Harold Becker directs Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn in this teen drama where, after a tragedy, a group of students takeover their military school and the ensuing stand-off turns into an armed siege.

George C Scott is top billed in the credits but only appears in a handful of scenes. Timothy Hutton is nowhere near the movie star that Cruise and Penn would blossom into so your eyes are always drawn away from him, no matter how pivotal his actions are in the story. The casting would work better rejigged if Cruise were the lead, Penn the hothead and Hutton the voice of reason. It is a strange little teen rebellion movie, not a bad one, but one where the kids are fighting for their right to be part of the system. Unusual to see a flick where the values are quite so conservative, so traditional and almost pointedly uncool. You can constantly sense the tragedy brewing after an unpredictable first act proves there’ll be no holds barred. The big finale is surprisingly violent.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Michelangelo Antonioni directs Monica Vitti, Gabriel Ferzetti and Léa Massari in this arthouse classic; a mystery where an heiress disappears during a boating weekend.

I’m not denying this has some of the most beautifully composed shots in cinema history. And I liked how unresolved it all is. Yet this is ultimately an exploration of ennui, restlessness and angst… like seemingly every Italian film of the era… we see how grotesquely the idle rich behave… and boredom and desolation is quite boring and dispiriting to watch.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Pietro Marcello directs Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy and Vincenzo Nemolato in this Italian dramatic adaptation of Jack London’s novel about an uneducated worker who becomes a struggling writer.

What a fantastic lead performance by Luca Marinelli. He anchors this story of love, ambition, politics and poverty with a star-making turn equal to Brando in Streetcar or De Niro in Taxi Driver. He suits this sensual but cruel world, we share in his stubborn, often amusingly curt, rejection of compromise and patronage. Marinelli’s decade spanning exploration takes place in a vague 20th century Naples. Some of the technology is quite modern, some of the fashions and politics feel like they belong in a forgotten past. Old footage is colourised or recreated as mood setting flashbacks and visual representations of Martin’s personal writings. These sequences are spellbinding. This temporal vagueness helps you get lost in the story… though there is a jerky leap forward in time and fortune at the start of the third act that disorientates. The conclusion seems to be aiming for the artier and the metaphorical… the kind of unspoken desolation of decadence that Fellini or Antonioni or Kubrick aim for. I’m not sure I entirely picked apart the closing moments true narrative import, though the sense of fatalism they evoke is definitive. I look forward to rewatching them.

9

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Jaume Collet-Serra directs Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson and Jesse Plemons in this family adventure movie based on Disney’s theme park ride.

This starts oh so strong. A non-stop pummelling of period romping and slapstick spectacular. Genuinely relentless and high quality entertainment which owes as much to Buster Keaton as it does The African Queen, The Mummy (1999) as it does Indiana Jones. At one point The Rock performs a suplex on a jaguar! This really is popcorn heaven in that initial hour and I can’t over emphasise what a blast it is. Then abruptly the tone shifts. Suddenly we are in a miasma of murky green screen environments, plagued with unconvincingly CGI’d antagonists and a spew of overly laboured plot revelations dominate. It isn’t dreadful but often reminds of the worst excesses of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Watching this movie of two distinct halves is the equivalent of watching the sprightly first chapter and bloated fourth sequel of a modern Disney franchise all in one condensed sitting. Having said that, Blunt and Johnson have lovely chemistry, Plemons and Paul Giamatti make for colourful villains – ones who land as many laughs as the screwball heroes.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Andrew Davis directs Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas and Francesca Neri in this action thriller where a firefighter hunts the terrorists who killed his family in a bombing.

Made when Arnie was eyeing up retirement and a move into politics. Made before 9/11 but released after. This feels pretty bog standard. Doing nothing wrong but nothing particularly memorable. The role stretches Arnie a little – he needs to portray grief and helplessness. You can see him making the effort to meet the task head on. This leaves the humour to fun actors like John Turturro and John Leguizamo, who are deft at making colourful little cameos. Picking up a paycheck for a short week’s location work. Collateral Damage does the basic job on a Saturday night but never reaching, or even particularly aiming for, the top blockbuster standard. Competency isn’t exactly a huge selling point.

5

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

John Dower directs Jo Weber, Duane Weber and Tina Mucklow in this documentary looking at the various suspects considered in the unsolved lone bomber airplane piracy case that occurred in 1971.

A pretty unsensational true crime retrospective that benefits from avoiding making any definitive conclusions or relying on forced cliffhangers… a bane of the sub-genre in recent years. The unique crime itself and the strange menagerie of living room obsessives still trying to promote their own solutions make this extremely watchable.

8

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Lee Tamahori directs Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin and Bart the Bear in this adventure movie where, after a plane crash, a bookish billionaire and the man he suspects is sleeping with his supermodel wife are chased through the wilderness by a ferocious bear.

Hopkins trying to dial back the ham + a fantastic animal performance x David Mamet script = Hopkins eventually exploding “Today, I’m-a-gonna-kill the mutha fucka.” Daft and pretentious in equal measures yet in its purest moments, very engaging.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Howard Hughes directs Jane Russell, Walter Huston and Jack Buetel in this western revolving around a sexy Mexican peasant caught up in a three way rivalry between Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday and Pat Garrett.

Infamous for Russell’s heaving bosom and a few taboo breaking kinky scenes that restricted it from appearing with mainstream exhibitors – the only shocking thing about The Outlaw these days is how naive it is. There’s a rich seam of barely unspoken gay love and jealousy between the three men and this fuels all the impressive shoot outs, face-offs, brawls and chases. Poor sexy Russell hardly gets a look in, passed around like a chit between the antagonists… desired less than a pretty horse that changes hand more often and with more dramatic consequence. Very watchable.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Erle C. Kenton directs Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen and Leila Hyams in this horror adaptation of H.G. Wells’ Doctor Moreau.

Still stands as the best adaptation set in this mad scientist and his tribe of freakish experiments world. You can see its obvious influence on next year’s King Kong in the build-up at sea and in the ports, the set-up is similar yet what horrors each island holds divergent. Once we are on the island it is Charles Laughton’s show, although Bela Lugosi does make an impression as the near unrecognisable Sayer of the Law. The heroes are a little less stiff than you’d expect from a production of this era. Though being “pre-code” they are allowed to have flaws, desires and lusts so there’s actually more for them to do than listen to a ranting megalomaniac monologue and plot. It plays far less creakier say than Dracula or The Most Dangerous Game, probably would make a fine double bill with the equally vibrant and unsettling Tod Browning’s Freaks. The monsters on the rampage finale is still surprisingly intense. Lugosi’s furry face and desperate eyes glaring at you right through the camera genuinely is the stuff of nightmares.

8

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

The Coen Brothers direct Steve Buscemi, Frances McDormand and William H Macy in this “true” crime thriller set in the Minnesotan winter.

This has never been my favourite Coen Brothers’, for all its hidden warmth I find it a little off pace and distant. Like a deadpan joke where the punchlines are a corpse in a wood chipper and a crying schmo on a motel bed. It has grown on me over the years, and seeing it on the big screen for the first time really opened up the mythic elements of it. Carter Burwell’s score, pregnant with ominous warning, does as much of the heavy lifting as Frances McDormand sweet but sharp central turn.

8

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/