This respectful ode to the early days of the US movie industry was the third consecutive box-office flop for Peter Bogdanovich, and the movie that put an end to his wünderkind status in Hollywood. Not fair: Nickelodeon is an accomplished, unjustly-maligned movie very much in the same whimsical period vein as Paper Moon, reuniting the father/daughter team of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal and throwing in an on-form Burt Reynolds. Watch and be charmed.
A Dogme film in danger of giving a tiring genre a good name, Susanne Bier's love tragedy is deeply involving and intensely moving. When a woman's lover is paralysed in a car accident, she falls in love with his married doctor. Not once in its two hours does the film hit a dishonest note, there's subtle humour, and the acting's exemplary. You'll be tenderised.
Amiable shoot-the-shit comedy from hangdog actor/producer Ice Cube, Barbershop reveals a hint of drama (sinister gangster Keith David has designs on the shop), but is really a sitcommy chatabout between neighbourhood eccentrics. Topics range from slavery reparations to "the difference between a woman with a big ass and a big-assed woman!"
Chaplin's work is a strange blend of clinical perfectionism and cloying sentimentality, and though there's no denying that his timing is impeccable and his constant quest for innovation is impressive, whether you find him funny or not is another matter. This box contains all 10 of his feature films, plus a lengthy new documentary.
Patchy, visually flashy remake by Neil Jordan of his favourite film, Melville's classic Bob Le Flambeur. Its art-robbery-scam story's all over the place, in truth, but Nick Nolte proves to be a wildly compelling force of nature as he kicks heroin, woos a young girl and beats casinos at their own game, all the while looking like he hasn't slept for a very taxing fortnight.
Insane collision of thriller and farce, with a kidnapping plot played at volume 11 and cast by a person on amyl. Kevin Bacon and Courtney Love are the bad couple, Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend the goodies. Charlize attacks Kev with a scalpel hidden down her knickers, but is still less raving bonkers than Courtney. Gloriously dreadful.
With untenable Leone motifs and broad comedy caricatures, this final part of Shane Meadows' "Midlands Trilogy" (after Twenty-Four Seven and A Room For Romeo Brass) is a disappointment. Robert Carlyle is solid as the Glaswegian rogue determined to win back ex-partner Shirley Henderson. Yet, despite a re-shot 'dramatic' ending, it feels slight.
Bizarre variation on The Phantom Of The Opera, with Vincent Price as a deformed musician seeking revenge on the doctors who accidentally killed his wife, and achieving it by murdering them in a spectacularly imaginative series of set-pieces. A truly mixed supporting cast (Joseph Cotton, Terry-Thomas) and a memorably stylish approach, with Price on monstrously hammy form.
Utterly demented female assassin action from Korea's Je-gyu Kang, who comes across as the bastard son of John Woo and Luc Besson (without the flair of either). Kang chucks in a load of contemporary political context, which is interesting, but falls victim to the current vogue for assembling your final cut half an hour too long. Enjoyable but overlong and confusing.
