Following review

 Number 665 on the top 1000 films of all time is Christopher Nolan's debut film - the neo-noir film Following.

The Young Man (Jeremy Theobald) is a struggling writer who takes to following people about London in search of inspiration. Instead he finds career burglar Cobb (Alex Haw.) A strange relationship forms between the two as "The Young Man" is drawn into a dark and shady criminal underworld.

Following took me by surprise. It was Christopher Nolan's debut film and I wasn't sure what to expect. And I certainly wasn't expecting a gripping, intriguing and tight neo-noir film. At a paltry 70 minutes not a single second is wasted. Despite being low on special effects and production value (more on that in a moment) it is still endlessly interesting.

Nolan directed, produced and wrote the film. It was easy to see the birth of his cinematic style that would come to dominate cinema in the decades to come. While not being as complicated as some of his other films, there were still plenty of twists which kept things so interesting. I guess it helped that Nolan practically had no budget whatsoever.

I'm not exaggerating. He made this film on £6,000 doing everything possible to keep costs down from having the actors wear their own clothes to using only natural light to rendering the film in black and white or filming in his friend's houses. Yet he didn't let any of this impact on the writing. And like any good director, he used this all to his advantage. Nolan created an endlessly fascinating setting - effectively everyday life but with a criminal twist. The black-and-white enhanced the noir aesthetic and the natural light gave everything a startling authenticity. 

I also loved the character of the Young Man and the mysterious Cobb as well as as the shady world they inhabited. It was difficult not to get drawn into this criminal underworld. Just like The Young Man, I found myself quickly manipulated by Cobb.

Speaking of Cobb, he was played by Alex Haw. The Young Man was played by Jeremy Theobald. Lucy Russell also co-starred. If you haven't heard of any of those names, I wouldn't blame you. They were all complete unknowns and haven't gone onto big careers - Following remains Alex Haw's only film role. Theobald had a couple of minor roles in future Nolan films, as well as some producing credits. Lucy Russell has had a handful of more roles but nothing spectacular. This is a shame, as the whole cast were brilliant.

As of 2026, Nolan has directed thirteen films and I've seen ten of them. I would probably say that Following is his most under-rated. I might even go so far to say that it was one of his best. It took me by complete surprise. And it was the last thing I would have expected from him.

Eastern Promises review

 Number 605 on the top 1000 films of all time is David Cronenberg's crime-drama 'Eastern Promises.'

Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts) is an English-Russian midwife whose next patient is Russian sexual-trafficking victim Tatiana. Tatiana is pregnant and dies in childbirth but her daughter survives. When Anna tries to locate the newborn baby's family, she is drawn into the Russian criminal underworld spearheaded by Nikolai Luzhin - driver for the Russian mafia boss Sermyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and his loose cannon son Kiril (Vincent Cassel.)

There was a lot to like about this film and I was definitely all in up until the film's final act where it lost me. But before we get too negative let's talk about the positives of the film. I would be doing a major disservice if I didn't speak about Viggo Mortenson - one of the most chameleonic and versatile actors working in Hollywood today. And he was terrific as the morally grey Nikolai - driver to the Russian mafia. There is a reason he received a whole slieu of nominations (including an Oscar nod) and Best Actor awards like the Bafta for the role. 

I also very much enjoyed Armin Mueller-Stahl as the villainous Sermyon - he is a character living a double life. On the outside, he is a charming and amicable restauranter but on the inside he is a vicious criminal. Mueller-Stahl played both parts of the role very well. At first he didn't seem anymore dangerous than a lovable grandpa, but scratch beneath the surface and he was a chilling psychopath. Vincent Cassel also brought a great chaotic energy to the unpredictable Kiril - even if this did border on the unbelievable at times.

David Cronenberg is well-known for being a master of body-horror and Eastern Promise is certainly no exception. It had its share of violence and throat-slitting which, while being stomach-churning, also had a feeling of authenticity. Cronenberg rejected the gangsters using guns, as in real life they tend to use knives. The two Chechen assassins have linolem cutting knives which could easily be disguised as tools. It is more difficult to do that with guns. Speaking of the two Chechen assassins, their fight with Nikolai has to be the highlight of the film. It was a thrilling, exciting climax, but also one that arrived too early. Everything that came after was anticlimatic and disappointing. Spoiler territory to follow.

The two Chechens try to kill Nikolai after mistakenly believing that he is Kiril. Why do they think this? Nikolai was set up by a rival capo after both he and Kiril were involved in the killing of an associate. This was a brilliantly-choregraphed fight scene, but largely inconsequential. What happens to the capo who set up Nikolai? We don't know because the film jumps to the reveal that Nikolai is actually an undercover Russian agent on loan to the London police. He then provides them evidence to arrest Sermyon for the earlier statuory rape of Tatiana. The arrest itself is left off-screen.

Instead we see Kiril attempt to kidnap and murder Tatiana's baby on his father's orders before being talked around by Nikolai. Compared to the thrilling fight scene, it was a damp squib of an ending. It was building toward a big bang but instead finished with a whisper. Naomi Watts was also less than convincing in her role of Anna very much lacking the intensity of her co-stars.

Eastern Promises is definitely a good example of a film that started stronger than it finished. It had so much potential that was just wasted.

25th Hour review

 Number 558 on the top 1000 films of all time is Spike Lee's crime-thriller '25th Hour.'

Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) is a crime lord twenty-five hours away from going to prison. In that time, he has to settle affairs with his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson) friends - the obnoxious stockbroker Frank Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) and English teacher Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and father James (Brian Cox.)

