Aladdin

Year: 1992
Running time: 90 minutes
Certificate: U
Language: English
Screenplay: Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio
Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker
Starring (voices): Scott Weinger, Linda Larkin, Robin Williams, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale 

Princess Jasmine's slightly sexualised character design did very strange things

to my 12-year-old self...just as I was getting over Jessica Rabbit.

What's the best Disney Classic ever? For my money, Aladdin has a decent chance at claiming the title. Disney was riding high on its Clements/Musker/Menken-led resurgence, and following huge hits The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin smashed it out of the park (it is generally thought that the following year The Lion King hit a creative peak even higher than Aladdin, but I can't find myself agreeing).

Agrabah street rat Aladdin (Scott Weinger) ekes out an existence by stealing food and living hand-to-mouth with his only friend, a little monkey called Abu (Frank Welker). Sultan's daughter Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin) feels trapped by the luxury of the palace and resents being forced to choose a husband from a line of suitors just because the law dictates that she must. Jafar (Jonathan Freeman), scheming vizier and the top advisor to the sultan (Douglas Seale), makes secret plans with his parrot Iago (Gilbert Gottfried) to retrieve a magic lamp from the mysterious Cave of Wonders (Frank Welker). Jasmine runs away and meets Aladdin in the Agrabah marketplace, where they hit it off (naturally). Jafar learns that Aladdin is the only one who can enter the cave and retrieve the lamp and sets some sinister plans in motion.

Betrayed by Jafar, but, thanks to the light-fingered Abu, betraying him in turn, Aladdin finds himself stuck in the cave with the lamp. Noticing it's dull, he rubs it to give it a little shine and the rest is Disney history...

A little on the nose, but following the show-stopping 'Friend Like Me', it's hard

not to break into spontaneous applause.

The animation is of the superbly-drawn quality that is typical of early '90s Disney, with some use of computer generated imagery adding some additional layers, barely hinting at the glorious CG animation the following years would bring. The well-trodden story is given a wonderful freshness and is funny as hell (even without the Genie (Robin Williams), Abu and Iago provide plenty of laughs), emotional, scary (at times, Jafar is truly frightening), with just the right amount of cheese. Some of the very best songs in Disney's hugely impressive musical canon. It appeals to adults and kids alike. There's even a little hidden sexual innuendo (“Would you like to go for a ride?”).

To be fair, there are a great many Disney classics with all those things, but Aladdin has an extra ingredient to raise it above all others: Robin Williams as the Genie. When the character is on screen there are so many quick-fire jokes and impressions that you can barely catch them all. I heard a story once that Williams caused a huge headache for Disney by ad-libbing many of his lines, causing much of the initial work to be scrapped and reanimated from scratch. This, according the story, led to Williams not being paid for his work, presumably due to the extra cost of redrawing. Then when the film hit massive pay-dirt, the corporation gave him a Picasso for his trouble. Whether any of this is true, I cannot tell you for certain, but the Genie does have a humour that is distinctly Williams-like that nobody else could have delivered with anywhere near the same effectiveness. He even looks like him. Aladdin is great from start to finish, but when Williams has the mic it soars above every single one of its peers.

True genius, and, in my opinion, possibly Disney's best ever.

Score: 9/10

Other reviews are also full of high praise, although generally place Aladdin slightly lower in the pecking order, below The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast - see this review from Janet at the New York Times. There is also some fascinating information on the making of Aladdin in this review from Olly at Empire, which no doubt has more truth to it than the story I described hearing above.

Pulp Fiction

Year: 1994
Running time: 154 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, Maria de Medeiros, Harvey Keitel

Jules and Vincent get to work.

Still recognised as Tarantino’s high water mark, Pulp Fiction is a brilliantly crafted piece of writing and directing. Telling three separate stories in a jumbled timeline and with overlapping characters, this could easily have been a bit of a mess, but in QT’s assured hands the pieces fit together perfectly.

Set in LA, we open with a brief intro spent with Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer), a couple in love discussing giving up robbing liquor stores and moving onto restaurants. (Unsurprisingly, 'Pumpkin' and 'Honey Bunny' are their pet names for each other, rather than their actual character's names. We eventually learn that Honey Bunny's real name is Yolanda, while Pumpkin is referred to either as Pumpkin or Ringo, neither of which appear to be his real name.) Leaving Pumpkin and Honey Bunny behind for now, we're introduced to a couple of two-bit hoods Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta), who while on a job to murder an apartment full of young men on behalf of their employer, gang boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), spend time bickering over the finer points of extra marital foot massages as excuses for throwing people out of windows. This serves as another extended intro, and the first of the three stories starts proper as Vincent takes Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), wife of Marsellus, out for dinner, on Marsellus's order.

