Topsy-Turvy 1999 ****

It was really just pure chance that brought this movie to the front of my DVD rental service, especially when I am going to see 'The Mikado' in a couple of months time and had no idea beforehand of the storyline. This is a delightful little film about the making, production and rehearsals that went into Gilbert and Sullivan's masterpiece. Jim Broadbent is excellent and actually Timothy Spall is very dry and sarcastic with a touch of campness that really goes with his character. We hear many of the popular songs, see all the gorgeous costumes, and enjoy all the humour that goes along with the play in what was probably a very painstaking process (director Mike Leigh spent hundreds of hours on research trying to find exact replicas of clothes, decor, make-up, places etc and it really paid off). It's lovely to be able to watch it this way. Lovely night in.

Varsity Blues - 1999 **

Another stupid 'American Jock' type movie where the whole film and it seems the whole world revolves around football and nothing else, oh, except talking about football. I'm not actually sure why I forced myself to see it all the way through, as it barely went anywhere, but it was probably because I wanted to see whether the off-screen tension between James van der Beek and Paul Walker was evident on screen. Considering they only had about 2 minutes together on the whole film, it wasn't. Waste of time.

(HORROR) The Woman - 2011 ***

This was a really horrible movie. A man captures a feral-like woman in the woods and ties her up in his basement despite her obvious anger and distress. She can barely communicate with anyone which makes it a lot more hard to watch. He's a completely disgusting character, sexually abusive, intimidating, arrogant, violent to his family who all seem to have retreated into a shell-like existence. All except his son, who is developing the same traits as his father, and loving every minute of it. The woman is abused, mentally, physically and sexually by the father, and treated as a laughing stock and sex object by the men. The wife of the man is cowardly, whimpish, and doesn't flinch when he punches her about and pushes her around. The only one that seems to really relate to the feral woman is the young daughter, who when the time comes, is ready to dish out some of her own punishment. I guess this movie's title is ambiguous, because 'The Woman' could actually be any of the female characters. It's got a strong feminist vibe in my opinion with some gore and nausea thown in which is probably actually quite a good idea for a horror film, if the characters were anything other than thoroughly dislikeable.

(HORROR) Dream House - 2011 ***1/2

At first this seemed like it was going to be a bad version of the Japanese original that I had wanted to watch. But when my best friend came over for film day recently he brought this with him and said we should give it a try. So we did. And although it started off exactly the way I had imagined it would I was actually amazed at how complicated the story became. Not to say that I understood it properly but I think he did, and appreciated all the little nuances that I completely missed. It's one to watch if you enjoy movies that go backwards and forwards in time showing you past and present events very quickly (that was what confused me) but not one to see if you just want straightforward dumbed down horror. You really have to think about this film. Daniel Craig was actually better than I had expected (he always seems to act in the same deadpan way) and Rachel Weisz was powerful as his wife. The couple move with their two daughters to what they think is a lovely house in a lovely neighbourhood, but in reality it has many ghastly secrets that no one will share with them, especially when they want to know if anything happened in the house...

The Ladies Man - 1961 *** 1/2

Is it very disturbing to have a bit of a thing for Jerry Lewis? He's funny here, not nearly as funny as in 'The Nutty Professor', but he still brings the laughs in. He takes a job in a ladies only hotel as a general odd job man after his girlfriend leaves him for someone else and finds himself right in the centre of all feminine talk and thought which suits him fine as he has no interest in women anymore except as guests. Lewis is completely over the top as usual, but there is a laugh out loud scene involving him and George Raft where they ballroom dance together after Lewis assures Raft that he couldn't possibly be Raft because he can't flick his coin in the same way as he did in 'Scarface'.

Up in the Air - 2009 ***

This is a bit of a strange film, and not a typical George Clooney vehicle. Clooney plays a man whose life revolves around flying to different locations and firing members of staff for companies. He lives out of a suitcase, has no proper home and loves spending time in the luxurious hotels that he ends up in. However his boss one day decides (with the help of a new colleague) to scrap the idea of his staff firing in person and sets up an online way of doing so (a bit like Skye). Clooney is dismayed, especially as he feels that he cannot make a proper connection with his clients if he doesn't see them face to face. Also because he has just started seeing a woman he met on one of his last journeys.

Some of it is funny, and Clooney is mildy amusing, but he will never be Cary Grant.

(HORROR) The Oblong Box - 1969 ***

Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. Yey!

A good film, very cheesy and with lots of orange paint used for blood. Based on Poe's book of the same name, the story is of an aristocrat who keeps his disfigured brother locked up in the attic. But this doesn't stop him from escaping every now and again and causing chaos in the nearby town. It's not really scary in the slightest, but I love 60s attempts at horror so always worth a look, especially with the two main actors!

(HORROR) The Betrayed - 2008 *** 1/2

I was gripped by this movie. What an interesting premise. A woman awakens in a room with no idea how she got there, and is confronted by a masked man who claims that he knows her husband very well and that he has stolen millions of pounds from their organisation. If she doesn't get into the account and get the money back, her son will be killed. She has no idea whether the man is genuine or not.

The whole film is a complete head trip. It's completely terrifying to watch and extremely tense. The actress playing the woman is superb.

The last part of the movie is also knuckle-biting.

(HORROR) The Final - 2010- ****

I was actually very impressed with this movie, and I generally don't find much in the 'After Dark Horrorfest' movies to be impressed about.

