Films to watch

An all-star cast in a skillfully woven tale of small-time gangster life in a most ambitious and provocative film. Bruce Willis, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson deliver career performances as petty thugs in LA's criminal underworld - where gritty confrontations, fast talk and perverse humour are all part of the daily grind. Nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award 1995, this boldly inventive and expertly orchestrated crime sage is hailed by critics as a landmark achievement in modern filmmaking!

In your quest for a good film to watch, be sure to add this one to your list. The movie shows the awful truth about how patients were treated in mental institutions back in the day, telling the story of someone who desperately wanted to break out, to break conventions, to revolutionise things, for himself and for the others.

Evidently, its key theme is slavery, and the corruption human nature can so easily reach. That said, it offers thoughts about numerous other worldly issues, namely the role of religion. There’s nothing sentimental about the way Steve McQueen depicts this and that’s what makes it so shocking. You cry because what you witness is truly horrific, not because the violins are playing. Ridley’s powerful script and McQueen’s directional skills display the wicked nature of society that allowed such a barbaric system.

A breathless, thrilling tale about a Mumbai orphan who climbs from rags to riches, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire is undoubtedly one of the best films to watch. This harrowing underdog’s story reaches a pinnacle in one of cinema’s most euphoric, upbeat endings, introducing the real India to hundreds of film lovers for the first time.

This film is worthy of a place in the “what film to watch” list, largely owing to its fresh take on life – it’s not so much about violence, but about choices. It’s an aggressive, challenging, often vicious satire, all of which make for a truly awe-inspiring masterpiece. We follow a man’s psyche on an intellectual and emotional ride, as he takes an unfamiliar path towards rebellion against consumer society. 

An amazingly powerful visual experience, Peter Jackson has crafted perhaps one of the finest written pieces of our era into this quintessential epic. Overall, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is one the most fine-tuned, cinematically flawless films ever made. Whether they’re of Mordor and the slopes of Mt. Doom, Minas Tirith, Pelennor Fields and Osgiliath, or the climb to Shelob's cave near Minas Morgul, Peter Jackson really portrays the true impact of these landscapes and images.

In late 1940's New York, Mafia 'Godfather' Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) gathers his three sons around him for daughter Connie (Talia Shire)'s wedding; the hot-headed Sonny (James Caan), ineffectual Fredo (John Cazale) and war hero Michael (Al Pacino), who chooses to distance himself from the family 'business'. When Vito is shot and wounded for refusing to sanction a rival family's heroin sales on his territory, Sonny temporarily takes over and embarks on bloody gang warfare. This results in him being killed in an ambush, and Michael finds himself nominated to succeed the ailing Vito.