Much imitated but never equalled, this is the definitive space nightmare. The crew of a commercial spacecraft are stalked by a stowaway, mutating monster of veracious appetite. Weaver puts in a splendidly believable performance as the resourceful Ripley. Taut script and awesome special FX. find out more...

Perhaps Caine's defining role as the ruthless London villain in Newcastle to sort out some gang bovver. When he finds out his niece has become embroiled with some very seedy characters, his involvement becomes far deeper. A violent and slick thriller with an excellent feel for both time and location and a comment on the despair of Britain in the 1970s. find out more...

Brilliant black comedy with Cusack as a hitman who goes home for his high school reunion. While he's there he's got one last job to do, and a long lost love to win back, but first he's got to shake off a rival, "The Grocer" (Aykroyd), who's hellbent on recruiting him to an "assassin's union"! Superb. find out more...

Released from prison after a lengthy sentence, gangland boss Frank White wants his territory back, which means the whole of New York, and Frank is a man who usually gets what he wants. Christopher Walken is excellent as the man with a mission in this violent, gripping and powerful gangster movie. find out more...

The definitive gangster-epic; violent? Yes, but never mindless. The Jewish Mafia's coming of age on the Lower East Side in 1923, their rise to wealth during Prohibition, and their fall in 1933, provide the background to a story of friendship and betrayal, love and death. Leone's masterful cinematography evokes both the harshness of the vice-ridden decades before and after Prohibition, but also the philosophy behind it. Splendid performances by De Niro and Woods and a stupendous score by Ennio Mo find out more...

A superb modern thriller in the ultra-hardboiled Jim Thompson mould, in which a trio of criminals, wanted for a brutally murderous drugs heist, converge on a small, quiet Arkansas township where the local cop, treated with contempt by the LA officers in charge of the case, looks forward to a High Noon-style showdown. The asides on racial and sexual inequality are made subtly and succinctly; the performances and pacing are nigh perfect; the violence is explicit, disturbing but never gratuitous; a find out more...

Olivier is an aristocrat and a player of games who has lost his wife to nouveau-riche hairdresser Caine, and who relentlessly draws Caine into an intense battle of wits to exact his revenge. An intricate plot with delightful scam and counter-scam - not to be missed! find out more...

Hill House is a dark brooding mansion with a chillingly eerie history. Dr Markway, an anthropologist with an interest in psychic phenomena, and an unhealthy penchant for terror, is drawn to the site and, along with two researchers and a skeptic, sets out to unravel the house's mysteries.
A really good early horror made thrilling by the atmosphere, the low key sound effects and the chilling camerawork. find out more...

Bob Hoskins is outstanding as the charismatic Cockney gang boss whose empire begins to inexplicably crumble around him as he tries to pull off an ambitious deal. Excellent acting, a gripping plot and an utterly convincing portrayal of the London underworld make this a truly remarkable gangster film. find out more...