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National Lampoon’s Animal House

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In recent years John Landis' frat-boy farce has had much to answer for, its legacy spawning a glut of imitations with twice the gross-out factor but half the humour. The original, now 25 years old but still rampantly immature, has real comic gusto, and allowed the late, great John Belushi to belch out a memorably madcap performance. Set in 1962, it asks us to root for the scruffy, skiving outsiders (the term "slackers" still hadn't been coined) on a campus ruled by the monied, suave elite. Our anti-heroes, the Deltas, spend the film drinking, partying, wearing togas, trying (and usually failing) to get laid, partying some more, and eventually rising up against the posh kids. Then partying again. Viewing it now, you feel more sympathy for the upper-class twits and less for the flatulent oafs, though that could be a byproduct of all the spin-offs. Still the best film from the National Lampoon stable, with Donald Sutherland dry as a bone, and an instant nostalgia rush for anyone who's ever been to college anywhere.

In recent years John Landis’ frat-boy farce has had much to answer for, its legacy spawning a glut of imitations with twice the gross-out factor but half the humour. The original, now 25 years old but still rampantly immature, has real comic gusto, and allowed the late, great John Belushi to belch out a memorably madcap performance.

Set in 1962, it asks us to root for the scruffy, skiving outsiders (the term “slackers” still hadn’t been coined) on a campus ruled by the monied, suave elite. Our anti-heroes, the Deltas, spend the film drinking, partying, wearing togas, trying (and usually failing) to get laid, partying some more, and eventually rising up against the posh kids. Then partying again.

Viewing it now, you feel more sympathy for the upper-class twits and less for the flatulent oafs, though that could be a byproduct of all the spin-offs. Still the best film from the National Lampoon stable, with Donald Sutherland dry as a bone, and an instant nostalgia rush for anyone who’s ever been to college anywhere.

Identity

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Entertaining thriller from James Mangold, only slightly marred by a dodgy psycho-babble explanatory twist. A terrific cast of John Cusack, Ray Liotta, John C McGinley and Amanda Peet are among or around those bumped off one by one in a desolate motel in a rainstorm. Who's the killer, and why does Cusack look so ambivalent about stopping him?

Entertaining thriller from James Mangold, only slightly marred by a dodgy psycho-babble explanatory twist. A terrific cast of John Cusack, Ray Liotta, John C McGinley and Amanda Peet are among or around those bumped off one by one in a desolate motel in a rainstorm. Who’s the killer, and why does Cusack look so ambivalent about stopping him?

The Adventures Of Robin Hood

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There's only one real Robin Hood, and that's Errol Flynn, now buckling his swash in this lovingly restored version of the 1938 classic. "You speak treason," observes cowardly King John (Claude Rains). "Fluently," Errol proudly admits, before crossing blades with Olympic duellist Basil Rathbone, rescuing the blushing Olivia de Havilland and feeding the poor of Sherwood. Hurrah!

There’s only one real Robin Hood, and that’s Errol Flynn, now buckling his swash in this lovingly restored version of the 1938 classic. “You speak treason,” observes cowardly King John (Claude Rains). “Fluently,” Errol proudly admits, before crossing blades with Olympic duellist Basil Rathbone, rescuing the blushing Olivia de Havilland and feeding the poor of Sherwood. Hurrah!

A Revengers Tragedy

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Alex Cox's gory update of Thomas Middleton's 1607 play about anarcho-nutter royal assassins. The ghost of Derek Jarman clearly lurks behind Cox's ambitious vision of Liverpool as a post-punk, retro-futurist city state. Christopher Eccleston spits nails as the hard-bastard anti-hero, but not even Eddie Izzard, Derek Jacobi and Sophie Dahl can lift the drama above flawed curio level.

Alex Cox’s gory update of Thomas Middleton’s 1607 play about anarcho-nutter royal assassins. The ghost of Derek Jarman clearly lurks behind Cox’s ambitious vision of Liverpool as a post-punk, retro-futurist city state. Christopher Eccleston spits nails as the hard-bastard anti-hero, but not even Eddie Izzard, Derek Jacobi and Sophie Dahl can lift the drama above flawed curio level.

Lone Wolf Mcquade

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To say this ultraviolent 1983 flick is Chuck Norris'best movie might smack of faint praise, but what's good is mostly down to David Carradine as his strutting, butt-kicking, cigar-sucking nemesis. It's a modern-day western, heavy on the spaghetti, with Norris'Texas ranger taking on Carradine's gun-runner and his army of disposable borderland Mexicans. Did Walter Hill watch this before making Extreme Prejudice?

To say this ultraviolent 1983 flick is Chuck Norris’best movie might smack of faint praise, but what’s good is mostly down to David Carradine as his strutting, butt-kicking, cigar-sucking nemesis. It’s a modern-day western, heavy on the spaghetti, with Norris’Texas ranger taking on Carradine’s gun-runner and his army of disposable borderland Mexicans. Did Walter Hill watch this before making Extreme Prejudice?

