Las Acacias (2011 Pablo Giorgelli & co-scr)

Germán de Silva, Hebe Duarte and Nayra Callemamani.

Subtle, very minimalist film. Truck hardly ever seen (lots of wing mirror stuff).

Dinner Rush (2000 Bob Giraldi)

Scr Rick Shaughnessy, Brian Kaleta.

Danny Aiello, Vivian Wu, Summer Phoenix.

Badly directed. Though seems largely unsympathetic, good story does emerge.

After the Thin Man (1936 W.S. Van Dyke)

William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart, Joseph Calleia (bad guy), Jessie Ralph (the unspeakable Aunt Katherine), Sam Levene (cop), George Zucco (quack doctor - "Good Lord, I was right!"), William Law (Chinaman)

Great, enjoyable first sequel is still written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Best line: after Loy asks Law why he saved Nick when he'd sent his brother down: "I don't like my brother. I like my brother's girl."

Nick's associates are as rude and pushy as the bad guys; Nora's relatives aren't much better.

Everyday (2012 Michael Winterbottom & co-scr)

... who did not direct United 93 (that was Paul Greengrass).

John Simm, Shirley Henderson, Stephanie, Shaun, Katrina and Robert Kirk.

An array of cameramen.
Music Michael Nyman.

Incredible experiment. Elliptical. It's irrelevant what he's inside for. Distinctive music.

What's Cooking? (2000 Gurinder Chadha & co-scr)

Two years before Bend It Like Beckham.

Mercedes Ruehl, Douglas Spain, Joan Chen, Will Yun Lee, Lainie Kazan, Maury Chaykin, Kyra Sedgwick, Joanna Margulies, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Ann Weldon.

Seems really old (video store, no mobile phones). Only at the end did I realise we'd seen it before.

Things go wrong over mysterious combinations of Thanksgiving lunches. Set in Fairfax district of LA.

Big Night (1996 Campbell Scott & Stanley Tucci)

Directed somewhat self-consciously. Written by Tucci and Joseph Tropiano.

Tucci, Tony Shaloub, Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Holm, Alison Janney, Scott funny as car salesman.

Kind of pointless. Q's decisions today...

Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009 Phil Claydon)

James Corden, Matthew Horne. Myana Buring.

Really not good.

Tortilla Soup (2011 Maria Ripoll)

Based on Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman.

Hector Elizondo, Tamara Mello, various other Hispanics, Klaus's son Nikolai Kinski.

Um.. yeah. Food doesn't come over as well as it should. makes you want to watch the original.

Foster (2011 Jonathan Newman & scr)

He wrote it so it's his fault. Maurice Cole (kept reminding me of dummy in Dead of Night), Toni Colette (in a class of her own), Ioan Gruffudd, Richard E Grant, nice to see Hayley Mills, Anne Reid.

With teatime serial music and puke-inducing kid, film is like a puddle. Hamleys is older than the USA! Take that, America.

Outcast of the Islands (1951 Carol Reed & prod)

Scr. William Fairchild, novel Joseph Conrad.

Ralph Richardson, Trevor Howard, Robert (& Annabel!) Morley, Kerima, Wendy Hiller, George Coulouris as a native, Wilfred Hyde White, Frederick Valk.

Music Brian Easdale, photography John Wilcox and Ted Scaife, filmed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Atmospheric. Strikingly edited and shot.

Good Will Hunting (1997 Gus Van Sant)

He's talented - why did he remake Psycho? "It was my sort of anti-remake statement!" It ended up being not a shot by shot   remake because it had to have its own life. Danny Elfman scored it, and said the critics would kill him, which they did.

Written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (AA), with Robin Williams (AA), Stellan Skarsgaard, Minnie Driver (who's fabulous - her giggles sound real, then she made me cry when Damon dumps her. Not really made it - all TV lately).

Music Danny Elfman, ph. Jean-Yves Escoffier.

