0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Pan's Labyrinth (2006).
Starring:	Ivana Baquero, Maribel Verdú.
Director:	Guillermo del Toro.
Synopsis:	The story of the death and resurrection of Jesus as told by the bible.
Dean's comments:	So rare is it to see a piece of genuinely heartfelt fantasy fiction that when one does actually come along one feels the need to eulogise at length. In recognising that tendency, I shall be brief in describing a film which is touching in a way that I never really thought fantasy could be. Ofelia is a young girl born in the savagery of the Spanish civil war, her mother works for a fascist general as a housekeeper and she is surrounded by death and suffering on all sides. Upon moving to their new home she encounters the fawn, a magical creature who tells her of her royal destiny in another world and proceeds to test her. The best fantasy works because it is a metaphor for real life, and nothing is more real in ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ than the quite brutal portrayal of the Spanish civil war. A war that was both ideological and terribly brutal, that conflict tore the country apart – Ofelia’s desire to escape by completing often terrifying tasks is symptomatic of the country’s desire to end the conflict and suffering. The film is wonderfully directed, the director has no problems moving between the style of a war film and a style which presents Ofelia’s child’s-eye-view of the world as a mystical but cruel place. Then there’s the special effects – simple but effective – and the ending. Oh the ending, I was nearly in tears as the films final few minutes played out – I’m still not sure what the film’s ‘truth’ is, whether Ofelia found what she was looking for or not. It’s that perfect mystery coupled to the painfully heartfelt performances that make this such a charming film. Everyone should see it.
Rating: 9/10.

The Passenger (1975).
Starring:	Jack Nicholson, Jenny Runacre.
Director:	Michelangelo Antonioni.
Synopsis:	A man fakes his own death and attempts to escape from his past life.
Dean's comments:	Have you ever wondered what it would be like to start your life all over again? In this thoughtfully directed film Jack Nicholson's character does just that; by methodically taking the opportunity to fake his own death, he travels back to Europe and hides himself away from old family and friends in order to start again. Rather than playing this as a chase or a race against time to find the truth, the film comes across as more of a character study of the man whom Nicholson is playing. It becomes clear that the film's title refers to the way that this character sees himself – as a passenger in his own life, desperate to break free. Nicholson's performance carries the film to a level higher than it may have been with a lesser actor in the lead role, and for this reason it is worth seeking out.
Rating: 7/10.

The Passion of the Christ (2004).
Starring:	Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci.
Director:	Mel Gibson.
Synopsis:	The story of the death and resurrection of Jesus as told by the bible.
Dean's comments:	This film received a strange level of support from Christians and derision from Atheists at the time of its release. Now I'm an Atheist, but the reason I disliked this film has nothing to do with the fact that I don't believe Jesus died to save me, more to do with the fact that the film is pretentious, dull and doesn't seem to know whether it's a horror film or a film about Jesus' supposed selflessness. Christians are always telling me that their religion is about love and forgiveness, that doesn't come through particularly strongly here. The scene where Jesus is whipped with a ridiculously evil device goes on for far too long and deserves to be in an Asia Extreme flick rather than a Mel Gibson film. The worst crime that the film commits is that it's simply boring, if Gibson made this film in order to convert people to his religion, he should have made it more interesting and emphasised his belief that Jesus has 'saved' him rather than making an unnecessary long pseudo-horror film. Essentially this film fails on all fronts.
Rating: 2/10.

Patriot Games (1992).
Starring:	Harrison Ford, Sean Bean.
Director:	Phillip Noyce.
Synopsis:	An IRA group go after Jack Ryan for interfering with their business.
Dean's comments:	This is a rather fun action film in which Harrison Ford gets to be the hero and run around doing plenty of cool things. You don't need to think a lot while watching this film, if you want a simple action thriller you can't really get a better lead than Ford, so I would recommend this to anyone fancying an easy night in.
Rating: 4/10.

