David Lean directs Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard and Stanley Holloway in this classic romance about a married doctor and a housewife who fall in love.

A movie that slips between chaste tweeness and erotic mania. As I grow older Howard’s dashing doctor appears more and more calculating. Johnson’s trapped Laura, trapped in a happy marriage but trapped none the less, actions read more and more frantic. Lean and Coward paint a world on very strict rails. Timetables, rules, bells, bylaws. It would crush anyone. Very beautiful, psychologically horrific.

10

Perfect Double Bill: The Passionate Friends (1949)

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Fede Alvarez directs Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson and Isabela Merced in this sci-fi franchise horror entry where a group of scavengers pick the wrong derelict lab to steal their cryochambers from.

Pretty much a straight remake of Don’t Breathe but in Weyland-Yutani drag. The FX are pleasingly gloopy and clunky. The facehuggers get maximum screentime. There is a fresh set piece involving splooges of zero gravity acid blood. And as a massive die hard fan of the series I left the multiplex sated. It will just about do if you ignore the high bar. Jonsson is the only member of the ensemble who isn’t bland and thinly sketched. I’m used to my expendable crew being a lot more lived in and quirky than this. And that resurrection of a legacy character is ill advised. Qualms aside this will join my mid tier rotation of entertaining respins of familiar wheels. (See also Predators, Spectre, Live Free And Die Hard et al).

Perfect Double Bill: Alien Resurrection (1997)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Sam Raimi directs Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina in this Marvel superhero sequel where Peter Parker tries to abandon being Spider-Man just as Doc Ock begins a rampage of vengeance.

Held up by many as a peak in comic book blockbuster cinema, this still feels a bit too multi-strand to really satisfy. The best thread is the failing unrequited romance between Peter and Mary Jane. The worst is Franco glowering around the mid ground of scenes seeking vengeance on Spider-Man. There doesn’t seem like there is enough room for Doc Ock to fully spread his tentacles. And the arc of whether Parker should give up being Spidey is a bit too similar to Christopher Reeve’s choosing to forfeit his powers in Superman 2. The big action sequences (the pizza delivery, the creation of a villain, the bank heist, the kidnapping of MJ, the runaway elevated train) are pretty strong but are too spread out. Still very colourful, dynamic but not as fun as I remember.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Spider-Man (2002)

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David Schmoeller directs Paul Le Mat, William Hickey and Irene Miracle in this horror where a bunch of magicians in a deserted hotel are killed off by murderous puppets who don’t need a master to come to life.

Charles Band cheapo. The horny, draggy middle act doesn’t make a lick of sense but after an hour we finally get some more puppet action. For the five minutes the puppets are on the rampage the movie fulfils the videoshop rental brief.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Parasite (1982)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Howard Hawks directs Cary Grant, Ann Sheridan and Marion Marshall in this wartime romantic comedy where a French officer marries a female US lieutenant and promptly discovers American military bureaucracy has no space for him.

More fun when it was a mismatched bickering pair, who you know will fall for each other, larking about in the ruins of Germany on a road trip. The second half of the film is the meat of the story. With Grant’s prig having to tie himself into knots trying to pass through bureaucratic loopholes. Eventually he ends in drag but it isn’t always worth the increasingly samey samey journey.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Awful Truth (1937)

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Hayao Miyazaki directs Mayumi Tanaka, Keiko Yokozawa and Kotoe Hatsui in the Studio Ghibli animated fantasy adventure about an orphan from a mining village who rescues a princess who fell from the sky.

As often happens now I had a strong feeling of déjà vu when watching this for what should have been the first time. According to Wikipedia there was a truncated version floating around U.K. terrestrial telly long before anyone over here even knew what a Ghibli was. The iron giant centurion robots definitely felt familiar. Steampunk pirates. Magical stones. The mystical joy of flying. Just an epic romp with a perfect blend of romance, adventure and dream. Set the bar really high early doors for every other Miyazaki. Lush fluid freedom.

9

Perfect Double Bill: The Wind Rises (2013)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Tony Scott directs Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke and Edgar Ramirez in this true crime thriller based on the real life of Domino Harvey, an English socialite turned unlikely East Coast bounty hunter.

You can definitely tell what attracted Scott to his subject. Yet he goes for his most frenetic, garish setting of the house style he experimented with after Man On Fire. And I have a lot of time for Knightley but in 2005 she wasn’t quite the movie star she is now. At this early stage of her career, posh cut glass accent aside, she feels miscast. The plot is a crime caper like True Romance but darting back and forth chronologically like a subpar Tarantino rip-off. There is decent stuff here (Rourke for one) just not enough of it.

4

Perfect Double Bill: Out Of Time (2003)

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Amy Holden Jones directs Michele Michaels, Robin Stille and Michael Villella in this slasher where the killer stalks the young guests of a slumber party.

Colourful. Self-aware. Feminist. Much nudity and cheesecake. Good kills, lots of ‘em. Unpredictable final girl. The creepy killer doesn’t wear a mask. The men and boys are incompetent, also off putting. Some of the girls have complex hidden relationships that are hinted at. More fun than it should be.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/

Stuart Rosenberg directs Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Melanie Griffiths in this detective thriller where a PI travels to Louisiana to help an old flame being blackmailed.

A belated sequel to Harper, a flick that I’ve never seen. But Newman’s much later Twilight could easily be part of this series in all but name. The bulk of The Drowning Pool is very cool, very chill. Newman acting real suave when meeting heavies, cops and suspects, driving every lady he crosses paths with wild with unrequited passion. It would be very watchable if it were just that. Jaws’ Murray Hamilton makes for an oily Big Bad and jailbait Melanie is all kinds of fun. But there are two stand-out set pieces. One a car jacking by a swamp feels like a shocking lurch into pure horror and then there is the big sustained titular drowning pool escape. My jam.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Harper (1966)

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Doug Liman directs Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Vince Vaughn in this romcom actioner where sexy two assassins get married to each other without revealing their day jobs.

Glossy but cobbled together from obvious reshoots and unfulfilled subplots. Essentially trailer moments lingered on as they have nowhere to go. No one’s finest hour but it is passable. The action in the second half is a lot more full on than you’d expect but does become one note by the actual finale. Has Jolie ever starred in a genuinely great movie?

5

Perfect Double Bill: Knight And Day (2010)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/