This movie is loaded with tension from the opening sequence, where we are introduced to the context of the Iranian revolution in 1979. It gives us a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of an embassy, and the emergency procedures the staff must perform when an embassy is overrun. Tension is piled on with a room full of innocent visa applicants who will most likely by lynched by the Islamists who are storming the embassy—the applicants also provide the cover for 6 embassy staff to make their escape and find shelter in the Canadian ambassador's home.

From here the movie adeptly cuts between three interlinked stories: the plight of the embassy staff and their hosts, the story of CIA exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez's actions in the daring rescue attempt and how his job affects his family life, and the Hollywood support needed to create a faux sci-fi film as part of the rescue effort. Throughout that, we are given a glimpse of the inner workings of Hollywood, the CIA and the US government, and the torturous experiences of the embassy staff.

All of the film's tension is well earned, and even though we know the outcome—just like in Titanic—the craftsmanship of the film keeps us on the edge of our seats until the final shot. And even then, the film isn't over, with an important voice-over coming during the credits to sum it all up.

While the film is arguably an accurate depiction of real events, it is a film adaptation. Perhaps it's best said that the film loses some of it's lustre the more one knows about what really happened. Nevertheless, the genius of the film is what it has to say about the Hollywood system. On one level, it is a satire of Hollywood. It shows us the dirtier side of the industry, and how similar people in that system are to the spies and specialists in the world of the CIA. Perhaps the single most telling conversation is the one between Alan Arkin's Lester Siegel and Ben Affleck's Mendez when they non-judgmentally discuss how similarly their professions affect their home lives.

One also wonders if part of the reason why Argo won the Best Film Oscar is because of the way the film also celebrates Hollywood as a force for good that brings divergent people together.

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The film opens with a skilled cat burglar stealing a Rembrandt from a New York office building—and then smartly dropping the painting in the mail to ease their escape. The insurance company dispatches their top investigator, Virginia Baker, to examine the crime scene. She suspects Robert MacDougal is behind the robbery, and is sent undercover to entrap him by enticing him to steal a priceless Chinese mask from an English castle. However, all is not what it seems, and both Virginia and Robert have their own secret designs on working together.

This film is a cross between Mission Impossible and James Bond. However, unlike the films in those series, the uneven pacing in Entrapment prevents it from ever really getting going. It probably doesn't help that both Sean Connery's Robert and Catherine Zeta-Jones's Virginia aren't presented honestly to the viewer from the get go, and we don't know who to trust. While the mystery, unclear alliances, and murky ulterior motives have the potential to make a great film, they are a detriment in this film.

The highlight of the film is the action on the skybridge on the Petronas Twin Towers. However, the scenes just before it only serve to highlight the panache that greater films have when depicting a heist, such as the first Mission: Impossible film, Ocean's Eleven, or even Charlie's Angels (2000). Nevertheless, it's great seeing Sean Connery in a pseudo-James Bond-ish role—even though his character is significantly more shackled and constrained by the authorities than Bond ever was. Finally, despite the films flaws, it is memorable.

In 1993, Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother of three children. She has recently been injured in a traffic accident with a doctor and is suing him. Her lawyer, Ed Masry, expects to win, but Erin's confrontational courtroom behaviour under cross-examination loses the case. Afterwards, Ed will not return her phone calls. One day, he arrives at work to find her in the office, apparently working. She says that he told her things would work out and they did not, and that she needs a job. She asks Ed for one, which he reluctantly gives her. Erin is given files for a real estate case where the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is offering to purchase the home of Donna Jensen in Hinkley, California. Erin is surprised to see medical records in a real estate file. Briefly asking permission to investigate, she visits Donna, who explains that she had simply kept all her PG&E correspondence together. Donna appreciates PG&E's help: she has had several tumours and her husband has Hodgkin's lymphoma, but PG&E has always provided a doctor at their own expense. Erin asks why they would do that, and Donna replies, "because of the chromium". Erin begins digging into the case and finds evidence that the groundwater in Hinkley is seriously contaminated with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium—while PG&E has been telling Hinkley residents that they use a safer form of chromium. After a week, Erin returns to the office to report and is told she has been fired for missing a week of work! Later, Ed realizes what was happening when a professor Erin consulted tries to phone her back. Ed visits Erin to ask for her research, and accepts her demand to be rehired in return, with a raise. She continues her research and visits many Hinkley residents, slowly gaining their trust. Erin and Ed find numerous medical problems in Hinkley and that virtually everyone has been treated by PG&E's doctors, who have led them to believe their issues are unrelated to the "safe" chromium. The Jensen's claim for compensation develops into a major class action lawsuit. Unfortunately, all direct evidence is linked solely to PG&E Hinkley, rather than PG&E headquarters—thus PG&E corporate can deny any knowledge of what's happening in Hinkley!

Erin Brockovich is in some ways a modern interpretation of the princess film. In this film, the purported princess not only rescues herself, but a whole town of people. Her metaphoric knight-in-shining-armour is a nice guy, who is great with her kids, and willing to babysit them while she sets out on her quest: to do her job to the best of her abilities. Some of the film's nicest moments are when it depicts the daily struggles Erin faces, from cockroaches in the kitchen to finding a reliable babysitter, and how she struggles at things some of us take for granted—"I read slow." On the other hand, she has great people skills, and a knack for remembering details about people, such as phone numbers, that a lot of us struggle with even for those that we're intimately familiar with.

The chilling part of the film is that it is all based on a true story. When the film gets down to detailing the medical problems, and the resulting mental anguish and trauma that the people of Hinkley face, the film gets truly horrific. While we cheer for the title character as she overcomes her personal challenges, we end up moved by and angered for the people of Hinkley, hoping for their ultimate vindication and salvation. While the film doesn't show the PG&E executives getting their proverbial bloody nose, it does have a best outcome for the hero and the townsfolk that she crusades for. This film is many things at once—motivational and cautionary being at the forefront—and ought not to be missed.

