Featuring bravura set pieces, sly humor, and white-knuckle action, it is one of the most consummately entertaining adventure pictures of all time. ~
More pertinently, it still stands up as the most exhilarating, imaginative, out-and-out fun movie in the Spielberg canon – pure unadulterated escapism, with not a pretension in sight. ~
While Harrison Ford is perfect as the hell-for-leather, loveable rogue, the locations sumptuous, the special effects breathtaking and the cinematography dazzling, the real success of the film lies in its conception. A product of the near-Holy trinity of Spielberg, George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan, it is the collaboration that holds the key to the magic. ~
Executive producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg minted fresh excitement from the cliffhanger serials of their youth in this breathless fantasy extravaganza. Hold on tight, because it starts at full throttle and never lets up as unorthodox archaeologist Indiana Jones (a part that fits Harrison Ford like a glove) searches Egypt for the fabled Ark of the Covenant and finds himself up to his neck in booby-trapped caves, snake chambers, Nazi spies, religious demons, damsels in distress and even a spot of romance. ~
An homage to the glory days of Saturday matinee adventure serials and back-lot B-movies, it is one of the most unabashedly enjoyable cinematic events of the 1980s. Packed with breakneck action, a cheerfully absurd plot involving Nazis and lost treasure, exotic locales, and a bit of romance, Raiders celebrated old-school adventure and made it palatable to an increasingly jaded contemporary audience. ~
Throw in Paul Freeman's suavely persuasive villain Rene Belloq, a masterly John Williams score, and one of the best throwaway gags ever caught on celluloid and you have a timeless classic that will go on captivating youngsters long after Indy's priceless artefacts have crumbled into dust. ~
It is an out-of-body experience, a movie of glorious imagination and breakneck speed that grabs you in the first shot, hurtles you through a series of incredible adventures, and deposits you back in reality two hours later - breathless, dizzy, wrung-out, and with a silly grin on your face. ~
Films with zombies are almost always consigned immediately to a dustbin of cult appreciation, with any serious critical appraisal a rarity. It's hardly surprising, as most of those efforts don't deserve better - unlike "Dawn of the Dead". As a blend of horror, action, tension, and humour, it stands in a class of its own. ~
Surmounting with consummate ease that, "Difficult second walking dead movie" problem, George A. Romero here equals, maybe surpasses, Night Of The Living Dead with a bleak, pessimistic allegory of modern consumer society. Grim, gruelling but beautifully shot, this is intelligent, sophisticated horror. ~
One of the most compelling and entertaining zombie films ever, it perfectly blends pure horror and gore with social commentary on material society. ~
It is one of the best horror films ever made - and, as an inescapable result, one of the most horrifying. It is gruesome, sickening, disgusting, violent, brutal and appalling. It is also (excuse me for a second while I find my other list) brilliantly crafted, funny, droll, and savagely merciless in its satiric view of the American consumer society. Nobody ever said art had to be in good taste. ~
Nominated for five Oscars (including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay), Greta Gerwig’s accomplished directorial debut is an instant coming-of-age classic. ~
A hilarious love letter to teenagers and their mothers, Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are tremendous in Gerwig’s moving and gloriously funny film about growing up, mother-daughter relationships and the anxiety of separation. ~
Continuing a quotidian squabble that ebbs and flows, but rarely halts, a flawless Ronan plays the self styled “Lady Bird”, and an equally excellent Metcalf grants angular decency to her mother in a wholly wonderful film. ~
Infused with the rosy glow of nostalgia, Gerwig muses on her birthplace and teenage temperament in a coming-of-age comedy that scampers through its protagonist's final year at high school.~
Her film manages to feel like an indie dramedy but powers along like a mainstream film. Part of that comes from how Gerwig has coloured in her supporting characters with marvelous quirks and telling details while showing exceptional taste in casting. Somehow, she has recruited last year’s Oscar It Boy, “Manchester by the Sea’s” Lucas Hedges and this year’s potential Oscar It boy, “Call Me by Your Name’s” Timothee Chalamet as Lady Bird’s crushes. ~
A sweet, deeply personal portrayal of female adolescence that’s more attuned to the bonds between girlfriends than casual flings with boys, the beautiful film flutters with the attractively loose rhythms of youth. ~