Paycheck (2003).
Starring:	Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman.
Director:	John Woo.
Synopsis:	An expert reverse engineer wakes up to discover that he has had 3 years of his memory wiped.
Dean's comments:	This is one of the worst films that has ever been made. The whole thing falls to pieces on every level, in terms of the action, the dialogue, the scientific content and the moralising. Ben Affleck is great at being in terrible films and making them worse, Uma Thurman has a bizarre track record of doing some awful films in between classics. For me it is the spurious scientific content that ruins the flimsy premise, all that stuff about 'building a lens that sees around the curvature of the universe' is rubbish; this added to the stupid moralising about 'using time travel for your own benefit being bad' when at the end of the film Affleck's character gets rich by buying a lottery ticket based on future knowledge results in a real disaster of a movie. Please don't watch this, even if you think the basic premise is interesting.
Rating: 1/10.

Pearl Harbour (2001).
Starring:	Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnet, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Director:	Michael Bay.
Synopsis:	A love story set against the Japanese attack on Hawaii in 1941.
Dean's comments:	Right from the off, 'Pearl Harbour' is far too long. The best bit of the film is the dog fighting over Britain (which happens in the first 30 minutes) and that doesn't last for long enough in my mind. The next hour is filled with annoying, obvious and telegraphed scenes depicting the 'love-triangle' between the three main characters. Is this supposed to be soppy girlie stuff? Because I think that soppy teenagers are more intelligent than this. Even the Pearl Harbour raid isn't brilliantly done, some special effects but nothing that hasn't been seen before, all Cuba Gooding Jr does is shout a lot and fire a big gun (right at another U.S. ship by the way as a plane flies by). The film's ending is terrible too, as if the U.S. raid on Tokyo in 1942 was important in producing a American victory. They even kill off one of the main characters so that they don't have to deal with their 'love triangle' problems after the war. Dire in the extreme.
Rating: 2/10.

The Pelican Brief (1993).
Starring:	Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington.
Director:	Alan J. Pakula.
Synopsis:	A law student's life is threatened after she proposes government interference in the assassination of a high court judge.
Dean's comments:	I watched this on a lazy Friday evening as I had nothing to do and wanted something to fill my time up while I finished a bottle of wine.  Had I anything else to occupy my time I fear that I would have stopped watching before the main plot had even got underway.  I have no idea how the original novel manages to merge dry legal and political wrangling with exciting chases, but the producers of this film clearly had no clue.  There are a number of obvious flaws in the structure of the film, the most glaring being the amount of time it takes the main plot to get underway.  It takes 40 minutes for Julia Robert's boyfriend to be killed for knowing about the Pelican Brief, during which time I suspect the writers were trying to introduce us to and make us sympathise for the main characters - they failed.  Someone should really have taken a big pair of scissors to the original cut of the movie.  Scenes that should end quickly drag; entire sequences that add very little to the story or characters are unforgivably long.  The sequence in which Roberts and Washington search a university campus for a student sticks in my mind as being particularly pointless - and it lasts 10 minutes!  It's possible that in the conspiracy-filled heyday of the X-Files when this film was released, that the government-within-a-government plot was either exciting or interesting.  Sadly it is a story that is executed so poorly in this film that there is no reason for a modern viewer to bother with it.
Rating: 3/10.

The Phantom menace (Star Wars part 1) (1999).
Starring:	Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman.
Director:	George Lucas.
Synopsis:	An interstellar trade dispute threatens to turn into all out war.
Dean's comments:	To quote Simon Pegg: "...a jumped-up fireworks display of a toy commercial!". I think he's right, although a lot of people attach a ridiculous amount of emotional bias on the Star Wars series and so felt enormously let-down by this, I merely felt amusement at the fact that this film (which was always going to do well at the box office and was waited for so long) was so bad. The main problem is that there are far too many special effects (Jar Jar Binks amongst them) and very little in the way of attempts to make us like or become interested in the main characters. The 'big bad' doesn't do anything interesting while the film's big central action sequence (the pod race) is not interesting because we all want 'Ani' to fall off and die (he is just too dammed annoying). How George Lucas managed to bugger-up this film, a film that he has had 15 years to work on and should have introduced a whole new generation to the Star Wars mythology, I will never know.
Rating: 3/10.

