The Abyss should have served as an ominous warning. As enjoyable as that film is, when it came to the relationship between Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio it contained some of the most risible dialogue committed to film. Thankfully, though, it was only a small part of the story. However, with Titanic, the romance is front and centre. It’s what everything hangs...

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For the most part, I found Flags of Our Fathers to be an enjoyable if unspectacular war flick. Even though it was well filmed it seemed rather static and cold. But curiously, at the end, I found myself being moved by it. I think it was the story of Ira Hayes that got to me. Without being showy or manipulative it painted a...

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Like a lot of people I remembered Basic Instinct as being nothing more than a thinly veiled grumble flick – lots of skin, lots of blood, and little else. But watching it back I was pleasantly surprised. Yes it's still trashy and sure it's as silly as ever, but it's also quite a lot of fun. Sometimes all you really need is sex...

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Sunshine is one of those films I was predisposed towards liking before I'd even seen it. I liked the idea of a film dealing with three generations of a family (one that goes through war and revolution) and I liked the idea of Ralph Fiennes playing multiple roles. Consequently, I was pleased that the film lived up to my expectations.Ralph Fiennes is unquestionably...

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World Trade Center is a film that hopes to gain importance simply by virtue of its subject matter. It thinks that because it’s about 9/11 people will immediately respond to it. And while it’s impossible not to be affected by certain aspects of the film, it really doesn’t deserve some of the emotion it generates. It’s a pretty cheap film – cheap in...

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The reason why Million Dollar Baby works so well is because it's not really a boxing film. It's really a film about paternal love. Therefore the two main characters could be anything and the film would still probably work. However, that's not to say that the boxing doesn't help the film, because it does. It helps give the film grit, it works as...

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There's the kernel of a good idea lurking somewhere within Garden State's obnoxious body. There's potential in the story of a young man going back to his hometown to try and redress his strained relationship with his father in the wake of his mother's death. But sadly, instead of using subtlety to deal with the issues at hand, we're bludgeoned with 'whacky' humour,...

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There's no doubt that Timothy Treadwell was insane. Just look at the facts; here was a guy who lived (unarmed) with bears, who referred to himself in the third person (always a sure sign of insanity) and who had a loon for a best friend. But entirely because of that, his story is a fascinating one.At first, what's so amazing about Treadwell is...

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How can anyone not dig The Dude? In a world where energetic go-getters are idolised and looked up to, it's nice to know that there are fat, indolent, scruffy, pot smoking, beer drinking bums out there taking it easy. Or they would be if people would leave their rugs alone...The Big Lebowski is a film where the plot is entirely inconsequential; it doesn't...

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The 2006 Best Picture Oscar was contested, primarily, by two 'issue' pictures – one dealing with race, the other dealing with homosexuality. But while one used a heavy-handed approach to deal with its subject, the other told its story with skill and restraint. The heavy-handed film won.Brokeback Mountain is always going to be derisively referred to as 'that gay cowboy movie' by the...

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As a nine-year-old kid, during sport's day no less, I passed on the opportunity to go and see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. My rationale at that time, having seen Raiders of the Lost Ark and been terrified by a scene where snakes crawled out of the mouths of skeletons, was that it was bound to include something that would have me...

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Moonraker aims for the stars and ends up somewhere around your anus. It's a dire Bond film; a Bond film lacking in plot, excitement and interesting characters. Everything feels tired and half-baked – it's the Bond franchise running on empty. Rather predictably for a Moore Bond film, our first glimpse of our hero sees him copping off with some floozy. All is well...

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It's somewhat amusing that some people label Last Tango in Paris as pornography. It kind of misses the point of the film and it also shows a lack of understanding as regards the English language. After all, the only aim of pornography is to stimulate sexual excitement. So if you class Last Tango in Paris as pornography you're kind of admitting that you're...

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What I love most about Dr Strangelove is the fact that General Ripper destroys the world because he can't get an erection. It's just the most absurd reason to start nuclear war. Yet it also weirdly has a ring of truth. There you are, you're a General in the American Air Force, responsible for thousands of men and the safety of the country,...

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The final frame of Munich – the image of the Twin Towers – rather than being pat or overly simplistic, as some people would suggest, is a wonderfully economic way of summarising the film's message – for every action there's a reaction; none of us are as innocent as we'd like to think and all of us are responsible for the unholy mess...

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The reason why Hannibal Lecter was so fascinating in The Silence of the Lambs was because we knew so little about him. Details were sketchy. In light of this it was up to the audience to draw their own conclusions. In Hannibal Rising everything is given to us; the reasons why Hannibal became a murderer, a psycho and a cannibal. As a consequence,...

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