Polanski has a go at the film noir detective thriller, very bleak, very twisted and very menacing it is to. Nicholson plays a private-eye in pre-war LA who is hired to pursue an adultery case, but finds himself embroiled in a complicated murder investigation. find out more...

An adaptation of Jim Thompson's 1964 novel 'Pop 1280', but relocated from West Texas to a small town in French West Africa. Here risible cuckolded local cop Lucien realises he can use his position to gain revenge, including murder, on those who laugh at him. Witty and visually elegant. find out more...

An Agatha Christie thriller in a sumptous setting; Mia Farrow is superb as the woman scorned, obsessively stalking her ex-fiancee and his new wife on their luxury honeymoon. Ustinov plays the chocolate-swilling sleuth Poirot and, as always, there's a cunning twist. One of the best. find out more...

Ustinov as Poirot investigates the murder of the universally disliked Arlena (Rigg) on a sunny Adriatic island. All the suspects have airtight alibis and the pivotal clue concerns the woman under the sombrero. A beautifully filmed suspense from the Agatha Christie stable, they don't make 'em like this anymore! find out more...

Set during the beautiful summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, budding young actress Anne stumbles across secret recordings of a sinister plot to appease the Nazis. As close friends die in suspicious circumstances, she finds herself swept into a web of dark secrets and in increasing danger from a powerful and menacing enemy that nobody, not even her adoring (and politically influential) family believes exists in anything other than her increasingly fragile mind. A sty find out more...

The year is 1932 and the world of the aristocracy is drawing to an inevitable close, but in the house of Sir William McCordle such realities are forgotten for a weekend shooting party. As the eclectic mixture of guests arrive so the belly of the house also swells with various valets and personal servants; but as characters develop it becomes clear that some have neglected to know their place and before the weekend is out a murder has been committed. 'Gosford Park' is a quite stunning recreation find out more...

Larry Fishburne plays New York mobster Bumpy Johnson, kingpin of the numbers racket in 1930's Harlem. But a turf war erupts when psycho gangster Dutch Schultz tries to muscle in on the game, leaving Bumpy with no choice but to enlist the notorious Lucky Luciano's help to save his own life and prevent an inevitable bloodbath. Moody mob drama. find out more...

A movie in which a lovelorn supersize gorilla and lonely human belle make heavy eyes at each other, not Lord of the Rings here, but Beauty and the Beast! The film is in three chapters; a movie producer sets sail with cast and crew for the legendary Skull Island; where they are attacked by human sacrificing natives, ravenous dinosaurs, cockroaches as big as beer barrels and scorpions the size of cars, to name but a few; what's left of our less than heroic crew return to New York with the greates find out more...

China in the turmoil of Japanese occupation is the evocative setting for this unusual and visually stunning tale. Recruited before she is truly aware of her purpose, a young woman is groomed to become an irresistible siren, an icon of contemporary eroticism to ensnare a collaborator who has wreaked havoc amongst her people. Ang Lee's stunning follow up to "Broke Back Mountain" is in essence a thriller but as with all his films it is the richness and depth of the characters that really drive the find out more...

Alcatraz, 1938; after 3 years in solitary, a hellish hole in the ground with no heat, light or human contact, petty crook Henri Young emerges as a madman. When he kills another inmate there is only one man - attorney James Stamphill - willing to challenge the barbarity of Alcatraz. Moving and riveting with great performances from all three leads. find out more...