GoodFellas (1990)
Films On TV This Week uses its mob connections to find out what's coming up on the televisual side of life... Scorsese's best film? Difficult to call, though if it doesn't beat Raging Bull , it runs it a close second. What's indisputable is that Marty hasn't made a film to touch it since.
GoodFellas (1990)
Films On TV This Week uses its mob connections to find out what's coming up on the televisual side of life... Scorsese's best film? Difficult to call, though if it doesn't beat Raging Bull , it runs it a close second. What's indisputable is that Marty hasn't made a film to touch it since.
The Truman Show (1998)
Proving that a blockbuster doesn't have to be big, brash, vacuous and wedged with a ton of eye-stinging special effects, The Truman Show is practically an anti-Event Movie. Instead of taking a low-brow/high-thrill approach to its ingenious idea, Peter Weir has given us a thoughtful, intelligent, wholly character-driven masterpiece. Nor is it just a great movie in its own right; it's a great mainstream movie.
The Truman Show (1998)
Proving that a blockbuster doesn't have to be big, brash, vacuous and wedged with a ton of eye-stinging special effects, The Truman Show is practically an anti-Event Movie. Instead of taking a low-brow/high-thrill approach to its ingenious idea, Peter Weir has given us a thoughtful, intelligent, wholly character-driven masterpiece. Nor is it just a great movie in its own right; it's a great mainstream movie.
Blue Streak (1999)
Look, this film is rubbish. Pick any of the established criteria of film-making and Blue Streak will fall short of it. Plot? Logically impaired, coincidence-dependent and guilty of nicking great chunks of action straight from Beverly Hills Cop . Acting? Performances which wouldn't pass the audition for a junior school nativity play. Script? Strings of gags shoehorned into dialogue. Direction? Don't get us started...
Blue Streak (1999)
Look, this film is rubbish. Pick any of the established criteria of film-making and Blue Streak will fall short of it. Plot? Logically impaired, coincidence-dependent and guilty of nicking great chunks of action straight from Beverly Hills Cop . Acting? Performances which wouldn't pass the audition for a junior school nativity play. Script? Strings of gags shoehorned into dialogue. Direction? Don't get us started...
Scarface (1983)
De Palma's ambling tale of a Cuban gangster's Americanised rise and fall is as overrated as it is overlong (nearly three hours). Although Pacino plays the odious Tony Montana with a dead-on mix of predatory steel and flawed flashiness, it's an early `80s curio that's long since been overtaken by countless other life-of-crime movies ( GoodFellas, King Of New York , even New Jack City). Two or three great scenes (the chainsaw, the nightclub shootout, the `little friend') packed under too much cheesy flab.
Scarface (1983)
De Palma's ambling tale of a Cuban gangster's Americanised rise and fall is as overrated as it is overlong (nearly three hours). Although Pacino plays the odious Tony Montana with a dead-on mix of predatory steel and flawed flashiness, it's an early `80s curio that's long since been overtaken by countless other life-of-crime movies ( GoodFellas, King Of New York , even New Jack City). Two or three great scenes (the chainsaw, the nightclub shootout, the `little friend') packed under too much cheesy flab.
Body Of Lies (2008)
Let’s be honest: he still looks like a kid. When it comes to ‘grown-up’ roles, it’s tempting to see DiCaprio as the lost brother of Frank Abagnale Jr: a high-school con artist who uses charisma, good-looks and brass ballsto pull off implausible impersonations while cashing in millions of dollars.
Body Of Lies (2008)
Let’s be honest: he still looks like a kid. When it comes to ‘grown-up’ roles, it’s tempting to see DiCaprio as the lost brother of Frank Abagnale Jr: a high-school con artist who uses charisma, good-looks and brass ballsto pull off implausible impersonations while cashing in millions of dollars.
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Harlin has made an astonishingly mediocre career out of taking high-concept action to its low-brow limit. But with the suprisingly efficient Deep Blue Sea , even his most irritating overindulgence (if it moves, blow it up; if it doesn't move, blow it up; if it's already blown up, blow it up again) has been dumped in favour of tightly- packed thrills.
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Harlin has made an astonishingly mediocre career out of taking high-concept action to its low-brow limit. But with the suprisingly efficient Deep Blue Sea , even his most irritating overindulgence (if it moves, blow it up; if it doesn't move, blow it up; if it's already blown up, blow it up again) has been dumped in favour of tightly- packed thrills.
