robert-bucknor's - FAVOURITES List

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Native American warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice.

It's a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction, as these two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.

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This zany British comedy finds a homeless hobo (Ringo Starr) being adopted by the world's richest man, Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers). Setting sail on the luxury liner The Magic Christian. Sir Gand sets out to test the limit of human avarice.

Wilfred Hyde White plays the drunken captain, Yul Brenner a chanteuse transvestite along with other notable star appearances from John Cleese as the director of Sotheby's, Raquel Welch, Roman Polanski and Richard Attenborough.

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In 1880's Sudan, thousands of British-led Egyptian troops are massacred by the forces of Arab fanatic Muhammad Ahmad (Laurence Olivier), who believes he is the Mahdi, and nothing less than Mohammed's chosen warrior in battling against Anglo-Egyptian rule.

Legendary Major General Charles George Gordon (Charlton Heston) is sent by Prime Minister William Gladstone (Ralph Richardson) to save the city of Khartoum from the Mahdi, but given only one aide (Richard Johnson), limited support from the British government that sent him there, and a fearless opponent determined to create a new empire, Gordon sees that further bloodshed is imminent.

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Dr. Terror (Peter Cushing) is a mysterious fortune teller who boards a train and offers to tell fellow passengers (Christopher Lee, Roy Castle, Donald Sutherland) their fortune with tarot cards.

Five possible futures unfold: an architect returns to his ancestral home to find a werewolf out for revenge; a huge flesh-eating vine takes over a house; a musician gets involved with voodoo; an art critic is pursued by a disembodied hand and a doctor discovers his new wife is a vampire. But they all end in the same result Death.

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Nuclear tests, conducted by the Americans and Russians, inadvertently knock the world off its axis. Weather patterns around the globe are disrupted but temperatures rise universally.

Did the tests do more harm than was first thought? This atmospheric story is told through the eyes of three people: Peter Stenning - the hard-drinking star reporter sliding to failure; science correspondent Bill Maguire, whose sleep-starved mind is galvanised when he sees the truth behind the upheaval which bring chaos to the world; and Jeannie Craig, Stenning's girlfriend, who innocently stumbles on the truth the government has been trying to suppress.

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John Cummings (Richard Todd) is one of life's near failures. A toiletry salesman, he buys a flash car he cannot afford to insure. When it is stolen by a gang running a car theft racket, he vows to retrieve it whatever the cost - hi job, his family and his dignity.

He begins to delve into a sinister criminal underworld with potentially lethal consequences.

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When British P.O.W.'s build a vital railway bridge in enemy-occupied Burma, Allied commandos are assigned to destroy it in David Lean's epic World War II adventure 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'.

Spectacularly produced, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' captured the imagination of the public and won seven 1957 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Alec Guinness), and Best Director. Even it's the theme song, an old WWI whistling tune, the 'Colonel Bogey March', became a massive worldwide hit. 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' continues today as one of the most memorable cinematic experiences of all time.

No body, motive or weapon. The facts in the Australian murder trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain didn't add up. But other things did: Bigotry against the couple's religion. Scattershot forensic evidence taken as fact. And a hysteria that was the 1980s equivalent of Salem witchhunt.

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In his third feature, director Noah Baumbach scores a triumph with an autobiographical coming-of-age story about a teenager whose writer-parents are divorcing.

The father (Jeff Daniels) and mother (Laura Linney) duke it out in half-civilized, half-savage fashion, while their two sons adapt in different ways, shifting allegiances between parents. The film is squirmy-funny and nakedly honest about the rationalisations and compensatory snobbisms of artistic failure as wellias the conflicted desires of adolescents for sex and status. In detailing bohemian-bourgeois life in brownstone Brooklyn, Baumbach is spot on; everyone proceeds from good intentions and acts rather badly, in spite or because of their manifest intelligence...

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On a lake set in a valley in the depths of the mountains sits an isolated dwelling. Here, a Buddhist monk and his young apprentice live in harmony with nature. As the seasons change and the years pass, the carefree child apprentice becomes a young man filled with desire.

Despite the continuing wisdom that his master imparts, the young man finds he is emotionally unprepared for the arrival of a young woman. Dealing with feelings of guilt and jealousy, he is forced to confront a darker side of his nature and, resolving to cleanse himself, he serves a penance in the form of a religious mantra. Later, as winter comes and death makes way for new life, the man prepares to take on the role of teacher...

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A routine training exercise in the Louisiana bayou becomes an all too real war of attrition when a unit of brash National Guardsmen unwittingly upset a group of local Cajun hunters.

Lost in unknown territory and armed with little more than blank ammo, the weekend soldiers face a terrifying battle for survival against an unforgiving enemy hidden deep in the heart of the swampland.

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Richard Fleischer directs this sci-fi thriller starring Charlton Heston and Leigh Taylor-Young. In a dystopian, futuristic New York in the year 2022, almost 20 million citizens, half of the city's population, are out of work.

Voluntary death is encouraged by government clinics and people live on rations of a green food called Soylent produced by the Soylent Corporation. The film follows NYPD Detective Frank Thorn (Heston) as he investigates the murder of a wealthy business magnate in the dictatorial Soylent research camp.

Ralph Fiennes stars in this epic story of a family that rise above their humble origins to positions of wealth and power only to fall victim to the events which defined Europe during the 20th century.

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When Lee Holloway gets a job as a secretary in a small firm she does her best to please. But her new boss finds fault with her typing and administers a rather unconventional kind of punishment.

Soon Lee realises that she is not only becoming the perfect secretary, but also the woman she always wanted to be.

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Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, an ageing silent film queen, and William Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in 'Sunset Boulevard'.

Winner of three Academy Awards, director Billy Wilder's orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic. From the unforgettable opening sequence through the inevitable unfolding of tragic destiny, the film is the definitive statement on the dark and desperate side of Hollywood. Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband and butler, and Nancy Olson as the bright spot in unrelenting ominousness, are equally celebrated for their masterful performances.