1. Alien (1979)

2. The Warriors (1979)

3. Mad Max (1979)

4. Apocalypse Now (1979)

5. The Muppet Movie (1979)

6. The First Great Train Robbery (1979)

7. The Jerk (1979)

8. Hardcore (1979)

9. Tess (1979)

10. All That Jazz (1979)
11. Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
12. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
13. Time After Time (1979)
14. Manhattan (1979)
15. The Wanderers (1979)
16. Saint Jack (1979)
17. Radio On (1979)
18. Scum (1979)
19. Camera Buff (1979)
20. Breaking Away (1979)

Leo McCarey directs Groucho Marx, Chico Marx and Harpo Marx in this manic comedy about small European fiefdom that finds itself with an acerbic new leader and a war looming. 

War fever! Marx Brothers style. Absolutely crazed. It is hard to think how the generation who watched this, WWI in imbedded their memories and WWII beginning to formulate, felt about a spoof of war. Then again, was Hot Shots: Part Deux any more sensitive to ‘Nam vets and Middle Eastern geopolitics? You get some fantastic sketches welded on… the mirror sequence, the lemonade seller’s destruction and Rufus T Firefly’s unlikely court defence of  Chicolini. All comedy gold.

10

Stefano Sollima directs Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin and Isabela Moner in this action thriller sequel that sees the ethics free drug cartel breakers exploit a kingpin’s child and the border’s human trafficking business to disrupt the drug trade.

Soldado lacks the relentless, being dragged down into quicksand, feeling of Denis Villeneuve’s original entry. It lacks the heart that Emily Blunt’s rookie but capable protagonist brought as our guide into this murky world of covert ops and maximum deniability. You could say the tough kid, Isabela Moner, takes over this function for us. But for the last hour she is rendered mute by both duct tape and PTSD. There are also three or four sequences that are as silly as they are suspenseful. Still, it is a thumping and violent action film with a mature plot in the main. And Del Toro is still an under utilised, truly masculine lead… thirty years into his career. These both are rarities in the multiplexes recently, and should be supported.

6

J. A. Bayona directs Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt and Ted Levine in this fifth instalment of the cloned dinosaurs on the rampage in the modern age blockbuster franchise. 

Well, well, well… this is a pleasant summer surprise. Bitty and daft, featuring millennial support characters as annoying as The Green Inferno’s lampooned protagonists (though these ones somehow don’t get eaten). It should be a disaster disaster movie, right? Well nope… as Bayona in the first half crafts a heartfelt love letter to Spielberg. The PG-13 peril is constantly gripping and escalating, the threat laid out expertly and unfussily, and there are pleasing visual steals from less obvious moments in Raiders of the Lost Ark, War of the Worlds and well… Jurassic Park. I was absolutely swept away. I chuckled at the ridiculous plot wobbles. I was in awe of the shot of the brachiosaurus as we left the island. I bet Steven the ageing wunderkind had tears caught in his beard when he saw that reverent, majestic image that out Spielberged even him. The second half sees Bayona retreat back into his own directorial interests… gothic castles, locked away secrets, princesses in turrets, patterned wallpaper. It is not quite as playful, and the action doesn’t flow fast enough for you not to have adequate time to outthink the ridiculous moments. It is not terrible… just not the breakneck rollercoaster that the island offered. It certainly isn’t an entertainment for humbuggy nitpickers. Howard and Pratt are given short shrift, only a couple of scenes exploit their neat screwball chemistry. And Blue, the trained velociraptor, probably gets a little too much screentime… she is a concept that just doesn’t work as a plot device and, worse yet, utterly dilutes her species “big bad” legacy within the series. I want my raptors to be claw tapping, relentless monsters of death… not reluctant, uncertain sidekicks. Still Ted Levine, Rafe Spall and Toby Jones all bring some cold blooded “boo-hiss”ery to their human villian roles to make up for this fudge. A tapestry of moments, one that possibly won’t hold up to repeated viewings though.

7

John Carpenter directs Kurt Russell, Season Hubley and Shelley Winters in this biopic of Elvis Presley’s life.

John Carpenter’s name promises lean, intense and ominous adventures. So this project is a real curveball. Expansive, laidback and ominous anecdotes from the life of The King. That’s right… still ominous… Carpenter the director can’t shake his horror roots and there’s frequent scenes where characters bid farewell, or drive fast, or get into a scuffle where you expect violent tragedy to strike. I watched one impromptu car chase full of dread, thinking “I don’t remember Elvis losing a limb in a pile-up!” This is down to Carpenter’s house style, he accidentally falls back into the visual mode of suspense even when it’s wholly inappropriate. That’s not to say his mastery doesn’t imbue other mundane or stock moments with a rock ‘n’ roll energy or visual elan. He exceeds the TV movie origins of the production with his talent. But in the main you watch this for Russell. His impersonation of Presley is keen, even when the lip syncing flubs. He has a sweet chemistry with Season Hubley, his Priscilla. Where is Season Hubley now? If you can’t be bothered reading a doorstop biography of Elvis then this gives you the whitewashed highlights, with a few hints at acceptable controversy. A fun, if uncomplicated, afternoon killer.

