Bovie Movie

Neither Jeff Bridges’s quiet authority nor the “in-your-face” dramatics of a killer storm can lift director Ridley Scott’s attempt to remake Top Gun (which was directed by brother Tony) at sea. School-ship skipper Bridges gathers a group of undisciplined students aboard the brigantine Albatross for a voyage of self-discovery to South America. Unfortunately, this undemanding but entertaining rite-of-passage adventure, based on a true story, takes a sudden lurch into disaster with the arrival of the storm of the title. It may be a tour de force set piece, but it represents such an abrupt change of tone that the movie’s credibility is almost blown away in the process. 

This tense, glossy and violent thriller stars Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia as New York cops on assignment in Japan where yakuza gangsters wield razor-sharp swords and where Kate Capshaw hangs out in a nightclub à la Marlene Dietrich. This being a Ridley Scott film, the atmosphere is so hyped up that the picture threatens to burst an artery every second, and Jan De Bont’s photography (he went on to direct Speed and Twister ) delights in the neon-lit locations and makes the city of Osaka look like a vision of hell. Beneath all this is a very conventional cop thriller that makes an occasional comment about Japan’s economic miracle following Hiroshima. 

Gladiator director Ridley Scott once again finds inspiration in the past with this exciting mix of action, adventure and history lesson. Orlando Bloom stars as 12th-century French blacksmith Balian, who loses his family and is invited to the Holy Land by a Crusader father (Liam Neeson) previously unknown to him. The uneasy peace in Jerusalem between the Christians, under King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton), and the neighbouring Muslim forces of Saladin (a wonderful Ghassan Massoud) is threatened by fanatics, prompting Balian to defend the city against overwhelming odds. A story of western forces in the Middle East has obvious contemporary resonance, but Scott steps skilfully through the minefield, stressing the desirability of co-existence and tolerance and the dangers of fundamentalism. While Bloom is rather unconvincing as a leader of men, the siege is breathtaking, the characters colourful, and there’s even some intelligent dialogue. 

Following on swiftly from the release of Behind Enemy Lines, here’s another noisy, gung-ho modern war movie. However, the fact that this film is based on the disastrous 1993 “Battle of Mogadishu” in Somalia does not temper its flag-waving, pro-American militarism. The film’s poster tagline “Leave no man behind” disguises what was a strategic American mess as chest-beating melodrama — in reality, 18 Americans were killed, as were hundreds of Somalis during a 15-hour firefight. That it should come from a British director is the surprise, though to his credit Ridley Scott has cast many non-Americans in prominent roles — an underused Ewan McGregor, an impressive Jason Isaacs, comic turn Ewen Bremner and charismatic Eric Bana. It’s sensitive, cool-headed and intelligent for a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, but for all of Scott’s incredible technical skill — you really do feel as if you are there — the battle scenes lack identifiable characters and there is scant insight into the Somalian conflict. In a post-11-September world, its call for “heroes” makes it little more than a recruitment film. 

Ridley Scott and the boys from DreamWorks produced the first genuine Roman epic since 1964’s The Fall of the Roman Empire with this virtual remake that deals with the transition of power from the sage-like Marcus Aurelius to his monstrous son, Commodus. The fictional hero, General Maximus, is Caesar’s adopted heir, whom Commodus turns into an exile after killing his family. Becoming a gladiator, Maximus fights to avenge his loved ones and save the soul of Rome. The film’s strengths are a fine script, which doesn’t stint on the politics, and excellent performances from Richard Harris as Aurelius and Oliver Reed, in his final film, as a gladiator trainer. Also superb is Joaquin Phoenix as the paranoid, teenage Commodus, while Russell Crowe is utterly convincing as the Conan/Spartacus-like hero. As always with Scott, the visuals are fabulous: the computer-generated ancient Rome is simply staggering, allowing helicopter shots over the city and turning the Colosseum into a living building, a character in its own right and a blood-soaked stage on which the fate of the characters and the empire is enacted. For those old enough to remember the 70mm epics of yesteryear, this is a nostalgic synthesis of all of them. For those who haven’t seen those earlier movies, Scott will open their eyes to a “brand-new” old world. 

