All-time great directors: Martin Scorsese

The best movie ever made. End of.

What can I say that hasn't already been said? An acting and directorial tour-de-force.

Stunning bio pic and probably Scorsese's best non-gangster related piece. De Niro is remarkable as the thoroughly unlikeable LaMotta, living the excesses and emptiness of the american dream. The boxing scenes are particularly gripping and brutal, and capture the violence and ugliness of the sport that feelgood flagwavers such as Rocky always gloss over.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon are two cops; one is honest and taking part in appalling crimes while working undercover, the other corrupt acting under the facade of respectability. Soon it becomes necessary for them to discover each other's identity in a cat and mouse game against the clock. Scorsese's pedigree as a director shines through as this is far from the usual clunky Hollywood remake we've all come to revile. In fact, the spirit of the original is so apparent that it feels far more like the kind of Asian cinema influenced picture you'd expect from Tarantino than a Scorsese, and for that reason, anyone expecting the kind of intensity and provocativeness of Goodfellas or Taxi Driver may be disappointed. The cast are uniformly solid (although the kind of heavyweight performance you'd expect from a DeNiro is glaringly absent) and it's perfectly paced, never dragging for a minute of it's not inconsiderable length. The bleak tone, constant foul language and brutally realistic violence may offend those with delicate sensibilities, but it's hugely entertaining and although the screenwriter cheated a little by including character and plot elements from all three Infernal Affairs films, it surpasses the film it was based upon.

Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci reunite with Martin Scorcese to tell the story of Sam Rothstein, egotistical boss of a fledgling gambling empire in Las Vegas. The pairing of DeNiro and Pesci is once again electrifying, each personifying the flashier, more respectable surface and seedier, brutal underbelly of the mob controlled casino respectively but ultimately it is their own egoism that becomes their undoing. Comparison with Goodfellas is inevitable, and it does not quite match the quality of Scorcese's masterpiece but then again, not much does. It is rather glossier and less gritty, at least until the brutal climax and for me it concentrated a little too much on Rothstein's homelife but having said that, Sharon Stone is a revelation as his cynical gold-digging wife. A reliable formula executed with panache by an unmatched pairing of acting and directorial talent.

It's impossible not to think of this as a prologue to Taxi Driver, but it's still a powerful film in it's own right. Even grittier in some ways, and Keitel proves that he can act eye to eye, toe to toe with DeNiro and come out more than favourably. Classic gangster fare.

A blackest of the black comedy and fascinating study of obsession. It takes a while to get going, but De Niro is magnificent as you'd expect, and Jerry Lewis is a revelation. A powerful and funny commentary on the power of the media and "cult of personality".

A fascinating deconstruction of religious myth that provoked a lot of righteous indignation, but Dafoe's deeply human depiction of Christ is a far more sympathetic and "real" one than the usual pompous self-aggrandizing swords and sandal epics.

A departure form Scorceses usual territory, but it's lavishly photographed, and makes fo a fascinating insight into the politics and culture of Tibet and it's people.

A great disappointment. One of the great directors tackling a rarely discussed period of american history, and all we get is little more than a pantomime complete with silly hats. And Leonardo DeCaprio. Oh, joy.

Decent but unsurprisingly, inferior sequel to The Hustler. The fact that Paul Newman acts Tom Cruise off the screen will also fail to induce coronaries.

A typically wacky and surreal "adventure" when an ordinary guy gets caught up in the off beat antics of a collection of "zany" characters when he strays out of his own neighbourhood. This type of film is invariably desperately unfunny, and despite an above par cast and director, this is no exception.

Brutal rapist Max Kady is released from prison after serving 14 years and sets about taking his revenge on the defense attorney who represented him. Martin Scorsese's remake of classic 1961 thriller came as a real surprise to me; I honestly did not believe he was capable of making something quite this BAD. If I did not know it was a Scorsese, I would have certainly pegged it as a Verhoeven or someone similar. It's schlocky, stupid and tackily directed, and full of ludicrous melodrama that borders on the absurd; in fact on more than one occasion, it looked more like a parody than a genuine thriller. If a character that is meant to be menacing is misjudged, they can often just appear laughable; Buffalo Bill was one example, and Max Kady is another. I was literally smirking half the time he was on the screen...more often than not he was like a comedy version of Michael Myers! By far the best thing about this film is a particularly funny episode of The Simpsons that takes the piss out of it.