The Sadist - 1963 *

If it wasn't for the plot, 'The Sadist' would've fallen by the wayside a long time ago. It was notably the first film to be based on Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, the loved up couple who went on a killing spree in the late 1950s in Nebraska.
Here we have 'The Sadist' and his moronically monosyllabic girlfriend, holding up three teachers who come into car trouble at an old junkyard. The whole film is basically 'The Sadist' grinning and laughing and pointing a gun at the hostages, while his girlfriend 'Jodeee' sits on a wall merrily swinging her legs and swigging coca cola. The Sadist appears to be cross-eyed, as well as sporting a crop of remarkable 'Beach Boyesque' floppy hair so his whole appearance is all the more terrifying. If he's trying to portray James Dean, he's failing miserably.

Philomena - 2013 ***

I can't say I was particularly excited by this, despite having Steve Coogan and Judi Dench topping the bill. Dench befriends Coogan, a weary reporter who believes he can find her missing son who was taken from her when she was a young girl living in a convent in the 1950s. 

The trip brings trials and tribulations, but most importantly it brings friendship between the two. It's not funny in the slightest in my opinion, and doesn't give either of the players the correct platform on which to perform.