The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
Starring:	Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler, Minnie Driver, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson.
Director:	Joel Schumacher.
Synopsis:	The legendary 'phanton' intimidates the owners of the Paris Opera house into letting his beautiful protege take the lead role in forthcoming productions.
Dean's comments:	The two things which are meant to stand out in 'Phantom' are the music and the love story. Unfortunately I found the music uninspiring and the love story at best tepid and at worst simply dull. The main character, Christine, sings several songs about the same thing. How many times do we need to hear about the fact that she's torn between her love for ther teacher and her love for the young rich owner of the establishment? We get it, move on with the plot! Oh wait, there isn't much plot. Therein lies the problem, the film is a rather shallow 140 minute long extravaganza of music and colour and light without anything to back it up once the viewer gets tired of people singing in an unnecessarily high pitch. Add into that the fact that the 'Phantom' (who isn't a phantom at all) isn't scary in the slightest and so his attempts to terrorise the patrons of the theatre are silly rather than shocking. The best bits of the film are Miranda Richardson and Minnie Driver (there's a score for the Brits) who steal all the scenes they're in (especially when Driver goes for the full on massively over-the-top Italian opera singer). Fans of the theatre production seem to enjoy the film, who am I to stop them from waching it? They probably aren't interested in what I think anyway.
Rating: 3/10.

Phonebooth (2002).
Starring:	Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker.
Director:	Joel Schumacher.
Synopsis:	A man answers a call in a phone box only to become embroiled in a life-or-death stake-out.
Dean's comments:	The idea that a man in a phone box can become involved in a shoot-out seems a little contrived doesn't it? Fear not though, Schumacher does a great job of pulling all the strings of the action and drama together to deliver a really good thriller. There is a psychological battle between Farrell and Sutherland over the phone while the outside world struggle to work out what is going on. The director does a good job of juggling the points of view of each of the characters to provide an enticing level of suspense.
Rating: 6/10.

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003).
Starring:	Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Keira Knightly, Orlando Bloom.
Director:	Gore Verbinski.
Synopsis:	An ex-pirate goes on an adventure to rescue a noble-woman.
Dean's comments:	This is a rather fun action film which unfortunately contains some terrible characterisations and stupidly signposted plot developments. The only reason the thing works at all is that Johnny Depp is a brilliant actor who has realised that the film is a camp piece of action spoofery and has therefore hammed his character up and acted everyone else off the screen. There is lots of fun swordplay and some sublime action sequences as well as great SFX when the ghostly pirates are engaged in combat. Ultimately though the characters (apart from Depp's) are wooden and 1-dimensional and as such the love-interest sub-plot is rather un-engaging and you don't really care about the plot-'twists'. A good action film in which your brain will not be needed, but that's all really.
Rating: 5/10.

Plan 9 from outer space (1959).
Starring:	Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon.
Director:	Edward Wood.
Synopsis:	Aliens plan to take over the world by raising the dead.
Dean's comments:	This is a film that is regularly voted the worst film of all time in such lists, and with good reason. Wooden acting, rubbish scripts, terrible effects (even for the 50s) and such a ridiculous premise that any and all 'camp' value it might have had is lost instantly mean that this film is fully deserving of it's 1 out of 10 rating. The 'aliens' are represented by the fact that they are wearing slightly shiny costumes, that's the extent of the intellect behind the film. It isn't even worth watching this for the satisfaction of being able to way that you've seen it and it's rubbish.
Rating: 1/10.

Planet of the Apes (1968).
Starring:	Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans.
Director:	Franklin J Schaffner.
Synopsis:	A group of astronauts crash on an alien world populated with a society of apes.
Dean's comments:	A great idea for a film with one of the best final moments in cinema history, 'Planet of the Apes' is let down by the fact that its final twist is too well-known these days and that Charlton Heston is so annoying as a gun-toting all American hero who needs to impose his beliefs and values on the Apes. The message behind the film is really clever (I shall avoid telling you what this is just in case you're one of these few people who aren't aware of the twist in the film), but as I said already, the whole thing is undercut by Heston playing the part of the 'shoot first think later' Yankie nutter. Would a guy with that 'Hick' attitude really get to be an astronauts? The effects aren't bad, i.e. they manage to get a decent number of emotions out of those ape masks, and I rather enjoyed the characterisation of the ape society in terms of modern Human ones. A good film, but be prepared to cringe at Charlton Heston's performance.
Rating: 4/10.

