R
 | Raging Bull – famous boxer Jake LaMotta can’t control his jealousy in possibly the greatest American film of the decade | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty |
 | Raiders of the Lost Ark – one of the greatest adventure stories in the movies: bullwhips, snakes and hats all in one movie | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman |
 | The Railway Man – a man who survived a Japanese POW camp has to overcome PTSD to forgive | Director: Jonathan Teplitzky Cast: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgård |
 | Rain Man – Best Picture winner about a man who discovers he has an autistic older brother. Lessons are learned. | Director: Barry Levinson Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino |
 | Ran – Kurosawa transfers King Lear to Samurai Japan in this luscious but sometimes too stately epic | Director: Akira Kurosawa Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu |
 | Ransom – solid thriller: a millionaire’s son is kidnapped – but he decides to turn the tables on the kidnappers | Director: Ron Howard Cast: Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise |
 | Rashomon – everyone has a different story for what happened in the forest in this multi-narrative classic | Director: Akira Kurosawa Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori |
 | Reach for the Sky – the life story of Douglas Bader, who overcame losing his legs to fly for Britain during WW2 | Director: Lewis Gilbert Cast: Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow, Lyndon Brook |
 | The Reader – dreadful, tasteless drama about a former concentration guard who seduces a young boy to read to her | Director: Stephen Daldry Cast: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross |
 | Rebecca – superb Best Picture winning du Maurier adaptation of a second wife who can’t live up to the first | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson |
 | Rebecca – lush but empty remake, that completely misses the point and fails to provide Gothic chills | Director: Ben Wheatley Cast: Lily James, Armie Hammer, Kristin Scott-Thomas |
 | The Reckless Moment – a gangster does everything he can to help a woman he’s supposed to be blackmailing | Director: Max Ophüls Cast: James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks |
 | Red Eye – on an overnight flight, a sinister man orders a woman to do everything he says – or her father dies | Director: Wes Craven Cast: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox |
 | Red Joan – terrible, slow and unrevealing fictionalised biography of a female spy for Russia | Director: Trevor Nunn Cast: Sophie Cookson, Tom Hughes, Judi Dench |
 | Red River – legendary western cattle trail movie, that descends into obsession, rivalry and violence | Director: Howard Hawks Cast: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanna Dru |
 | The Red Shoes – a ballet dancer is torn between art and romance in this visually stunning masterpiece | Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger Cast: Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moria Shearer |
 | Red Sparrow – unpleasant and queasily leery action thriller about a female assassin | Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Matthias Schoenaerts, Joel Edgerton |
 | Reds – epic political biopic as journalists John Reed and Louise Bryant fight for Socialism in America and Russia in the 1910s | Director: Warren Beatty Cast: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson |
 | La Règle du Jeu – a weekend shooting party is swept up in love affairs in Renoir’s metaphorical masterpiece | Director: Jean Renoir Cast: Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Marcel Dalio |
 | The Remains of the Day – a repressed butler looks back on a life of misplaced duty, in an adaptation of one of my fav novels | Director: James Ivory Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox |
 | Rembrandt – biopic of the great Dutch artist | Director: Alexander Korda Cast: Charles Laughton, Gertrude Lawrence, Elsa Lanchaster |
 | The Revenant – in the Wild West, a tracker is mawled by a bear and left for dead – he must find his way home | Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson |
 | Rififi – small-time crooks try a big score in this absolutely brilliant French film noir, one of the greatest ever made | Director: Jules Dassin Cast: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel |
 | Rio Bravo – a sheriff and his mates shoot the breeze while waiting for a gang to ride into town in this response to High Noon | Director: Howard Hawks Cast: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson |
 | Rio Grande – by-the-numbers cavalry Western from Ford (literally done under contract so he could make another film) | Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Victor McLaglen |
 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes – superb relaunch as we find out how this started to become the Planet of the Apes | Director: Rupert Wyatt Cast: Andy Serkis, James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow |
 | Rob Roy – big swashbuckling, highlander struggle for justice, unfairly overshadowed by Braveheart | Director: Michael Caton Jones Cast: Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt |
 | The Robe – quaintly rubbish Christian Roman Epic that concentrates on the cinemascope | Director: Henry Koster Cast: Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature |
 | Robin Hood – slightly revisionist version, a little too dry, that mixes in Magna Carta with Saving Private Ryan action | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, William Hurt |
 | Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves – much-loved Robin Hood film of my youth. Doesn’t matter where or when I always love it | Director: Kevin Reynolds Cast: Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Alan Rickman |
 | Rocks – a black teenager struggles to hold her family together in inner-city London | Director: Sarah Gavron Cast: Bukky Bakray, Kosar Ali, D’angelou Osei Kissiedu |
 | Rocky – a jobbing boxer gets offered a title shot. This Best Picture winner is more kitchen-sink than you’ll remember | Director: John G. Avildsen Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith |
 | Rocky IV – Rocky fights the USSR champ to get revenge for the death of mentor Apollo Creed. Silly but fun | Director: Sylvestor Stallone Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Talia Shire |
 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – a team steal Death Star plans in this play-it-safe Star Wars saga | Director: Gareth Edwards Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn |
 | Roma – Cuarón creates an affectionate, intimate and beautiful film about his childhood | Director: Alfonso Cuarón Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Fernando Grediaga |
 | Romeo and Juliet – Zeffirelli reinvents Shakespeare as vibrant and sexy in this youthful production | Director: Franco Zefferilli Cast: Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, John McEnery |
 | Ronin – ex-spies are hired to steal a mysterious suitcase. I don’t care what people think, one of my favourite films | Director: John Frankenheimer Cast: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natasha McElhone |
 | Room – wonderful book adaptation as a kidnapped shelters her son, who was born in captivity | Director: Lenny Abrahamson Cast: Brie Larsen, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen |
 | Room at the Top – a chippy social climber has to choose between love and his career in this classic kitchen-sink drama | Director: Jack Clayton Cast: Simeone Signoret, Laurence Harvey, Heather Sears |
 | A Room with a View – Merchant-Ivory triumph with this perfectly mounted Forster adaptation | Director: James Ivory Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands, Maggie Smith |
 | Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead – Stoppard directs his landmark play (‘because if I don’t no one else would’) | Director: Tom Stoppard Cast: Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, Richard Dreyfuss |
 | Ruggles of Red Gap – comedy about a classic British butler falling in love with America | Director: Leo McCarey Cast: Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles |
 | Rules of Engagement – dreadful, border-line racist, courtroom drama about a colonel fireing in Iranian civilians | Director: William Friedkin Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Kingsley |
 | The Russia House – a publisher with contacts in the USSR is roped into espionage in this solid Le Carré thriller | Director: Fred Schepisi Cast: Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Klaus Maria Brandauer |
 | Rust and Bone – a kickboxer and a crippled killer whale trainer find love in this striking and brilliant film | Director: Jacques Audiad Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure |
S
 | Salvador – Stone’s angry denunciation of US Cold War policy, electric if at times a little obvious | Director: Oliver Stone Cast: James Woods, Jim Belushi, Michael Murphy |
 | Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – a rebellious, chippy highly-skilled working class man refuses to be told what to do | Director: Karel Reisz Cast: Albert Finney, Rachel Roberts, Shirley Anne Field |
 | Saving Mr Banks – PL Travers reacts with horror, when Walt Disney plans to turn her Mary Poppins into a film musical | Director: John Lee Hancock Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell |
 | Saving Private Ryan – the war film that changed the whole genre, a landmark piece of film-making | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Matt Damon |
 | Sayonara – self-important and dull anti-racism film about American GIs overcoming prejudice to marry Japanese women | Director: Joshua Logan Cast: Marlon Brando, Miika Taka, Red Buttons |
 | Scandal – careful reconstruction of the Profumo scandal, with plenty of sex (of course) | Director: Michael Caton Jones Cast: John Hurt, Joanne Whalley, Ian McKellen |
 | Scarface – brilliant gangster film, ‘the shame of the nation’ in its day: bullets fly as a ruthless gangster climbs to the top | Director: Howard Hawks Cast: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Raft |
