Advertisement

The Trip

Before The Trip starts, an earnest middle-aged voice warns us that we're about to witness "a shocking commentary on a prevalent trend of our time". This is Roger Corman's ass-covering joke at Middle America's expense:his 1967 drugzploitation classic is nothing more than Jack Nicholson's paean to lysergic acid. Ad exec Peter Fonda takes the trip in question, encountering sundry LA groovers along the way: Bruce Dern, the inevitable Dennis Hopper, even an unknown Gram Parsons. Turn on and tune in!

I’m All Right Jack

Swiping gleefully at management, and more affectionately at the unions, this uproarious satire on the politics of British working life is probably the best-loved Boulting Brothers movie. Ian Carmichael stars as the well-meaning university stooge used to provoke a strike by crooked industrialists Richard Attenborough and Dennis Price—but the film belongs to the ever-nimble Peter Sellers, sublime as the buzzcut factory shop steward with a Hitler moustache. A by-the-book cartoon, but curiously sympathetic.

The Draughtsman’s Contract

Peter Greenaway's period piece concerns a 17th-century draughtsman (Anthony Higgins) who agrees to make a series of drawings of her country estate for an aristocrat's wife (Janet Suzman) in return for sexual favours. Part picture puzzle, part murder mystery, it's undeniably stylish and intriguing, but also totally unerotic and bleakly existential.

Floating Weeds

Revered by film-making legends from Alain Resnais to Martin Scorsese, the Japanese director Yasijuro Ozu specialised in minutely observed and exquisitely composed domestic dramas. Made in 1959, Floating Weeds was one of Ozu's last features, a remake of one of his early silents about backstage politics and romantic turbulence among a troupe of travelling Kabuki theatre players. The subject may sound alien but Ozu makes their problems timeless and universal.

Finding Nemo

Just the most delightful Pixar movie yet, as Albert Brooks' worrisome clown fish Marlin travels half way round the world in search of missing son Nemo, aided by Ellen DeGeneres' scatty Dory. Tightly written, warm-hearted but never sentimental, and graced by a series of perfectly judged celebrity cameos headed by Eric Bana's vegetarian shark. Superb.

Schindler’s List Special Edition

It'll forever remain one of the great, blessed blips of cinema history. Flashy populist Spielberg crafted in '93 the definitive Holocaust portrayal. He educated and disturbed while avoiding exploitation. Scale and intimacy were balanced, the intensity was just the right side of too much. Austrian businessman Schindler (Liam Neeson) bribes the SS and saves over a thousand Jews from death. It's the many who didn't make the list you think about. Ralph Fiennes is a mesmerising bully.

An Evening With Kevin Smith

From the man whose new movie, Jersey Girl, is promoted as "not featuring J-Lo very much really",here's a two-disc highlight set of his popular Q&A sessions at American colleges—his natural demographic. Frank, funny and quick to ridicule dumb questions,"Silent Bob" is a great raconteur, dissing Hollywood, Tim Burton and Prince ("a Jesus freak"),and revealing the truth behind his doomed Superman Lives script. Irreverent.

Iron Monkey

Eye-popping action from venerable screen kung fu master Yuen Woo-Ping. Iron Monkey stars Yu Rong-kwong as Dr Yang, who masquerades as the eponymous high-kicking Robin Hood-style hero. Clocking in at an extremely zippy 86 minutes, this superbly choreographed chopsocky flick is the inspiration for both The Matrix and Crouching Tiger...

War Roundup

This WWII melodrama from Delmer Daves, director of all-time classic western Broken Arrow, has two great showcase roles for Frank Sinatra (poor, principled officer) and Tony Curtis (wealthy, mean sergeant). The romantic sub-plot has dated badly, but the battle scenes are still worth a look.

Spy Kids 3D: Game Over

The third in Robert Rodriguez's winning series sees the plucky youngsters enter a maniacal video-game world to confront misunderstood supervillain Sylvester Stallone. Plot barely matters, though, as the movie exists only for Rodriguez to indulge in a rampant, sweetly senseless exercise in reviving retro-3D gimmickry. All in all, how Tron should have been.
Advertisement

Editor's Picks

Advertisement