This is a great film for anyone who has ever been bullied or treated unfairly by someone in their school days. There are a group of outcasts who just do not fit in, and despite their constant appeals to the popular kids to acccept them, these hopes fall on deaf ears. It is only then that they decide to inflict a terrible payback.

Excellent stuff, certain scenes have been 'borrowed' from other horror movies (the needle scene in 'Audition' is one...) but all in all I liked it, and could relate completely to the outcasts (being one myself at school which made my life hell). Good acting, solid storyline.

Avanti - 1972 *** 1/2

This was a gentle movie with some lovely music. You wouldn't know it was Billy Wilder but watching Jack Lemmon is enough for anyone.

Lemmon plays Wendell, a businessman who goes to Italy to collect the body of his father who died there whilst on holiday. Along the way he meets Pamela, and soon finds out that she is also there to collect a body, that of her mother, whom Wendell's father was having a 10 year affair! Wendell is initially gobsmacked and disgusted with the idea that his father would do something so immoral, whilst Pamela thinks it's awfully romantic, and the pair start to bond very slowly.

Along the way there is drunkeness, murder, blackmail and an assortment of dodgy characters who spent lots of time in Wendell and Pamela's respecting rooms, moving furniture about, and all the other things that people find funny in a film, made even more hilarious by Wendell and Pamela's impending relationship which is interrupted more times than is actually possible. This is not a screwball comedy, i.e. not manic and fast talk (could be why the films is over 2 hours) but instead it's slow-paced and enjoyable with just enough humour for you to raise a smile (or guffaw if Lemmon is in the scene) but not too much that you would be on the floor in stitches. Am so glad I've seen it! And I love Jack Lemmon!

Hereafter - 2010 **

A Clint Eastwood film, so it must be brilliant. Nope. It's only directed by him, and it seems he doesn't shine as much in the directorial world as he does in the acting one.

A big fat mess of a movie, 'Hereafter' tries to cram complicated story after complicated story into the same place, mixing them up and jiggling them about, until you haven't got a clue what is going on. I'm not a huge fan of Matt Damon but even I was surprised that he appeared in a film like this. It's not even a mega religious movie, it doesn't give that much of a punch to the extent where people will be quarrelling over the religious factors after it's ended. It's just a pretty dire attempt at trying to look artistic by the director ('shame on you Clint!) and it fails miserably, with unfinished endings and totally uninventive characters.

(HORROR) The Rite - 2011 **

The two best things about 'The Rite' are Anthony Hopkins and the beautiful backdrop of Rome. Other than that this was a predictable, pretentious movie with the sort of storyline that has been done to death.

Hopkins stars as a powerful exorcist who guides a young seminary student through an exorcism course in Rome after the boy confesses to losing his faith (what a surprise). Both of them get more than they bargained for (no surprises there then!).

Hopkins is a superb actor but he really shouldn't have been in a film like this. He shouldn't be entering the world of rubbish American horror, but instead should stick to his charming English films that are so popular.

One last thing I will say however is that this is actually based on true events, as opposed to the fictional ones that you see on most horror posters now. Hopkins' character was real, and the story is pretty close as well (if you can believe everything that Wikipedia says). At least they didn't lie on that.

(HORROR) Scream 4 - 2011 ****

I'm not sure if I should be shot for saying this or not, but I really enjoyed this latest offering from the Scream people. It genuinely scared me to pieces, and I was absolutely terrified to go up to bed afterwards. I also had a nasty dream that night about it as well which proves how much it effected me. These films aren't meant to be intellectual or full of hidden meanings, they are simply an excuse to freak yourself off with the lights off on a dark night.

The acting was great (slightly overdone in some areas but who cares?!) and it was weird watching Courtney and David Arquette acting together despite their divorce!

The beginning of the film was my favourite, and very unexpected, and although the rest of the movie was predictable it was still great fun to watch. I recommend it.

(HORROR) Tetsuo: The Iron Man - 1989 1/2

The people who rated this movie as anything other than hideous must be from another planet. A hideously poor escuse of a movie from the Tartan Asian Gang. Centring around a metal fetishist who enjoys sticking bits of metal inside his various body parts, the film follows the man with a jerky camera as he runs around and makes funny noises whilst inserting more metal in more places. It's like an acid trip nightmare. Something you might dream about if you were in the middle of a serious bout of flu. Sort of delusional horror. Horrible. Something I never want to see again.

(HORROR) The Ward - 2010 ***

This to me didn't seem like a particularly John Carpenter-ish film. It was far too predictable for one thing, and Carpenter can usually construct a rather good storyline.
The premise is that a girl is taken to the psychiatric hospital after setting fire to a house and watching it burn to the ground. Here she meets an assortment of characters and tries to plot with them to escape whilst constantly maintaining her innocence. It's fairly nervy and jumpy and does deliver some scares but the ending is just so ridiculous it's like they ran out of ideas and just stuck the first idea on there that they could think of. It made no sense whatsover and din't explain anything. Heard plays well, but not well enough to cover up the fact that Carpenter could have done better.

The African Queen - 1951 **** 1/2

The idea of Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn sitting on a boat for the entire duration of the film didn't really appeal to me at first, despite the rave reviews it has had. But when I pressed 'stop' I had to sit back for a few minutes just to take everything in. And I can say this is one of the most powerful films I have watched in a long time.

Bogart plays Charlie Allnut who picks up Rose Sayer in Africa after her brother dies of fever after being beaten by German soldiers. They both set sail on Allnut's vessell 'The African Queen', each as different as they can be, with Hepburn hoping to convince Bogart to build a torpeado to sink the Queen Louisa (a German ship) and Bogart trying to get Hepburn to lighten up and stop being so prim and proper. Katherine Hepburn seems to play the character with a lot of her own personality embedded within, as Rose takes practically no notice of anything Charlie says despite the fact that he is an advanced sailor and she isn't, even to the stage where they both risk their life to navigate a particularly perilous part of the river.

I admire Hepburn greatly as an actress but sometimes don't like her non-stop bossy nature. Bogart was terrific on the other hand and really showed a compassionate and good-natured man, even though drink seemed to be his main priority. ( The idea that Bogart would only be around for a few more years after he made this film was a deeply sad thought when watching this ) It's a nice moral story with two great actors. What more could you ask for?

Sahara - 1943 **** 1/2

I have a very wide love for black and white films, but I haven't quite come to terms with some of the 1940s war films of the time. I did however watch and enjoy 'Ice Cold in Alex' which I thought was one of the best movies I've ever seen. Here however we have a film where Humphrey Bogart, normally known for playing gangsters, lawyers and general killers, is stuck in the desert with his men after being separated from their unit. They are forced to make a detour of the desert to find water after the well they turn up at is dry. The story revolves around these men and their relationships while they try and come to terms with where they are and how they are supposed to survive. One of the last scenes is incredibly poignant with Bogart acting his socks off as usual. In fact most of the film shows Bogart's acting off to a pinacle of perfection. He really is superb.

Burlesque - 2010 ****

I must admit I put off watching this for quite a while because I thought it would be predictable and I didn't see the point seeing it if I was going to guess what was going to happen. And when I watched it a lot of it was predictable, but interestingly I didn't actually care. People have said that it is a complete rip-off of Coyote Ugly and I must say there are some very similar scenes in it, but I thought the level of music and vocals were much better here. Added to which the idea of a Burlesque Lounge is really exciting.

Aguilera does have a strong voice and there are some great songs here, but sometimes I get the feeling that she is just a little bit too up herself to be taken seriously. Cher was good as well as the matronly madam who keeps the girls in check. Aguilera is Ali, the girl from (you guessed it) a small town who goes to Hollywood to make it big and finds herself working as a waitress in the Burlesque Lounge. However she longs to get up on the stage and dazzle everyone with her voice, an idea which Cher originally dismisses, until she hears her sing...

What a surprise, I bet you all knew what was going to happen, but I still loved the feel of the film, sort of mixed with one of my favourite films 'Moulin Rouge.'

The Nutty Professor - 1963 ****

This is the first film I have seen with Jerry Lewis and it won't be my last. My colleague and I were having an intense conversation the other day about me getting Jerry Lewis and Jerry Lee Lewis mixed up. I won't be doing that again. This film is about 10 times funnier than the newer Eddie Murphy offering.

Jerry Lewis is hilarious as the crazy, nerdy Professor who invents a potion to help him become more confident in his workplace, the trouble is, the result is a Jekyll and Hyde personality, where the confident side of him becomes obnoxious, slimy and arrogant (but rather attractive!).There are some very funny scenes, inculding one where he comes to class the morning after a night out as his alter ego with a stonking hangover and every single sound he hears is exaggerated

I have another of his films on my list to see (The Ladies Man) and I have added a load more of his films to my Tesco rental. Can't wait!

Our Man in Havana - 1959 ***

With such a wonderful cast you would imagine that this would be a wonderful film. But it wasn't what I expected at all. I like Alec Guinness very much but felt there was something distinctly lacking in this film. I felt sort of the same way watching 'The Man in The White Suit.' Guinness plays the owner of a vacuum cleaner shop in Cuba who is roped into recruiting a network of spies by the British Secret Service. He doesn't have a clue what he is doing however which leads to some very interesting situations.

If you compare his acting range in this to him in 'The Ladykillers' you would be forgiven in thinking it was another actor.

Not as much as a masterpiece from the normally excellent Carol Reed as I had hoped.

(NOIR) Fallen Angel - 1945 ****

I think 'Laura' is the most flawless film noir ever, but 'Fallen Angel' isn't too far behind.

Dana Andrews always puts on a good show and the added support from the beautiful Linda Darnell and Alice Faye makes the film too good to miss. Andrews usually plays good, hero-like characters but here he breaks the mould and plays a dangerous man who begins an affair with June (Faye) with the sole intent of inveigling himself into her life, taking her money and marrying the local barmaid Stella (Darnell) whom he has become infatuated with. As in any film noir things don't go to plan and when Stella is mysteriously murdered Andrews becomes inbroiled in tracking down the culprit, whilst being under suspicion himself.

Otto Preminger is a superb director and I rate him very highly. I also think he is brilliant at picking the best actors in his films, and although there was supposedly some drama behind the scenes of the film (Faye's scenes were cut in favour of fleshing out Darnell's part instead) it doesn't stop the audience being presented with polished characters and an exciting plot.

A must-see.

I want to Live! - 1958 ****

A stunning performance from Susan Hayward as the convicted murderess Barbara Graham whose 1955 trial and eventual execution ruled the tabloids. I don't know much about Graham but Hayward's portrayal of her suggests a damaged and misunderstood woman who gets mistreated and abused by almost every man she comes into contact with to the extent that she is accused of a crime she did not commit.

