Bullitt (1968)

A patriotic-spirited account of the US hockey team’s victory over the Russians in 1980 is marred by the gloomy backdrop of Jimmy Carter’s “malaise”

Face/Off by John Woo offers what is perhaps the most preposterous plot ever for an action movie, and that is saying something. Most postmodern action thrillers—see, for instance, Speed 2 and Con Air—aspire to nothing higher than nudging you in the ribs from time to time to remind you that you are watching a movie….

David Spade may not be the most unfunny of the alumni of “Saturday Night Live” to have gone to Hollywood, but he gives Rob Schneider a run for his money.

Devil’s Advocate, directed by Taylor Hackford to a script by Jonathan Lemkin and Tony Gilroy, is like Playing God in being a Hollywood version of the Faust legend. It is a more theologically sophisticated one, if ultimately no more successful. Al Pacino plays the devil under the name of “John Milton”—perhaps because this film comes…

A new Forrest Gump meets Memento, though this is worse than either. Of course it is festooned with Academy Award nominations

The fantastical superhero makes the transition from childish wish-fulfilment to adult castration nightmare. Is this progress?