Starring: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune Directed by: Akira Kurosawa Plot: A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves. But is it any good? So I have finally seen Seven Samurai, which has been waiting patiently for me near the top of the 100 list since I started [...]
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman Directed by: Michael Curitz Plot: Classic film set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications. But is it any good? Maybe I’m cold-hearted, I don’t know, but I felt strangely unmoved by Casablanca. Perhaps it was [...]
Starring: Lian Neeson, Ralph Fiennes Directed by: Steven Spielberg Plot: Oskar Schindler uses Jews to start a factory in Poland during the war. He witnesses the horrors endured by the Jews, and starts to save them. But is it any good? This is certainly not a movie I could bring myself to watch again, but [...]
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott Directed by: Stanley Kubrick Plot: An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop. But is it any good? The line “No fighting in the War Room” is enough to make this film great. But it’s much [...]
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola Plot: During the on-going Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe. But is it any good? One-word summaries: trippy. powerful. [...]
Starring: Kirk Douglas Directed by: Stanley Kubrick Plot: When soldiers in WW1 refuse to continue with an impossible attack, their superiors decide to make an example of them. But is it any good? Bloody hell this is a depressing movie. If you’ve just seen Top Gun and are pumped at the idea of rushing out [...]
Starring: Jurgen, Herbert and Klaus Directed by: Wolfgang Peterson Plot: German men hang out in U-boat during WW2. Things turn to shit. But is it any good? I simply could not watch it all. I know, I’m unqualified to comment properly on something I resorted to fast-forwarding through, but it was impossible. It just dragged [...]
Starring: Adrian Brody Directed by: Roman Polanski Plot: A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II. But is it any good? Who would’ve thought that yet another movie about the Second World War would become a classic? Why aren’t we all suffering from war-movie fatigue? Well, [...]
Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins Directed by: David Lean Plot: After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men’s construction of a railway bridge for their captors – while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it. But is it any good? [...]
Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon Directed by: Steven Spielberg Plot: Poor Mrs Ryan has lost a few sons in WW2 so a bunch of soldiers are sent into dangerous French territory to bring back her final surviving son, Private Ryan (Matt Damon). But is it any good? Well yes, and the first 20 minutes or [...]