Platoon (1986).
Starring:	Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker, John C McGinley.
Director:	Oliver Stone.
Synopsis:	U.S. soldiers in Vietnam suffer under the actions of their enemies and those on their own side.
Dean's comments:	This is a great tale about the true hells of war presented with plenty of artsy slow-motion sequences and dramatic music. The film is about a downward spiral into insanity as the realities of war and conflict begin to have an effect on the soldiers. 'Platoon' has a very strong cast, it is this and the direction that makes the film such a success, the specifics of the plot aren't too important really. All that really happens is a sequence of events that make the US marines question the legitimacy of what they're doing and the media-presented idea of warfare. Oliver Stone enjoys his long slow-motion set-pieces and he does them better than most, here they're used particularly effectively to enhance the insanity and panic of war in Vietnam. This is a classic anti-war film which anyone who liked 'Full Metal Jacket' will love.
Rating: 7/10.

The Player (1992).
Starring:	Tim Robbins.
Director:	Robert Altman.
Synopsis:	Intrigue in the script-writing community of Hollywood.
Dean's comments:	The opening 10 minutes of 'The Player' consists of a single take which is great fun to watch and shows the actors having to stay in character for a long time as well as working to cues, this is something that is never ever seen in the movies. Its quite a long time since I saw this film and so memories are a little hazy, I can remember that the plot involves some mysterious blackmailing and people not quite sure who is blackmailing who. The film is worth seeing for the endless little cameos by various Hollywood stars.
Rating: 6/10.

Pi (1998).
Starring:	Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis.
Director:	Darren Aronofsky.
Synopsis:	An unstable mathematician thinks he has found the numbers that unlock the secrets of god.
Dean's comments:	This film, which is in black and white, has obviously had input from some real mathematicians. The plot revolves around a man who has been trying to develop a system for predicting the stock markets based on patterns, his mentor is a man who used his career looking for patterns in ‘pi’. He soon comes across a 216 digit number which a new friend of his, being a Jewish scholar, is convinced is the true name of God in Hebrew. Soon several groups, religious and corporate, are after the discovery. The whole time our mathematician suffers from searing headaches and pains that prevent him from working. The style of the film is firmly ‘art house’ and it contains enough weird and strange images, and a compelling study of the value of numbers, to keep one interested. The film’s problem does lie in it’s weirdness though, eventually this starts to get a little tiresome, although the decent into madness is portrayed well by the continuing deterioration of reality. Anyone who has studied mathematics or number theory will clearly be gripped by the film, others might be a little put-off by the sheer insanity of what Aronofsky has put on screen. Definitely one should give the film a go even if you a devout maths-hater. One technical point though, it is mentioned that a mathematician spent his career looking for patterns in ‘pi’, this is insanity as any mathematician knows that it can be proved that pi is ‘transcendental’, i.e. it can be proved that no patterns exist.
Rating: 6/10.

Port of Call (1948).
Starring:	Nine-Christine Jonsson, Bengt Eklund.
Director:	Ingmar Bergman.
Synopsis:	A young woman, opressed in her work and home, turns to the love of a strange man.
Dean's comments:	This film should come with the tag-line "Why we should have a liberal society, by Ingmar Bergman". 'Port of Call' looks at the life of a woman (Berit) who, due to circumstances, is unable to break away from her oppressive mother an dour job in a factory in post war Sweeden. Bergman paints a portrait of her life, this could easily be the life of anyone living in the modern quick-fix capitalist world, and shows her turning to a man she meets by chance as an outlet. This illicit love is frowned upon by all around her including her mother and the head of her 'reformatory' school, matters come to a head when a friend of hers is killed during an illegal abortion. Berit is forced to give up the name of the abortioneer, although she complains that she knows of a similar woman with money who was able to have the procedure performed risk free by a doctor. Thus Bergman highlights the inequalities between the rich and poor and in so argues in favour of the kind of society that really exists in Sweden in the 21st centaury. In a sense then this film is an important piece of social history, one of the great directorial commentators of post-war Europe arguing the case for socially responsible governments.
Rating: 6/10.