Later, for the second story, following a brief appearance earlier on, we spend some more time with Butch (Bruce Willis), a boxer nearing the end of his career having failed to set the world alight, being paid to throw a fight for Wallace. When he double-crosses the gangster and runs with the money, an ill-advised trip back to his apartment to pick up a treasured watch leads to some, to put it mildly, unexpected twists and turns. For the third and final story we catch up with Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, who happen to be robbing a restaurant that Vincent and Jules are eating in following a particularly rough morning. Characters pop in and out of each other's stories and by the end you can see how the pieces fit together.

Mia Wallace, comfortably sharing a silence with Vincent.

The film is an absolute masterstroke of casting; the part of Vincent Vega single-handedly saved the career of John Travolta, and the inspired casting choices run right through the film even down to the minor characters, such as Christopher Walken’s glorious five minute monologue as Captain Koons, telling a young Butch (Chandler Lindauer) the history of the watch that would come to mean so much to him. The only blip here is Tarantino’s decision to cast himself as Jimmie, Jules' associate who reacts badly to being put on the spot, but it doesn’t detract from the otherwise tremendous acting, which is helped along greatly by the inspired dialogue. Tarantino’s writing has a recognisable and unique style all its own, appearing to sound naturalistic on first listen but shown to be meticulously crafted when studied in any depth.

The soundtrack choices are also perfectly judged and another Tarantino trademark – for two great examples see the long, one-take, dialogue-free shot in Jack Rabbit Slims as Vincent stumbles around in search of a table or the scene set to Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon in which Mia Wallace loses herself in the music before overdosing.

Equal parts violence, comedy and thrilling tension, Pulp Fiction confirms what Reservoir Dogs suggested: that Tarantino was a man born to write and direct movies.

Score: 9/10

Peter at the Guardian is also a fan, but Sam at the New Statesman appears to assume that writing characters that use racist or other offensive terms means the writer is racist, which is a problem that has beset Tarantino throughout much of his career.

Demolition Man

Year: 1993
Running time: 115 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Daniel Waters, Robert Reneau, Peter M. Lenkov
Director: Marco Brambilla
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Benjamin Bratt, Bob Gunton, Glenn Shadix, Denis Leary, Bill Cobbs 

Hero pose #28

Ah, cheesy action movies from yesteryear, how we love you. Opening in the ‘future’ of 1996, depicting a world gone wild where crime rules, Demolition Man is always good for a laugh. Hero cop Jon Spartan (Sylvester Stallone, working at the peak of his comedy-action powers) is nicknamed 'The Demolition Man' due to the building-wrecking fallout of his particular type of police work. To be fair to Spartan, however, he does tend to go after the most psychopathic of villains - "Send a maniac to catch a maniac," goes the repeated refrain. But what good is a destructive, wise-cracking hero cop without a suitably barmy nemesis? Enter Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes), the hyperactive, unstable foil for Spartan, evil yet somewhat difficult to take seriously with ridiculous peroxide blonde hair.

During an altercation, Spartan gets framed for the deaths of a busload of civilians, and he and Phoenix get sent down together. In the future of the mid-nineties, however, a prison term is served while cryogenically frozen, undergoing rehabilitation in the form of subliminal suggestion. After 36 years in the freezer, Phoenix is mysteriously set loose and proceeds to cause murderous havoc. In 2032, it seems the world has managed to completely reorganise itself into a non-violent utopia, and as such the modern day police department is entirely unequipped to deal with Phoenix.

Simon Phoenix, a psychopathic kid in a non-violent candy shop.

Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock), love interest (nobody ever said a 90s action movie was going to be original) and a cop bored with her perfect world and obsessed with the violence-filled past becomes involved with a hair-brained scheme to recapture Phoenix - defrost Spartan and send him after him. Spartan's pursuit of Phoenix reveals the mystery behind Phoenix's escape as well as the dirty underbelly hiding below the new Utopia's peaceful surface, while indulging in several fun action set-pieces on the way.

Always an enjoyable watch, but the cracking concept, the competent (if not spectacular) action cinematography, Stallone and Bullock are all upstaged by the explosive turn from Wesley Snipes as the cold-blooded mass murderer with his own line in comedy one-liners and highly suspect style choices.

Decent set-pieces and lots of foul-mouthed fun make for a great, if rather silly, whole.

