William Thomas

Tragic and tender Fuller classic. Way ahead of its time.

A classic screwball comedy that draws its inspiration from the 1930's genre. The jokes are quick and amusing enough to carry it through it's hour-and-three-quarters. Russell and Hawn have fun with the characters which comes through and makes it all the funnier.

This animated treatment does it absolute justice too. The spooky bits are suitably scarey - the production dates back to a time before anybody worried about mentally scarring the little mites, thus the "Have a bite, dearie" scene means a lot of excited peeping through fingers - the slapstick humour content is high and it contains none of the period references that crept into later Disney cartoons, thus doesn't appear to have dated. But largely it succeeds because it really is a great deal of fun.

This is more a favourite of the children than adult Disney fans. It has a few memorable songs and has spawned a very popular stage production.

The gaudily gory, virtuoso, hyper-kinetic horror sequel/remake uses every trick in the cinematic book, and confirms that Bruce Campbell and Raimi are gods.

Tense, powerful and considerably less crass than "Crash," Elah may be jammed with ideas that don’t all connect, but Jones’ devastating performance makes this a compassionate and very human look at the Iraq conflict.

Stone takes gritty subject matter and hacks it into a perilous ride based on Boyle's life in Salvador. Showing the true, upsetting and harsh realities of which most of us try not to think of. Pure Oliver Stone.

Life-affirming and often laugh-out-loud funny, this is feel-good movie-making par excellence.

It's in the animal capers that Disney's skill really comes into play, as stunning wildlife photography combines with an Incredible Journey-type treat-animals-as-furry-people attitude to the narrative, transforming an average adventure film into a humorous, dangerous and immensely watchable movie.

Good, gory fun.

The quintessential '50s rom-com.

Tries just a tad too hard to be a classic, with Ladd's Roy Rogers woodenness not quite getting the depths of author Jack Schaefer's fallen hero, but the support - Jean Arthur as the yearning farmer's wife, Ben Johnson as the conscience-struck bully - are excellent, and some scenes lodge forever in your memory.

A suspense-filled nailbiter that plays on a fear no weapon weilding psycho can top.

Good performances from a strong cast and paranoid plotting enough to keep even the staunchest of remake nay-sayers quiet. Hitchockian production with a modern twist.

Sidney Lumet's dazzling debut, based on Reginald Rose's teleplay, delivers a masterclass in the pure dynamism of acting, as Henry Fonda's reasonable doubt gradually sways the 11 other jurors from their various prejudices.

Steinbeck himself praised it for reaching the parts his book couldn't. Need a better endorsement?

A beautifully presented tale of love, honor and duty from a master film-maker.

Beautiful to look at, but shot with a cruel and unerring eye, it gives no quarter to the German people for their complicity in events, and in turn disgusts, amazes and frightens.

The people do the talking in this rage-fuelled doc and only the stone hearted will fail to be moved by the resilience of the affected and the inaction of their government.

Leslie Dixon’s script is effective, though sometimes seems stranded between the domestic humour and the big issues being played out. Still, engaging, undemanding stuff.

This film is more known for being the one which introduced Goldie Hawn to Kurt Russell than anything else, which is somewhat unfair as at its heart lies a sweet romance, with good performances from both the leads and an Oscar nomination for supporting actress Lahti.

A small film, but fresh and immensely charming.

A spare and authentic screenplay unfolds in an almost documentary-like enviroment, there are no histrionics and the acting is of the highest order, but the film shocks and disturbs as much for its morally questionable purpose as in its ugly subject.

It's not as poetic as My Darling Clementine or as historically accurate as Sturges' sequel-remake, Hour Of The Gun, but it is a wonderful evocation of the brassy Westerns of the 50s, when Burt and Kirk demonstrated more machismo than a whole posse of Arnies or Slys.

One of those instances where everything good about Hollywood just fell into one place at the right time, it's almost impossible not to get swept up in the vivaciousness of The Sting as a whole. Magnificent, timeless stuff.

Simple, but effective.

Ogata's performance is the obvious highlight, and Imamura constructs an utterly plausible scenario, but at times overreaches, and loses focus. If you can tolerate a few extraneous scenes, though, this is a dark treat.

Sexual tension hangs in the air as the wind blows and native drums beat, but it's on a visual level that the film excels.