Predator (1987).
Starring:	Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers.
Director:	John McTiernan.
Synopsis:	US marines in battle are hunted by a group of invisible aliens.
Dean's comments:	Silly explosions, ridiculous 'Arnie' lines, big guns and an America-beats-all mentality, Predator is one of the least credible alien invasion films of all time. Having said all this though, the film is entertaining. The Predators take out each marine in a sequence of increasingly gruesome ways before Arnie takes the fight back to the aliens, this simple premise gives the film a decent bedrock in both the action and sci-fi genres. The cheesy lines as so bad that they come out the other side of camp and become funny again, a line like "Bleed? I aint got time to bleed!" is a good example. 'Predator' is the sort of film you think is brilliant when you're a teenager, when you grow up you can appreciate the silliness of the 'A-team' style gun battles.
Rating: 5/10.

The Prestige (2006).
Starring:	Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson.
Director:	Christopher Nolan.
Synopsis:	Two magicians compete to outdo each other in performing the best tricks.
Dean's comments:	I don't understand how anyone could see this as anything more than a very good-looking film which incorporates a half-decent tale of desire and revenge. Was there meant to be a twist at any point in this film? If there was then the writers did a very poor job of disguising it – I thought that the film's 'prestige' was fairly obvious from only about half way through. But that shouldn't detract from the obvious good things, there is a strong plot with well-characterised protagonists who manage to speak in excellent London accents despite the actors' American heritages. It is never clear if events are meant to be taking place in the real world or some kind of fantasy world cross over (the kind of world in which superheroes might exist), hopefully it is the latter and we need not concern ourselves with the ludicrousness of the science which is used. Crucially the film's events do have a heart to them, which helped me get over these flaws and enjoy the mystery. All in all a reasonably good film which uses its source material well. The entire film is even told like a magic trick, what with a set up, disappearances and finally a re-emergence. Oh and if this weren't enough, Scarlett Johanssen looks excellent in her varied selection of frumpy 19th centuary outfits.
Rating: 6/10.

The Princess Bride (1987).
Starring:	Cary Elwes, Robin Wright Penn, Christopher Guest, Chris Sarandon, Peter Falk.
Director:	Rob Reiner.
Synopsis:	In a fairy-tale world, a young, dashing ex-pirate returns to his homeland to win the heart of the his princess.
Dean's comments:	After 'Lord of the Rings' it might be difficult to view previous attempts to do the fantasy genre as anything other than under-budgeted well-intentioned failures. 'The Princess Bride' couldn't be further from this description. Far from being a well-intentioned flop, this film is a clever and witty spoof of the fantasy genre that doesn't take its own plot too seriously and knows its own place in the world of fantasy fiction. Tongues are firmly in cheeks at various points in the film (including a point when they declare that they are heading to the 'cliffs of insanity' bwah ha ha!) and there is plenty of top quality sword fighting, so everyone (young and fresh or old and cynical) should have something they can enjoy. Not to mention that the narrator is Peter Falk, he looks different with that coat on.
Rating: 6/10.

The Producers (1968).
Starring:	Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Christopher Hewett.
Director:	Mel Brooks.
Synopsis:	An unscrupulous theatre producer and his accountant try to make a fortune by staging a flop on Broadway.
Dean's comments:	Quite simply a brilliantly funny film, 'The Producers' is a cutting parody of the ruthlessness of the entertainment industry and the absurd lengths to which people will go in order to make a little money. It's also an incredibly funny film which packs a good laughs per minute ratio. Zero Mostel has quite simply an amazingly energetic face and no fears about using it to the utmost effect and camp up the slapstick to the nth degree. The plot is one which is probably trying to make a serious point while also stretching the bounds of realism, how far should satire be allowed to take the boundaries of good taste? The film shows the production of a play; 'Springtime for Hitler' is written by a hilariously eccentric Nazi sympathiser and put on as part of a scam to make money. Now I am even hesitant regarding my own description of the character that authored the play, can a Nazi sympathiser ever be a hilariously comic character? Well in a Mel Brooks movie they can. The man who would one day tear apart the casual racism of the Wild West and America's Deep South in 'Blazing Saddles' has, by disregarding people's sensibilities regarding the Hitler regime, robbed it of its menace and turned it into something to be parodied. Even this joke works on more than one level of course, Brooks has pre-empted criticisms of the 'decency' of the film by showing those critics as flaccid philistines who think that the worst play of all time is a work of great art just because it lampoons Hitler. So what is the viewer to think of 'The Producers', a film that presents its audience with material that is beyond the realms of decency and then parodies their reactions. My reaction is to sit back and laugh at the slapstick while admiring Mel Brook's clever script and marveling at his ability to be so far ahead of his time. Charlie Chaplain may have been ripping the piss out of Hitler in the 1940s, but only Mel Brooks was able to hold a mirror up to his audience and ask them why were they watching such a film if they didn’t expect to be entertained by dancing girls in Nazi jackboots. Surprising in its entertainment value, 'the Producers' is spot on in terms of its cultural savvy and casting. A classic of comedy; and only 88 minutes!
Rating: 7/10.

