A close-to-classic 'intimate' set, filmed in the mid-'90s at London's Jacob St Studios. Chrissie Hynde and trusted band, assisted by a string quartet, loll luxuriously through such sultry charmers as "Kid","Private Life" and "Lovers Of Today", while Damon Albarn trots on as guest star to tinkle the ivories. There's also a stab at Radiohead's "Creep", with Hynde in sublime voice. A rock icon who's also one of the great white soul singers.
Eye-popping action from venerable screen kung fu master Yuen Woo-Ping. Iron Monkey stars Yu Rong-kwong as Dr Yang, who masquerades as the eponymous high-kicking Robin Hood-style hero. Clocking in at an extremely zippy 86 minutes, this superbly choreographed chopsocky flick is the inspiration for both The Matrix and Crouching Tiger...
Twenty years and one truly awful TV remake later, David Lynch's adaptation of Frank Herbert's unfilmable sci-fi epic looks miraculously good. Kyle MacLachlan makes an impressive debut as the young desert messiah, the supporting cast are great (except Sting), and the amazing visuals more than outweigh the unwieldy script.
Run-DMC did more than anyone to bring rock into hip hop in the mid-'80s. Greatest Hits shows the band at their best (the Tipper Gore-baiting "Mary Mary") and worst (the cutesy "Christmas In Hollis"). The purists sneered at the Jason Nevins makeover of "It's Like That",but those warehouse visuals will have turned a new generation of suburban 13-year-olds on to hip hop.
This WWII melodrama from Delmer Daves, director of all-time classic western Broken Arrow, has two great showcase roles for Frank Sinatra (poor, principled officer) and Tony Curtis (wealthy, mean sergeant). The romantic sub-plot has dated badly, but the battle scenes are still worth a look.
Susan Strasberg is a deaf Carole Caplin döppelganger in 1968 Haight-Ashbury in this hilariously inept 'look' at the counterculture. Jack Nicholson is guitarist Stoney, beneficiary of lines such as "it don't sound so good without acid". Strasberg is searching for The Seeker, aka her big brother Steve (Bruce Dern). Dean Stockwell intones Manson-esque platitudes about "head games". The Strawberry Alarm 'Schlock' sing "Incense And Peppermints" and Sky Saxon plays in the park. It's that good, and it's that bad.
Filmed in 1979, directed by sitcom stalwarts lan La Frenais and Dick Clement, To Russia With Elton is the antidote to the current Elton live show. Accompanied only by drummer Ray Cooper, he seems to have a genuine hunger; unsurprising, perhaps, in light of the commercial failure of '78's A Single Man and the following year's critically reviled Victim Of Love. Probably the last time Elton was ever vital.
The third in Robert Rodriguez's winning series sees the plucky youngsters enter a maniacal video-game world to confront misunderstood supervillain Sylvester Stallone. Plot barely matters, though, as the movie exists only for Rodriguez to indulge in a rampant, sweetly senseless exercise in reviving retro-3D gimmickry. All in all, how Tron should have been.
Predictably brash big-screen version of unremarkable '70s TV show, with Samuel L Jackson knocking a rogue SWAT team into shape and making unlikely heroes of them. There's more gunfire than dialogue, so Jackson isn't asked to do more than shout a lot, while Colin Farrell squints manfully and kills everyone in sight.
November 2003's AIDS benefit in Cape Town was made special by the presence of one person. No, not Bono, Beyoncé, Geldof, Gabriel or Ms Dynamite, mightily as they perform. On this showing, the biggest star in the world is currently Nelson Mandela, who inspired the event and gets a cheer 10 times as long and loud as the rest combined. A vital cause, some decent music, a few dodgy stadium rock moments and the world's only living saint.