Score: 7/10

There's more to Demolition Man than meets the eye - take a look at these re-appraisals from Ryan at Den of Geek and Matt at The A.V. Club.

Ocean's Eleven

Year: 1960 (Original), 2001 (Remake), 2004 (Twelve), 2007 (Thirteen)
Running time: 127 minutes (Original), 116 minutes (Remake), 125 minutes (Twelve), 122 minutes (Thirteen)
Certificate: PG (Original, Thirteen), 12 (Remake, Twelve)
Language: English
Screenplay: Harry Brown, Charles Lederer (Original, Remake), Ted Griffin (Remake), George Nolfi (Twelve), Brian Koppelman, David Levian (Thirteen)
Director: Lewis Milestone (Original), Steven Soderbergh (Remake, Twelve, Thirteen)
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Angie Dickinson, Richard Conte, Cesar Romero, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scot Caan, Carl Reiner, Don Cheadle, Elliott Gould, Shaobo Qin, Eddie Jemison, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vincent Cassel, Albert Finney, Robbie Coltrane, Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin

Danny and co. begin to suspect something has gone very, very wrong.

The original Ocean’s Eleven isn't counted among the best movies to come out of Hollywood. As far as I know it's not even counted among the best of the Rat Pack. Without the remake I doubt many would remember it, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have heard of it. As a showcase for the effortless cool of the Rat Pack, it mostly works, with Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) bringing together some wartime buddies to rob five Las Vegas casinos in one night. It's enjoyable enough with the gang cracking wise and having a jolly good time in their escapades. It is, unfortunately, really rather forgettable. It turned out that Frankie & co. tried just a little too hard to be effortless.

Steven Soderbergh's remake, on the other hand, employed the coolest cast Hollywood had to offer, having the role of Danny Ocean taken over by George Clooney and bringing along a pile of talent to make up his Eleven. Honestly, Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. had style to spare, but Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, Bernie Mac, Elliott Gould...and more. It's got to be one of the most stellar casts that's ever been assembled for a single film. Soderbergh makes the most complex of camera tricks seem as simple as breathing – just watching it while paying attention to camera placement is a revelation. Frankly, it did everything the original Rat Pack vehicle was supposed to do.

Taking a moment to enjoy their success.

So, we have a rare thing here; a remake that is easily better than the original film it's remaking. The only possible exceptions are Don Cheadle’s worse-than-Dick-van-Dyke’s accent as explosives expert Basher Tarr (although it's so bad, it has a weird kind of charm all its own) and the ending – the Rat Pack don’t get away with it in a great finale (their faces as their loot is being cremated is splendid), but George’s bunch get away free as birds minus a minor jail sentence. Even there though, while the original is funny, the remake's ending is more satisfying. One thing both films fall down on is that women are horribly underserved - Angie Dickinson and Julia Roberts both do what they can in the role of Danny's wife, and while Roberts does have a little more to do, both are almost the only female characters and both are side-lined. Not entirely unexpected for a film released in 1960 perhaps, but in the intervening 41 years you'd think that could have been something they'd have fixed. The sequels barely improve matters, adding little more than Catherine Zeta-Jones. Luckily Ocean's Eight, coming soon, looks set to restore balance.

Still cool, no matter how poor the sequel.

And then we have the curse of all successful Hollywood movies – the unnecessary sequel. Ocean’s Twelve is disappointing and, like the original, it tries too hard to look like it’s not trying at all. The plot is far more complicated, and frankly, I don’t want to be confused, I want to be entertained. Stylistically, it hits all the right beats - the dialogue is generally sharp and funny, and Soderbergh's cinematic flair is undimmed. The big difference is, in the original (that is the remake of the original), as a viewer I always felt like I was on Danny Ocean’s side, almost like I was one of the Eleven. Not so in the follow-up. I'm left in the dark as to what is actually happening until near the end; I feel like I've been kept out of the loop, like I was betrayed; hell, like I was one of the bad guys, and it’s rude to exclude me from the club. It was obviously a lot of fun to make, but nowhere near as much fun to watch. And Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts) impersonating Julia Roberts because – here’s the funny part – she looks just like the real Julia Roberts? Does not work. Not even a little bit. I'm not sure I've ever groaned as loudly in a place in a film where I was supposed to laugh.

Danny sizes up his latest mark.

