with bloodlust and one liners. Needless to say I was pretty disappointed when I first watched it. 

Returning to it it’s more leisurely than what my grandad recalled and takes a while before (I’m regretting this sentence already) Valdez gets round to the coming, vengeful or otherwise, and once he does then it’s more Valdez is Going as he’s chased into the mountains. 

I’m fond of this film, and it’s more race conscious than I ed - whilst still having Burt Lancaster play a Mexican. 

Got a nice little Western season lined up for the next weeks!

Gotta love NY cops saying stuff like “Turn this thing around and burn rubber.”

Quite fittingly for a film about trains, there is a mechanical quality to the pacing, composition and editing of this, all lubricated by a great score and effortless dialogue - most scenes finish with a witty remark that keeps the narrative flowing all the way to the pitch perfect final scene. It’s the 70s Die Hard. 

Food for thought - Is there a better marriage of a place and an era than New York and the early 70s? Every film of this type just grabs you by the throat and plunges you into the sleaze.

Less than a week to go boys!

This is not as epic as Fallout or as ambitious as Dead Reckoning, and may just be be the least visually interesting of the franchise, but it could be my favourite of the bunch - it’s really tight, relentlessly entertaining with strong character work and actually feels more like a spy film than any other. Cruise’s handcuffed pole jump thing is such an overlooked stunt and the failed body slide over the car always cracks a smile. 

Ethan told Solomon Lane TWICE that he was going to put him in a box and the guy still fell for it.

Pretty good argument for AI taking over. 

Quite funny how the 4 1/2 star rating is the least common.

Had never heard of this before I stumbled upon it this evening and just clicked on it immediately. What a picture - a dude’s rock prison escape / film noir with witty dialogue and a tonne of character work. 

Redford’s The Last Castle owes a lot.

Pretty good genre fun about taking back control and the many uses of a bottle opener.

Now where have I seen this before…

Perhaps the ultimate Movie. 

Happy 50th buddy.

Absolutely giddy seeing this surrounded by an audience of 100% males aged 20-30. Euphoric. 

Revenge of the Sith fully puts the opera in space opera, operating at a level of storytelling that can only be described as mythic. This is the film George Lucas has been wanting to make all his life, with the final hour chock-full of masterful visual storytelling - it’s so powerful it makes up for the dialogue’s shortcomings. 

As soon as the opening titles exploded into the cosmos, the audience collective were Ratatouille’d back to their childhood and my jaw ached from grinning. “What about the droid attack on the Wookies” was our chicken jockey. 

It’s perhaps the most flawed five star experience going - once they land back on Coruscant it is boringggg until Obi-wan heads off to Utapau. Lucas works overtime in this section to make things exciting: do we need thirty seconds of General Grievous’ shuttle flying to a planet and him marching out? No. Does John Williams cook? Absolutely. Is the Kashyyyk battle scene narratively necessary? No. Is it filled with exciting vehicle designs that make for great Lego sets? You bet. 

This was perfect on the big screen. Every shot is so dense, with so much background detail, that I picked up about 20 new details that made the world building even bigger and brighter. This is oozing ion and creativity, taking itself so seriously that you never doubt it for a second even as the political parallels have become unnervingly apparent. (“The attempt on my life has left me scarred.”) There isn’t even time for nostalgia - I was amazed that this film features Chewbacca but there is no grand entrance or musical cue to remind audiences to clap. He just rocks up and stands in the background with zero explanation. We used to make proper films!

Also warms my soul that, a week after Netflix boss Ted Sarandos said the theatrical experience is outdated and that people want to watch movies at home, seeing fans gather en masse for a re-release of a 20 year old film to near-record breaking effect was triumphant.

Star Wars’ magic never went away.

If Sinners keeps you seated in the credits for its music, Warfare keeps you seated for its lack of. 

90 odd minutes of superlative sound design and technical realism pushes you to the limits of how immersive filmmaking can be. It’s instantly iconic opening scene gives way to insurmountable dread; a calming before a storm that strikes in small claps of thunder before its brazen finale. 

A combination of Jarhead, Black Hawk Down and Dunkirk - the taut waiting game that pushes the boundary for screen patience, daring the audience to demand combat and then making you instantly regret it; the character-less cast who are mere vessels for emotions; the faceless enemy who could really be anyone at anytime. Alex Garland straight up gets anti-war cinema. 2025 could be an all-timer. 