In reality I suspect Graham was a hard and cold woman who enjoyed using people and relished the idea of being spoilt rotten by all her numbers of male admirers. She was certainly attractive, and easy, therefore many men wanted be by her side, but weren't interested when they found out that she had a child. In the film she is shown to be devoted to her son, but in real life she wasn't particularly keen on being a mother, and tended to disregard her son in favour of male attention.

Her execution is a very difficult scene to watch, as well as the scenes leading up to it, where she becomes resigned to her fate but at the same time has a slight glimmer of hope still inside. We will never know for sure whether Graham commited murder or not, but Hayward certainly does a good job of playing the innocent victim. A must see.

(NOIR) D.O.A. - 1950 ****

A very interesting and different film. The iconic first scene where Edmund O'Brien walks into the police station and tells them that he wants to report a murder, his own. We are then taken back to the beginning of the story to find out why exactly O'Brien believes he is going to die. It's a fascinating film, and completely original, I haven't yet seen a film noir with such originality. I do love films where the film goes backwards. O'Brien (who I have never heard of) does a great job of playing a condemned man. As the film is available in the public domain I recommend it to everyone.
PS I originally thought DOA stood for Dead or Alive, it's actually something completely different, and very fitting to the movie.

Back to School - 1986 *

A truly dire excuse for a movie. The main actor is really eerie as the father of a boy who doesn't want to go to college, but decides he will when his father agrees to enrol with him. His father ends up being the most popular and exciting student, throwing the most exciting parties etc but it doesn't help his son. Even Robert Downey Jnr couldn't save this.

Rodney Dangerfield is horrible, he looks like he's wearing a Halloween costume the whole year around.

(NOIR) He Walked By Night - 1948 ***

This was a surprisingly good movie. It's set out in a sort of semi-documentary way about a crook who murders a policeman and the subsequent chase between him and the police that leads them all to the underground. It has a hint of 'The Third Man' in it, and obviously the latter trumps this by 100%, but I was still fascinated by it and one particular scene where the killer sits in wait in his darkened room, his dog snarling at the window as the police close in on him. It's really thrilling.

A good film, exciting and gripping.

Poison Ivy - 1992 ***

Drew Barrymore comes from a long line of actors, most I admire more than her. She's not a bad actress and this is a decent thriller but I would never put her down as being especially talented.

She stars in this as a weird outsider named Ivy who befriends nerdy geek Sara Gibson. I can't remember what other film I've seen Gibson in but I'm sure she is the same sort of character in that as well.

The two girls have a strange slightly homo-erotic relationship going on, and before long Barrymore has weasled her way into Gibson's life and family, even going so far as seducing her father. She looks pretty young so I'm hoping she's not under the legal age because otherwise that's just disgusting.

I like these obsessive movies, it reminds me of 'The Crush' with Alicia Silverstone.

Champagne - 1928 ***

Ha! Don't you love these quirky little posters you get for really old movies?

'Champagne' was a good film, and although Hitchcock constantly said how much of a problem he had with comedies, he actually did this one really well.

Betty Balfour has one of the most expressive faces of the silent screen that I have seen, and I thought she did a very amusing job here as the daughter of a wealthy city tycoon who decides to squander much of his fortune on a cruise ship with her boyfriend, but her father isn't going to stand for that, believing that her boyfriend is only after the money...

Worth a watch, and fantastic in my opinion to see the typically 20s clothes on the 2 main stars (Betty Balfour makes a fantastic flapper!).

The Servant - 1963 ***

The first thing I noted about this film was how completely risque it was for a film of it's time. The second thing I thought of was that I couldn't for the life of me get to grips with what was going on. I sensed that because it was Harold Pinter related it would be a bit bizarre but still!

I get that there were class divides, and obviously Dirk Bogarde initially plays the 'servant' to James Fox's 'master' but then it all got a bit confusing for me. What it seemed however was that there became a drastic shift in class, with Bogarde appearing to take over the more overpowering role, and James Fox cowering into the lower class one. There are also added complications when Bogarde brings his 'sister' to the house as a maidservant, and falls out almost immediately with Fox's fiancee.

However if you watch closely, it's clear that Bogarde effectively owns the scenes. He has a gentle way of manipulating both the owner and his partner without them really understanding what he is doing. That to me is rather terrifying. It's definitely a psychological thriller at the very least, and certain other subjects including homosexuality and incest are touched upon which had me amazed for a 1960s film. However obviously the 60s was full of free love and new and exciting things so I shouldn't really be surprised.

Bogarde is an amazing actor, I respect him a huge amount, but think that I would probably have to watch this again to really appreciate the nuances.

Maria Marten: Murder in the Red Barn - 1935 ***

Not a bad movie, but the quality was awful. I'm very interested in the real life case that this movie is based on, so had been looking forward to seeing it for a long time.

For those of you who don't know, Maria Marten is the town beauty in early 19th century Suffolk, and is chased by many men.

She begins a relationship with one man and soon discovers that he has a temper on him which may lead to her demise.

Tod Slaughter is great as usual, suitably cheesy but also very unhinged looking. For more information on the real case (obviously parts of it have been changed in the film) go to wikipedia.

(NOIR) Knock on any Door - 1949 ****

Nicholas Ray of 'Bigger than Life' fame directed this exciting courtroom drama starring Bogart at the height of his stardom.

