My Favorite Movies

The King of zombie films. Social commentary aside this film barrels along with great action, good acting and plenty of gore. A faultless film.

Beautifully shot film about social alienation and personal solitude. Pure cinema.

Directorial debut for the soon to be master of the Giallo with atmospheric photography, beautiful fog bound sets, creepy effects and the sultry Barbara Steele.

Snow bound paranoia with a shape-shifting alien. Fantastic ensemble cast. Superior Rob Bottin effects. Who is the Thing?
A Classic.

A young writer is given a typwriter by his girlfriend and discovers information about a secret experiment on the the used ribbon; a team of scientists have discovered K-zones, places where the dead can be buried and ressurected. The writer starts to investigate and becomes embroiled in a sinistern world where he inadvertantly puts his girlfriends life at risk.
Part psychological thriller part Zombie film, Zeder is difficult to classify. On the surface it appears to be another in the Italian Exploitation cycle, but the acting (some characters are straight out of a Lych film), photography and foreboding atmosphere of this film make it something much more.
Avati worked in a number of genres, one of his best films is the Giallo The House With The Laughing windows. A stylish and individual director, his work has been overlookked for too long and deserves to be rediscovered.

A candy coloured nightmare. Dario Argento's finest hour. Jessica Harper is the wide eyed American ballerina who enrols in a Dance Academy run by Witches. The Film careens from one wild and bloody set piece to another. A must see.

Love it or hate just don't try and understand it. Lynch's first foray into the dark depths of his weird and wonderfull world. This is the stuff of fever-dreams and nightmares.
Wonderfully surreal.

Geoff Bridges makes hippies cool in this hilarious comedy of errors. More quotable dialogue than Casablanca and a great soundtrack make this one of the Coen brothers funniest films to date.

Stylish, timeless, well acted and pretty scary for it's time. Incredibly inventive use of camera, sound and edititng on a miniscle budget. One of the most important & influential horror films of the 80's and a power house directorial debut for Raimi who then went on to sell his soul to hollywood.

The greatest western of all time!

If you have the means get this on HD or Blu-ray and watch it on a LARGE screen it really is like seeing the film for the first time (if you've already seen it). This really needs to have a theatrical re-release like was done with The Wicker Man.
It's one of those films that really must be seen BIG and clear to fully appreciate Kubrick's mastery of the filmic image.
Beautiful!

A wonderfully affectionate film about a man who is passionate about film but has absolutely no talent with superb performances by all, but particularly by Landau as Lugosi and of course Depp makes a great wide eyed almost child like Ed Wood.
Burton is quite obviously a fan of the man's work.

A stunningly photographed picture about a boys love for the cinema and his trials of growing up backed by a beautifull Ennio Morricone score. A flim for lovers of film.

Atmospheric monster in the haunted house film set in space. Fantastic ensemble cast, fantastic sets, plenty of shocks and one of the scariest creatures ever to appear on screen.
Fact: the interiors of the alien ship were shot using children in space suits instead of the adult cast to make the interiors appear larger than they actually were.

Mario Bava at his most cinematic best.
A spaghetti-sci-fi-horror that belies it's low budget origins with Bava's creative photography; every thing from forced perspective to mattes and models all mixed with plenty of Bava's trade mark dry-ice.
The sets look "creaky" by today's standards but the photography, sets and colour schemes all add up to create a beautifully creepy atmosphere.
Want to see where Cameron got the idea for the Alien skeleton at the controls of the ancient spaceship? Look no further.
Probably the best of the Spaghetti sci-fi cycle of the 60's- 70's.

Heart warming story about a family's struggle to survive in Italy during the depression.
Centering mainly on a father son relationship, with the father trying to survive and provide for his family whilst trying to do the right thing.
The scenes between the father and son are poigniant and moving.
De Sica's neo-realist film uses ordinary people in his cast chosen purely for the way they looked i.e. how expressive their faces were and not for their acting capabilities. He got excellent performances from the small cast by giving them little or no dialogue and instead getting them to react naturally to the situations he put them in, with extraordinary results.
Keep the tissues handy this is tear jerker, but without the cloyingness of mainstream fare.

