Lumet's complex and atmospheric thriller is based on a real event. Pacino is superb as the neurotic and incompetent gay bankrobber who needs the money from the robbery to finance his lover's sex change operation. The film's beauty is it's closely detailed psychological observation. Excellent.

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Phyllis Dietrichson is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who inspires in her nothing but contempt, but rather than leave him Phyllis decides to kill him and collect on the insurance policy she's had set up with the help of her lover, and naive partner in crime, insurance salesman Walter Neff. The only flaws in their plan are the company's reluctance to pay out so much, the diligence of Neff's increasingly suspicious colleague, (and his 'little man'), and the exemplary ruthlessness of Ph find out more...

It's been a long time coming and, while not as hard-hitting as Reservoir Dogs or as mirth-inducing as Pulp Fiction, "Jackie Brown" is (probably) Tarantino's finest movie yet. Adapted from novellist Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch, this is a sometimes painfully realistic trudge through the tawdry lives of several somehow-connected characters. The Jackie of the title (dazzlingly played by Pam Grier) is a world-weary, cash-smuggling air hostess trying to stay as far away as possible from both her scuzzy find out more...

A superb modern thriller in the ultra-hardboiled Jim Thompson mould, in which a trio of criminals, wanted for a brutally murderous drugs heist, converge on a small, quiet Arkansas township where the local cop, treated with contempt by the LA officers in charge of the case, looks forward to a High Noon-style showdown. The asides on racial and sexual inequality are made subtly and succinctly; the performances and pacing are nigh perfect; the violence is explicit, disturbing but never gratuitous; a find out more...

An FBI spy infiltrates a gang of surfers suspected of a series of bank robberies. As he becomes more attracted to their lifestyle, cracks begin to show in his cover, and so begins an adrenalin-charged battle of intrigue on land, and in sky and sea. Incredible surfing and sky-diving sequences. Great! find out more...

Prepare to be corrupted! The long awaited, but mercifully uncut release of Tarantino's masterpiece means you can now rewind all the nasty bits in the privacy of your own home. A superbly scripted, stunningly stylish study of loyalty and double-dealings amongst underworld gangsters in sharp suits.

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A formidable gangster thriller later to be cribbed by Tarantino. An itchy crew of criminal cronies grab a metro carriage of civilians and demand $1 million ransom, causing the kind of chaos in New York City that a traditional train heist causes the cavalry. But, once they've got the ransom, how on earth do they expect to get away? find out more...

A very dated but still entertaining slice of 60s kitsch. McQueen is the incredibly debonaire playboy millionaire, led to commit robbery through boredom, countered by Dunaway, the implausibly glamorous fraud investigator. Much period posing and split-screen shenanigans, with fun results. find out more...

Definitely THE film of 1995, with the added bonus of bearing up to repeated viewing even when you know the final twist. A tightly scripted, complex and compelling whodunnit which slowly unpeels layer upon layer to reveal the truth behind the opening carnage, and in which nothing is as it seems. find out more...

Two best friends leave their Arkansas town for a weekend break, but become fugitives before crossing the state line. As the police get closer the friends grow farther away from the women they were when they first left town. Their hair comes down as they take to the fugitive life but they grow ever out of control of their own situation. Wrongly hailed as an anti-man flick upon its original release, this feminist classic has become a landmark in the history of film. Davis and Sarandon were duall find out more...