Bogart's character acts as a charged up lawyer who takes the case of a disturbed man from the same slums as he, against the wishes of his colleagues. He feels empathy for the young man and also feels guilty for letting the man's father be wrongly put to his death after a botched criminal trial a year beforehand.

The whole film is basically Bogart talking, and Bogart acting his socks off. He's utterly faultless in this movie, and the passion he portrays as he holds the whole courtroom speechless is pretty amazing. There are also scenes interspersed with him talking that show us the story of the criminal's life and how things led up to him being on trial. The film has a tremendous climax and I think this is one hell of an underrated film, partly because I never hear anyone talking about it or mentioning it in lists about Bogart.

One thing I was really interested in was that the quote 'Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Good Looking Corpse' was first mentioned in this film, going on to become James Dean's iconic line, and I had always believed that Dean himself made up the phrase.

Laughter in Paradise - 1951 ****

This is a completely underrated and utterly funny offering from Alastair Sim. He plays the cousin of a man who dies, leaving a will to his four closest family members. They are each told that they will be receiving £50,000 but only on completion of four tasks, some criminal, some embarassing, but all designed to show up the members of the family. Alastair Sim who has never committed a crime in his life is told that he must commit a crime within a week of the will being read out, and must go to jail for 28 days. His cousin who is a complete snob and has a servant whom she treats very badly is told that she must get a job as a domestic servant for a month and cannot be sacked or she will forfeit the money. The other 2 tasks are sort of in the same vein as this, and if any of the tasks are not completed the members of the family will not be able to receive the money.

I guessed what would happen in the end but it was still great fun to go along for the ride. Alastair Sim is always on top.

The Hangover 2 - 2011 **

The first Hangover film was ok. It was quite funny but nothing original. Maybe I've seen too many teen comedies, but there was barely no new material there at all.

It was obviously the wrong idea to watch the sequel, if I thought the first film was barely watchable this was even worse.

It's the same 3 men, this time stranded for some bizarre reason in Bangkok after having a drug induced session the night before. Throw in a monkey with a Rolling Stones tee shirt, a decapitated finger and some other stupid things, and you have pretty much the identical movie that happened before except this time with the added 'bonus' of the ghastly slum areas of the Bangkok underworld.

This film is completely overrated, and relies so heavily on various swear words that if you took them out you would only have about a quarter of the film.

Boring, unfunny, and dare I say it, completely 'American.'

Cat People - 1942 ***

This film seems to have been almost impossible to track down, and it was only by chance that I saw it was to be on late one night that I recorded it.

Anyway, in the end it didn't really matter, because it wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting it to be.

Simone Simon (I've always thought it was a stupid name) plays a woman named Irene who meets a draftsman and falls in love with him. However she is paralysed with fear that if she becomes intimate with him she will turn into a cat, like the Serbian myths told her in her childhood. However she goes ahead and gets married, and her husband soon realises that she needs serious help with her fears and tries to get her to see a psychiatrist.

It goes from being pretty terrifying (you will all have seen the famous scene where the woman is walking down a dark street and stops every now and again because she thinks she is being followed. It's really quite a scary scene) to being absolutely ridiculous (the girl jumping into the swimming pool in the dark because she thinks that will deter the giant black cat that is chasing her) with a load of dull blurb in between. Except for a few exciting moments there isn't much to recommend in this film.

(NOIR) Shoot to Kill - 1947 **

A really dreadful offering from Robert Lippert, in fact probably one of the worst noirs I have seen. I couldn't really make head nor tail of the story, the acting was hideous (the lead acts like she is tuned up to an electric wire) and the quality was dire (not that that could be helped of course.)

Not even so bad it was good, just very bad full stop. It wasn't even a good B movie, more like a diabolical C movie.

*goes off to fume about the acting in the film and the non-existant storyline *

Natalee Holloway:The Movie 2009 **

I'm not sure how close this film was to the truth and the real reactions of friends and family, but it certainly doesn't portray them in the best light.

Her friends are shown as people who can't look out for their drunk friend as she gets inot a car with 3 men she doesn't know. They also don't seem to put up much of a fight into staying on the island to help look for her the day after. Her chaperone doesn't pay any attention to the panic this is causing everyone and dismisses it as a foolish prank. The mother becomes manical, even breaking the law by speeding to get to the airport, then attacking witnesses and highjacking news reports about her daughter. The Aruba officials seem to have a friendly pact going on with the suspects, feeding them information to cover their tracks before the mother is told, and the suspects themselves are so completely lacklustre and relaxed about the whole thing that you couldn't actually believe people this stupid could be hiding something. Added to which, Natalee is presented as a girl who, despite not being a drinker, goes wild the second she is away from her parents getting drunk constantly and having strange men grope her. She then wanders off with 3 of them to the beach and 'teases' one of them into wanting to have sex.

I don't know this poor girl but I seriously doubt that she was anything like her character here.

I don't think her mother was this unhinged person either that she is being made out to be, and the only reason people seem to have a problem with her is because she made sure everyone knew about her daughter's case, and worked tirelessly to get her message across. I don't doubt however that the police in Aruba where totally corrupt, and I think they tried many times to cover up vital information from Natalee's family which may have ultimately have led to her being found, dead or alive.