6

Fred M. Wilcox directs Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen in this space opera about a crew who land on a planet with no inhabitants except a shipwrecked scientist, his foxy daughter, a haughty robot and strange, deadly projections.

I enjoyed Forbidden Planet far more as a kid than I do as an adult. It is just too talky. We move repetitively onto different sets to endure another 10 minutes of exposition that could be covered in five minutes of action. Ignore the talk, enjoy the pleasures. The Eastmancolor vision of the galaxy has its retro charms, Anne Francis looks delectable as the young lady fuelling her father’s id monsters and  there’s a perverse pleasure in watching Leslie Nielsen play it straight.

7

 

My Top 10 Space Operas

1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
2. Planet of the Apes (1968)
3. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
4. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
5. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
6. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
7. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
8. Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (1980)

9. The Fifth Element (1996)
10. Flash Gordon (1980)

Eli Roth directs Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy and Aaron Burns in this horror thriller about a group of students who travel to the jungle to protect a lost tribe’s right only to end up in their cooking pot.

Middling horror bad boy Roth spends a good hour lampooning the hypocrisy of his millennial social justice warriors with nary a severed limb in sight. So well that I’ve read a fair few reviews from people of that generation who see the protagonists as likeable and well motivated. Ha! You young deluded fools. Roth wants to hate the kids before he ates the kids. And he destroys, and chops, and chews em up good and raw. Grisly stuff… though without a sympathetic protagonist it is essentially a joyless gorno. Joyless gorno… Roth’s signature dish. Let the (kinda) master cook. The set pieces are never dull and always ruthless in their brutality.

6

Bruce Gowers directs Eddie Murphy, a red leather jumpsuit and a microphone in this feature length stand up stage show.

Am I going to touch the controversial first 10 minutes of this stand up special with a barge pole? Can you justify a major Hollywood star opening to a sell out adoring crowd with the line “I got rules. Faggots aren’t allowed to look at my ass while I’m onstage?” And then go on to talk, at length, insensitively about homosexuals, AIDS, hitting your girlfriend and the like without any ironic detachment or satirical intent? Eddie Murphy… a young comic, at the height of his stardom, playing to an unenlightened crowd in an unenlightened decade as a raunchy, say anything, turn up in cock enhancing red leather jump suit megastar… let’s just say it was an exaggerated reflection of working class hetero-normative attitudes of the time and get past it. Would I use the same justification for Bernard Manning’s racism? No. Why? That seemed to come from a genuinely hateful place and as time moved on Manning stuck to his guns. Even five years after its release Delirious became difficult to rent and impossible to buy. I remember videoshops in the 90s made you leave a deposit on top of the overnight fee the VHS became such a rarity. Clearly Murphy evolved in his attitudes towards gays and women, suppressed the film and restricted us from experiencing the remaining hour (a brilliant hour of mimicry, act outs and blistering over confidence). His next stand up feature Raw… though equally sexually aggressive, eased up on the immature playground hate speech and became more playful. This is a hot young superstar (just 22… raised on the club circuit, already a millionaire and surrounded by an entourage of yes men) trying to out shock and out dazzle his hero, Richard Pryor. But Murphy is better than Pryor in his two specials… he’s more outrageous, more flamboyant, more honed. The Ice Cream Man is coming. Gunni Gu Gu. James Brown. These are the pinnacle routines of stand up comedy. The brash attack mode, the pure thrusting attitude. Delirious, after the historically tragic misstep of its opening salvo, is one of the finest man and mic shows ever filmed. And even in those now tough early routines, Eddie talks so excitedly about ass fucking you get the feeling he’d be well up for it if he could be top and the “faggot” was willing. Maybe he was working through some personal demons up there after all.

9

Michael Hoffman directs Michelle Pfeiffer, George Clooney and Mae Whitman in this New York romantic comedy about single parents continually crossing paths on a chaotic workday when their kids miss the field trip.

There’s no denying we have two very sexy movie stars here. But the machinations overstay their welcome by a good half hour, the “cute” kids are brattishly troublesome and the only thing in common these star crossed lovers have is the fact they are achingly beautiful. Stretched out fluff.

5

Nicholas Stoller directs Emily Blunt, Jason Segel and Alison Brie in this romantic comedy about a near perfect couple who struggle to stay together during the run up to their oft-delayed wedding.

A superficially floral romcom that exploits a very winning cast to go to some very dark places. When the stretched and strained relationship we invest in hits a funk, the funk is brutal. The Five Year Engagement languishes in this darkness; taking in depression, infidelity and the pressure of compromise. Like the similarly underrated The Break Up, this strange swerve from sparky chemistry to unbearable antagonism between the couple slightly hobbles the chocolate box laughs. But the risk pays off richly and the feels of the finale are stronger for making it through the unlit tunnel they emerge out of. There’s a bright, efficient genre exercise bookending a less satisfying but brave middle act. If your palette can take the shift in flavours then you’ll find Segel and Blunt delivering peak game comedic power-plays. Toes are lost, happiness risked, careers ruined but the couple feel like they’ve earned their happy ending like no other cutesy star pairing. The hustling support cast are all stars in their own right now too, with the ever effective Alison Brie adding value as the prissy sister. She actually gels with Segel and Blunt’s interplay rather than showboats crudely.

8