Tom Holland directs Catherine Hicks, Alex Vincent and Brad Dourif in this possessed kid’s toy horror movie that launched a never-ending franchise.

Silly, scrappy VHS movie that feels like it has lost a few chunks in post-production. The best sequence is when Chucky persuades Andy to skip school and travel across town alone on the subway. There’s not really enough Dourif… and I understand why they didn’t want to open the gate too early on Charles Lee Ray fully inhabiting the Chucky doll and going wisecracking psycho… but that is ultimately what we bought a ticket for. The ending recalls The Terminator at munchkin scale.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Curse Of Chucky (2013)

My wife and I 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/

Guy Hamilton directs Michael Caine, Paul Hubschmid and Eva Renzi in this Cold War espionage movie where Harry Palmer crosses the Berlin Wall to feel out a high ranking defector.

Probably my favourite of the Harry Palmer movies. It is a drier affair, noticeably lacking John Barry’s gorgeous score from The Ipcress File. Yet how they pull off the Checkpoint Charlie location shoot is a wonder and Caine feels fully comfortable in Palmer’s slightly shopworn yet volcanically confident skin here. All the triple crosses can get a little confusing but that’s kinda the plot what you want from one of these potboilers and the finale is silent intensity.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Bridge Of Spies (2015)

My wife and I 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/

Peter Yates directs James Spader, Polly Walker and Michael Caine in this supernatural romantic comedy about a rich book publisher who becomes a little richer.

If I am found murdered in my sleep tomorrow morning then it will be due to Natalie reading the next sentence. Barely contains traces of the supernatural, comedy or romance. A big nothing of a movie with an over qualified cast.

3

Perfect Double Bill: High Spirits (1988)

My wife and I 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/

Luchino Visconti directs Anna Magnani, Walter Chiari and Tecla Scarano in this Italian comedy drama where an ambitious mother squanders every resource when her daughter gets a callback to audition at Cinecittà.

If ever there was a movie they should have remade in the 1980s with Cher or Bette Midler then it should have been this. Watching the brash and volatile Magnani (she’s fantastic) go all in: risking her marriage, her well being, her reputation, her home and eventually her daughter’s happiness is hypnotic. Like a female Uncut Gems – she sinks further and further into that hole until the hole is all she knows. Still Bellisima stays funny and has a lot of sympathetic heart… Also a nice process movie as to how the Italian movie studios worked.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Le Notti Bianche (1957)

My wife and I 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/

Russell Crowe directs himself, Liam Hemsworth and RZA in this thriller about a dying tech billionaire who plays a final game of poker with his old childhood pals involving art heists, luxury car races and truth serums.

Not going to kick Poker Face to death but it is hard to say exactly what it is. Starts out like Stand By Me… ends like Panic Room. Never works. Get the feeling it is all a massive tax write off… not just the piecemeal invested budget but every location, sports car and painting included seems gratuitously featured for some kind off… accounting purpose. “Nah… that’s not my new Rolex, we bought it as a prop for the film, Mr Revenue & Customs, sir.” Why is Liam Hemsworth playing someone twenty years older than himself? Why can’t it just settle down and be one definitive thing? Crowe is capable of so much more, so much better – it is difficult to fathom why he cashed in so many favours to make… this?

3

Perfect Double Bill: Owning Mahoney (2003)

My wife and I 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/

Simon West directs Jason Statham, Ben Foster and Tony Goldwyn in this action thriller where a precision hitman, who can kill his targets without the murder being detected, takes on a troubled protege.

Hard edged, set in some semblance of the real world, sad. After Crank and The Transporter, The Stath went through a slightly somber period. Still making action thrillers where asses are whupped, everything explodes and kills a plenty. Yet also a subset of films that felt less gimmicky, less comic book-y. The plots had emotional hinges, Jase was expected to add a bit more with his sullen physicality than spit out one liners with gravelly voiced cool. Up until the recent Wrath Of Man, this held the title as Statham’s best non-silly one. The violence is constant after the first half hour and pretty exacting. The relationship between Statham and Foster has a grimy, uncertain vibe to it. You would almost say they have sexual chemistry together if it wasn’t for a couple of heterosexual one night stands crowbarred in for each lead so we don’t question the “professionalism” of the close partnership. Anyway, the swimming pool opener, the huge man first assignment and the hotel escape are as about as good as none CGI action got this decade… at least until John Wick. No idea why the cinematography is so constantly orange though?

7

Perfect Double Bill: The Mechanic (1971)

My wife and I 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 Chang-dong directs Yoon Jeong-hee, Lee David and Kim Hee-ra in this South Korean drama where a grandmother with Alzheimer’s disease becomes embroiled in a scandal.

Yang Mi-ja just wants to take up poetry. The outside world wants to bring her back to reality with shocking revelations and impossible choices. Is poetry not the act of noticing what can be ignored or putting into words life’s beauty? Adding formalism to the everything one must encounter and process? A really involving drama, told with a lack of sensationalism (even though it can be honestly brutal in moments). An almost pastoral sense of not fitting in with the community and class systems one must navigate.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Burning (2018)

My wife and I 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/

Wolfgang Reitherman, John Lounsbery and Art Stevens direct Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor and Joe Flynn in this Disney animated adventure where two mice rescue a missing orphan.

A movie that has been a part of my cinematic consciousness before I even really knew what a movie was. The set pieces are really strong and Bernard and Bianca are a very pleasurable double act. Sexy lady mouse. The movie feels tinged with a permanent sadness we’ve not experienced in a Disney cartoon before. That beautiful if morose atmosphere does carry over into the next few entries, with diminishing returns, but here it adds a curious flavour that I’m not entirely for or against.

7

Perfect Double Bill: The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

My wife and I 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/

Chris Sivertson directs Christina Ricci, Santino Barnard and Don Durrell in this indie horror movie where a Fifties housewife on the run settles at a house by the lake with dark secrets.

So… oh so… many production companies kicked in a penny each to produce something dull and uninspired. Ricci looks bored throughout. There is mystery and there are twists but not in a compelling way. Ambient horror, cheap horror, horror-free horror.

2

Perfect Double Bill: After.Life (2009)

My wife and I 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/

Janicza Bravo directs Taylour Paige, Riley Keough and Colman Domingo in this movie based on a thread of tweets about a weekend of stripping gone wrong.

So THIS is modern cinema. Nah!

4

Perfect Double Bill: Spring Breakers (2012)

My wife and I 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/