Also, at the end of the film, the main suspect is bugged in a car and his "friend" (who is actually an undercover official or news man) gets out information from him, to the extent that he left her unconscious on the beach but didn't know for sure whether she was dead or not. Natalee's mother appeared to take this information at face value and the whole film sort of wrapped up with her announcing that she finally 'had the answers and could move on', despite the fact that the suspect then admitted that he had lied about the story to impress his friend. So nothing is ever concluded and we are no closer to knowing what happened to her. At the time the film was made, no one had been arrested regarding Natalee's disappearance, but fast forward a couple of years, and the main suspect has been charged, as well as being charged with another murder of a girl named Stephany Flores, who was found murdered in her hotel room. That at least, can be some comfort for Natalee's family.

Butterfield 8 - 1960 ****

I watched this straight after 'A Summer Place' and my goodness what a contrast in glamour for 2 films made just a year apart.

Elizabeth Taylor is as always breathtakingly beautiful, playing a good time girl (many would call her a call-girl) named Gloria, who struggles to maintain real relationships with the people around her that don't consist purely on where she can get her next fur coat or diamond bracelet from. Her close friend Steve is totally besotted with her despite having a girlfriend of his own who is fiercely jealous of Gloria. She also mingles with an assortment of unsavoury and dodgy men who treat her badly but always seem to deliver on the money/jewellery side which is the root core of all her energy.

Taylor does a wonderful job of this girl who, despite spending her time taking money from men, seems quite a pitiful and disturbed character with many problems in her life. You can see Taylor mirrored in many aspects, (especially the constant drinking) but she still manages to maintain a glamourous and exuberant existance.

The ending is really awful and quite upsetting, as the all familiar story of a girl who changes her life only when it's too late.

Watch it.

(NOIR) Born to Kill - 1947 ***

I can't say that this was one of the best noirs I have seen but it did have something going for it, and that was the roaring passion of Laurence Tierney and Claire Trevor.

Tierney plays a psychotic con man called Sam who likes killing people when they get in his way. He also has a weird and slightly homosexual relationship with his roommate Marty (played of course by Elisha Cook Jnr) as well as knocking people out left, right and centre if they annoy him. He becomes jealous after finding out the person he is seeing has another boyfriend and promptly 'does them both in.' Que Helen Trent (Trevor) who finds the bodies and doesn't tell anyone, oh except when she goes off to her sister's and casually lets it drop in a conversation. She also becomes fascinated by Sam despite the fact that she is engaged to be married and Sam is a thug and hooligan. Helen's sister is rich and so Sam goes after her, marrying her on a whim a short time later whilst being attracted to Helen. They don't think anything of having a grope in the kitchen in the middle of the night with the light on and the door open.

Things get sticky after a detective is put onto watching Marty and makes Sam believe that Helen is trying to double-cross him when all she wants is to double-cross her sister. This ends with a shoot-out etc, and I'm not telling you anymore. I'e probably told you too much already.

I love how Cook Jnr pops up in mostly all the 40s noir films that I see and nearly always plays the same character, he's like a staple of the film.

A good movie, worth a watch but not a classic.

A Summer Place - 1959 ***

The best thing about this film was the theme tune, I think I knew that before I started watching it. The movie cannot compare to how wonderful and typically 50s the music is.

The movie has become dated, despite the fact it deals with many modern topics such as adultery and teenage pregnancy.

Sandra Dee is utterly infuriating but she isn't the worst thing about the film by far.

A couple and their daughter (Dee) go to a lovely resort on an island in Maine for the summer to spend time together and when they arrive the father bumps into the love of his life whom he left a number of years ago when last at the island. She is now also married and has a son (Richard Egan), but both of them realise they still have feelings for each other and that they are still married to their spouses purely because of convention and their children. The same time they are there, the daughter and the son of the 2 families meet and fall hopelessly in love, despite the almost tyrannical afflictions of the girl's mother, who is completely backward in her way of modern thinking, and believes her daughter is becoming some sort of harlot.

Despite being forbidden to meet or see each other the couple exchange words on the phone and letters when they are back home and plan to meet secretly whenever they can. The next big blow comes when the daughter's father and the son's mother publicly divorce their partners and get married. The 2 children are distraught and refuse to accept it despite going up to spend time with the family in their lovely new home.

The film plays out like a modern day soap opera and the acting is completely ridiculous and over the top. The characters are mostly unlikeable (except for the father of the daughter and the mother of the son) and watching Dee and Egan exchanging romantic words and acting up to their parents gets completely predictable.

This film is only popular (I'm assuming it is actually popular although I have never heard anyone mention the fineness of the film without leaping in to praise the music) because of the breaktaking theme music immortalised by Percy Faith. Nothing more.

Pink String and Sealing Wax - 1945 ****

One of the first Ealing movies I have seen that wasn't a comedy. I've always been drawn to it by the title of the picture, it sounds so old-fashioned and just up my street!

Googie Withers was looking lovely as Pearl, the wife of an alcoholic pub owner who befriends an innocent chemist's son in an effort to obtain some poison to kill her husband. At the same time there is another story going on in the son's household where the strictly religious father keeps a tight leash on his family to the extent where his daughter's plea to become a professional singer falls on deaf ears.

Exciting film, and a bit bizarre, plus it has the guy from George Formby movies as the alcoholic pub owner (and of course Googie Withers who was in one of George's films too, ironically with the pub owner actor!)

Hold Your Man - 1933 ****

A great film. Jean Harlow can never be in a bad film and I think she knew this by the time she starred in 'Hold Your Man.' By this time her social life was constantly in the tabloids and she was one of the most talked about stars of the early 1930s. So basically we know for sure that if Harlow is in something then it's going to be great.