Respiro

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Another reworking of the Betty Blue mythology, with the always watchable Valeria Golino as the Sicilian free spirit who is deemed nuts by her husband and run out of town for such sins as spontaneity and unconventionality. Sun-baked scenery and a lurch into magical realism at the end makes it more than the sum of its parts.

Another reworking of the Betty Blue mythology, with the always watchable Valeria Golino as the Sicilian free spirit who is deemed nuts by her husband and run out of town for such sins as spontaneity and unconventionality. Sun-baked scenery and a lurch into magical realism at the end makes it more than the sum of its parts.

Hollywood Homicide

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A fascinating study in waning star power disguised as a cop movie, disguised as a comedy, this reveals the Harrison Ford screen persona at its most intransigent, here playing a 'big dog' cop who hates rap music and yoga, punches people, solves murders and sleeps with Lena Olin.

A fascinating study in waning star power disguised as a cop movie, disguised as a comedy, this reveals the Harrison Ford screen persona at its most intransigent, here playing a ‘big dog’ cop who hates rap music and yoga, punches people, solves murders and sleeps with Lena Olin.

Whale Rider

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A contemporary coming-of-ager about a fiery 12-year-old Maori girl (Keisha Castle-Hughes) and her bid for the hyper-masculine tribal throne, Whale Rider is full of apposite Disney pluck, yet simultaneously shot through with a worthy, odd and inexorably cloying adoration of the mystical juju in Maori tradition.

A contemporary coming-of-ager about a fiery 12-year-old Maori girl (Keisha Castle-Hughes) and her bid for the hyper-masculine tribal throne, Whale Rider is full of apposite Disney pluck, yet simultaneously shot through with a worthy, odd and inexorably cloying adoration of the mystical juju in Maori tradition.

City Of Ghosts

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Directing, co-writing and starring, Matt Dillon does a pretty solid job. Set in a modern-day Cambodia full of outcasts and fugitives, the plot slowly curdles from globe-trotting crime thriller into primal psycho-weirdness. Dillon never shakes off the second-hand influences, notably David Lynch and A...

Directing, co-writing and starring, Matt Dillon does a pretty solid job. Set in a modern-day Cambodia full of outcasts and fugitives, the plot slowly curdles from globe-trotting crime thriller into primal psycho-weirdness. Dillon never shakes off the second-hand influences, notably David Lynch and Apocalypse Now, but a rich cosmopolitan texture is added by an eccentric cast including Gerard Depardieu, Stellan Skarsg

Buffalo Girls

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Originally a TV mini series, this is a satisfying, three-hour adaptation of Larry McMurty's offbeat and poignant take on Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. A strong cast (Anjelica Houston, Sam Elliott, Peter Coyote) get blown off the screen by Jack Palance as a grizzled, dusty old trapper.

Originally a TV mini series, this is a satisfying, three-hour adaptation of Larry McMurty’s offbeat and poignant take on Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. A strong cast (Anjelica Houston, Sam Elliott, Peter Coyote) get blown off the screen by Jack Palance as a grizzled, dusty old trapper.

Android

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Quirky variant on the Frankenstein riff. Klaus Kinski is a scientist working on a space station with his android assistant Max404 (Don Opper, who co-wrote). Max is going through android adolescence?he's restless, sulky, curious about sex. Then a trio of escaped convicts invade, and one of them's a girl. Funny and compelling, and worth catching for Opper's geeky performance alone.

Quirky variant on the Frankenstein riff. Klaus Kinski is a scientist working on a space station with his android assistant Max404 (Don Opper, who co-wrote). Max is going through android adolescence?he’s restless, sulky, curious about sex. Then a trio of escaped convicts invade, and one of them’s a girl. Funny and compelling, and worth catching for Opper’s geeky performance alone.

A Snake Of June

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Mesmerising Japanese study of voyeurism and eroticism. Shot in black and white but colourfully performed by Asuka Kurosawa as a repressed wife who's blackmailed by a stranger into?wait for it?masturbating in public places. In lesser hands it'd be tat, but there's a Cronenberg-like claustrophobia to the seediness. Porn, then, but arty porn.

Mesmerising Japanese study of voyeurism and eroticism. Shot in black and white but colourfully performed by Asuka Kurosawa as a repressed wife who’s blackmailed by a stranger into?wait for it?masturbating in public places. In lesser hands it’d be tat, but there’s a Cronenberg-like claustrophobia to the seediness. Porn, then, but arty porn.

The Tin Drum

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Volker Schl...

Volker Schl

Censors Working Overtime

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In the early '60s, both Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss were refused a certificate by the British censor. There was never much of the Geneva Convention about Sam Fuller. His genre was Cinema Fist. "Perhaps it would be better if you could fire real shots over the audience's head every night, you kn...

In the early ’60s, both Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss were refused a certificate by the British censor. There was never much of the Geneva Convention about Sam Fuller. His genre was Cinema Fist. “Perhaps it would be better if you could fire real shots over the audience’s head every night, you know, and have actual casualties in the audience,” he once suggested.