Psycho (1960).
Starring:	Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins.
Director:	Alfred Hitchcock.
Synopsis:	A woman on the run from the law stops at an isolated motel.
Dean's comments:	This Hitchcock classic is so much more than just the well-known shower scene. The master of thrillers pulled a master stroke in the casting of Janet Leigh as the victim who is killed off before the half way point of the movie. Casting a movie super-star to be killed off is the sort of thing that has earned Hitchcock his reputation. Perkins brings a dastardly creepiness to his role which finally explodes into outright psychosis in the final scenes. So many elements of 'Psycho' have been ripped off in later thrillers, but their impact is no less diminished even in the modern age of brutal special effects, blood and gore. Scenes where Bates looks up to the house where his mother is living, the scene where Bates attacks in his mother's clothes and then the shocking finale surprised me in their ability to shake me (someone who laughed at 'The Evil Dead' and didn't flinch through 'The Exorcist'). Hitchcock was a genius because of his ability to make films that have carried to well through the years, forget about the remake, the original is and will always be the best.
Rating: 8/10.

Pulp Fiction (1994).
Starring:	John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis.
Director:	Quentin Tarantino.
Synopsis:	A post modern collection of connected crime stories.
Dean's comments:	Quentin Tarantino makes film history. In this non-linear, spiritual and multiple-layered tale of criminals in Los Angeles, 'Pulp Fiction' is a blue-print for 'art-house' films in the mainstream. Tarantino's attention to detail in this film, which could so easily have been over-looked in the non-linear style, is what makes the film a classic. He uses the idea that not all dialogue needs to move the plot on, characters have conversations that one might expect to occur in real life rather than a film. Travolta and Jackson famously discuss Dutch fast food establishments, foot rubs and the meaning of miracles while all the time committing terrible crimes and having to be told how to clean a car by an uber-criminal played magnificently by Harvey Kietel. The film's central moment in terms of it's linear plot is the fight that Willis' character refuses to throw, this happens off screen and instead we are treated to a surreal conversation with a taxi driver. This is indicative of why the film is great, Tarantino wants to show us the characters and their lives while treating the plot of the film as a almost side-issue that's getting in the way. In this sense the film is a post modern masterpiece as well as simply have some of the wittiest dialogue ever written. People have written entire theses about the meanings and subtexts in 'Pulp Fiction', I don't have that kind of space here. Suffice to say that this is probably my favourite film, and that everyone needs to experience it.
Rating: 10/10.

Punch Drunk Love (2003).
Starring:	Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman.
Director:	Paul Thomas Anderson.
Synopsis:	A dissapointed and depressed loner who grew up with 7 sisters meets and falls for an unusual woman.
Dean's comments:	Finally a film with Adam Sandler in it that isn't dumb and silly. Far from it; 'Punch Drunk Love' is a wonderful tale about two of society's 'outcasts' finding companionship in each other in a less-than-mainstream way. Film-makers that spend over 2 hours trying to wring every drop of emotion out of their films and getting no-where should come and watch the sublime way that Paul Thomas Anderson characterises Sandler's role to a point that you feel you know everything about him in only 80 minutes. We start off seeing Sandler's character working as a middle management type in a small business, it's clear from the outset that the guy is a total looser (for example he and his associate (Guzman) are desperately trying to buy thousands of yoghurts to save them a couple of dollars on a flight(?)). I love the awkward relationship that Sander and Watson have between their characters, the way that neither of them seem to be able to articulate their feelings or know what to do about it is rather endearing and made me interested in their lives and where their relationship was going to end up. This is basically one of the best love stories that has come out of American cinema in a long time.
Rating: 8/10.