P.S To the group of teenage girls who came to the film having been marketed a ‘hot guys war film’ starring some of the internet’s boyfriends - a strange campaign tbh - I thank you for your money ing and for sitting so patiently as you were deprived your hot guys.

Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil. 

90 years later the devil has kindly returned it in the form of Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Görranson.

Immeasurably cool and confident, with musical moments of transcendence and smart scares amounting to that rare thing: a true original.

In true Nolan fashion I’ve ended up watching these out of order. Some thoughts!

- Music cue for Thomas Wayne’s death is the same as when Batman flies the bomb out of Gotham. His dad says ‘don’t be afraid’ and in a scene just before Liam Neeson remarks that Bruce Wayne is too famous to go missing, kinda reinforcing that Alfred’s moment in Florence is a fantasy after all. 

- Favourite Liam Neeson performance and Alfred is Michael Caine’s greatest role. Lights out great. 

- I’m at the stage where the scenes that thrill me the most are any Bruce and Alfred or Bruce and Lucius scene. Or, for one scene in this film, Bruce, Alfred and Lucius together. 

- This might be linked to the slightly lacklustre action scenes. How different would they look if Nolan reshot them now? The heftiness of the IMAX cameras has made his action since more crisp and less cut up; in some cases the choppiness works here like Batman’s first intro, but elsewhere it’s messy. Does the crashing train need that much coverage?

- Love all the Bond references 

- In just one short scene you really sense Jim Gordon’s hopelessness. His body language and exasperation sells a man whose has long lost the warmth he once gave young Bruce. Nice of Batman to return some hope to Old Jim and his flicker of a smile at the end is great. 

- From Bruce and Alfred’s chat on the plane to the “I’m Batman” is the most exhilarating part of the film. Love his return to Gotham and evolution into Batman. 

- Script full of bangers: “Don’t burden yourself with these secrets of scary people” and the endlessly fascinating “Hey… Stykes.”

- Nolan goes full Blade Runner with the rain-soaked aesthetic of the Narrows and added Rutger Hauer. 

- A lot of notable CGI here. Nolan’s first and only fully CGI character is in this film - the Orc creature that Dr Crane thinks is Batman. 

- “It’s a black … tank.”

- Same music used for saving Bruce from the house fire as is used for Bruce trying to save Rachel in The Dark Knight. Same scenario, different outcomes. 

- That one note for the Ra’s Al Ghul theme is masterful.

A part of me has always preferred the sweep of The Dark Knight Rises; this is more stately, more relaxed in its storytelling - the Sunday afternoon film to The Dark Knight’s Friday frantics. It’s first half relies on an emotional power not present in the previous two films, showing how lonely men struggle with the legacy of their yesteryears. It’s introspective and methodical, beautifully borrowing from Dickens (catch Bane knitting!) whilst still being loaded with stunning stunts, financial thrills and a rousing score. I saw this in the cinema aged 12 and it blew my head off. 

Haters gonna hate but the ending always brings a tear and Anne Hathaway barrel rolling the Batpod is the sickest thing Nolan’s shot.

“Do I look like a guy with a plan?”
Also the Joker:

- Places a Joker card in the Judge’s papers hours before blowing up. 
- Goes into a meeting rigged with explosives 
- Organises a bank robbery complete with a bus crashing through a wall and then six other buses covering their exit to the second 
- Rigs an entire hospital to blow *before* it’s been evacuated, then somehow just rings into a news show at the exact time that a) he can stop Coleman Reese itting Batman’s identity, and b) Gordon and his crew have to stop the strike mission and go evacuate the hospitals, giving him enough time to speak to Harvey
- Sews an explosive phone into a prisoner hours before his own arrest, and memorises the number he needs to call (plan also relies on Batman smashing the mirror so he can use a shard as a knife)
- Manages to get six or seven military guards, chain them up and replace them with mentally unstable goons who have also perfectly rehearsed the funeral shooting arrangements and avoided being recognised / un-recognised

Whatever! in the moment this film is so full-on and propulsive, with A+ performances and set piece after set piece that never flags. Just watching individual shots from the Hong Kong action scene and it’s impossible to gage this is a superhero film. And the best one at that.

Matt Damon has the opportunity to do the funniest thing: to continue where Sean Bean left off and give his Odysseus a thick Yorkshire accent. 

An abomination of an adaptation (David Benioff) with awful editing that is held together by the sheer Hollywood of it all; four or five truly great, rewatchable scenes and comfortable performances from Cox, O’Toole and Bana, even whilst Pitt’s pouting and Bloom’s pining undermine all the other intimate scenes. 

YOU SACK OF WINE.

Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that not all 90s thrillers were bangers. 

Clearly tapping into the success of Mission Impossible the year before, The Saint tries to give the other Top Gun hero his own TV-adapted franchise. For the most part, it’s pretty shit, but Val Kilmer gets a tonne of fun disguises and accents to masquerade with and Elizabeth Shue is good fun as the clever scientist who keeps Val’s wet clothes on for far too long. 

And hey it’s that actor with the Chelsea grin!

My dad worships at the altar of The Doors. In 1991, he was going nuts waiting for this film to come out. This was his Endgame. 

He goes to the cinema, the Dreamland in Margate. He goes alone. Amongst the stained seats and popcorn encrusted walkways he shared his cinema trip on the opening weekend with just six other strangers. The film was “one of the great disappointments. One person was so bored that he got up and set the fire alarm off so we all missed the last 30 minutes. It was a mercy.” 

Watching The Doors now I can’t help but feel that if every ticket sold came with an acid tab, this would have been a smash. 

This marks Oliver Stone’s transition from imioned filmmaker taking on the establishment to an absolute loon and provocateur. Its screenplay is massively disted, embracing a loose narrative that doesn’t seem to be focused on… anything? If you don’t know The Doors and don’t know Jim, this film is not a Wikipedia substitute. You won’t get a reason for the band’s transgressive attitude, you won’t get an understanding of what it means to make unconventional music, you won’t quite get the full story of Jim’s obsession with death. 

What you do get is a feeling that you are hallucinating; Val Kilmer is *phenomenal* in a performance of mimicry that hews close to the uncanny valley. This is an hour of the wolf type film, do be enjoyed with pals in a dreamlike state. It’s a rich piece of cinema with great camera work (Jim’s death uses a swinging hair brush as a pendulum) and innovative ideas caught between the strange wigs, miscast Meg Ryan and overblown runtime. 

Basically, it’s a mess but I couldn’t look away until The End.

In his first film Val Kilmer brims with Elvis energy. What a voice! Great singing and dancing to match the rest of the film’s consistently brilliant gags. Underwater fight and Peter Cushing’s bookshop did it for me. 

No genre or character was unattainable for Kilmer and his cv is filled with an equally wide breadth of star roles and ing actor turns - the hall mark of a Great. Many are among my favourites so here’s my fave Val line readings in honour of an absolute trooper:

‘You, you are still dangerous. But you can be my wingman any time.’ - Top Gun

‘I’m your huckleberry’ / ‘Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave.’ - Tombstone, his best performance for me

‘Why in pluperfect hell would you pee on a corpse?’ - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

‘Naw man you were cooler than cool’ - True Romance

‘The Navy needs Maverick.’ - Top Gun: Maverick; the scene that turned a hit film into a phenomenon

*seamlessly reloading a full mag* - Heat. There is only one Chris Shiherlis.

The funniest thing in this film is how they talk about daylight savings and then make me lose an hour (and 40 minutes) too. 

Reeks of a first script, getting a couple million bucks together and making a movie about weed and guns with your mates. Shame we aren’t having as much fun as they probably had making it. Quite possibly the longest film I’ve ever seen.

That many fruit loops with that much milk… old muggins will be eating the soggiest cereal before he’s even halfway through that portion. 

Love Mila and Paul, hate Russell.

The narrative device of having a cranky old man eloquently describe his life problems in letters to a 6 year old Tanzanian boy he’s recently adopted is never not funny, and then paid off beautifully. 

Dear Ndugu…

What would you give for a second chance at life?

Such is the premise of the cleverly titled Seconds, a forerunner to The Substance in which ‘The Company’ offer a meek, flailing man the chance for a new life - note his pathway through a tailor shop and a meat locker first. A faked death and an intense plastic surgery operation will allow him to pursue the life he always wanted. It doesn’t take long for the illusion to shatter and the film to ramp up that same existential anguish of a fabricated lie that makes it a nice companion piece to The Truman Show. 

