Ian Nathan

Shadowy political trickery is one thing, fabricating an entire NASA mission is near impossible to credit. Get over that and it’s a whole lot of fun watching Hal Halbrook’s — who played supergrass Deep Throat in All The President’s Men — wicked scheming unravel thanks to the gutsy work of Elliot Gould’s tatty hack.

All gothicky, christmassy, romantic and Burtonesque. Worth a look.

A fascinating film that is by turns fascinating and mysterious.

A pretty craven attempt by Disney to cash-in on Star Wars blockbusting success, this lightweight but well-written sci-fi adventure movie is well pitched at the very young. More discerning fans of the genre would do well to smother their indignation at the levels of general plagiarism floating around the deck of the supership Cygnus.

One of the dreariest outer space swashbucklers of all time.

Connery has a ball with great stunts, snappy dialogue and a bevy of typically Bondish beauties.

Slow and foreboding with a memorably creepy Christopher Walken. If you're looking for fun, this ain't it.

Peckinpah is never quite as comfortable with the high-rise terrain (including sloppy kung fu) as he is with the dusty rawhide of the West, but it still shows up the slick trigger-edits of new action cinema for the gutless vacuum it has become.

A thumpingly good ode to friendship, hope, wit, wiles and wisdom, brimming with crackling characters and topped with the most twisteroo of twists since "The Crying Game."

The world Jordan envisions is desperate, but Hoskins’s human heart offers a lovely thread of hope.

The first of the silly VW Beetle with a cute personality comedies, is as childish dated and occasionally sweet as the others.

So so adaptation of the Kipling story. The human performances are riotous but their animal counterparts are blank canvases yet to be coloured.

Like Lansbury, the film has aged well and retains almost all of it's magic.

Intelligent and moving depiction of the futility of war with a superb script and mesmerising performances from all.

The film seems to be pitched at shrieking level, as if that’s the only timbre children can register.

Very hit and miss and not a patch on the first spoof but when a joke strikes home it'll have you going for a while.

Ustinov may not be the Poirot that we all think of now, after the David Suchet series, but this is pure Agatha Christie, steeped in nostalgia and atmosphere.

Okay, so it does cloy in places, but there is truth in its fractures and its seals, a soft-shimmering landscape of real people.

Okay, a couple of sniggers sneak out, but on the whole the effect is stone cold.

Although, beyond the calling of its plot, this set of likable characters do come intelligently alive and there is real directorial skill in the growing tension of the finale — this is not just a mater of blindly going through the motions. Violently out of fashion, perhaps, but inspirational in its own tidy way.

Rarely has a film bared itself to simple majesty...it feels epic yet runs barely over and hour and a half. [22 Oct. 1997]

Excessive and self-indulgent it's true but still the Pythons at their worst are still worth a look.

The Net entertains but is unlikely to hang around on the cerebral hard disk for too long.

This has grit coming out of its ears but not the greatest Eastwood feature by a long shot.

For a kids film this is pleasingly dark with Gilliam delivering as much classical fairy tale as knockabout comedy.

Possibly Lean's most complicated movie, Kwai is a towering work.

Ridiculous premise and hilarious acting which is mostly famous for the Lolita-type Brooke Shields cavorting in tropical settings.

Terribly dated, but worth watching for Caine's performance.