Alexander Curran (AgentLexi2132)

''It's all for nothing if you don't have freedom.''

William Wallace, a commoner, unites the 13th Century Scots in their battle to overthrow English rule.

Mel Gibson: William Wallace

Braveheart is a story blessed with many endearing nobilities and notions, but more than anything a dual sense of honour and liberty: on the one side William Wallace, a legendary figure who accomplished the impossible by leading the Scots when no one else would; and on the other hand Mel Gibson, who demonstrated with this movie a directorial talent that many of us doubted. Previously, I had Mel labeled as a likable albeit type-cast action hero from series such as Mad Max or Lethal Weapon. His dual personality never indicated a passion for directing, an intensely romantic and dramatic epic. The Man Without a Face proved that Gibson could direct a good film, Braveheart proved that he could direct a great one.

Gibson's greatest achievement in Braveheart (besides the mesmerising battle sequences) is that he envoked excellent performances from the entire cast: every actor and actress (even those who appear for only a few moments) hits exactly the right mark. In fact, I'm outraged that Braveheart received no Oscar nominations for its acting: Why honour Gibson as Best Director of 1995, yet ignore the performances which are the fruits of his labours? I'm not saying that any particular person in Braveheart (Mel Gibson, Patrick McGoohan, Angus McFadyen) should have won an acting Oscar, it's the fact that nobody was even nominated that bothers me.

I am aware that this film is at times historically inaccurate: Even in 1995, when I first saw Braveheart, I knew enough military history to know that the battles of Sterling and Falkirk were not being accurately presented. But this awareness did not and does not interfere with my enjoyment of the movie, because Braveheart exists outside the borders of history: mirroring the same artistic license as Dances With Wolves, Robin Hood, The Last of the Mohicans, Gladiator and The Three Musketeers, it is an emotionally rich epic inspired by history yet not confined to it's chains, less concerned with accuracy to every detail than with the eternal struggles of good and evil, love and hatred, freedom and oppression. And isn't that enough? Braveheart is one of the most stirring films of storytelling: If you can't reconcile yourself to its inaccuracies and simply enjoy it on its own terms, then maybe you are missing the point.

Patrick McGoohan's performance as Longshanks has, in my opinion, not received nearly enough praise: He masterfully plays the king as a man who embodies the phrase 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'; he commands an entire nation, yet covets what he does not or cannot have. He answers to no one, and can barely restrain himself: he does not even try to conceal his contempt for his homosexual son, his lust for his daughter-in-law, his rage against any obstacle to his will. The performance is also physically impressive. We see the king gradually consumed by tuberculosis through the movie, and McGoohan makes the ordeal so believable that, though Longshanks is unrepentant to the end, we are moved to feel remorse for him in spite of everything.

Besides McGoohan, Angus McFadyen (as Robert the Bruce) gives the most impressive performance in Braveheart. When I first saw the movie, I identified with William Wallace; but now I identify with Robert the Bruce, who is in fact the key figure of the story. He is not a great man like Wallace, but he wants to be great, and he idolizes Wallace so much that he is almost overwhelmed to hear Wallace tell him "If you would lead us, I would follow you." But the Bruce is warned by his sly, leperous father (played unforgettably by the late Ian Bannen beneath Oscar-winning makeup) to not live a life of action, but rather a life of calculation. As he wrestles with the dual influences of Wallace and his father, he embodies a theme at the movie's heart: the eternal conflict between youth and age, idealism and cynicism, uncompromising heroism and craven opportunistic nature.

When I first saw Braveheart, I was most impressed by the power of its battle sequences; after seven years, I am most impressed by the enduring power of its story. It is a great movie because it seriously argues that one man's lifelong personal experiences and struggle can make a difference, if not in the world then at least in the lives of others, it is a great movie because it is ultimately an inspiring story of perseverance in the face of considerable brutality and heartbreak, greatness because a thousand words are not adequate to express all of its emotional power and impact. I do not have the heart to give Braveheart less than a perfect score, even if I wished, because it is much more to me than mere entertainment...It is a constant reminder to me that I must never lose heart, to stand up for what one believes in, to be true to ones self.

"You have bled with Wallace...now bleed with me!"

''The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone.''

A boat has been destroyed, criminals are dead, and the key to this mystery lies with the only survivor and his twisted, convoluted story beginning with five career crooks in a seemingly random police lineup.