Seconds takes its concept of identity, duality, image and regret and explores them to a satisfying level, anchored by perfect casting - especially the owner of The Company with his rapid blinking and Cheshire grin - and Jerry Goldsmith’s aching score. 

Where the film truly shines is visually. Like The Third Man or Double Indemnity, this is an ‘old’ movie that remains cool. Its varying choice of lenses and angles add distortion throughout. Right from the titles into the opening scene we get something striking and bold, and it’s hard to look away after. A Frankenheimer x French New Wave synthesis. 

I shall be coming back for seconds.

Dustin Hoffman won the Oscar but the real winner is Tom Cruise, who carries the whole story on his arsehole shoulders. It’s in the shortlist as his best performance, a rare moment where the younger actor is dominating the more experienced elder statesman. 

As soon as Charlie works out Raymond can count cards, the smiles keep on coming until the tears. 1988 must have been a great time to be alive when a road trip dramedy that really shouldn’t work can become the biggest film of the year. 

K-Mart does suck, and Qantas does rule.

Went in expecting Roy Scheider to be picking decks of cards off the floor. 

A seedy, exploitative thriller in which three villainous but also pathetic crooks try to blackmail a man, whose wife is in the running for political office. The Elmore Leonard-ness shines through in how much emphasis is placed on balancing the books and discussing money. 

Love a weary Scheider performance and every scene is directed with care, but this should have upped the violence.

One of the main bi-products of the 3D boom were the films that were engineered as technical tour de forces and subsequently became must-see events. After the cinema release and despite great audience and critical reception, they faded from the cultural consciousness, rarely to be talked about or revisited since. This is Avatar, this is Gravity, this is Life of Pi. 

With the latter, Ang Lee took a dense religious allegory and Trojan Horsed it as a 3D adventure film. It worked: as a 12 year old I was blown away by the visuals. As a 25 year old, I was blown away by the humanity of it all. 

The ending scene just sent my brain whirring, reconsidering the role of the animals in every religious story. 

Cgi still goes so hard.

Superb. 

Sweaty Sinatra and deep focus shots, all helmed impeccably by John Frankenheimer.

Interesting life, Frankenheimer.  He made this film, a political thriller that culminates in a public assassination by a brainwashed Communist agent, a year before JFK drove down Dealey Plaza and entered the crosshairs of former Soviet Union resident Lee Harvey Oswald. 
In 1968, having filmed campaign commercials for him, Frankenheimer was the man who drove RFK, a close friend, to the Ambassador Hotel. Frankenheimer was reportedly wounded in the assassination.The trauma of the event shook him to the core, and it’s evident he lost his creative spark. An essential figure of the 1960s, and a bridge between the shimmer of the Golden Age and the despondency of the New Wave.

Apart from one scene where Hackman takes the boys to a strip club, this is a strait-laced 60s film that creaks along on the strength of its performances and careful framing.
But, as legendary as Frankenheimer, Lancaster and Hackman are, I couldn’t help but wish for this film to have been made in 1989 - Tony Scott directing Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise and Michael J Fox as the skydivers would have been awesome, giving the visuals a more timeless aesthetic, the score a jolt of energy, and the characters a little more depth.

Has one of the most appetising meals and then one of the absolute no no meals. 

I will lay out the deck for you:
Stylish director. Good looking cast. Mid-budget. Adult-skewing. Spy thriller. Competence porn. Red wine. Pierce Brosnan in a suit. Michael Fassbender fishing in a flat cap. Fassbender ramping up tension with a sprinkling of German. Fassbender saying ‘sphincter.’ Lie detectors. 

Of course I loved it. Been a while since I’ve just enjoyed the guessing game in a crisp thriller. Proud of Tom Burke’s career - he’s come a long way from Athos in BBC’s The Three Musketeers!

My blu-ray of Hostiles has the critic’s quote “a landmark cinematic experience… not soon to be forgotten” on it. Unfortunately, only half of that is true. 

For my money, Hostiles is one of the finest Westerns out there; a thematic companion piece to The Searchers that operates as a damning indictment of both the US Cavalry and how much of history would have been different if men had just gone to therapy. 