This film had Spike Lee written all over it. It strongly reminded me of Lee's earlier film Do the Right Thing. Similarly, to arguably one of his most famous films, 25th Hour was very heavy-handed in its storytelling. Much of the dialogue had a hammy, over-the-top quality from Ukrainian crime-lord Uncle Nikolai to the obnoxious Frank speaking about closing deals to Ed Norton's famous tirade in the mirror.

This famous diatribe decrying basically any and every ethnic group in New York was ripped straight from David Benioff's source material, except for the addition of Al Qaeda - probably to reflect the changing post 9/11 climate. Maybe my indignation should really be with Ed Norton's delivery instead.

This was definitely one of his worst performances. He was unconvincing as the crime lord Monty because Monty himself was unbelievable. A hardened crime lord was caught by the police because they find his drug money stuffed down the sofa. It's less Pablo Escobar and more world's dumbest criminals. I had to remind myself this was a Tony Soprano type character and not your average hood. 

Similarly, how was Monty so naive about the realities of jail? He is terrified about the thought of going there, which I would understand if he were your average petty crook, but he is high-ranking enough to justify a sit-down with the Ukrainian mob. Surely a man in Monty's position would be able to look after himself in prison or at least be well-connected with those who could protect him.

Norton also lacked a lot of chemistry between co-stars Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman. I couldn't believe the three were best friends least of all as Frank and Jacob spend more time together than with Monty. Jacob was also very creepy as he entertained a sexual attraction to his seventeen-year-old student Mary (Anna Paquin) This was an ultimately pointless subplot that went nowhere. All this culminated in a rather laughable climax where Monty goads Frank into beating him up to deter any prison rapists. Pepper was less than convincing than his emotional anguish here.

Finally, Norton also lacked romantic chemistry with Rosario Dawson. They weren't believable together. He was okay opposite Brian Cox, but not even the formidable shoulders of Brian Cox could carry the whole film on his back.

I want to like 25th Hour, but it was just a ham-fisted, eye-rolling affair,.

Bonnie and Clyde review

 Number 374 on the top 1000 films of all time is Arthur Penn's 1967 biographical crime drama 'Bonnie and Clyde.'

Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) were two bank robbers who terrorised the US during the Great Depression. This film dramatised their life, as well as the lives of their gang consisting of the dim-witted C.W Moss (Michael J. Pollard,) Clyde's brother Buck (Gene Hackman,) Buck's wife Blanche (Estelle Parsons) and briefly undertaker Eugene Grizzard (Gene Wilder) in his debut role.

Bonnie and Clyde changed the way films were seen forever. It was one of the first films to embrace the changing of the production code, which allowed a lot more violence, swearing and sex in cinema. And Bonnie and Clyde was a violent film with gunfire galore especially in the film's most climatic sequences.

It also had two great performances from leads Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway who played the titular robbers. Beatty had all the charisma you would expect from a gang leader. He was handsome, charming but also a complete maniac. Far form being the Robin Hood type, he would do anything to protect himself and his family.

That includes his brother played by the always welcome Gene Hackman. Hackman was every bit Beatty's equal matching his charisma and manic energy, as well as being deeply devoted to his Blanche. She was the weak point of the film. When she becomes an unwilling accomplice to the Barrow Gang, she spends much of the film screaming, whining and fighting with Bonnie who wants her gone.

I was surprised to learn that actress Estelle Parsons won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role, because the character was little more than a screaming mess. The real-life Blanche Barrow also criticised her portrayal saying it depicted her as a "screaming horse's ass." It's an accurate criticism. No disrespect to Parsons, but it was a bad characterisation.

Bonnie was a far better character played well by Faye Dunaway. Rather than a piece of plasticine to be moulded by Clyde, she was a willing accomplice in every sense of the word. Her unpredictable energy made her so interesting to watch.

And a quick shoutout to Gene Wilder whose small supporting role provided some much-needed levity to what was otherwise a violent, intense, but good film. 

Ne Le dis a personne (Tell no one) review

 Number 753 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2006 French adaptation of Harlan Coben's thriller of the same name.

Dr Alexandre Beck (Francois Cluzet) is a paediatrician in Paris who is slowly recovering from the murder of his wife eight years prior. However, when he discovers that his wife might actually be alive, he is hurtled into a dangerous and mysterious world.

This is the second adaptation of Harlan Coben's work that I have seen after Netflix's Safe. The two both have a doctor protagonist investigating the disappearance of a loved on. Both adaptations are incredibly complicated I wonder if it's fair to describe Coben as one of those crime writers who's too clever for their own good.

Don't get me wrong - I did enjoy Ne le dis a personne, as much as I understood it. And I'm not just talking about the fast-spoken French, but the complicated plot line that often took precedence over the characters especially the female characters.

Beck has a number of different women in his life from his sister to his sister-in-law to his lawyer, but they all blended into one with no distinguishable features. I also found it unlikely that a middle-class doctor like Beck would have an unexpected friend/ally in the local gangster Bruno who feels indebted to Beck after he treated his haemophiliac son. Whenever Beck is in trouble Bruno is the deux ex machina come to save the day. Honour among thieves, I guess?

I think I just about understood everything by the end of this fast-paced crime thriller. Perhaps convoluted, overly-complicated plots is just the nature of the genre and I best get used to it.

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance review

 Number 549 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Korean neo-noir crime thriller 'Sympathy for Mr Vengeance.'

Spoilers ahead

The deaf/mute Ryu (Shin Ho-Kyun) is a factory worker with a sister who desperately needs a kidney transplant. After he is fired from his job and is robbed by organ traffickers who run off with his kidney, he concocts a hair-brained scheme to kidnap the daughter of a rich man and hold her to ransom to pay for another kidney. But then things start to go wrong.