Since making an unforgettable impression in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, the cinema’s favourite cannibal has gnawed his way into the popular consciousness. But this long-awaited sequel didn’t have a smooth journey to the screen, with both original Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and original director Jonathan Demme rejecting the project. However, Anthony Hopkins does reprise his Oscar-winning role as Hannibal Lecter, this time with his tongue in his cheek. Top FBI agent Starling — played with creditable conviction by Julianne Moore in the absence of Foster — is faced with the aftermath of a failed drugs raid. To escape the bad publicity, she’s sent to the house of a former victim of Lecter’s, Mason Verger (an extraordinary performance from an unrecognisable Gary Oldman), who hopes to revitalise her search for his attacker. Fans of the first film will be disappointed with the lack of mystery, suspense and psychological resonance here, but there’s loads more Lecter for the money (as the title suggests), and plenty of gory action and black humour. This film’s opening in the States was the third biggest in cinema history — it took ?40 million in three days. 

“In space, no one can hear you scream.” A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic. On the way home from a mission for the Company, the Nostromo’s crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship’s Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas’ (Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (John Hurt). Over the objections of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets Kane back on the ship. The acid-blooded incubus detaches itself from an apparently recovered Kane, but an alien erupts from Kane’s stomach and escapes. The alien starts stalking the humans, pitting Dallas and his crew (and cat) against a malevolent killing machine that also has a protector in the nefarious Company.

A magical adventure which features elves, demons and other mythical creatures. Darkness, the personification of evil, plans to disperse eternal night in the land where this story takes place, by killing every unicorn in the world. Although he looks unbeatable, Jack and his friends are disposed to do everything to save the world and princess Lili (who Darkness intends to make his wife) from the hands of this evil monster.

In creating the characters Thelma and Louise for this hugely entertaining and controversial road movie, Oscar-winning scriptwriter Callie Khourie put women in the driving seat for the first time. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon star as the two friends whose weekend spree to escape the boredom of their small-town routines is curtailed when Louise (Sarandon) kills a man who’s trying to rape Thelma (Davis). They flee, and thus begins their voyage of self-discovery. Ridley Scott’s film sparked a row at the time over whether the sight of gals with guns was a symbol of liberated equality or depressing defeminisation. Whatever your viewpoint, films have a duty to provoke as well as entertain, and it’s impossible to watch the plight of Thelma and Louise without feeling indignation. 

A blend of science fiction and noir detective fiction, Blade Runner (1982) was a box office and critical bust upon its initial exhibition, but its unique postmodern production design became hugely influential within the sci-fi genre, and the film gained a significant cult following that increased its stature. Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a retired cop in Los Angeles circa 2019. L.A. has become a pan-cultural dystopia of corporate advertising, pollution and flying automobiles, as well as replicants, human-like androids with short life spans built by the Tyrell Corporation for use in dangerous off-world colonization. Deckard’s former job in the police department was as a talented blade runner, a euphemism for detectives that hunt down and assassinate rogue replicants. Called before his one-time superior (M. Emmett Walsh), Deckard is forced back into active duty. A quartet of replicants led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) has escaped and headed to Earth, killing several humans in the process. After meeting with the eccentric Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), creator of the replicants, Deckard finds and eliminates Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), one of his targets. Attacked by another replicant, Leon (Brion James), Deckard is about to be killed when he’s saved by Rachael (Sean Young), Tyrell’s assistant and a replicant who’s unaware of her true nature. In the meantime, Batty and his replicant pleasure model lover, Pris (Darryl Hannah) use a dying inventor, J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson) to get close to Tyrell and murder him. Deckard tracks the pair to Sebastian’s, where a bloody and violent final confrontation between Deckard and Batty takes place on a skyscraper rooftop high above the city. In 1992, Ridley Scott released a popular director’s cut that removed Deckard’s narration, added a dream sequence, and excised a happy ending imposed by the results of test screenings; these legendary behind-the-scenes battles were chronicled in a 1996 tome, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon.