Polanski has a go at the film noir detective thriller, very bleak, very twisted and very menacing it is to. Nicholson plays a private-eye in pre-war LA who is hired to pursue an adultery case, but finds himself embroiled in a complicated murder investigation. find out more...

A movie in which a lovelorn supersize gorilla and lonely human belle make heavy eyes at each other, not Lord of the Rings here, but Beauty and the Beast! The film is in three chapters; a movie producer sets sail with cast and crew for the legendary Skull Island; where they are attacked by human sacrificing natives, ravenous dinosaurs, cockroaches as big as beer barrels and scorpions the size of cars, to name but a few; what's left of our less than heroic crew return to New York with the greates find out more...

China in the turmoil of Japanese occupation is the evocative setting for this unusual and visually stunning tale. Recruited before she is truly aware of her purpose, a young woman is groomed to become an irresistible siren, an icon of contemporary eroticism to ensnare a collaborator who has wreaked havoc amongst her people. Ang Lee's stunning follow up to "Broke Back Mountain" is in essence a thriller but as with all his films it is the richness and depth of the characters that really drive the find out more...

The definitive gangster-epic; violent? Yes, but never mindless. The Jewish Mafia's coming of age on the Lower East Side in 1923, their rise to wealth during Prohibition, and their fall in 1933, provide the background to a story of friendship and betrayal, love and death. Leone's masterful cinematography evokes both the harshness of the vice-ridden decades before and after Prohibition, but also the philosophy behind it. Splendid performances by De Niro and Woods and a stupendous score by Ennio Mo find out more...

1939; Edward Wilson starts a career in intelligence and covert operations as a consequence of his silver spoon background and American military involvement in WW2. 1961; now Wilson ruthlessly organises programmes that involve the deaths of many, seems incapable of having a relationship with a woman that doesn't involve destroying her, his marriage is a career enhancing loveless and hollow affair, he betrays most who know him, including his family, and this sale of his soul - all in the name of p find out more...

Laughton's only stab at directing, with Mitchum giving a stunning performance as the psychopathic preacher who, whilst in jail for a minor offence, hatches a devious plan to get his hands on the loot stashed by his condemned cell-mate. Set in '30s rural America, the film polarises into a struggle between good and evil for the souls of innocent children. Laughton's deliberately old-fashioned direction throws up a startling array of images: an amalgam of Mark Twain-like exteriors (idyllic riversid find out more...

The famous con man movie in which two Chicago shysters plot an elaborate revenge on the mobster who killed their friend. Brilliant attention to period detail, a superbly put together plot and an overall damn good movie. Won Best Picture at 1973 Academy Awards. Absolutely brilliant. find out more...

A clever science-fiction thriller which is genuinely thought provoking rather than just visually mind-blowing. On the thirteenth floor of a tower block three men have created an amazing virtual world set in 1937 Los Angeles, but the brutal murder of the project's leader leaves one of the designers, Douglas Hall, as the main suspect. In order to vindicate himself and indeed find out whether or not he is the killer, Hall must immerse himself in the virtual world he has helped to create and attempt find out more...