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is Park Chan-Wook's first film in his Vengeance trilogy, later followed by Old Boy and Lady Vengeance. While I would consider Old Boy one of the best films of all time ever made, I cannot speak so highly of Sympathy for Mr Vengeance.

This film was confused and unfocussed. It straddled multiple genres without ever really engaging in one. Although it is labelled as a neo-noir, crime-thriller, it strayed into black/gross-out comedy like when it showed the organ traffickers engaging in casual necrophilia. Yet this humour was so off-beat that it wasn't funny at all.

At other times it tried being a romance with Ryu and his girlfriend Yong-Mi Cha ( Bae Boona) plotting to kidnap the little girl - Yu-Sun, but for reasons I'll explain later, this didn't work either. The film also strayed into horror with its gratuitous use of gore, plus the ghostly apparition of Yu-Sun.

But Sympathy for Mr Vengeance also didn't have a central protagonist. You think it would be Ryu and to a lesser extent Yeong-Mi, but after Ryu's sister and Yu-sun die, Yeong-Mi is promptly forgotten about, as is her relationship with Ryu, and the film shifts focus to Yu-Sun's father Park Dong-Jin (Song Kang-ho.) He swears revenge on those who killed Yu-Sun, which sees the film remembering about Ryu and Yeong-Mi, but this shift in protagonist was confusing and disjointed.

Speaking of disjointed, the film was poorly edited. It had a bad habit of cross-cutting in an incohesive way - we crosscut from Ryu's sister's body being discovered to her having an autopsy. But also in key scenes, the camera cut away to a completely unrelated scene which left certain plot threads dangling. For example, Ryu and Yeong-Mi discuss kidnapping Yu-Sun one minute, the next she's in their flat not worse for wear.

In one scene, Dong is tied up to a lamp post, the next he's walking about without a scratch. Finally, when Ryu goes to take revenge on the three organ traffickers who stole his kidney, he kills tow of them, but then the third one comes at him with a knife. What happens next? I don't know, because the camera cuts away. Later on, we are told that he has killed her too and has eaten her kidney.

I get that the film was going for a whole "if you set off on a quest for vengeance you must first dig two graves," which is true," as mostly everybody ends up dead, but this was lost in disjointed storytelling and confusing editing.

No man's land review

 Number 331 on the top 1000 films of all time is the crime thriller 'No Man's Land.'

Ben Ayles (D.B Sweeney) is a rookie cop in San Diego looking to make a name for himself. When an undercover cop is killed, police Lieutenant Vincent Bracey (Randy Quaid) suspects billionaire playboy Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen) of the murder. Unable to prove it, he sends Ayles deep undercover to gain evidence of Varrick's guilt.

What this thriller was missing was any form or heart or anything to distinguish itself from any other crime thriller. It was very generic and under-whelming. In fairness, director Peter Werner tried adding in some heart with a romantic subplot between Ayles and Varrick's sister Ann (Lara Harris) but the two of them lacked enough chemistry to make the romance convincing. It was closer to corny than cute.

Speaking of chemistry, I'm not convinced how much chemistry Sweeney and Sheen had together. Considering how much of the film is based around their friendship, this seemed like a fatal omission. The big conflict centered on whether Ayles would go native in his efforts to extract a confession from Varrick, but I didn't care either way.

Part of this was down to Charlie Sheen. He gave a one-note, two-dimensional performance as Ted Varrick. Varrick is supposed to be a smarmy, arrogant playboy billionaire, car thief and career criminal. Sheen played this part well, but he didn't bring much else to the role. D.B Sweeney was much better as Ayles. Ayles had far more depth to his character.

But this wasn't enough to rescue a generic, banal crime drama. Even the car chases were boring. And if your car chases are boring in an action film, then you're definitely doing something wrong.

In the Heat of the Night review

 Number 322 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1967 mystery-drama 'In the Heat of the Night.'

Virgil Tibbs (Sydney Poitier) is a Philadelphia police officer visiting his mother in Mississippi. When a town official is murdered, he is drafted into helping the local Chief of Police Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger.) But the racist town folks are incredibly distrustful and hostile toward Virgil Tibbs.

It can be all too easy to dismiss America's fixation on race, as a mere perverse obsession. But then you watch films like this and you are reminded that less than sixty years ago, these racist attitudes were still alive and well. I'm not talking about the actual film either. Norman Jewison partly shot the film in Tennessee where the cast and crew were harassed by the locals. Plus, Sydney Poitier slept with a gun under his pillow. 

And Sydney Poitier was the driving force behind this film. He was great as Virgil Tibbs who bore all the racial abuse with a steely determination to solve the case. Poitier played the role with a righteous determination. He was terrific.

I would argue that he was even better than his co-star Rod Steiger who won the best Acting Oscar for his portrayal of Gillespie. Out of all the police, he is perhaps the most racist, but after being forced into working with Virgil, we see his outdated views changing. Steiger played this transformation well. But Poitier was the true star.

Another thing I liked was the simplicity of the film. Often in thrillers, like in sci-fi, you have writers trying to put in twist after twist to show how clever they are, when they're just making things convoluted. There is nothing wrong with simplicity. And that's where 'In the Heat of the Night' succeeded. Virgil Tibbs wasn't trying to decode the cyphers that the Zodiac Killer left. He wasn't tracking down the likes of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. Instead he was solving the murder of a single man. And the solution was far simpler than anybody thought.