I would rate this almost as highly as The Beyond. Stylish, gothic horror, thick with atmosphere and trademark gore from the maestro. **** Slight spoiler *** The demise of the agent in the house has one of the bloodiest arterial spurts ever put on film!

The beautiful Edwige Fenech get mixed up with a Satanist Cult in this twisty Giallo set in London by the prolific Martino. One of his best films and a must have for Giallo fans.
The tripy 60's dream sequence at the start puts the viewer off balance and the rest of the film keeps you there. Psycadelic!

Ridiculously mad High school girls against the system in a film that starts with a naked classroom torture scene and goes on in that vein for another hour and a half. Stylish over-the-top exploitation. A must see for any fan of Pinky Violence films.

Ground breaking cinema for it's time. Fore-shadows Orson Welles for creative filming techniques. Rather disturbing considering this sort of thing actually happened. A film that is as relavent today as it was in 1922

Johnny Depp does a superb Hunter S. Thompson in a faithful adaptation of the book about the Gonzo journalist searching for the American Dream in the city of losers whilst taking copious amounts of drugs.
Hilariously funny and profound in places.
Gilliam really nailed this one and even got a nod of approval from the ever difficult Hunter who can be seen cameoing in the 70's night club scene.

Bill Murray is on top form in a story about a lonely batchelor who believes his past has come back to haunt him in the shape of a son from a 20 year old relationship.
A road movie where the main protagonist is trying to find himself as much as the son he may or may not have.
The best thing about this film is the subtlety of the humour. It's never laugh-out-loud funny but somehow manages to be emotionally affecting whilst being sad and strangely cheerful at the same time.
Murray says as much with an expression or a far away look as with a page of dialogue.
The rest of the cast play their roles well too. Winston (played by Jeffrey Wright), the amateur sleuth neighbour, gets some of the best dialogue while Sharon Stone is underplays her role as one of the ex's to perfection.

Sadistic, brutal and hilariously funny with one of the coolest endings ever

Quite possibly the best science fiction film ever made. Stunning sets, beautiful photography and a monster among the scariest put on cellluloid. Way ahead of it's time.

Pegg reprises his role from Spaced with great timing and typically british down played humour. US comedy directors take note: comedy CAN be subtle.
Plenty of Dawn references for us geeks and enough splatter to satisy gore hounds.
Damn near perfect.

John Phillip Law plays the oh-so cool, a-moral thief Diabolik, who steals from the rich and keeps it all for himself and his sexy belle played by the luscious Marisa Mell. Trademark Bava camera trickery and psychedelic mese-en-scene fill this live action take on the Italian Fumetti (comic book) of the same name.

Ok this isn't a classic by any stretch but it's a great "guilty pleasure" flick. The story borrows heavily from Aliens but Cozzi forgets plot & character and goes straight for the gore. There's chests exploding everywhere in slo-mo graphic detail. The photography is above standard too. Just don't expect any meanigful depth, it's an 80's gore-fest and nothing more.
Goblin (Argento regulars) do a nice disco score too.
Facts: this was meant to be released under the title Alien 2 but ran into obvious rights issues.
The uncut version is still banned in the UK.