But then, something miraculous. Well, sort of. Ocean's Thirteen remembers why the original (remake) was so good and Ocean's Twelve sucked, and does something about it. In Ocean’s Thirteen, I'm once again part of the gang, back in on the play, and it’s so cool it’s plainly not trying in the slightest. Al Pacino is a welcome addition as Willy Bank, causing Danny's friend Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) so much grief he suffers from a heart attack. Even on just above auto-pilot, Pacino is so effective at portraying menace, it lifts the whole film. Danny reassembles the crew to go after Bank, not for the money this time, but payback for the way he's treated his friend. A very welcome return to form.

So, as Basher might say, after the sequel they were in Barney, but they remembered how to be cool for the finale.

Score:

Ocean’s Eleven (Original): 6/10
Ocean’s Eleven (Remake): 8/10
Ocean’s Twelve: 5/10
Ocean’s Thirteen: 7/10

Back in 1960, Bosley of the New York Times disliked the lack of morality in Sinatra's original, while Emma at Empire loved the remake. Matt at IndieWire makes a very good case for reappraising Ocean's Twelve and Vince at Qwipster also enjoyed Thirteen.

Beetlejuice

Year: 1988

Running time: 92 minutes

Certificate: 15

Language: English

Screenplay: Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren

Director: Tim Burton

Starring: Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Shadix, Sylvia Sidney

Betelgeuse, ready to bring the mayhem.

Beetlejuice is a bona-fide modern classic, bringing strangeness and black comedy in spades to a tale of an afterlife with as many frustrations and problems as the world of the living ever had.

Happy, sweet and boring couple Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) meet with a tragic accident thanks to a dog who likes walking in the middle of roads, and come to learn that death finds them stranded in their home with only an indecipherable guidebook for help. To make things worse, weird and dysfunctional family Charles (Jeffrey Jones) and Delia (Catherine O'Hara) Deetz and their daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder), whom the newly-ghostly Maitlands find incomprehensible, move in. Charles has moved out here for some relief from a stressful job, but Delia, an aspiring sculpture artist is aghast, and, with help of her friend Otho, proceeds to completely gut and redesign the house, in the name of modernisation.

Things just get weirder and weirder from here on in, as the Maitlands, looking for help from their book, find they’ve been assigned a caseworker in the afterlife, which appears to be run like the civil service. Juno (Sylvia Sidney) informs them that, basically, if they want the Deetz family out of their house, they will simply have to scare them away. Unfortunately, nobody can see their attempts to terrify. That is except Lydia, with whom they form a bond. After an inspired scene possessing the Deetz family and their dinner guests and making them dance to Harry Belafonte fails to scare them off and only makes them eager to meet them, they take desperate measures and ask for help from the title character, also known as Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton).

Adam and Barbara trying, unsuccessfully, to haunt their house.

Keaton's turn is a comedy whirlwind, full of manic energy, obliterating everything in its path. It moves the film up a gear, from merely great fun, to an unforgettable comedy that ranks up there with Ghostbusters and The Goonies. There is plenty to love about this film – from the bizarre cast of supporting characters to the superb Burtonesque afterlife, but it is Keaton’s turn that stays with you. He’s technically the bad guy, but you can’t help but love him.

Completely bizarre and brilliant because of it, Beetlejuice finds both director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton on top form.

Score: 8/10

A surprisingly mixed bag of other reviews out there for Beetlejuice, from Roger Ebert, who was less than impressed (with the exception of the deliberately overly-whimsical opening - he's well wide of the mark here in my opinion) to Eric at Slant, who loved it.

The Cat Returns

Year: 2002
Running time: 75 minutes
Certificate: U
Language: Japanese
Screenplay: Reiko Yoshida
Director: Hiroyuki Morita
Starring (voices): Chizuru Ikewaki, Yoshihiko Hakamada, Aki Maeda, Takayuki Yamada, Hitomi Satô, Kenta Satoi, Mari Hamada, Tetsu Watanabe, Yôsuke Saitô, Tetsurô Tanba 

Haru in a brief moment of quiet reflection.

Studio Ghibli didn't always need to rely on Hayao Miyazaki's genius to produce great work. While The Cat Returns is certainly proof of that, it does feel like a lesser work. Rest assured, however - it is gorgeous, engaging and a lot of fun.

As is the trend with many Studio Ghibli films, The Cat Returns explores a fantastical fantasy world through the eyes of a young girl. 17 year-old Haru (Chizuru Ikewaki) is walking home from school when she saves the life of a cat, preventing him from being run over with inventive use of her lacrosse stick. It turns out that the feline life she saves is none other than Prince Lune (Takayuki Yamada), heir to the kingdom of the cats. In addition to gratitude, Haru is betrothed to Prince Lune and somehow needs to find a way to escape the cat kingdom before she turns into a cat herself and marries the prince.