Finally, I enjoyed the use of prolonged silences that really upped the tension especially where Virgil was facing off against a gang of white men looking to kill him. This silence was balanced well with Quincy Jones' excellent score which included Ray Charles on the title track.

In the Heat of the Night was a great watch with terrific performances from not only Rod Steiger, but, also, Sydney Poitier.

Sleepers review

 Number 792 on the top 1000 films of all time is the legal crime-drama Sleepers.

Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra (Joe Perrino,) Tommy Marcano (Jonathan Tucker,) John Riley (Geoffrey Wigdor) and Michael Sullivan (Brad Renfro) are four boys growing up in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York. Father Bobby Carillo (Robert De Niro) keeps a watchful eye over them. But when a childish prank goes horribly wrong, the four boys are sentenced to Wilkinson's Home for Boys where they experience horrific abuse by the guards led by Sean Noakes (Kevin Bacon.) Cut thirteen years into the future, the now adult John (Ron Eldard,) Tommy (Billy Crudup,) Shakes (Jason Patric) and Michael (Brad Pitt) swear to take revenge on everybody who did them harm.

Sleepers is very much a story of two halves. We have the lives of the boys before they attend Wilkinson's and their lives afterwards. If anything I preferred the first half. We're given a rich tapestry and a deep insight into life within Hell's Kitchen. There's no doubt that our four protagonists are little shits, but they are still interesting to watch.

And then things go south in the second half. The narrative tension just stops, as we enter a courtroom drama. The contrivance of all four boys all being sent to the same prison aside, the second half was not as neat or tightly focussed, as the first half. *spoilers to follow*

Upon release, John and Tommy become hitmen in the Irish mob. By chance they see Noakes in a bar and they publicly assassinate him. The case goes to court. Michael, now an assistant district attourny, seeing an opportunity to punish the rest of the guards who abused them, takes the prosecution with the intention of botching it. He enlists the alcoholic Dan Snyder ( Dustin Hoffman) to defend John and Tommy.

But the problem lies in how Noakes was killed early on. Noakes was the ringleader. He was the big, bad villain. The other guards were just his cronies. Without him, we're just seeing John and Tommy being persecuted for a revenge kill that the audiences knows they were justified in carrying out. It was dull.

It would have been more interesting seeing Sean Noakes, and the other guards, standing trial for the atrocities they committed. Instead, we were focussing on John and Tommy. And that killed any narrative suspense. The second half felt almost disconnected from the first. It didn't help that Noakes' cronies were little more than names on a page with little characterisation other than being a crony. The one exception was Ralph Ferguson (Terry Kinney) who was the only guard to express any remorse over what he did.

Even though there were some big names in the cast; Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Dustin Hoffman have five Oscars between them, I don't think anybody really shone. Brad Pitt and Dustin Hoffman only appear in the second half and De Niro was closer to a supporting character.

Overall, Sleepers was an entertaining if uneven film that went to sleep in its second half.

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within review

 Number 206 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Brazilian crime-drama 'Elite Squad: the Enemy Within.'

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Nascimento (Wagner Mourra) is in charge of quelling a riot at the notorious Bangu prison. However, when his efforts to regain control end in disaster. The rioters die, and he is at risk of losing his job. But when the state secretary of Rio De Janeiro realises that Nascimento has become a folk-hero to the public, he instead promotes him to become a high-ranking intelligence officer. But there Nascimento quickly discovers the true corruption of the justice system.

Elite Squad was penned by Braulio Mantovani who also wrote City of God. And the similarities are apparent from the stark, gritty depiction of violence to the engrossing narration to a shared cast: Seu Jorge appeared as the prison-gang leader here and as Knockout Ned in City of God. In this sense, Elite Squad is just as good as City of God, and many of my readers know this is one of my favourite films ever.

Elite Squad has also been compared with HBO's hit TV series 'The Wire.' The comparison is easy to see. Whereas the first Elite Squad focussed on drug dealers and the gangs themselves, its sequel instead concentrated on the corrupt justice system that governs over these gangs. Or rather how it's supposed to govern over these gangs, but instead feeds the self-serving, corrupt politicians. It peels back another layer of an inherently flawed system.

The characters are great with returning favourites from its predecessor like Nascimento's former protege Mathias and the morally corrupt Fabio, but also morally-depraved officers like Major Rocha who soon forms a militia extorting the residents of the Favela. He was a truly despicable character, but, sadly, there are many power-hungry men like this in the world.

However, this film wasn't quite as cohesive as its predecessor. There is a four-year time jump that is quite disjointed - in this time, it is implied that Nascimento has divorced from his wife who has gone onto marry the liberal, human-rights activist and legislator Varga. This relationship was rushed and could have used more grounding.

My second criticism, which also applied to its predecessor, was that Mourra was criminally under-used. Sure, he narrates the film with his trade-mark charisma, but he doesn't appear on screen enough. This is only diluted by how he has been removed from the front lines and relegated to an office. The film seemed more interested on focussing on Varga and the corrupt officials governing Rio. Sadly, and this was of no fault of Mourra, but Nascimento largely faded into the background, when he should have been the star.

That notwithstanding, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within was still a terrific if uncomfortable watch.

Inside Man review

 Number 642 on the top 1000 films of all time is Spike Lee's crime-thriller 'Inside Man.'

Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) robs a bank in New York City. Keith Frazer (Denzel Washington) is the NYPD's hostage negotiator sent to deal with Clive. Meanwhile, the bank's owner Mr Case (Christopher Plummer) is harbouring a dark secret in one of the bank's security boxes. He sends fixer Madeline White (Jodie Foster) to stop this box getting into the wrong hands.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It was a clever take on the heist genre. I have seen a few other heist films on this list that made me wonder whether the genre was dead-and-buried, but that was not the case for Inside Man. It was a refreshing reinvention of the heist genre. But also a far deeper imagining of it.