Bale’s performance as Capt Blocker is one of his best, a man so shellshocked by war that hate has become his coping mechanism. Only the tortured souls of troubled men inhabit these vast empty vistas, and Scott Cooper’s signature slow-burn approach (the Springsteen / Nebraska album film is in good hands) makes every dramatic jolt land with greater welly, as Blocker’s past gets chipped away until all that’s left is his hate, which he then finally banishes, turning to face the camera in a moment of uncertain triumph. Like The Last Samurai, this isn’t a film about race but of trauma, and overcoming it by facing it. 

The final shot is an all-timer, as a man with nothing left takes the train to the city. On board, a young Native American, the next generation, is already being assimilated, setting the stage for the next dark chapter in American history.

If every musical biopic can have a brutal chimpanzee battle musical number with a dolly zoom then I will watch them. 

As a story this is just like every other of its kind. Sad childhood. Parental issues. Breakthrough. Struggling with fame. Redemptive performance. But Better Man is filled with two things that set it apart: CGI and vision. Michael Gracey’s helms the musical numbers with real gusto whilst the ‘Robbie as a monkey’ (chimpanzee) is funny for all of one first scene before you buy into it and soon completely forgot he’s an ape. It’s a great concept, the effects are brilliant, and the way they visualise his inner emotions and experiences is awesome, using the bloated budget to convey despair, success and cold Turkey in ways that Rami Malek could never have dreamed of. 

Robbie’s honesty is welcome. Never been a fan of his but loved how the film acknowledges this and never puts the blame on anyone other than himself.

To be fair, if I robbed a house I would also be distracted by what food is in the fridge. 

Calling a Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney film slick feels like a cliche, but this is really really really slick. Great cast but kinda wanted more Clooney and Lopez on screen together? Loved the literal match cut and Steve Zahn going full Floyd.

Looking forwards to Black Bag!

Conclave, I elect thee a rewatchable. The umbrella shot is just beautiful.

Possibly the saddest film title going? 

In Gene Hackman’s first Oscar nominated role as a lead actor, he plays a widower called Gene who shrivels in the shadow of his overbearing father, a man whose affinity for watching Westerns and falling asleep on the sofa is barely a leap of faith for my family . 

The role of Gene is a tough tightrope for an actor to walk: the character has to be confident with natural presence to match his profession, his romantic life and his relationship with his mother, but he must also be meek and emasculated around his father, unable to say what he is quietly raging about all the time, but not too much for his traditional father to belittle him for it. Hackman nails it. 

“I don’t know what we’d do without you Gene.”

When making the film, Jordan Peele replaced the basement seat with a softer sofa because he wanted Chris to specifically pick cotton out of the arm rest in order to save himself - honestly the most ionate and thought-out debut film I’ve ever seen. 

Anything the dad says is gold but the crown jewel:
“Picked these up in Bali… I’m a traveller… such a privilege to experience another’s country’s culture.”

The Firm is massively overlong for what it is, and narratively flawed, but it’s also one of those films that you soak in and don’t want to end; from the jazzy piano score to the sense of location and the thrilling paperwork, this is a bastion on the rewatchability front. Cruise, Hackman, Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holdbrook and anyone else with an H are all great but I really loved David Strathairn this time.

A very promising first 20 minutes soon fizzles out, then regains some manic energy before a ridiculously gratuitous death scene that closes the film nearly at the 90 minute mark. Then there’s another half hour of ridiculous courtroom antics that just straight sucked. Good director, strange cast.

The film swoons with a similar autumnal, nostalgic melancholy to Dead Poet’s Society, then explodes with the feel-good rush we expect from 80s underdog sports films. Hackman and Hopper bring the goods, with the latter getting the Dean Martin / Rio Bravo role. I really really wanted a scene of Hackman teaching history though!

Felt far too long - that first act needs trimming. 

Nolte and Hackman (singing!) are great, but Ed Harris just popping up for four intermittent scenes was whacky. Pretty good score and sense of location.

Kinda like watching an X-Men musical?

After I let go of my hate, Ariana Grande made me laugh in this film, charisma factory Jonathon Bailey made me grin and Cynthia wowed - the set of lungs she has! 

Low-key moved by this, but everything was way too backlit.

