The Mission Impossible is a rare franchise in that every film in the series has delivered exactly what it says on the tin.
OK. They are not the deepest or most ambitious films in terms of plot or characterisation, but unlike a number of action film franchises, they do have a plot and they do have good characters and the latest in the franchise, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, maintains the momentum.
The story, about a rogue AI entity…

This comedy caper film, directed by Peter Collinson in 1969 enjoys a devoted cult following and will almost certainly be on the top ten list of any British males who were teenagers when it was released.
Like many British "swinging sixties" films, The Italian Job was made with more enthusiasm than artistry, which in this case is not such a bad thing although the film's infectious characters, blokish humour and joyful plot could have done with more sharply edited screenplay…

This 1998 crime comedy in the seventh film from the Joel and Ethan Coen, sandwiched between Fargo and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou in what was clearly a rich creative period for the brothers.
The sharply comic script is perfectly delivered by a laconic Jeff Bridges and a straight-faced John Goodman in a pairing that should have been used in many more films. The perfect direction of the film is completed by a glorious soundtrack which helps to give the…

This 1994 screwball comedy, film co-written (with Sam Raimi), produced, and directed by the Coen brothers. is made from a script which was written in 1985 and has the feel of a 1980s comedy. The film stars Tim Robbins as a naïve but ambitious business school graduate, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a newspaper reporter, and Paul Newman (an excellent baddie) as a company director who hires the graduate as part of a stock scam.
This is not one of the…