Unlike John Milius, who was 4F (unfit for military duty) and lived in a boy’s fantasy world of violent deeds, Fuller had been America’s youngest crime reporter, and subsequently won the Bronze Star, Silver Star and Purple Heart as an infantryman in World War II. He was a tough guy, a genuine primitive with a tabloid sensibility and a good heart. It’s difficult to find any parallels among contemporary movie directors?perhaps aspects of Oliver Stone and Abel Ferrara?but you’ll find his bleak world view echoed in the novels of Norman Mailer and Jim Thompson.

The conditions in which Fuller operated have changed. He was a Poverty Row director, shooting films fast and cheaply to fill the bottom of the programme. His debut, I Shot Jesse James (1949), was filmed in 10 days. He was so far below the radar in Hollywood that nobody bothered him much. The French first woke up to him, pronounced him an auteur, and Godard gave him a part in Pierrot Le Fou where he says, “Film is a battleground, love, hate, violence, action, death, in a word?emotion.” Cahiers Du Cin

Basic

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Don't expect John McTiernan's blustery military thriller to deliver the same buzzing chemistry between John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson as Pulp Fiction. The two stars barely even meet as Travolta's bad-ass investigator puzzles out the mystery of Jackson's missing Ranger instructor via a series of twist-heavy flashbacks. McTiernan delivers balls-out action, but he's a total hack, mauling all the subtlety out of a potentially intriguing yarn.

Don’t expect John McTiernan’s blustery military thriller to deliver the same buzzing chemistry between John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson as Pulp Fiction. The two stars barely even meet as Travolta’s bad-ass investigator puzzles out the mystery of Jackson’s missing Ranger instructor via a series of twist-heavy flashbacks. McTiernan delivers balls-out action, but he’s a total hack, mauling all the subtlety out of a potentially intriguing yarn.

Tadpole

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Fighting free from the monumental shadows of Woody Allen and Whit Stillman, Gary Winick's Tadpole?hewn from that same Upper East Side social milieu and following the vaguely familiar unrequited infatuations of Aaron Stanford's 15-year-old Voltaire-quoting, stepmom-fancying preppy?is 77 unapologetic and mostly witty minutes of romantic ephemera.

Fighting free from the monumental shadows of Woody Allen and Whit Stillman, Gary Winick’s Tadpole?hewn from that same Upper East Side social milieu and following the vaguely familiar unrequited infatuations of Aaron Stanford’s 15-year-old Voltaire-quoting, stepmom-fancying preppy?is 77 unapologetic and mostly witty minutes of romantic ephemera.

Dumb And Dumberer

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Horrible in theory, actually pretty funny in fact. Carrey and Daniels wouldn't do a sequel, so two lookalikes were contracted for a slung-together, conceptually tasteless prequel to the Farrelly brothers' hit farce. So they're at school, being heroically stupid, totting up comic misunderstandings and unwittingly doing good deeds. Sweet and titter-worthy, despite itself.

Horrible in theory, actually pretty funny in fact. Carrey and Daniels wouldn’t do a sequel, so two lookalikes were contracted for a slung-together, conceptually tasteless prequel to the Farrelly brothers’ hit farce. So they’re at school, being heroically stupid, totting up comic misunderstandings and unwittingly doing good deeds. Sweet and titter-worthy, despite itself.

American Pie: The Wedding

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As the franchise gets ever more desperate, any wit is sacrificed for diminishing returns of grosser grossness and louder loudness. If you want to see Jason Biggs' pubic hair find its way into the wedding cake while he does his 'embarrassed' face for the thousandth time, this is the movie for you. Directed by Bob Dylan's son, for Christ's sakes.

As the franchise gets ever more desperate, any wit is sacrificed for diminishing returns of grosser grossness and louder loudness. If you want to see Jason Biggs’ pubic hair find its way into the wedding cake while he does his ’embarrassed’ face for the thousandth time, this is the movie for you. Directed by Bob Dylan’s son, for Christ’s sakes.

On The Job

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Feted originally for its dark humour and Lynchian undertones, director Steven Shainberg's S&M office romance Secretary is also an ingeniously wholesome affair. Detailing the fetishised power relations between sadistic lawyer Edward Grey (James Spader?effortlessly reptilian, and yet tender) and h...

Feted originally for its dark humour and Lynchian undertones, director Steven Shainberg’s S&M office romance Secretary is also an ingeniously wholesome affair. Detailing the fetishised power relations between sadistic lawyer Edward Grey (James Spader?effortlessly reptilian, and yet tender) and his self-mutilating assistant Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal?mousy, and yet sassy), the movie rejects the po-faced S&M clich

Death Wish II

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There was genuine suspense and intelligence in Michael Winner's original 1974 thriller, which addressed some of the same debates about rising crime and liberal impotence as Dirty Harry and Straw Dogs. But this 1982 sequel, relocating Charles Bronson's wounded architect to LA and forcing him to endure another double rape/murder episode, veers dangerously close to shabby exploitation.

There was genuine suspense and intelligence in Michael Winner’s original 1974 thriller, which addressed some of the same debates about rising crime and liberal impotence as Dirty Harry and Straw Dogs. But this 1982 sequel, relocating Charles Bronson’s wounded architect to LA and forcing him to endure another double rape/murder episode, veers dangerously close to shabby exploitation.

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