Film Reviews

Dunkirk (1958) is a sombre, character-driven war film depicting the British Army’s retreat and evacuation from Dunkirk, France, in 1940. Released nearly two decades after the actual events, it is one of the first major cinematic attempts to portray Operation Dynamo—the massive, hastily-organized evacuation effort that saved over 330,000 Allied troops and became a defining moment of British WWII history.

633 Squadron is a 1964 British war film that dramatizes the perilous missions of an elite RAF fighter-bomber squadron during World War II. Loosely based on real RAF operations, the film follows a fictional campaign involving daring low-level attacks against Nazi fortifications in Norway, particularly a heavily guarded munitions plant vital to Germany’s war effort.

Beetlejuice is a madcap gothic comedy that marked a defining moment in the early career of director Tim Burton. Surreal, anarchic, and bursting with visual invention, it’s both a darkly comedic tale of the afterlife and a clever satire of suburban life and modernity.

9 to 5 is a landmark feminist workplace comedy that remains surprisingly relevant more than four decades after its release. Directed by Colin Higgins and starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton (in her first film role), the movie is a sharp, funny, and ultimately empowering satire of corporate America, gender inequality, and female solidarity.

Aliens (1986) is not merely a sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror-sci-fi classic Alien—it is a genre-transcending powerhouse that redefined what a sequel could be. Written and directed by James Cameron, hot off the success of The Terminator (1984), Aliens shifted the franchise from atmospheric horror into adrenaline-fueled, character-driven action without losing the dread and terror of the original. The result is one of the most revered and influential science fiction films

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) is the second instalment in the legendary Indiana Jones series, though chronologically a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

When RoboCop was released in 1987, it was marketed as a straightforward action movie about a robot policeman in a dystopian future. What audiences got instead was a brutal, hyper-stylized, and scathingly satirical masterpiece that remains one of the most intellectually subversive and culturally resonant science fiction films ever made.

Released in 1987, Lethal Weapon didn’t just energize the buddy cop genre—it redefined it. Directed by Richard Donner and written by Shane Black, the film fuses intense action, razor-sharp banter, and surprising emotional depth, all anchored by the now-iconic chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. It walks a deft line between gritty cop drama and stylized action spectacle, with undertones of noir, post-Vietnam disillusionment, and dark comedy.

Escape from New York (1981) is a gritty, atmospheric, and wholly original dystopian action film that helped define the punk-tinged aesthetic of early 1980s science fiction. Directed by genre master John Carpenter and led by an iconic performance from Kurt Russell, the film blends B-movie sensibilities with post-Vietnam/post-Watergate cynicism, imagining a future where the U.S. has responded to its societal collapse not with reform, but with barbed wire and fascism.

In a world ravaged by economic collapse and warfare, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), a former police officer, roams the deserts of Australia in his supercharged V8 Interceptor. Traumatized by the death of his family (as depicted in the first film), Max has become a solitary scavenger—“a burnt-out shell of a man,” as the opening narration describes him.

Wait Until Dark (1967) is a tense, tightly constructed psychological thriller that transforms a small Greenwich Village apartment into a claustrophobic battleground between vulnerability and menace. Adapted from Frederick Knott’s stage play and directed by Terence Young (best known for early James Bond films), the film is a masterclass in suspense that weaponizes darkness, silence, and perception in ways that were ground-breaking at the time—and remain effective today.

Cape Fear (1962) stands as a haunting, stripped-down exercise in psychological terror and one of the finest examples of noir-tinged suspense in American cinema. Directed by J. Lee Thompson and based on John D. MacDonald's novel The Executioners, the film is a morally complex, unrelenting tale of fear and justice, elevated by two commanding performances—Gregory Peck as a principled lawyer and Robert Mitchum as one of the most menacing villains in screen history.

House on Haunted Hill (1959) is a quintessential mid-century B-movie horror film that remains a beloved cult classic. Directed by the showman William Castle, a filmmaker known more for his marketing gimmicks than for cinematic artistry, the film transcends its low-budget roots thanks to an iconic performance by Vincent Price, a memorably creepy setting, and a clever blend of horror and whodunit tropes.

The Haunting (1963), directed by Robert Wise and adapted from Shirley Jackson’s seminal 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, is one of the most acclaimed and enduring psychological horror films ever made. It is a masterclass in atmosphere, suggestion, and psychological tension, relying not on gore or special effects, but on mood, sound design, and character psychology to terrify.

The Invisible Man (1933), directed by James Whale, is a foundational work of both science fiction and horror cinema. Adapted from H.G. Wells’s 1897 novel, the film was part of Universal Pictures’ ground breaking cycle of horror films in the early 1930s, alongside classics like Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Mummy (1932).

Strait-Jacket (1964) is a campy, lurid, and gloriously melodramatic slice of psychological horror that exemplifies the "psycho-biddy" subgenre—a niche corner of horror and thriller cinema that places aging actresses, often former screen sirens, in grotesque or mentally unstable roles.

The Innocents (1961) is widely regarded as one of the finest psychological horror films ever made. Adapted from Henry James’s ambiguous and haunting novella The Turn of the Screw, the film transforms a tale of ghostly suspense into a profoundly unsettling exploration of repression, innocence, madness, and the blurred boundaries between the supernatural and the psychological.

Harvey (1950) is one of those rare films that feels both timeless and gently magical — a story that balances whimsy with wisdom, offering gentle humour alongside quiet philosophical reflections on identity, reality, and kindness. Adapted from Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the film tells the story of Elwood P. Dowd, a mild-mannered man whose best friend is an invisible six-foot-three-and-a-half-inch tall rabbit named Harvey.

Adam’s Rib is a whip-smart romantic comedy that doubles as a battle-of-the-sexes courtroom drama. Directed by George Cukor and written by married screenwriters Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, the film cleverly dissects gender roles, double standards, and marriage dynamics — all while delivering rapid-fire wit and sizzling chemistry between its leads, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

Billy Wilder’s 1960 classic The Apartment is one of the crowning achievements of mid-century American cinema. Winner of five Academy Awards — including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay — it is both a biting corporate satire and a deeply human romantic drama.