• 12 Years a Slave
• 1917
• Air
• Allied
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2
• Argo
• Babylon
• Back to the Future
• Barbie

...plus 139 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Jurassic Park
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Jurassic Park III
• Jurassic World
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Jurassic World Dominion
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
• Dazed and Confused
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Avengers: Endgame

...plus 254 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Our greatest actor, one who never felt the need to change his appearance. Great at snarling and belittling people.

1. Unforgiven
2. Crimson Tide
3. The Conversation
4. The French Connection
5. Night Moves
6. Bonnie and Clyde
7. Mississippi Burning
8. Scarecrow
9. Enemy of the State
10. The Royal Tenenbaums

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Nice Guys
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army
• Solo: A Star Wars Story
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
• John Carter
• Sahara
• Dredd
• The Color of Money
• Devil in a Blue Dress
• Django Unchained

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Crimson Tide
2. Malcolm X
3. Training Day
4. Flight
5. Devil in a Blue Dress
6. Man on Fire
7. American Gangster
8. The Equalizer
9. Glory
10. the Titans

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

If the Academy Awards had a Best Stunt-team Category, these are my winners for each year… The main takeaway is that if you’re Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves or James Bond, chances are you are winning it.

• The Fall Guy
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• Top Gun: Maverick
• No Time to Die
• Tenet
• John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout
• Baby Driver
• Train to Busan
• Mad Max: Fury Road

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Alien
2. Crimson Tide
3. Gladiator
4. Blade Runner
5. Kingdom of Heaven
6. True Romance
7. The Martian
8. Enemy of the State
9. Top Gun
10. The Last Duel

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Pairs of films that work well together

• Dunkirk
• Darkest Hour
• Braveheart
• Outlaw King
• The Conversation
• Enemy of the State
• Marriage Story
• Kramer vs. Kramer
• Lucy
• Limitless

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Seven Samurai
2. Ikiru
3. Ran
4. High and Low
5. Rashomon
6. Yojimbo
7. Throne of Blood
8. Sanjuro
9. Kagemusha
10. Red Beard

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The greatest city car chases

• Bullitt
• The French Connection
• The Seven-Ups
• To Live and Die in L.A.
• Ronin
• Jack Reacher
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout
• The Batman
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

When everything comes together beautifully but exceeds your expectations. The key ingredient: build up.

• Top Gun: Maverick
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• Avatar: The Way of Water
• Seven Samurai
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The Last Samurai
• Home Alone
• The Bridge on the River Kwai

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I proudly present HANDO CLASSICS. These are the films I would want to sit down and watch with someone who has never seen them before. Give them a go. Might I recommend watching with two IPAs per film, ideally packing Mosaic hops for a citrus kick. Enjoy.

• 3:10 to Yuma
• Angels with Dirty Faces
• Apocalypto
• Apollo 13
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Bad Day at Black Rock
• Basic Instinct
• The Big Country
• Blazing Saddles
• Body Heat

...plus 96 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Unforgiven
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
3. The Outlaw Josey Wales
4. For a Few Dollars More
5. Dirty Harry
6. Pale Rider
7. High Plains Drifter
8. A Fistful of Dollars
9. Sudden Impact
10. The Gauntlet

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Get the boys round, and roulette this list.

• Crimson Tide
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Rock
• The Negotiator
• Speed
• In the Line of Fire
• Die Hard
• John Wick: Chapter 2
• Nobody
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day

...plus 27 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Coked out of his head, Jerry Bruckheimer produced some of the all time best Friday night movies. Here’s a challenge Jerry: make a film set in winter.

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
2. Top Gun: Maverick
3. Crimson Tide
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
6. The Lone Ranger
7. Enemy of the State
8. Thief
9. the Titans
10. Black Hawk Down

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Top Gun: Maverick
• Nacho Libre
• Legend of the Red Dragon
• The Godfather
• Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
• Casino Royale
• Johnny English Reborn
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Pledge
• The Great Silence
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller
• The Revenant
• Wind River
• The Grey
• Fargo
• The Thing
• Jeremiah Johnson
• The Shining

My old favourite series

1. Goldfinger
2. Casino Royale
3. From Russia with Love
4. Skyfall
5. Dr. No
6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
7. The Spy Who Loved Me
8. GoldenEye
9. The Living Daylights
10. Live and Let Die

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
• Transformers
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

...plus 38 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.