 | Scarface – OTT crime drama about a Cuban gangster making it big in the US and self-destructing. Satire on greed and bling culture | Director: Brian de Palma Cast: Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer |
 | The Scarlet Empress – absolutely crazy von Sternberg historical epic about Catherine the Great | Director: Josef von Sternberg Cast: Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, Sam Jaffe |
 | Schindler’s List – heartbreaking, Best-picture winning story of the Austrian businessmen who saved thousands of Jews | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes |
 | School of Rock – enjoyable comedy, as a slacker musician pretends to be teacher and forms a band with the students | Director: Richard Linklater Cast: Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White |
 | Scott of the Antarctic – flag-waving biopic, with Scott as the ultimate boys own hero | Director: Charles Frend Cast: John Mills, Diana Churchill, Harold Warrander |
 | Scum – power struggles between the kids in a brutal expose of the Borstal system. Hardhitting but essential | Director: Alan Clarke Cast: Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Firth |
 | Seance on a Wet Afternoon – a mystic and her husband kidnap a child so that she can ‘discover’ him and prove her gift | Director: Bryan Forbes Cast: Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Nanette Newman |
 | The Searchers – Ford’s masterpiece, a racist cowboy searches to find (and kill?) his kidnapped niece who has gone native | Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles |
 | Seconds – rich people take on new bodies to live forever in this creepy but not quite engaging enough conspiracy thriller | Director: John Frankenheimer Cast: Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph |
 | Secrets and Lies – heart-rending, emotional, but hopeful, story of a family in crisis, one of Leigh’s finest films | Director: Mike Leigh Cast: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste |
 | See How They Run – studenty and not-funny-enough murder mystery spoofing Agatha Christie | Director: Tom George Cast: Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody |
 | Selma – superb, passionate MLK biopic, focusing on his march in Selma, Alabama | Director: Ava DuVernay Cast: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmon Ejogo |
 | Sense and Sensibility – simply perfect Jane Austen film, one of the landmarks of classic literature adaptations | Director: Ang Lee Cast: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman |
 | A Separation – in Iran a couple are forced to divorce; the husband is then accused of causing a harmful accident | Director: Asghar Farhadi Cast: Payman Maadi, Leila Natami, Sareh Bayet |
 | The Servant – a creepy butler manipulates his weak-willed master in this breath-taking British classic | Director: Joseph Losey Cast: Dirk Bogarde, James Fox, Sarah Miles |
 | Seven Days in May – an American general plots a coup in this conspiracy thriller | Director: John Frankenheimer Cast: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March |
 | The Seven-Per-Cent Solution – Holmes is treated by Freud for addiction in this loving, faithful pastiche | Director: Herbert Ross Cast: Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin |
 | Seven Samurai – brilliant action film as seven samurai protect a village; also a thoughtful character study. Kurosawa’s best film | Director: Akira Kurosawa Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Daisuke Katō |
 | The Seventh Seal – most influential arthouse film ever made? A medieval knight plays chess with Death for his soul. Great film. | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot, Gunnar Björnstrand |
 | Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll – imaginative biopic of Ian Drury | Director: Mat Whitecross Cast: Andy Serkis, Bill Milner, Naomie Harris |
 | Shadow of a Doubt – a man corrupts a small town family in this small-scale thriller, Hitchcock’s favourite of his films | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotton, Macdonald Carey |
 | Shadowlands – heartbreaking tearjerker, as CS Lewis finds love and loss very late in life | Director: Richard Attenborough Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger, Joseph Marzello |
 | Shakespeare in Love – Best Picture winning clever comedy, as Shakespeare falls in love with a would-be actress | Director: John Madden Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush |
 | Shane – brilliant western: a gunslinger finds its difficult to hang up your guns when black hats dominate your adopted home | Director: George Stevens Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin |
 | Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – the estranged son of a war lord, searches for answers about his family | Director: Destin Daniel Cretton Cast: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Tony Leung |
 | Shanghai Express – romantic drama and tension on the eponymous train | Director: Josef von Sternberg Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong |
 | The Shape of Water – Best Picture winning fantasy, about a woman who falls in love with a captured sea monster | Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Richard Jenkins |
 | The Shawshank Redemption – most popular film ever made: a man struggles to keep his spirit alive in prison | Director: Frank Darabont Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, William Sadler |
 | She Said – recounting of the New York Times investigation into Weinstein, more earnest than dramatic | Director: Maria Schrader Cast: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson |
 | She Wore a Yellow Ribbon – beautifully shot but slightly dry “day in a life” of the cavalry western | Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Joanna Dru, John Agar |
 | Sherlock Holmes – all-action Sherlock Holmes version, gothic buddy-movie with Holmes using his skills to win fights | Director: Guy Ritchie Cast: Robert Downey Jnr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams |
 | Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows – Holmes takes on Moriarty in this less impressive sequel | Director: Guy Ritchie Cast: Robert Downey Jnr, Jude Law, Jared Harris |
 | Sherlock Holmes in Washington – modernised Holmes in a noir actioner | Director: Roy William Neill Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Lord |
 | The Shining – a writer, stranded in an empty hotel full of evil spirits, loses his mind and tries to kill his family. Terrifying | Director: Stanley Kubrick Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd |
 | Ship of Fools – an eclectic group of passengers lives intersect on a long voyage from US to Nazi Germany in the 1930s | Director: Stanley Kramer Cast: Vivien Leigh, Oskar Werner, Simone Signoret |
 | Short Cuts – a number of lives intersect over a few days in Los Angeles in this epic ensemble drama | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davison, Julianne Moore |
 | Sicario – a female FBI agent works with the DEA to bring down a drugs smuggling ring – but questions their methods | Director: Denis Villeneuve Cast: Emily Blunt, Benecio del Toro, Josh Brolin |
 | Silence – 17th century Priests in Japan struggle to hold onto their faith, in the face of prosecution | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson |
 | The Silence of the Lambs – masterful Best Picture winner: a young FBI profiler recruits a serial killer to track another killer | Director: Jonathan Demme Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn |
 | Silver Linings Playbook – two misfits with personality disorders enter a dance competition. Russell’s warmest film | Director: David O Russell Cast: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro |
 | Singin in the Rain – the definitive Hollywood old-school musical with the most famous dance sequence of all time | Director: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly Cast: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor |
 | A Single Man – a grieving gay academic plans to end his life in this heartfelt emotional film. | Director: Tom Ford Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult |
 | Sleepy Hollow – a detective is called into investigate supernatural beheadings in a small town | Director: Tim Burton Cast: Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Christopher Walken |
 | Slumdog Millionaire – Best Picture winner; in India a young man competes in a quiz show: his difficult life gives him the answers | Director: Danny Boyle Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittel |
 | Smiles of a Summer Night – romantic complications come to a head one long night in Bergman’s comedy of manners | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Eva Dahlbeck, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ulla Jacobsson |
 | The Snake Pit – psychological drama about a woman struggling to understand reality in an asylum | Director: Anatole Litvak Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn |
 | The Social Network – Zuckerberg builds Facebook and loses his friends, in this era-exploring drama | Director: David Fincher Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake |
 | A Soldier’s Story – in 1942 on a military base, a black NCO is killed – a racist crime? A black JAG is sent to investigate | Director: Norman Jewison Cast: Howard E Rollins Jnr, Adolph Caesar, Art Evans |
 | Solaris – Tarkovsky’s first attempt at science fiction, a haunting if cryptic tale as dreams come to life above a mysterious planet | Director: Andrei Tarkovsky Cast: Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Jüri Järvet |
 | Solo: A Star Wars Story – unnecessary Star Wars prequel that seems determined to explain every Solo reference ever made | Director: Ron Howard Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke |
 | Solomon Kane – in the 1600s a mercenary is cursed by the Devil and tries to save his soul by fighting for good | Director: Michael J Bassett Cast: James Purefoy, Max von Sydow, Rachel Hurd Wood |
 | Some Like It Hot – musicians on the run from Prohibition disguise themselves as women – mayhem ensues. | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe |
 | The Song of Bernadette – Christian biopic of Saint Bernadette – but surprisingly good | Director: Henry King Cast: Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper |
 | The Sound Barrier – an obsessed engineer risks his son-in-law’s life to break the sound barrier | Director: David Lean Cast: Ann Todd, Ralph Richardson, Nigel Patrick |
 | Sound of Metal – a drums player suddenly goes death and searches for an answer | Director: Darius Mardur Cast: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff |
 | The Sound of Music – Best Picture winning musical about singing nuns and loving families. The most popular movie ever? | Director: Robert Wise Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker |
 | Spartacus – iconic Ancient Rome action epic, as slaves fight for freedom. “I’m Spartacus!” | Director: Stanley Kubrick Cast: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov |
 | Spectre – Bond hunts down a mysterious mastermind as Bond unwisely tries to start its own interconnected universe | Director: Sam Mendes Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux |
 | Speed – a bus can’t drop below 50mph in this brilliant, high-concept action thriller, one of the best of its kind | Director: Jan de Bont Cast: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hooper, Sandra Bullock |
 | Speed 2: Cruise Control – terrible from start-to-finish sequel, as a cruise liner ‘speeds’ towards destruction. Everyone sinks | Director: Jan de Bont Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric, Willem Dafoe |
 | Spencer – naive and sentimental biopic of Princess Diana, focusing on one disastrous Christmas c. 1991 | Director: Pablo Larrain Cast: Kristin Stewart, Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins |
 | Spider-Man: No Way Home – fabulous Marvel crossover event, heartwarming fun | Director: Jon Watts Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch |
 | Spotlight – Boston journalists investigate sex abuse in the Catholic Church in this low-key Best Picture winner | Director: Tom McCarthy Cast: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams |
 | Spy – a desk operative has to step in when tragedy occures to a field agent in this amusing comedy | Director: Paul Feig Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne |
 | The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – a ground-down spy gets involved in a masterplot to discredit an East German spy catcher | Director: Martin Ritt Cast: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner |
 | The Spy Who Loved Me – Roger Moore’s ultimate Bond film: huge, silly, crammed with jokes and raised eyebrows | Director: Lewis Gilbert Cast: Roger Moore, Barbara Bach, Curd Jürgens |
 | The Square – smug art satire: an art director gets into trouble when he’s distracted by a stolen wallet | Director: Ruben Östlund Cast: Claes Bangs, Elizabeth Moss, Dominic West |
 | Stalag 17 – in a POW camp, a fixer is a suspected Nazi stoolie and has to prove his innocence | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger |
 | Stalker – pretentious Russian sci-fi epic, as men travel through a zone given a strange power by an extra terrestrial encounter | Director: Andrei Tarkovsky Cast: Alexander Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn |
 | A Star is Born – long but rewarding version of the story of a fading star and his talented wife, with brilliant performances | Director: George Cukor Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson |
 | A Star is Born – tearjerkingly well-done version of the story, this time about Country and Western singers | Director: Bradley Cooper Cast: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott |
 | Star Trek: The Motion Picture – terminally dull launch of the Star Trek franchise, about a mysterious probe in space | Director: Robert Wise Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley |
 | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – the best Star Trek film, Kirk duels with an old enemy who is desperate for revenge | Director: Nicholas Meyer Cast: William Shatner, Ricardo Montalban, Leonard Nimoy |
 | Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – one of my all-time favs: Kirk and McCoy are framed for murder during a peace conference | Director: Nicholas Meyer Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Christoper Plummer |
 | Star Trek: Nemesis – franchise-killing bomb, as Picard takes on a clone of his younger self | Director: Stuart Baird Cast: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Tom Hardy |
 | Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace – long-awaited Star Wars prequel, possibly the most disappointing film of all time | Director: George Lucas Cast: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman |
 | Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones – possibly even worse than the first one, a tone-deaf love story | Director: George Lucas Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christiensen, Natalie Portman |
 | Star Wars: The Last Jedi – iconoclastic Star Wars film, whose attempt to do something different was rejected by fans | Director: Rian Johnson Cast: Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher |
 | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – a trilogy that started so well, ends with a fanbait entry that pleased no one | Director: JJ Abrams Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega |
 | Stardust – charming romantic fantasia, as a young man protects a women who is literally a fallen star | Director: Matthew Vaughan Cast: Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer |
 | Starship Troopers – attractive young men and women volunteer to fight a war against space bugs. Actually a satire on fascism | Director: Paul Verhoeven Cast: Casper Van Dien, Dina Mayer, Denise Richards |
 | Steve Jobs – biopic, structured like a play, that looks at its subjects life through three key project launches | Director: Danny Boyle Cast: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogan |
 | Still Alice – tearjerking, sensitive drama about a English professor suffering from early onset dementia | Director: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland Cast: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart |
 | The Sting – two conmen tip up in the 1920s to take down a ruthless gangster in this Best Picture winner | Director: George Roy Hill Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw |
 | Strangers on a Train – a man accidentally agrees to swop murders with a psychopath in Hitchcock’s sharp-footed thriller | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman |
 | Suffragette – lacklustre historical drama that fudges important issues | Director: Sarah Gavron Cast: Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Romola Garai |
 | Suite Française – picturesque occupation drama as a French woman falls in love with a Good German | Director: Saul Dibb Cast: Michelle Williams, Matthias Schoenaerts |
 | Sullivan’s Travels – film director hits the road to learn about ‘life’ in a sharp Hollywood satire | Director: Preston Sturges Cast: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick |
 | Sully: Miracle on the Hudson – a pilot lands a failing plane in the Hudson – and is blamed by the authorities | Director: Clint Eastwood Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney |
 | The Sum of All Fears – decent attempted franchise relaunch as Jack Ryan scrambles to prevent a nuclear war | Director: Phil Alden Robinson Cast: Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Liev Schreiber |
 | Summer Interlude – a ballerina processes terrible memories in this early Bergman that establishes all his themes | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Alf Kjellin |
 | Summer with Monika – Bergman’s advance kitchen-sink drama, as idealism turns bitter after a seemingly blissful summer | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, John Harrysone |
 | Summerland – a misanthropic writer during WW2 takes on a refugee and finds herself opening up | Director: Jessica Swale Cast: Gemma Arterton, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Penelope Wilton |
 | Summertime – a lonely woman finds romance in Venice, in this luscious travelogue, one of the best of its genre | Director: David Lean Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi |
 | Sunday, Bloody Sunday – a man and a woman share the same lover, a hedonistic young man. | Director: John Schlesinger Cast: Peter Finch, Glenda Jackson, Murray Melvin |
 | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans – Murnau’s fairy tale of a man and wife helps redefine the language of cinema for Hollywood | Director: FW Murnau Cast: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston |
 | Sunset Boulevard – absolutely brilliant dark Hollywood drama murder mystery | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim |
 | Sunshine – a space mission to restart the sun’s care with a nuclear bomb is mankind’s last chance to escape extinction | Director: Danny Boyle Cast: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans |
 | Sunshine on Leith – two squaddies return home to Leith in this up-beat Proclaimers jukebox muscial | Director: Dexter Fletcher Cast: George Mackay, Kevin Guthrie, Freya Mavor |
 | Suspicion – Cary Grant might be a murderer in this middle-of-the-road Hitchcock thriller | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Cedric Hardwicke |
 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – bloody Sondheim adaptation of the serial killing barber | Director: Tim Burton Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman |
 | The Sweet Hereafter – after a tragic school bus accident, an ambulance chasing lawyer arrives in a small town to build a case | Director: Atom Egoyan Cast: Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Bruce Greenwood |
 | Sweet Smell of Success – a vicious newspaper columnist exploits a desperate PR man in this brilliant acidic comedy | Director: Alexander Mackendrick Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison |
 | Syriana – dense political drama about the corruption of the international oil industry | Director: Stephen Gaghan Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright |
Movie Musings 