The subsequent success of Blade proved that superheroes could be big business, and opened the door to X-Men, Spider-Man and (a bit later) the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Before Wesley Snipes started slaying vampires in 1998, Marvel had never had a significant movie hit, and – largely thanks to the failure of the risible Batman & Robin – comic-book adaptations weren’t considered surefire hits. (Image credit: New Line Cinema)īlade ranks among the most important – and pivotal – movies of the last 25 years. Wesley Snipes in Blade, the movie that launched Marvel on a path to world domination. The movie has also spawned four (at present) seasons of the brilliant Fargo TV spin-off, undoubtedly one of the best Hulu TV shows. A memorable ensemble cast including William H Macy, Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare make the most of the brothers’ witty, twisty script, but McDormand is the undoubted standout as the brilliant, eternally upbeat and very pregnant Marge. Setting the story in their native Midwest, the Coens bring a tale of double-crossing, murder and extreme incompetence to the unsuspecting small town of Brainerd, Minnesota. It was this snowy 1996 crime drama, however, that made the rest of the world take notice of Joel and Ethan’s unique talents, winning two Oscars (for best screenplay, and for Frances McDormand’s performance as police chief Marge Gunderson) in the process. (Image credit: Gramercy)īy the mid-’90s, Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink had earned the Coen brothers both critical acclaim and cult appeal. When Harry Met Sallyįrances McDormand won the first of her three acting Oscars for her role in the brilliant Fargo. While he and love interest Laura Dern play it with the stiff straightness of a 1950s movie, the seedier characters are pushed to extremes, most notably Dennis Hopper’s sadistic, gas-snorting Frank Booth.Īlthough Lynch inhabits a “strange world”, however, Blue Velvet remains one of the director’s most accessible films, with the more surreal elements that would dominate his later works – such as Wild At Heart and Mulholland Drive – anchored to a solid, linear storyline. Kyle MacLachlan is the clean-cut college boy who uncovers a seedy underworld of gangsters and bizarre sexual practices, and – much like the viewer – finds himself trapped between repulsion and a voyeuristic desire to find out what happens next. (Image credit: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group)ĭavid Lynch finds something sinister lurking behind the white picket fences of suburbia in the film widely hailed as his masterpiece. Isabella Rossellini as lounge singer Dorothy Valens in David Lynch's classic Blue Velvet. Want to see how The Terminator compares with the rest of the director’s filmography? Check out our guide to James Cameron movies ranked. Follow-up Terminator 2: Judgment Day is arguably a superior movie, but it can’t match its predecessor for raw, muscular action. ![]() Sure, there’s some important backstory about machines taking over the world, but all you need to know is that a cyborg killer has been sent back in time to kill a waitress (the unfortunate Sarah Connor) destined to be the mother of the savior of humanity.įrom the second Arnold Schwarzenegger’s robot assassin arrives in 1984 LA, not a single moment is wasted as future Aliens/ Titanic/Avatar director Cameron crafts one of the most relentless thrill rides in Hollywood history, making the most of his relatively meagre budget in the process. The Terminator franchise has become such a convoluted mess of sequels, reboots and contradicting timelines that it’s easy to forget the elegant simplicity of James Cameron’s original movie. ![]() The TerminatorĪrnold Schwarzenegger as the eponymous Terminator, arguably the most iconic role of his career. And even though the effects are easy to mock when viewed through 21st century eyes, The Exorcist remains a tour de force of practical filmmaking – the stuff nightmares are made of. The actors’ performances (most notably from Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn, as the afflicted kid and her mom) are brilliant, while the movie’s themes of faith and the nature of evil are still haunting today. Instead, most of the conversation focussed on this horror classic, a movie that retains the capacity to chill you to the bone half a century after it was first released.Īlthough many genre films of the era were schlocky affairs, Friedkin treated his adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel (about a 12-year-old girl possessed by an evil demon) with utter seriousness and respect. ![]() When legendary director William Friedkin passed away in August, the obituaries weren’t generally headlined by The French Connection, the film that won him an Oscar. One of the most famous images in the history of cinema.
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