Interesting positioning of camera / lenses. Good interplay between Williams and Damon (something about 'the bad stuff reminds you of the good things you were too busy to notice'). Great ending (Affleck, then car on road). Well overdue.

Revolutionary Road (2008 Sam Mendes & co-prod)

Screenplay Justine Hathe, novel Richard Yates.

Kate Winslet, Leonardo Di Caprio (both rather good), David Harbour, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon (Take Shelter).

Ph. Roger Deakins. Music Thomas Newman. Editor Tariq Anwar.

Not quite as engaging as Sam's others. Great ending.

Topaz (1969 AH)

Written by Samuel Taylor (Sabrina, Vertigo, Avanti), novel Leon Uris.

Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin (wife), John Vernon, Karin Dor (mistress), Michel Piccoli (Bunuels), Philippe Noiret (Cinema Paradiso), Claude Jade (daughter, Truffauts), Roscoe Lee Brown.

Music - Maurice Jarre. Ph. Jack Hildyard.

Forty years on, Hitch begins Topaz like Blackmail - as a near silent film (and later plays a trick with the audio of a fountain). Another great silent scene featuring Stafford and Brown at a hotel leads to film's best suspense moment: photographing of papers and chase (Browne is unfortunately the most charismatic character in it). Though plenty of good touches (cameras in sandwiches) film is restrained and one of the longest Hitchcocks isn't sustained by enough suspense. Still, much underrated. Hitch appears leaping from a wheelchair!

Stafford-Dor love scenes not very convincing, either.

Attack the Block (2011 Joe Cornish & scr)

Edgar Wright is an exec producer.

Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Nick Frost

Ph. Tom Townend (Panavision)

Was making me think of tons of 70s movies esp. Assault on Precinct 13, Shivers, The Warriors and even the Zombie films.

Funny and subversive, it even manages a politically pointed conclusion.

Away We Go (2009 Sam Mendes)

Scr. Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida.

John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal.

A sweet and subtle look at relationships and their offspring. "Yeah my tilted uterus is a fucking secret". And when he keeps trying to 'argue' with her.

Music Alexi Murdoch. Ph. Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine, Be Kind Rewind, Blow).

Your Sister's Sister (2011 Lynn Shelton & scr)

Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass, Rosemarie de Witt.

Has slightly improvved feel. Good.

Romance on the Orient Express (1985 Lawrence Gordon Clark)

Should have taken a clue from the title.

Cheryl Ladd, Stuart Wilson, Ruby Wax, Julian Sands, John Gielgud.

Difficult to know what's worse: script, direction or leading actors, but it's good to watch bad films now and then to remind you how good good ones are. A clue is that Ruby Wax gives the best performance. Music sounds like it's from Reggie Perrin. The ending is genuinely sick-making.

Made me wonder whether Murder.. was filmed on sets. I beliueve it was, at Elstree. Did they reuse them for this?

Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972 Robert Fuest & co-scr)

Price, Robert Quarry, Valli Kemp, Peter Jeffrey, Hugh Griffith, Peter Cushing, Beryl Reid, Terry-Thomas, John Cater, John Thaw.

I didn't think Mrs Phibes was Caroline Munro this time. Unfortunately every time Phibes (doesn't) speak, boring crap comes out that doesn't advance the plot much. Good clockwork snake murder, but body in bottle is curiously under-presented.

Some lovely deco design, this time shot by Alex Thomson.

I remembered it being funnier than the first one, but it isn't.

Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987 Louis Malle & scr)

Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejto.

Devastating and totally unsentimental. Unexpected (teachers are OK, so are some Germans, French boy shops them).

Carrie's War (2004 Coky Giedroyc)

Yes, Mel's sister.

Keely Fawcett (who seems to have retired after this), Lesley Sharp, Alun Armstrong, Pauline Quirke (who's great in this kind of role).

Novel, Nina Bowden.

Quite fine.