Aldo Lado, director of two superior Giallos; Short Night Or The Glass Dolls and Who Saw Her Die? directed this gruelling excursion which is in his words a metaphor for the exploitation of the lower classes by the bourgouise middle class.
Macha Meril (the psychic in Profondo Rosso) plays a manipulative, middle class, sado-masachistic nymphomaniac who boards a train and instigates games of sex, rape and torture beteween a couple of thugs and two innocent teenage girls who are travelling home to there parents.
Obvious comparisons are drawn between this film and Last House On The Left, and Lado admits taking the basic story structure. But Night Train Murders is much more than pure exploitation.
The beautiful cinematography, haunting harmonica driven Morricone score (reminiscent of Once Upon A Time In The West) and first class acting by all involved rise this above other Italian trash films of the time.
A film of rape, murder and revenge it is at once an uncomfortable, shocking but compelling viewing experience.
Irony abounds with the the one of the girls stating at the start of their journey that she would feel safer if they had a man with them. There's also an Ironic twist at the end which I can't disclose here but suffice to say not eveyone gets their just desserts.
The abuse of the girls is hightened with scenes of them beig terrorized interspersed with one of the girls parents enjoying a night with friends, oblivious to the ordeal theit daughter and friend are being put through.
I cannot recommend this film enough. But be ready for an uncomfortable ride.

A supernatural, Gothic masterpiece from Mario Bava. Creepy and unsettling throughout, Bava leaves all the gore off screen, apart from a gruesome death at the start, and lets your imagination do the rest with help from creeping camerawork, splashes of ghastly colour and an interesting plot where a blonde haired child is haunting a small town where people inexplicably die after seeing her.
Pure Bava gothic.

Sergio Martino's 2nd and last foray into the western genre.
A violent, surreal and stylish film with narrative elements taken from Once Upon A Time In The West and A Fist Full Of Dollars.
Some great muddy fist fights, heavy use of slo-mo and a very strange theme song.
A must for Spaghetti western completists and a curiosity worth seeking out.

Nero and Hess chew up the scenery in this sick, sleazy, violent film in the vein of Last House on The Left on the Road. Exploitation at it's best!

If David Lynch made a Japanese Women In Prison film this would be it!

Tim Lucas summed it up "An astonishing piece of work"

Absolutely mad and ridiculous Hong Kong movie about a man (Fan Sui Wang) who is imprisoned for avenging the death of his girl friend at the hands of drug dealers.
Ricky punches his way through people's torsos, heads, arms and even walls with super- human strength he acquired from a friend of his dead father.
This film excesses in so many areas. The gore is completely OTT. Want to see someone cut out his own intestines and try to strangle someone with them? Or someone havig their brain literally pnched out of their head? This is the film for you.
The characters are almost as ridiculous as the plot and gore. My fav being the deputy prison warden with a glass eye within which he keeps his supply of mints! while surrounded by porn videos in his office.
A great beer and popcorn movie.

An oversized galloping gormet fish with legs terrorizes the inhabitants of Seoul. A family lose their daughter to this amphibious sand hopper look-alike and go on the hunt for it.
This has been compared to Jaws which is an injustice to both films. For a start this monster is on full display in the first 5 minutes. No hiding in the shadows untill the final reel.
The humour is a little odd to westerners but a fun monster romp all the same, with memorable set peices and an excellently rendered CGI beasty.
Get this on HD if you have the means, the pic/sound is awesome.

Stylish, pretentious metaphysical mumbo jumbo with guns!
David Lynch meets John Woo?
Worth a look for the curiousity value but don't expect it to make a great deal of sense.

Not the usual Miike madness but an almost child friendly fantasy film full of great sfx including CGI, puppetry and prosthetics. An engrossing story with more "freaks" than the Star Wars Canteena sequence.
Great fun and laugh out loud funny in places to.

Svankmajer's take on the Faust story using a mixture of live action and his trademark claymation. Weird, surreal and compelling.

Sort of the "Aliens" sequel to the first film. Not a classic but a fun and scary film in it's own right.
The "Chopper" sequence goes a bit OTT but what the hell suspension of disbelief is what films like this are all about.

Beautiful peice of Japanese cinema and little creepy in places too!

The title says it all. Compelling and upsetting.

Not one of Gilliams best but interesting and full of Gilliams twisted reality and odd characters.
Definitely worth a look and a must for Gilliam fans.

Landis' is on top form with this excellent horror full of great black comedy, wonderful characters and never bettered Rick Baker make up ans fx. A nearly faultless film.