Gabriel Byrne:Dean Keaton

The Usual Suspects is simply a fascinating piece of film-making and story telling from director Bryan Singer. Because of the trick ending conclusion, it is debatable as to what is truth and what is fiction. If you watch it objectively, it is just a damn entertaining, complex, a well structured film noir piece with a breath taking climax. If you take the subjective route, then what you've got is perhaps the most puzzling film ever made, one that even with multiple repeated viewings will make you doubt your own conclusions.

The Usual Suspects begins with the supposed protagonist, Dean Keaton (superbly played by Gabriel Byrne), being assassinated by a mysterious unknown figure, named Keyser. I think it's safe to say that this opening scene is objectively told, it really happened. Then Keyser burns the ship that Keaton and a bunch of other men (who we find out about later) are on. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the cops and FBI question the sole survivor of this massacre, Verbal Kint (played by Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Kevin Spacey). Verbal is the only one who can tell what happened. He is our link to the flashbacks and story of The Usual Suspects.

''One cannot be betrayed if one has no people.''

Leading the investigation is US Customs Agent Dave Kujon (effectively played by Chazz Palmentieri). Kujon grills Kint relentlessly in order to piece together all the events that led up to the massacre. Kint begins with the events weeks before when Kujon and his fellow agents had arrested Keaton and the other 'usual' suspects Kint, Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Fred Fenster (Benicio del Toro), and Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak). These 5 men were suspected of a hijacking and were brought in for questioning.

As Kint continues and the film progresses, we find that the 5 criminals were manipulated into the situation by Keyser Soze, a Turkish uber-gangster/drug dealer who they all think is really a myth until his #1 lackey Kobyashi (played with cold efficiency by Pete Posthlewaite) pays them a visit and tells them that indeed Soze is behind all this. Soze wants them to to do job for him by killing his Hungarian competitors, who are making a huge drug deal with some Argentinians on a ship docked in LA. This leads us to the climax and back to the events that started the film.

The Usual Suspects, whatever ones feelings about the surprise at the end, is one brilliant example of modern day film noir. Nobody is innocent, yet every major character is multi-dimensional and draws you into the conflict. There is quite a bit of action and violence, but it is tight, well-placed, and crisply realistic. The beauty of the film is that you can watch it in at least two different ventures, objectively to be entertained and secondly to subjectively attempt to complete the puzzle and solve the goings on! The acting is uniformly superb, the Oscar-winning screenplay crackles, and never becomes tedious or boring. The Usual Suspects is simply Bryan Singers best film to date and among the best films of the decade!

''What the cops never figured out, and what I know now, was that these men would never break, never lie down, never bend over for anybody. Anybody.''

''Today is history...''

Oskar Schindler uses Jews to start a factory in Poland during the war. He witnesses the horrors endured by the Jews, and starts to save them.

Liam Neeson: Oskar Schindler

Ben Kingsley: Itzhak Stern

Ralph Fiennes: Amon Goeth

Thomas Keneally's bestselling book was made into a movie adaptation of awesome historical resonance and emotional valour. Oskar Schindler was a Catholic war profiteer during World War II. He initially prospered because he went along with the Nazi regime and did not challenge it. But Schindler ultimately saved the lives of more than 1,000 Polish Jews by giving them jobs in his factory, which turned out crockery for the German army. Schindler lost his wealth, but gained salvation for many lives and the descendants that would spring from those lives.

List was made in Poland, and incorporates authentic locations. The look of the film, primarily in grainy black and white, reminds us that we truly are watching history right here and now. Despite the movie's considerable length, it is never slow or dull. It is hard to believe that Hollywood, which so often churns out mindless drivel aimed at making money, could produce something so important and powerful as this film. Schindler's List is a cruel and honest depiction of the 2nd world war and genocide, cruelness and humanities inhumanity to man. A true story about a man who had morals, had a heart and above all the will to stand against bullies, against heartless fascists, with no sense of decency. Graphic and detailed, Jews treated like a cancer. The 2nd World War has always been one of my fave periods of history. Suffering and monstrous, among Downfall, The Pianist & Black Book this is greatness again...

Beautiful symbolism, especially a little girl in a red dress amongst all the killing and a Nazi playing Mozart amongst killing and more killing. Music and songs are fantastic and are a heavy contrast in places which i found fascinating. Genius.