In this snappy picture she plays Ruby, a wisecracking and smarmy girl who bumps into con Clark Gable whilst he is running away from his latest scheme (well to be precise he runs in on her in the bath!) and she hides him when the police come looking. Gable is also smooth talking and the pair hit it off immediately, bouncing off jokes and insults at each other as fast as Grant and Russell in 'His Girl Friday'. However after a plan of his goes wrong, Ruby gets blamed and taken down and placed in a penitentiary for 'fallen women.'

Harlow looks absolutely stunning in every scene, and her presence lights up the whole shot. She has this amazing quality whilst acting that means you can't take your eyes off her. A bit like Monroe. She also has some lovely costumes. Harlow was a national treasure.

This is one of a number of films that Gable and Harlow did together and I can't wait to see the first one they did (Red Headed Woman).

PS What I love about films like this is how much they incapsulate the time period they were filmed in. You really get to see what the city and the restaurants/bars, vehicles etc looked like and so from that aspect it's good to have as a keepsake of how the world has changed.

The Catered Affair - 1956 ****

I was surprised by this film. In fact from the beginning I could tell it was made for the stage.

Bette Davis is a really brilliant actress, and each time I see her in a film my appreciation of her grows. And Ernest Borgnine was a really good addition to the family.

The story basically encapsulates this one family. The young daughter (played superbly by Debbie Reynolds) announces to her parents that she is getting married. Her mother Aggie (Davis) is determined that she will have a big, exciting wedding despite the fact that the family are barely surviving on the father's (Borgnine) low income as a taxi driver. The daughter herself and her fiance don't actually want a big wedding, just a simple affair with their closest family. But the mother wants her to have the wedding she never had, with hundreds of people, limos, champagne. The more Aggie pushes the daughter, the more the daughter feels trapped into doing what her mother wants and what will be right for her. Added to which the father realises how much it will put him in debt paying for the extravagance of a reception for people that he doesn't really know.

The film is tense, gritty and quite hard to watch, and Davis nails her part exactly as the tired and worn housewife who never had an exciting or worthwhile part to play in life.

I realise that times were different then and being a housewife was the norm, but I found Aggie's attitude to money really awful. I hate the fact that she doesn't work and instead of looking for work herself when she knows how expensive the wedding will be, leans harder on her husband to give up the last amount of money that he has scrimped and saved for years and years because of something she wants. She has an attitude that the money is also hers to do what she wants with it, and I think that's a very arrogant way to behave. She actually has the nerve to go off and start booking a totally over the top venue for the wedding without even consulting her husband.I feel so sorry for him!

Anyway, my rant over, it's a well acted film, and as usual Bette Davis makes me feel strongly about a character that she plays.

Harry, He's Here to Help - 2000 ***

I can't say I think much of the translation of this film's title, it sounds completely unsuitable for the film. It sounds like the lead has broken down in their car and sent for the AA, which appears in the form of Harry..

I much prefer the rougher translation that the English have used ' With A Friend Like Harry.'

I must say this was a remarkably strange film, if slightly bizarre and unsettling.

Michel and Claire live in a lovely old French house on the outskirts with their 2 children. One day whilst out driving, Michel bumps into an old classmate named Harold at a rest stop.

Harold "Harry" invites himself and his girlfriend Plum, over to their house to have a drink despite it apparently being hundreds of miles out of their way. And once they reach the house, both Harry and Plum start to intergrate themselves into the family, and aren't going anywhere...

This is a sort of mixture of all the well known films that cover this 'captive at home' scenario, (The Strangers, Funny Games, The Talented Mr Ripley) although it's never quite that bad on the surface. It's more a terrible uneasiness of feeling like your visitors have outstayed their welcome and won't take the hint to leave. Harry starts off as a rather charming and friendly man, but soon it feels like his mask has slipped and he becomes outwardly obsessive (I'm assuming over Michel) to the point where he is trying to destroy everything in Michel's life. It's very weird, and there are a few loose ends as regards to what happens in certain scenarios that will have you scratching your head, but on the whole, an interesting and surreal experience into a very twisted mind.

The Roommate - 2011 ****

Yes, this film is very like 'Single White Female', so if you are one of the vast population who has seen that then you won't be surprised. However I'm quite a fan of obsessive friendship/relationship films, so I wasn't too bothered about roughly knowing what was going on. Many of you will notice that the joint lead is Leighton Meester from 'Gossip Girl.' This actress could not play a more different character if she tried. I watched the film thinking 'she must be loving playing this part!'

Minka Kelly plays a student named Sara who gets assigned a new roommate named Rebecca. Things start off well and both girls bond. But when Sara starts dating someone and hanging out with another girl, Rebecca's true colours come out and she becomes a total nutcase, obsessive of everything Sara does and who she is with. Several eerie events make up Sara's mind that she doesn't want anything to do with Rebecca anymore, but Rebecca isn't letting her go that easily...