28 Days Later (2002)
This buzzard of an apocalyptic movie picks at the cinematic corpses of The Stand , The Omega Man , Romero's Trilogy Of The Dead and, bizarrely, Apocalypse Now . Making the zombies/infected fleet of foot instead of stumbling, grappling idiots is as resourceful as it gets - yes, it's been done before, but only in frighteningly obscure schlockfests - while the dialogue's clunky, the plot holes ragged and the DV camerawork downright ugly.
28 Days Later (2002)
This buzzard of an apocalyptic movie picks at the cinematic corpses of The Stand , The Omega Man , Romero's Trilogy Of The Dead and, bizarrely, Apocalypse Now . Making the zombies/infected fleet of foot instead of stumbling, grappling idiots is as resourceful as it gets - yes, it's been done before, but only in frighteningly obscure schlockfests - while the dialogue's clunky, the plot holes ragged and the DV camerawork downright ugly.
The Cell (2000)
The mind of a killer is hardly what you'd call uncharted territory these days. We got a pretty good insight into why, say, Silence Of The Lambs ' Buffalo Bill liked to cut girls up, and Bone Collector was only too happy to clumsily expose what made its killer tick. Yet, while The Cell is hardly taking us anywhere new, it makes up for being another genre re-tread by treating the madman mind-trip literally, and delivering some captivating visuals.
The Cell (2000)
The mind of a killer is hardly what you'd call uncharted territory these days. We got a pretty good insight into why, say, Silence Of The Lambs ' Buffalo Bill liked to cut girls up, and Bone Collector was only too happy to clumsily expose what made its killer tick. Yet, while The Cell is hardly taking us anywhere new, it makes up for being another genre re-tread by treating the madman mind-trip literally, and delivering some captivating visuals.
Walk The Line (2005)
It’s JR Cash’s first big moment. Dressed in black, auditioning for record exec Sam Phillips, he launches into AN Other song about God. Stopped after a minute because “Gospel doesn’t sell”, a taken aback Cash mumbles, “I’ve got some songs I wrote while I was in the Air Force. You got anything against the Air Force?”
Walk The Line (2005)
It’s JR Cash’s first big moment. Dressed in black, auditioning for record exec Sam Phillips, he launches into AN Other song about God. Stopped after a minute because “Gospel doesn’t sell”, a taken aback Cash mumbles, “I’ve got some songs I wrote while I was in the Air Force. You got anything against the Air Force?”
Rosemarys Baby (1968)
A near-perfect adaptation of Ira Levin's chilling bestseller, Roman Polanski's US debut is to expectant mothers what garlic is to vampires. Mia Farrow excels as the pretty young thing who suspects she's carrying the spawn of Satan, but it's Polanski who emerges as the real star, his subtle direction finding menace in sunlight, isolation in New York and sheer, screaming terror in the miracle of birth.
Rosemarys Baby (1968)
A near-perfect adaptation of Ira Levin's chilling bestseller, Roman Polanski's US debut is to expectant mothers what garlic is to vampires. Mia Farrow excels as the pretty young thing who suspects she's carrying the spawn of Satan, but it's Polanski who emerges as the real star, his subtle direction finding menace in sunlight, isolation in New York and sheer, screaming terror in the miracle of birth.
Mean Streets (1973)
"You don't make up for your sins in church; you do it in the streets, you do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it." Martin Scorsese's 1973 masterpiece marked his birth as an auteur and still feels as fresh and frightening as it did 30 years ago. Who you calling a mook?
Mean Streets (1973)
"You don't make up for your sins in church; you do it in the streets, you do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it." Martin Scorsese's 1973 masterpiece marked his birth as an auteur and still feels as fresh and frightening as it did 30 years ago. Who you calling a mook?
Apollo 13 (1995)
Ron Howard’s red, white and blue-hued film shows an early ’70s America as interested in the moon as they are in trips to Pittsburgh. No one apart from mission control and the astronauts’ trophy wives seem to realise that Apollo 13 has launched until there is a great balls-up and the entire world becomes glued to the TV.
Apollo 13 (1995)
Ron Howard’s red, white and blue-hued film shows an early ’70s America as interested in the moon as they are in trips to Pittsburgh. No one apart from mission control and the astronauts’ trophy wives seem to realise that Apollo 13 has launched until there is a great balls-up and the entire world becomes glued to the TV.