Liam Neeson as Schindler is a beautiful character. You see so much in his eyes alone, so much compassion that it moves you on every level. His heart shines through, if one man making a difference is to ever be shown in an example, Oskar Schindler. Oskar Schindler was a Sudeten German industrialist, a wealthy womanizer who wasn't afraid to throw his money around. Always bearing his Nazi Party badge proudly, Schindler would often frequent nightclubs, extravagantly showering high-ranked Nazi officers and their girlfriends with champagne and caviar. With impeccable connections in the black-market, there was little that he couldn't get his hands on, and he was a good person to know. Buying friends was something that Schindler could do well, and he would often use these newfound alliances to aid his own business ventures. When thousands of the Polish Jew population was relegated to the Kraków Ghetto in 1941, Schindler saw an opportunity for further success, enlisting desperate Jewish investors and employing Jewish workers (who were substantially cheaper to employ) to open an enamelware factory. His connections in high places ensured lucrative army contracts, and Schindler need only have watched as his personal fortune grew, despite doing little to run the company beyond offering it "a certain panache."

It is clear from the beginning that Oskar Schindler does not harbour any racial prejudices. When Schindler requests the services of Itzhak Stern (Sir Ben Kingsley), a clever, humanitarian Jewish accountant, Stern declares that, "By law I have to tell you, sir, I'm a Jew." "Well, I'm a German, so there we are," replies Schindler indifferently, before getting straight to business. It is not race that he is concerned with, it is himself and, of course, his money. Stern does not enjoy running Schindler's business, and he initially acquires little satisfaction from it. When Schindler attempts to convey his genuine gratitude for his profitable services with a glass of whiskey, Stern absentmindedly refuses to drink it, and an embittered Schindler drinks it himself before ordering Stern to leave. With the arrival of Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), a Hauptsturmführer of the SS, the hopeless plight of the Jews grows darker. In a harrowing extended sequence, largely based on the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, the Jews are mercilessly "liquidated" from the Krakow Ghetto, many simply shot on the spot. "Today is history," proclaims Goeth. "Today will be remembered. Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today is history and you are part of it?. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries will be a rumor. They never happened. Today is history." Ralph Fiennes as Amon fascinated me. A man so cold and unfeeling, he treats Jews like germs, like animals. His disposition wonderfully portrayed ranging from him coldly murdering in the blink of an eye. Snipering them at leisure, taking them out to shoot. Perfect example when his gun fails to work as he is going to kill for not making enough hinges. It's horrifying to see a man without morals or any form of compassion, in short, a perfect Nazi devoid of humanity and reason. Amon Goeth in a way is the complete opposite of Schindler, an evil bastard who is brought to life by the genius of Ralph Fiennes, in one of his finest roles and more than likely, his best to date.

So evil, I love the apparent reveling in evil yet normality for the Nazis, and at the same time it's shocking and wrong. He enjoys killing, he's doing his job, he's eradicating this sub species, these people to them are no longer classed as human beings. Yet in doing this they have lost their own humanity. A perfect example of the two paralleled men, and there two different thinking stances is the power of undeniable, unrelenting Mercy.

Director Steven Spielberg, long known as a blockbuster filmmaker, with adventure classics as Jaws, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and Raiders of the Lost Ark to his name, Schindler's List was and remains Steven Spielberg's most mature, most timeless, historically important directorial effort. Working with a screenplay that Steven Zaillian adapted from Thomas Keneally's Booker Prize-winning Schindler's Ark, Spielberg treats the subject matter with the respect it deserves and indeed requires. Wisely choosing to depict the events as realistically as possible, Spielberg allows the images to speak for themselves. Flawless acting, stunning cinematography and a haunting John Williams score excel this film above all others of the 1990s. This is the powerful story of the difference that just one man can make, and it is a story that deserves to be seen by all. We can only feel grateful that it was Steven Spielberg who chose to be at the helm.

Steven Spielberg has crafted a masterpiece. Just to add it was hard watching the concentration camp part, heart felt watching Schindler receive the ring and his selfless way. To have so much fear and hatred, coldness and malice and to see it overcome by hope and evil overthrown, Schindler's List should be watched by all...for to forget our past is to forgot our future and thus begin that vicious circle. Schindler's List was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven including Best Picture and Best Director for Steven Spielberg. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. It deserved every honour it got and I only wish Neeson and Fiennes were winners also.

It's a film about the Holocaust, but it's also a film about the results of dehumanization of a people and when the state executes the process, thus showing us the immoral extermination results. Steven Spielberg's best film to date, although he always makes a good film regardless, Schindler's List is his best work.

''It's Hebrew, it's from the Talmud. It says,-Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire-''

''You just couldn't let me go could you? This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You truly are incorruptible aren't you? You won't kill me out of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness, and I won't kill you, because you're just too much fun. I think you and I are destined to do this forever.''

Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.

