36. Beautiful Girls

I'd never even heard of Beautiful Girls before having it forced upon me by a friend. It's a nicely played home coming drama that you've think you've seen, before it throws a couple of unexpected issues into the mix.

The biggest win here though is the force of nature that is Paul Kirkwood played with unbridled energy by  a concrete haired  Michael Rapaport. His theories on the fairer sex are misguided (to say the least) and the gusto he subjects others to these points of view is nothing short of magical!

Beautiful Girls is worth seeing for this alone.

35. The Dark Knight Rises

Just got back from seeing The Dark Knight Rises and WOW! It's great! As I predicted not up there with TDK but pretty damn good all the same.

So much detail, style and precision as usual from Sir Christopher Nolan and Anna Hathaway is knockout as Catwoman. It's a fitting end to a fantastic trilogy.

If your a fan of the comics you'll probably guess 'the twist', but it's really a blinding bit of film making and excellent value for money at 2 and half hours long! And unlike Haywire the wife enjoyed it. WIN!

34. The Dark Knight

As the second part of my preparation for the forthcoming The Dark Knight Rises I have sat down to watch, what I think, is the best super hero film of all time (and I loved The Avengers).

So The Dark Knight is just so amazing on all levels. It's the best action movie, chase movie, horror movie, suspense movie or well... generally the best movie of 2008 without a shadow of a doubt. I never thought I would ever see the Batman realised on screen in such an darkly impressive, serious (as it can be) and inventive manner.

The bank heist in the first few minutes has more ideas crammed into it than most Hollywood blockbusters cram into two and half hours! Up to this point it was Christopher Nolans best film - although I think Inception bettered it...

Will TDKR better that? I doubt it, but really CANNOT WAIT to find out!

Hopefully MGM will hand the Bond franchise over to Nolan next and he can give that the kick up the arse it needs. That would be epic.

33. I Heart Huckabees

I Heart Huckabees is all about two overlapping, fractured philosophy's. And it's a lot of fun, if a little messy and bewildering at times.

Jason Schwartzman is at his argumentative best in a fantastic cast that boasts a scene stealing performance from Marky Mark as a disgruntled firefighter whose had it with the world and a bubbly turn from Jude Law doing 'American'.

Naomi Watts also proves that she can look great in a bonnet and everything is delivered is a warm, sweary and comical drama that will leave feeling glad you borrowed the DVD from your friend.

32. Batman Begins

I must admit that when watching Batman Begins for the first time I found I had a similar reaction to the first Burton Batman. It was 'great' but overall, a tad bit dull.

I should quantify this by saying I'm a massive Bat fan and my expectations could never be reached by either film; However, watching Sir Christopher Nolan's (it's only a matter of time) first effort again I have to say I really, really, really enjoyed it.

It still doesn't hold up as an action movie (neither did Burton's) but the amount of ideas and inventiveness is a joy to behold!

Even after this great start I would never have even begun to have expected a blockbuster of The Dark Knights magnitude to follow it...

31. The Women In Black

The scariest thing about The Women in Black is Daniel Radcliffe's eye brows. Well no, that's not strictly true but the film does lack a bit of 'oomph' in the frights department.

Bearing in mind it is a 12 certificate that is probably not that surprising and what is does, it does well, even if it's all slightly unremarkable.

I think a bit of a tip when casting a film with Mr. Radcliffe is to probably cast a few other roles around him with people of a similar age, as the middle aged 'ITV drama premier' cast here only accentuate the fact that he looks about 14 rather than the late twenties /thirty something he's meant to be playing. Just a thought.

30. Haywire

Haywire is great fun. Just seeing Gina Carano kicking the faces open of half the Hollywood A list (okay B+ list) is a joy to behold.

The wife didn't agree ('This film has nothing of interest for me.') but I got some kind of semi-sadistic kick from the whole affair.

Hard to believe it's directed by Captain Soderbergh as it's straight to DVD B movie stock with an amazing cast and some beautiful cinematography.

Recommended.

I have also noticed that Carano will be appearing in Fast and the Furious 6. Hopefully she will be seen kicking Vin Diesel's jowls all over the shop. That would be just great! :-)

29. Diamonds Are Forever

The 7th and final Bond Film for Sean Connery is still a cracker.

It delivers on all the Bond notables; Head cracking violence (pretty poorly shot in places) car chases (a quality run through Las Vegas in the Mustang) babes (Lana Wood's Plenty O'Toole especially) gadgets (guaranteed Casino wins for Q) an amazing soundtrack (take a bow the legendary John Barry) some top quality villains (Blofeld, plus the excellent psycho double act Mr. Kidd & Mr. Wint) and of course the quips:

Plenty O'Toole: Hi, I'm Plenty.
James Bond: But of course you are.
Plenty O'Toole: Plenty O'Toole.
James Bond: Named after your father perhaps? 

Braziliant!!

28. Iron Sky

I had a lot of goodwill towards Iron Sky before I'd even seen it. Much of that goodwill remains after seeing it although it does feel a bit Coming to America with Nazis at times...

You can't really fault the ambition of the whole project but the film really doesn't deliver like the film it should have been. It is much heavier on the comedy than I thought it was going to be and the whole ' Nazis coming back from the moon' never really got into full swing for me - far too many space battles for my liking, rather than head to head Nazi bashing.

Overall you should see this as it looks incredible, it's very enjoyable and it has Udo Kier in it!!! Also female lead Julia Dietze is par-tic-ularly hot :-)