While the money is obviously a bonus for Dalton, he is more interested in the artistry of creating the perfect bank robbery. And that made him an engaging character to watch. He and Denzel Washington were very good together as they play a deadly cat-and-mouse game. I find Denzel Washington very hit-and-miss, but he was very engaging as the maverick, rough-around-the-edges cop Frazer.

Yet underpinning this all is Mr Case and the mystery he was trying so hard to hide. *Spoiler alert* 

It's revealed that during WW2 he collaborated with the Nazis trading high-profile Jews in exchange for diamonds. It's a dark secret that he does not want coming to light. It added another layer of intrigue to this film.

While Owen and Washington were good together, I was less convinced by Washington and Foster. Both Frazer and Madeline were a similarly cat-and-mouse relationship, but thought there scenes were more on-the-nose with less imprecise dialogue.

And I know that Spike Lee's trademark is the dolly-tracking shot making it look like the MC is on a travellator, but I always thinks it looks a bit silly. I was also very confused as to why the theme tune was some late 80's Bollywood song. It was very out of place.

But these are minor criticisms of what was a very good film.

American Gangster review

 Number 468 on the top 1000 films of all time is Ridley Scott's 2007 biographical crime film 'American Gangster.'

Based on the true story of Harlem crime kingpin and drug lord Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) American Gangster explores how this once lowly crook rose to become of the biggest drug traffickers in US History, as well Newark Detective's Richie Roberts' (Russell Crowe) efforts to catch him.

Ridley Scott really likes his overlong films, doesn't he? Black Hawk Down was far longer than it needed to be, and the same could definitely be said for American Gangster which burgeoned on three hours. It was bloated and could have been excised. The obvious example would be Richie Roberts' storyline. He is supposed to be the only honest cop in a department of crooked cops like corrupt NYPD detective Nick Trupo (Josh Brolin) who regularly accepts bribes and robs criminals of their drugs only to go on and sell them himself. 

Richie is also locked in a bitter divorce battle with his ex-wife. Although he is straight in his work, he is not in his personal life. As we learn, he is a serial womaniser. This was a massive subplot which didn't deserve the amount of screentime we spent on it. I really couldn't have cared less. Richie's wife Laurie (Carla Gugino) was little more than a scorned woman. And due to Richie being so straight, he wasn't the most interesting character to watch. We like maverick detectives who aren't corrupt, but they play by their own set of rules. This is what sets them apart from every other police officer out there. And this subplot also did a disservice to Russell Crowe who is a good actor.

If we didn't spend so much time on this subplot, I would have enjoyed American Gangster much more than I did. Frank Lucas was the superior and more interesting character. It was fascinating seeing his journey from his former boss' driver and bodyguard to, effectively, the Harlem Pablo Escobar. Although the historicity of the film's events have been questioned, it's amazing to see how he cut out the middle-man and dealt directly with heroin producers in South-East Asia. He smuggled the drugs back into the country by putting them in the coffins of American soldiers returning home from Vietnam.

Ultimately, I would say this is a good film. It just didn't need to spend so much time on Richie Roberts. 

Infernal Affairs review

 Number 196 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Hong Kong action-thriller 'Infernal Affairs.'

Set in Hong Kong, Infernal Affairs follows undercover cop Chan Wing-Yan (Tony Leung) as he infiltrates the triads to discover the mole that ruthless boss Sam (Eric Tsang) has implanted within the police. Meanwhile, Sam's mole Lau Kin-Ming (Andy Lau) is trying to discover the identity of the under cover cop in the triads. Both men are in a race against time to discover each other's identities.

If this plot sounds familiar, it's because Martin Scorsese remade this film as The Departed. But I definitely preferred Infernal Affairs. There's no doubt that the Departed is a brilliant film, but it's also very American. It's loud, brash and with very little subtlety. 

Infernal Affairs is far more nuanced. Instead of being a grandiose affair with gratuitous explosions and gunfire, it is a stripped-back story of two morally-grey characters who are born questioning their directions in life. Having said that, there was enough unnecessary cheesy slow-motion and grandiose music to make up for the endless gunfights. But I feel that is typical of most Cantonese films I've seen. Always prioritising spectacle over story.

Dicaprio was great as Wing-Yan's counterpart, but Tony Leung really keyed into the anguish that Wing must have been feeling. He was undercover for almost ten years and can slowly feel his old life slipping away.

Similarly, Andy Lau is starting to question his role in the police force, as he starts to identify as more of a cop than a robber. His boss, Sam, continuously piles on the pressure. Sam was the true villain of the film, and he was a scary villain indeed.

Whereas the Departed ends in an over-dramatic fireball explosion, Infernal Affairs is far more understated. *Spoilers* After a drug deal gone wrong, Sam runs like the coward he is, before he is betrayed and killed by his would-be protege Kin-Ming allowing him to have one last confrontation with Wing-yan before one final twist - Sam has more than one mole in the police force, and we see a flashback confirming this. A similar twist occurs in the Departed, but it was better seeded here. It was a lovely, quiet ending to a very good film.

In terms of remake vs original, while the Departed was good, it wasn't nearly as good or as nuanced as Infernal Affairs.

Layer cake review

 Number 919 on the top 1000 films of all time is Matthew Vaughn's directorial debut - crime-drama Layer cake.

