robert-bucknor's - FAVOURITES List

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"The Parallax View", a superb drama about one man's paranoia that turns out to be total, incredible fact, ranks among the best political thrillers. Warren Beatty is a news reporter who, along with seven others, witnesses the assassination of a political candidate.

When the other seven die in "accidents", the newsman begins to doubt the official position: that a lone madman was responsible for the crime. He imagines a sophisticated network of highly trained murderers. But his nightmares pale against the bizarre truth he uncovers.

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The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is a vivid portrait of the complex genius behind the actor we knew as Peter Sellers (Geoffrey Rush). Despite his phenomenal success as an international film star, his comic virtuosity belied a troubled private life.

The film peers behind the facades of his many characters to expose the one that the legendary comedic actor never revealed to the public, himself.

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After a lavish dinner party in a stately mansion, the guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the room.

As the days pass the elaborate pretences and facades that they've built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to living like animals to survive.

When private eye Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) is visited by an old friend, this sets in train a series of events in which he's hired to search for a missing novelist (Sterling Hayden) and finds himself on the wrong side of vicious gangsters.

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Told entirely in the words of James Baldwin, through both personal appearances and the text of his final unfinished book project, "I Am Not Your Negro" touches on the lives and assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr.

, and Medgar Evers to bring powerful clarity to how the image and reality of Blacks in America today is fabricated and enforced.

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"Car Wash" is an earthy, irreverent but attectionate look at a typical day in a Los Angeles car wash. An ensemble piece which interweaves the lives of employees, customers and passers-by.

'Car Wash' stars a gallery of gifted actors, most of whom are relatively unknown to movie goers, and spotlights an array of guest starts in vivid cameo roles, including George Carlin, "Professor" Irwin Corey, The Pointer Sisters and Richard Pryor as Daddy Rich, a flamboyant reverend who preaches the goodness of the dollar. 'Car Wash' may qualify as the world's first "disco" movie and Norman Whitfield's almost non-stop musical score has become a top selling album.

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The brothers go east in 'The Big Store', becoming detectives-cum-bodyguards for a department store. Crime is afoot in the store or, if in the fabrics department, by the yard. Still, our sleuths don't have a clue except in laughing matters.

Ravelli (Chico Marx) and Wacky (Harpo Marx) share a piano keyboard, beds disappear into walls, roller skates provide in-store mobility and Groucho warbles Sing While You Sell. Sold!

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From Director Lewis Teague (Cujo) and screenwriter John Sayles (The Howling) comes an unstoppable thriller with bite. A family returning from Florida decides their pet baby alligator is too much to handle and flushes him down the toilet.

Meanwhile, Slade Laboratories is conducting secret experiments with animals and disposing of them in the sewer. The alligator, fending for itself, begins to feed on the dead animals, and grows. Now, twelve years later, after several mysterious murders, David Madison (Robert Forster, Jackie Brown) is on the case to find out who...or what…is killing people.

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In the year 2000, hit and run has become the national sport. It's a no-holds-barred cross-country race, in which the aim is to kill off not only your opponents, but as many pedestrians as possible.

Favorite driver, Frankenstein (David Carradine) takes on Machine Gun Joe Viterboe (Sylvester Stallone) in this classic, adrenaline thriller. However, this year's events are about to be complicated by the efforts of a small but dedicated army of revolutionaries. Their overthrow of Mr. President hinges on the sabotage of the Race and the elimination of Frankenstein, but Frankenstein himself is not what he seems.

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Novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) and wanderer Jack Colton (Michael Douglas) went sailing off into the sunset together. In this thrill-packed sequel, Ralph (Danny DeVito) is back on their trail and they're back in the fast lane on a perilous trek through the fierce North African Desert.

Not even treacherous tribes, deadly dungeons and seemingly endless villains can stop this trio from finding, once and for all that mysterious "jewel".

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When John Dortmunder (Robert Redford) learns that a huge, rare diamond is just waiting to be lifted in Manhattan, he assembles a team of pros to try and steal the stone.

But all that glitters is not easily gotten, and, despite their careful planning and execution, actually stealing the gem proves a challenge far greater than any of the men bargained for.

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New Yorker Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) is 39 and miserable. He's tired of his job and bored with his life. And his two best friends Ed (Bruno Kirby) and Phil (Daniel Stern) aren't doing much better.

So when they all decide to chase their troubles away with a fantasy vacation, Mitch and his pals trade their briefcases for saddle bags and set out to find freedom and adventure herding cattle under the wide New Mexico sky. But what they discover instead is scorching sun, sore backsides...and more insight into themselves - and each other - than they ever thought possible!

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Driving through the Mojave Desert somewhere between Las Vegas and Disneyland, Jasmin (Marianne Sagebrecht) strikes out on her own following a row with her husband. Trudging down the highway, she catches the attention of Brenda (CCH Pounder), the irascible proprietor of the Bagdad Cafe.

So begins a hilarious and touching account of these two women of different cultures, joined together in the middle of desolation in an oasis of friendship.

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Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the sole survivor after her escape pod crash lands on Fiorina 161, a bleak planet inhabited by former inmates of a maximum security facility.

When she realises an alien was also aboard her craft, she is shocked to learn the inmates possess no advanced technology or modern weapons. Yet no weapon can help Ripley after she learns that the alien terror has taken on a frightening and new personal dimension.

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In 2029, giant super-computers dominate the planet, hell-bent on exterminating the human race! And to destroy man's future by changing the past, they send an indestructible cyborg - a Terminator - back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the woman whose unborn son will become mankind's

only hope. Can Sarah protect herself from this unstoppable menace to save the life of her unborn child? Or will the human race be extinguished by one mean hunk of mutant metal?