It delivers fresh insights about the turmoil of adolescence - and reveals the writer-director as a fully formed filmmaking talent. ~
She has downplayed suggestions that this film is strictly autobiographical, saying, “Nothing in the movie literally happened in my life, but it has a core of truth that resonates with what I know.” But because this clever and affecting triumph has so many relatable moments and effortlessly compelling performances, it often feels completely real. ~
A moving coming-of-age tale that captures the despair among England's working-class youth in the 1980s. ~
Shane Meadows' taut, tense, relentless movie focuses on a specific tipping point in the history of English skinheads. Poverty, absent fathers and dangerous streets make gang membership seem like a safe haven. ~
An electric, stunning and powerful movie, crammed with extraordinary performances. Organise church trips, galvanise your local community, take your mum. Just bloody well see this film. You'll be floored. ~
The Temple of Doom saw the Indiana Jones series lurch off the rails a little, but all was restored with this third movie. The masterstroke here was the introduction of Sean Connery as Indy's crotchety dad, and the snappy by-play between him and Harrison Ford adds a wonderful new twist to the adventure. ~
Lighter and more comedic than its predecessor, it returns the series to the brisk serial adventure of Raiders of the Lost Ark, while adding a dynamite double act between Ford and Connery. ~
If there is just a shade of disappointment after seeing this movie, it has to be because we will never again have the shock of this material seeming new. “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” now more than ever, seems a turning point in the cinema of escapist entertainment, and there was really no way Spielberg could make it new all over again. What he has done is to take many of the same elements, and apply all of his craft and sense of fun to make them work yet once again. And they do. ~
Ruben Östlund follows his international breakthrough Force Majeure with an absolutely riveting film that's outlandish, hilarious and surreal yet somehow remains brutally credible. ~
It finds the writer-director as ambitious as ever - and delivering an unforgettably unusual work whose challenging themes pay thought-provoking dividends. ~
Dazzling comic ghastliness, Östlund is a clever, dazzling misanthrope. ~
This is an astoundingly smart film, set in the Swedish art world, that satirises conceptual art and ignites into thrilling life whenever it delivers moments of what the French philosopher Jacques Lacan would have called “jouissance”, or an “eruption of the real”. ~
Wouldn’t you know it? You wait for ages for a Florence Foster Jenkins movie, then two come along at once. Off-key, but right on the money, Xavier Giannoli’s sumptuous historical dramedy transplants the story of the socialite and ‘singer’ brilliantly to Roaring Twenties Paris. ~
Touching, funny, and thoughtful, it honours its real-life inspiration with a well-acted and ultimately inspirational look at the nature of art and the value of a dream. ~
It has the dramatic density, social sweep and sardonic bite of great French fiction. Think Balzac, Maupassant.. ~
Director Steven Spielberg continued his homage to the classic cliffhanger serials of his youth with this follow-up to the rousing Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's a trifle overblown and unsubtle, but it still has great sets, fun performances and terrific action - the standout is a wild rollercoaster ride through an Indian mine. ~
This movie is one of the most relentlessly nonstop action pictures ever made, with a virtuoso series of climactic sequences that must last an hour and never stop for a second. It's a roller-coaster ride, a visual extravaganza, a technical triumph, and a whole lot of fun. And it's not simply a retread of the first Indiana Jones movie. It works in a different way, and borrows from different traditions. ~
It may be too "dark" for some, but it remains an ingenious adventure spectacle that showcases one of Hollywood's finest filmmaking teams in vintage form. ~
The sustained furore of humour, visual panache and headlong momentum makes for dazzling cinema. All of which makes it possibly Spielberg's most underrated film. ~
This is a hypnotic and beguiling documentary portrait of the 62-year-old site-specific land artist Andy Goldsworthy... Sit back, relax and, in the most literal way possible, watch an artist at work.~
A mesmerising film about art and time, this meditative documentary gets to grips with the British sculptor and nature artist, whose work is about the ephemeral and enduring. ~
It offers an alluring introduction to a brilliant artist's utterly original life and work. ~
This is one of the most relaxing experiences I have had watching a movie in a long time. ~