Daniel Craig plays the unnamed protagonist who is only known as XXXX. Thanks to his enforcer Morty (George Harris) and his liaison to the criminal underworld Gene (Colm Meaney,) he is a very successful drug dealer. Professional, sophisticated, with a strong moral code, and a healthy amount of money, he decides it's time to retire. However, his supplier - crime lord Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) throws a spanner in the works by engaging him in one last job. Things only become more complicated when Jimmy's partner, Eddie Temple  (Michael Gambon) becomes involved.

This was a slick, funny and entertaining crime caper. Daniel Craig plays XXXX - the suave yet hypocritical dug-dealer who quickly becomes out of his depth - to a tee. This was a few years before he achieved international recognition as James Bond. And it was this performance that convinced producers, he would be a good successor for Pierce Brosnan. And I can understand why, he had all the style and charm that you would expect from the international man of mystery.

Layercake really seemed like it should have been directed by Guy Ritchie. It reminded me of his great British crime capers like Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels but without Jason Statham. It had the same dark humour, the same cartoonish violence, as well as a huge cast including some acting giants like Michael Gambon and Colm Meaney. I've seen him in a few different roles and he's always good. It also included a lot of up-and-coming actors who have gone on to big Hollywood careers like Burn Gorman, Ben Wishaw and Sienna Miller. Ben Wishaw was particularly good as the frenetic and hyper-active Sydney - nephew of Duke (Jamie Foreman) leader of a low-level gang.

Granted, the ending all became rather deep, profound and borderline pretentious which could have killed the whimsical tone of the film, but the final twist, which I won't spoil here, saved things. I did not see that coming.

Layercake was a very enjoyable crime caper. If you want to see Daniel Craig, before he became an international superstar, this is the film to watch.

Traffic review

 Number 630 on the top 1000 films of all time is Steven Soderbergh's 2000 crime-drama 'Traffic.'

Traffic follows the drug-trafficking trade from four different perspectives in an inter-connected narrative. Ray Castro (Luis Guzman) and Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) are two DEA agents aiming to take down drug kingpin Carlos Ayala (Stephen Bauer) through getting their witness Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer.) Meanwhile, Bauer's wife Helena (Catherine Zeta Jones) tries to continue the business he left behind. In Ohio, Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) is appointed the new Drug Czar only to discover his own daughter is a cocaine addict. Finally, in Mexico, corrupt cop Javier Rodriguez (Benicio del Toro) has a change of heart when he witnesses the true horrors of the drug trade.

I'm going to start this review with my usual disclaimer of not wanting to compare films with each other, before immediately comparing Traffic with Crash. Crash is also a multi-narrative, interconnected film that engages with crime and race relations, but it woefully fails where Traffic succeeds. Whereas Crash felt rushed, contrived and half-arsed, Steven Soderbergh's took the time to really explore each character and narrative. The two and a half-hour runtime was an added bonus. It was an ambitious project and anything shorter wouldn't have done it justice.

Soderbergh also made the key decision of adopting distinctive looks for each narrative: Wakefield's story is shot with a blue tungsten filter, Helena's story has an over-exposed diffusion filter and Javier's story has is harsh and yellow. Although that seems to be the case whenever American films depict Mexico. Regardless, it was a good decision that helped to distinguish each narrative. It stopped things from becoming too confusing.

And the drug-trafficking world is one of confusion and chaos. There are a lot of moving parts yet through this multi-narrative, Soderbergh is able to bring all of these parts together in one cohesive narrative. By telling the story through different perspectives, he is able to add a lot of nuance to what could have been a straight, boring black-and-white story. There is a lot more morally grey than people would like to think.

Of course it helped that Soderbergh had a star-studded, ensemble cast. Nine of the cast members have either been nominated or won an Oscar - Benicio Del toro won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this role and, deservingly so.

I thoroughly enjoyed Traffic. it is a marker of what all good multi-story narratives should be.

Gone Baby Gone review

 Number 561 on the top 1000 films of all time is the crime thriller 'Gone Baby Gone.' It was directed by Ben Affleck in his directorial debut.

Based on a Dennis Lehane novel, Gone Baby Gone follows two private investigators in Boston, Massachussetts Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and his girlfriend Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) are investigating the case of the missing four-year-old Amanda, but they soon uncover a much bigger mystery. Amy Ryan co-stars as Amanda's mother Helene Macready. Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman also star playing police officers DS Remy Bressant and Captain Jack Doyle respectively.

For a directorial debut, Ben Affleck did a very good job. Arguably better than some of his other films *cough cough* Argo. Gone baby Gone is a taut and tense thriller that keeps its audience on its toes. When Amanda goes missing, it's clear that she had a less than a happy homelife - her mother is a toxic, neglectful junkie. Enter Amy Ryan. The average viewer might not recognise that name, but she starred on NBC's sitcom 'the Office.' She does comedy well, but she did drama even better. I thought she was brilliant in this role. Well-deserving of her Oscar nomination. Helene is presented as an awful mother - only caring about her daughter once she goes missing, but she is a very sympathetic character.

Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan were very convincing as the two leads. Patrick Kenzie is dark, broody and doesn't play by the rules, yet he always has the calmer Gennaro to help him see straight. The two worked well together. And eight years later, Casey Affleck went onto win the Oscar for Manchester-by-the-Sea where he played another dark and broody character. And he does dark and broodiness very well. As a private investigator, he often finds himself torn between what is leally right and what is ethically right. And this is what leads to the conclusion that raises all types of interesting questions.

*Spoiler alert* Patrick and Angie discover that Amanda was actually at the heart of a massive conspiracy. Her uncle Lionel (Titus Welliver) and Ed Harris abducted her together to save her from her neglectful mother. They deliver her to Captain Doyle, who had previously lost a child, who will endeavour to give her the best possible life - a life far better than her mother who once forgot her for two hours in a boiling car.