Christian Bale: Bruce Wayne / Batman

Heath Ledger: The Joker

The Dark Knight basically begins from where Batman Begins left us last time. Things have changed and a new maniacal nemesis is at large. Cleverly we are instantly thrown into a ensuing bank robbery with some sharp modern music. The first segments of Dark Knight already firmly establish this is going to be a piece of unrivaled greatness.

When we get onto Batman and his antics we find that he has been imitated by others and his old friend Scarecrow is still up to no good, with shifty dealings. What follows are some brilliant action pieces blended with superb acting, with Actors of class under Nolan's direction being used to perfection.

Christian Bale as the dual identity Bruce & Batman, really shows us he's settled into the role. Giving a deep growling Batman with beast like grating tones and a seemingly unlimited strength and fury. As Bruce Wayne, on the outside to Gotham he's still that rich, complacent playboy who's living the life of luxury and at the same time burdening responsibilities and dark secrets.

Maggie Gyllenhall as Rachel Dawes was for me one of the surprises of Dark Knight. I'm sorry but she may be a fine actress but she just wasn't attractive enough, her acting isn't at all in question, it was bold. I reckon they should of stayed with Katie Holmes for this sequel, for then even the people that didn't like her in the role would be happy, considering the outcome at least. I on the one hand wasn't phased when push came to shove and said character was gone from play, in my mind she did start to slow down the film.

''Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair!''

Now Heath Ledger playing Joker, what can I say? Partly the huge success and interest has been due to this great Actor's performance being witnessed. After all this is Heath's last film he finished. Going on to his performance as Joker I have to say he is perfection, everytime he's on screen he's mesmerizing, every little thing he does which ranges from the sick depraved to the downright mad. Heath Ledger was a chameleon, a method actor, who had the ability to change, to shape himself into any part he played. Dark Knight is one of the finest examples of this, truly blasting Jack Nicholson's version apart and I guarantee an Oscar for him, or for his memory and in honour of this talent. I loved how immersed Heath had become in the Joker even giving us details to how his face had gotten into it's current state and his abusive childhood and father. Whenever we have a villain there is always a reason to how he got to that point and Nolan uses Heath to get this across effortlessly. Joker never seized to make me laugh in appreciation despite what could be considered sick antics, I considered genius. Who else could do a pen trick with someone's head? Dress as a nurse with a silencer in hand and his clownish face glistening? Hide in a body-bag to infiltrate a mob boss's joint? Who else could immortalize Batman's most famous nemesis Joker? Without a doubt Heath Ledger bar none.

''You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.''

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two Face was a really interesting character. He played this politician extremely well, with all his good intentions and honourable ways, Harvey hides a dark side too. References to his coin are used regularly and help us understand the reasons for his later fascination with chance and luck deciding fate. I think Harvey Dent was covered nicely in this, getting across the whole growing hate he supposedly receives from Batman after he saves him and unfortunately Rachel isn't so lucky. Two-face, Harvey's alter-ego to my mind wasn't really that developed which is understandable given the amount of detail here to cram in and what with the Joker unleashed Nolan still does a top notch job. The effects on his face were breath-taking although I was starting to worry that Dark Knight maybe becoming unrealistic and veering towards more cartoony details in it's villains. But same with Batman Begins the Scarecrow was slightly more comic like and I found the whole realism in both Begins and Dark Knight to be a major achievement to me.

''Sometimes, truth isn't good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.''

Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon really excelled in his role this time. Not only does Gordon have more to do but he's in this awesome trio of Harvey, Bats and himself working together to save and help Gotham. I'm really pleased Gary Oldman & Heath Ledger got to do a scene together too, not to mention Bale too. The chemistry they all share and the talent rocketed through anything and everything. Nolan cleverly keeps the aspect of Gordon's family being important to him and later we remember this, and it helps us relate to his character when things unravel.

Morgan Freeman & Michael Caine seem to have less to do this time round. With Caine taking most of the first half of the movie while Freeman takes the 2nd half to his chest.

The Dark Knight was everything I expected it to be and it's certainly the dark masterpiece I predicted, but I do get the feeling that it's been overly hyped for what it consists of. See it not just for Heath's performance which is a defining and immortalized, but also see it because Dark Knight is the greatest comic book/graphic novel to movie ever. DC comics & Warner Bros. must be beaming right now with this piece of gold.

Dark Knight really does have the last laugh. An astonishing achievement that really does follow up a masterpiece. Let's face it, a sequel is coming, without the need to get Two-Face to call it for us, we know it's coming Nolan.

Perfection.

''Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.''