Haru and her new friend, The Baron.

Helping her in this endeavour is The Baron (Yoshihiko Hakamada), the cool top hat, tails and cane sporting cat and fat cat Muta (Tetsu Watanabe). The Baron and Muta have featured in a previous Studio Ghibli feature (the beautiful ode to the awakening of the creative urge in the young Whisper of the Heart, which is truly impossible for me to recommend highly enough) and it's great to see them again, this time in a much more hands-on (paws-on?) role. The escape is packed full of moments of comedy and breathless action brought to life by staggeringly good animation.

Less sophisticated than most of Studio Ghibli's other output, this is nevertheless another splendid addition to the studio's stellar collection.

Score: 7/10

Opinions of The Cat Returns as a lesser-yet-still-worthy Ghibli release seem fairly uniform across the board - see these reviews from Hannah at T.H.E.M., IGN and Kuma at The Nihon Review.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

Year: 2004
Running time: 108 minutes
Certificate: PG
Language: English
Screenplay: Robert Gordon
Director: Brad Silberling
Starring: Jim Carrey, Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Kara Hoffman, Shelby Hoffman, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara, Luis Guzman, Jennifer Coolidge, Jamie Harris, Jane Adams, Craig Ferguson, Cedric the Entertainer

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was another book adaptation of a hugely popular series that was released in the wake of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. Like The Golden Compass, Lemony Snicket failed to trigger a franchise (corporate shake-ups at Paramount didn't stop years of talk of a sequel that never materialised), but unlike that absolute stinker, it does a fine job of nailing the quirky tone suggested by what I've read of the books. It skews perhaps a little younger than Rings and the later instalments of Potter (although not by much), but is still full of great invention and storytelling smarts.

The ever-resourceful Baudelaire children.

The film covers the events in the first 3 of 13 books, and although it did reasonably well, it didn't do enough to secure any sequels. Although Netflix have produced a new series which is due to launch in January 2017, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Neil Patrick Harris, giving the property a well-deserved new lease of life.

The film has an impressive style all its own, with the muted colours still allowing for striking visuals and the well-suited soundtrack creating an overall effect of dreary negativity which still manages to be funny and emotionally engaging. It’s an odd contradiction, and the makers have made it work well.

Centred around the three Baudelaire children Violet (inventor) (Emily Browning), Klaus (book lover) (Liam Aiken) and baby Sunny (biter) (Kara and Shelby Hoffman) who soon become the Baudelaire orphans after their parents are killed in a mysterious house fire, the film tells of their struggle against the sinister Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), who is trying to get his hands on their late parents' fortune. Shipped from guardian to guardian, it is up to the siblings to outwit the adults who, through sheer bloody-minded incompetence, always seem to place them in danger. I suspect bright children often feel something of the frustration the Baudelaire orphans do here, controlled and written off by useless adults who simply assume they know best when almost always, they are either well-meaning buffoons or malicious idiots.

There are occasional moments when the siblings are given brief moments to grieve the loss of their parents (and their safety), and the rarity of these moments make them all the more affecting - particularly at the end of the film when they visit the ruins of their home. The scene hit me hard enough to bring tears (that is, since having children of my own - this being another scene, like so many other moments in so many other films, that means so much more now than it ever did before).

Count Olaf: Most assuredly, up to no good.

The cast are fabulous; Liam Aiken does well as Klaus, but is upstaged in every scene by Emily Browning's Violet - she deserves much more than to be remembered for this and Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch. She was very brave to take on Sleeping Beauty, and was excellent in it, but the disturbing subject matter and large amounts of nudity means it will only ever be niche. The stellar adult cast including Timothy Spall, Billy Connelly and Meryl Streep all impress. It is, however, the casting of Jim Carrey in the role of the despicable Count Olaf that gives the film its standout performance. A master of disguise fooling all the adults but never managing to outwit the Baudelaire orphans, the role of the dastardly and slightly wired Olaf is perfectly suited to Carrey, and leaves Neil Patrick Harris a hell of a shadow to fill.

A special mention is necessary for the superb end credit sequence, which may just be the best I’ve ever seen, with the animation and music summing up the style of the film beautifully.

Better than I was expecting, I was happy to be taken by ‘supreeze’.

Score: 7/10

Reviews are certainly mixed out there - Scott at Cinemablend liked it a lot with the notable exception of Jim Carrey, while Peter at The Guardian was much less impressed. Interestingly, most of the reviews at the time presumed a franchise.