Patrick wrestles over what is the right thing to do. Should he return her to her mother or leave her with Captain Doyle? Doyle would give her a loving home. Patrick picks the former leading to the disintegration of his personal and professional relationship with Angie. yet upon returning, Amanda home Patrick wonders whether he has made the right choice. Helene is nonchalantly going off on a date and leaves Patrick babysitting. She gives her daughter her favourite doll - Mirabelle. But Amanda later says the doll is actually called Annabelle. Her own mother didn't know the name of her daughter's favourite doll.

It's certainly no happily ever after, but it is an effective ending. it raises a number of different issues and questions. And this is what separates Gone Baby gone from other thrillers. Definitely worth a watch.

Gangs of New York review

 Number 790 on the top 1000 films of all time is Martin Scorsesee's historical crime epic 'Gangs of New York.'

Set in 19th century Manhattan, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo Dicaprio) is a man seeking revenge. Sixteen years earlier, his father "Priest" Vallon (Liam Neeson) was killed by fearsome gangster Bill 'the Butcher' Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) leader of the xenophobic gang 'the Natives' - one of the many gangs who ruled New York. Amsterdam also grows friendly with attractive pickpocket Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz.) Stephen Graham, Brendan Gleeson and Jimbroadbent all co-star.

Gangs of New York showcased Scorsesee at his absolute best. Based on a true story, he brought characters and a setting that have long been dead to history, back to life again. Everything coalesced to make a thrilling spectacle. The costume design was on-point as the actual set production. Scorsesee had a mile of nineteenth-century New York reproduced on a film set in Rome. He also hired a dialect coach to make sure that all the accents were historically accurate. Dicaprio speaks with a hybrid Irish-American accent and Day-Lewis has a hard New York accent.

And Day-Lewis is a hell of an actor. He might take method acting to an extreme, but it paid off in the finished product. He is scary as the unpredictable Butcher - a character who has lived to forty-seven through terror alone. How does the adage go? Be wary of the old man in the profession where men die young. Day-Lewis really just embodied the character. No wonder he's considered one of the best actors of his generation.

Dicaprio was great as well, taking Amsterdam through an arc of a poor Irish immigrant's son to become the unlikely leader of the resistance movement. He really shone here. The same can't be said for Cameron Diaz who was nothing special in her role. Her character - a former prostitute who suffered an abortion is certainly a tragic one, but one that anybody could have played.

Despite being close to three hours, Gangs of New York never felt over-long. It was masterfully paced and throttled along. Granted, it wasn't perfect. At times, it leant into melodrama with some excessive slow-motion and grandiose music. During the final fight sequence, we see some of our favourite characters die in strange and contrived ways, which I won't spoil here.

Nonetheless, Gangs of a New York is a brilliant film - one of Scorsesee's best. The titular gangs may have once been forgotten, but Scorsesee has ensured that they will be remembered forever more.

Bound review

 Number 862 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Wachowski sisters' directorial debut and neo-noir crime-thriller 'Bound.'

Violet (Jennifer Tilly) is the girlfriend to the violent and unpredictable money launderer to the mob Caesar (Joe Pantoliano) and is sick of being in the life. She starts a clandestine affair with ex-con and neighbour Corky (Gina Gershon.) The two start plotting to rip off Caesar and the mob and then cut and run.

What the Wachowskis did with Bound was take a genre that's had its heyday - noir - and injected some new life into it. They did this through Violet and Corky's lesbian relationship. Reportedly, the Wachoskis struggled in finding an interested studio and actresses, but they stuck to the guns and I'm glad they did, instead of giving the more conventional route of a straight relationship. Putting a lesbian love affair front-and-centre was a brave choice for the nineties, but it worked well. Representation in mainstream media is such a buzzword in modern cinema, but Bound, showed that when representation is done right, it's great to watch. Gay women can do everything straight men can do.

It would have been all too easy to have a man in Violet's place, convincing his lover to help him flee the mob. But this gender-bending helped to subvert a clever cliche. I also enjoyed how Violet and Corky were both equals. In the noir films of old, it would be the male hero doing all the exciting stuff, while the woman stood by and looked pretty. yet as much of a badass Corky is, Violet was every bit her equal.

It is Violet who kicks the story into gear. When things go wrong, it is she who stays calm and doesn't panic. And when Caesar figures out their plan, it is she who manipulates things to her advantage. And it is Violet, not Corky, who *spoiler alert* kills Caesar, successfully completing their heist.

Conversely, the tough-as-nails, closed-off Carly has a chance to display her more sensitive side - and all credit to Gina Gershon who took what could have been just another emotionally closed-off woman and made her a character in her own right. Jennifer Tilly was also great as a femme fatale type role.

I've been speaking at length about the female leads, but I have to mention Joe Pantoliano. In his debut lead role, he played the slimy and manipulative Caesar to a tee. Pantoliano has a penchant for playing memorable villains whether that's in on the Sopranos or Memento or the Matrix. He's a great actor. So is Christopher Meloni who gave a memorable performance as secondary villain, fellow mobster and Caesar's rival 'Johnny.' He provided a lot of dark comic relief.

I thoroughly enjoyed this neo-noir thriller. It was gripping throughout, maybe not always the most believable, but it was a hell of a ride.

End of Watch review

 Number 633 on the top 1000 films of all time is the crime drama 'End of Watch.'

Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pena) are best friends and LAPD officers. Shot documentary style, the film follows their relationship as they stumble upon a massive drug-running and people trafficking organisation and soon become targets of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Since starting this challenge, I've watched my fair share of cop dramas from Crash to Training Day. And they're often felt unrealistic. Either they've been over-the-top or too understated. But End of Watch had a lovely authenticity flowing through it. Part of that was down to its cinematography.

As previously stated, this was shot as a documentary. This is worked into the story. Brian is doing a film class and so he's filming all his police work on a hand-held camcorder. What he misses is picked up by dashcam and bodycam footage. Some critics maligned this as being unnecessary and confusing. Yes, at times, especially during the gunfights, it did become chaotic. But that's exactly what it would be like in real life. And the camera work adds another layer of realism. It shows these cops at their most relaxed, there is no fake facade or veneer. These are your police, like them or not. 

Rather than being unnecessary, it made everything feel so much more real. What I will concede is that it was strange seeing the Mexican gangbangers film themselves with camcorders too. Surely, they're smart enough to realise that they're incriminating themselves. This didn't make any sense.

Another reason End of Watch felt so real was because of the chemistry of the two leads - Gyllenhaal and Pena. Reportedly, the two didn't connect at first, but over time they became good friends. And this came across in the final project. A lot of the banter between them was completely improvised making their relationship all the more genuine. You got a real sense of the camaraderie that exists within the police force.

If there was anything I didn't like, it was the ending. *Spoiler alert* The cartel tracks down Taylor and Zavala - shooting both of them. Taylor survives and Zavala doesn't.  It would have been better if this was the other way around. Taylor is reckless and impulsive, often dragging his friend into danger - he's the one who initially incurs the cartel's wrath. It would make sense that his rashness would get him killed. But then again, it's all too common for the more rational characters like Zavala to die because of the impulsiveness of people like Taylor.

Granted, the film is a little cheesy in places - I could have done without Taylor's opening monologue, where he espouses about what it means to be a police officer. However, I do think that this type of cultural identity definitely exists within the LAPD.

This is a gritty police drama that neither exaggerates what being a police officer is like nor does it romanticise it. Rather it creates an authentic reality that lets the viewer make up their own mind.

Monster review

 Number 998 on the top 1000 films of all time is the true crime biopic Monster.

Based on the shocking true story, Monster focusses on Eileen Warnoss (Charlize Theron.) She is a prostitute in Daytona Beach, Florida, who begins a killing spree after her 'John' Vincent Corey (Lee Tergesen) rapes and tries to kill hjer. Warnoss also forms a toxic relationship with the young Selby (Christina Ricci,) a young, gay woman living in a repressive, Christian household.

True Crime is a genre that has always been popular. Over a century later, we are still speculating over the true identity of Jack the Ripper, the movie 'Zodiac' immortalises the Zodiac Killer's crimes and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was inspired by the crimes of murderer and grave-robber, Ed Gein. However, it is also a genre that's come under a lot of scrutiny. The recent Netflix show about Jeffrey Dahmer was criticised for its romanticisation of Dahmer and for how it retraumatised the families of his victims.

You can argue that, to some extent, Monster romanticises Warnosses' crimes. It initially portrays her as a victim who is taking back her power by killing the man who assaults and rapes her. But, conversely, there is nothing romantic about this tale. In fact, it portrays a brutal and gritty perspective into the reality that many prostitutes face every day. Prostitution is largely illegal in the US and it is theoretically legal in the UK - the act itself is legal, but many of its associated acts are not. Neither brothels nor street side solicitation are legal.

Many prostitutes are desperate - coming from broken households or have addiction issues or a greedy pimp to pay. They have little choice, but to follow their Johns and be driven to a remote area where they could be raped and killed - as is the sad reality for some sex workers. The aforementioned Jack the Ripper targeted prostitutes, as did Peter Sutcliffe. Perhaps if prostitution was fully legalised and regulated, there wouldn't be so many young, lost women losing their lives.

Charlize Theron was outstanding in the role. She won the best Actress Oscar and I completely understand why. I'm inclined to agree with film critic Roger Ebert's assessment of it being one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema. She absolutely embodied Warnoss, portraying the neuroticism and the agitation to a Tee. Warnoss has always maintained that all of her victims tried to help her and she acted in self-defence. Theron brought a lot more nuance than that to the role. She portrays Warnoss as neither a helpless victim or a cold-blooded killer, but a psychologically damaged young woman in desperate search for human connection. She attempts to go legitimate, but due to her past reputation, she's laughed out of every job she applies for. Perhaps if there wasn't such a stigma behind prostitution, Eileen Warnoss' killing spree might have been avoided.

Of course, I'm not justifying Warnoss' actions, but highlighting the morally grey that Theron exhibited. She kills her first John in self-defence, but her last murder was completely unprovoked. Her last victim did not deserve to die. And this raises more moral questions. Do we ever have the right to take the law into our own hands? Warnoss thinks we do. And Theron just disappeared into the character. She was unrecognisable.

Christina Ricci was great as well. She is best-known for playing kooky, off-the-wall characters, like Wednesday Adams, so it was great to see her play a more human role. Like Eileen, she comes from a troubled background. In search of a strong, adult, role model, she latches herself onto Warnoss. The two of them form a toxic, co-dependant relationship. Selby's life is turned upside down by Warnoss' erratic behaviour. And I think you can argue that Warnoss should have taken more personal accountability and stayed away from Selby. As Selby rightly says, she is being used by Warnoss. Certainly, no romanticisation there.

But this was a great film. It is doomy, hard-going, often traumatic, but with an outstanding, Oscar-worthy performance from Charlize Theron.