In all fairness, the acting from these 2 girls was amazing. Meester really can act and I will never stereotype her as the ditzy girl from 'Gossip Girl' again. Billy Zane also pops up as Sara's art teacher who can't stop hitting on female students in a half funny and half creepy way. Don't take the film too seriously, as 'Single White Female' is a better crafted example of female obsession, but 'The Roommate' is certainly not far behind.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - 2011 ***

I wouldn't agree that this production was a classic, although I suspect that the book itself was probably much more detailed and interesting. Paddy Considine as Mr Whicher was very good as a sort of 1860's Sherlock Holmes who finds all the clues that people miss despite being ridiculed and very unpopular with the crowds of the time. The story is based around the true events that happened in Road Hill House in 1860, where a 3 year old boy named Saville was brutally murdered by an unknown person, his body dumped in a privy outside the family home. The results are somewhat bizarre, and at times it seems that the film hasn't really progressed from the beginning to the end. I understand that the dramatisation is being very precise in the facts, and none of the names or events have been changed, but it was a bit of a shame that *SPOILERS* you never know the true identity of the murderer. As a big fan of Victorian murders I was surprised that this book and film have become so immensely popular over the last year. I would very much now like to read the book to see if my opinion about the story is justified.

Dorian Gray - 1945 ***

George Sanders stole the show for me in this. If he hadn't been in it I would have been pretty disappointed. Hurd Hatfield was in my opinion pretty dreadful as the main character, only saved by the quick-witted Sanders (quoting like mad from Oscar Wilde) and the beautiful Donna Reed as his love interest. Angela Lansbury is very good as well. In fact most of the characters have some redeeming qualities about them except for Dorian Gray. Everyone knows the story so I won't go into it, but will say that the painting (amazingly shot in colour) is absolutely hideous and gives me the shivers thinking about it. I'm not sure whether the actor chosen to portray Gray was completely dull because all his energy and emotion was supposed to have gone into the painting, or whether he was just genuinely a boring actor. Either way I didn't agree with the choice.

Will watch the new version to see how it compares.

Too Many Crooks - 1959 ***

I think in all honesty, that if Terry Thomas and Sid James hadn't propped up the majority of this film then I would have been rather disappointed.

A gang of crooks set out to kidnap a wealthy man's (Thomas) daughter, but get his wife instead who, unbeknownst to them is driving her husband up the wall. The initial excitement of having kidnapped his beloved and thinking of the huge ransom they can ask for is short-lived when he tells them that they can have her for nothing because he's fed up of her and has his eye on his new secretary.

Hearing this, his wife decides to get her own and join the crooks, and help them to a vast sum of his money, stupidly stashed under the floorboards of his house.

The plot sounds funny and it really is, but I felt the presence of some actors (such as Bernard Bresslaw) really dampened the mood. Bresslaw would later go on to play in the Carry on films with Sid James, but his character is so desperately unfunny and dull that it's only luck that gives us Sid James to actually make us laugh. (Why is Sid James always called 'Sidney' in his films??)

Terry Thomas is always funny, and as I said at the top, without him this film would not be as well thought of as it is. Despite being a thoroughly unpleasant character he still manages to be charming and very 'caddish' which only Thomas can be. 3 stars for him.

Christmas in July - 1940 ***

As another viewer quite rightly pointed out, this has all the makings of a 'B' not an 'A' movie. Dick Powell is average, this time playing an office clerk who has dreams of winning a huge amount of money and being able to marry his girlfriend and give her a good life. Several of his colleagues overhear his wishes and decide to play a prank on him, sending him a letter pretending to be from the winning company. However events do not go as they planned.

It's not a bad film, and I am trying to see all of Preston Sturges movies, but I can't honestly say that this is one of his best.

(NOIR) The Shanghai Gesture - 1941 ****

I would imagine that this completely underrated classic was very shocking for it's time. It followed the decline of a woman who goes to Shanghai for some fun and excitement and becomes obsessed with gambling at the hands of the casino's owner 'Mother Gin Sling'.

One thing that stands out in this neo-drama is Gene Tierney's outstanding acting. She really acted her socks off and you believe every word that she says. She also seems to take on this amazing physical transformation throughout the course of the film, starting out with a bubbly, lively girl, and ending with a tortured, bedraggled addict. Amazing.

PS Victor Mature is great as well in his fez hat.

Sabrina - 1995 ****

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this 1990s version of the 50's movie starring Bogie and Hepburn.

Harrison Ford was excellent as the dry and uncompromising Linus Larrabee, the man obsessed with his multi-million dollar company on Wall Street whilst Greg Kinnear was suitably slimy and in my opinion completely unattractive as Linus' younger and completely immature brother David.

Sabrina Fairchild is the 'ugly duckling' daughter of the Larrabee chauffeur and so has had a crush on David since she was young. She has spent her adolescent years watching his many exploits with various women at his various parties from her favourite tree in the grounds, and has always wished more than anything that she coulod be one of those women. Fast forward a period of time (I would imagine it's a year or so) and Sabrina has been to Paris to 'find herself' and is back at the Larrabee household with a more sophisticated outlook on life, causing David to fall for her despite being finally engaged to someone else.

Of course as we all know, obsessive crushes on people when we are young never really shows us what the person is like in reality, and Sabrina discovers that whilst she thinks David is very handsome, he is also a pretty shallow and arrogant human being.

I can't say I liked this characterisation of Sabrina as much as the 50s one, (in fact I found the actress utterly annoying and whimpish with a ridiculous, angelic opinion of a man she didn't know well at all) but I did like the two male characters very much, especially seeing them bring an ounce of humour to the storyline.

A good story, showing us that the value of attraction towards another person should be more than skin deep, and also the whole 'love is more important than money' adage.

Harrison Ford is great in sarcastic comedy!