The main character—known only as the Narrator—has an unfulfilling job, finds no satisfaction in his endless pursuit of consumerism, and has chronic insomnia. To get much needed sleep, he starts attending support groups posing as a fellow disease sufferer. His routine is disturbed when fellow imposter Marla Singer starts attending the same groups for the 'free food and entertainment'. On the return flight from a business trip, the Narrator meets and befriends soap salesman Tyler Durden. Arriving home, the Narrator finds his apartment has been destroyed in an explosion. Having no place to turn, he calls Tyler. After meeting at a bar, the Narrator asks Tyler if he can stay at his place for the time being. Tyler agrees, but on the condition that the Narrator hits him first. They end up having a fistfight in the parking lot, find the experience cathartic, and agree to do it again. However, what starts as a juvenile game eventually leads the duo down a rabbit hole of self-realization that is as destructive as it is transformative.

This film is through and through David Fincher: it takes you to dark places with plenty of things to say in well composed scenes, and leaves you pondering the questions it asks about us. The film sees its protagonists reject consumerism and search for a much more fulfilling value system. It is also the journey of a man navigating between his true desires and the demands society places on the individual in his journey into adulthood. The film is also—in its own unique way—a meditation on the dangers of, and ultimately a rejection of fascism.

However, that tells you next to nothing about the film nor the journey it takes you on. 20 years on, the film is still quite topical, and it has a certain timelessness that gives the impression that it could have been released yesterday. Even though the protagonists' solutions aren't the best ones to the topics it raises, the film still deserves praise for exploring them and, at the very least, bringing them back to public consciousness.

Fight Club is, simply put, enthralling from beginning to end. I've seen it multiple times, and each time I've noticed something new or interpret things differently. It remains fresh, and the cynicism and the parodying of consumerism is still as biting as it was when the film was released.

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Twenty-year-old Will Hunting of South Boston is a natural genius who is self-taught. He works as a janitor at MIT and spends his free time drinking with his friends Chuckie, Billy, and Morgan. When Professor Gerald Lambeau posts a difficult mathematics problem on a blackboard as a challenge for his graduate students, Will solves the problem anonymously, stunning both the students and Lambeau. As a challenge to the unknown genius, Lambeau posts an even more difficult problem. He later catches Will writing the solution on the blackboard late at night, but initially thinks Will is vandalizing it and chases him off. At a bar, Will meets Skylar, a British woman about to graduate from Harvard, who plans on attending a medical school in California. The next day, Will and his friends fight a gang that contains a member who used to bully Will as a child. Will is arrested after he attacks a responding police officer. Lambeau sits in on his court appearance and watches Will defend himself. Lambeau arranges for Will to avoid jail time if he agrees to study mathematics under Lambeau's supervision and participate in psychotherapy sessions. Will tentatively agrees, but treats his therapists with mockery. In desperation, Lambeau calls on Dr Sean Maguire—his college roommate—who now teaches psychology at Bunker Hill Community College. Unlike other therapists, Sean challenges Will's defence mechanisms, and Will slowly begins to open up. Will also starts building a relationship with Skylar. However, he lies to her about his past and is reluctant to introduce her to his friends or show her his rundown apartment. Concurrently, Lambeau sets up a number of job interviews for Will, who invariably scorns them.

Good Will Hunting isn't so much a film about the destination, as it is about the journey. In fact, the film ends with multiple characters departing on journeys, but leaves their resolution open ended. In many ways, that is the entire point of the film, as it is about damaged characters being helped—in some cases pushed—outside of their comfort zones and moving on to greater things.

This film is mostly about young adults trying to find their way in the difficult transition from youth to adulthood. However, it also gives a solid meditation on a life well lived, with all its joys and tragedies, in the form of Dr Sean Maguire. In many ways, his character is the heart and soul of the film, and presents its most poignant scenes. The highlight of the film is Will and Skylar's first date. There are very few films that successfully capture the joy, nervousness, and giddiness of a first date and the blossoming of a relationship as well as this film does. There are a lot of other things going for this film, but perhaps the best is that it is about intelligent people, making difficult choices, and the film depicting them taking the time—sometimes a lot of time—to figure out the best choice. In a world of fast-pace action flicks, this film is a breath of fresh air!

In 1941, German officer Hans Landa interrogates a French farmer that Landa thinks is hiding a Jewish family under his floorboards. In exchange for keeping his three daughters free from German assaults, the farmer tearfully confirms it and where they are hiding. Landa's soldiers shoot through the floorboards, killing all but one: Shosanna, who escapes. 3 years later, Lieutenant Aldo Raine recruits Jewish-American soldiers to the Basterds, a command unit formed to instill fear among the German soldiers. Later, in Germany, Hitler personally interviews a survivor of a Basterds' attack. He reveals that they carved a swastika into his forehead to ensure that he'll forever be branded a Nazi, even after the war's end. In Paris, Shosanna is now operating a cinema under the name Emmanuelle Mimieux. She meets Fredrick Zoller, a famed German sniper who has become the star in a Nazi propaganda film. Infatuated with her, he convinces the head of propaganda to hold the premiere of his movie at her cinema. Landa, who is now head of security for the premiere, unexpectedly shows up to question Shosanna about her suitability to host such a prestigious event—and though he doesn't specifically state it, one suspects that he knows who Shosanna really is. At the same time, the British learn that the premiere will be attended by the majority of the Nazi leaders. They dispatch a Commando to lead an attack on the premiere with the Basterds. The tavern where they have arranged to meet their contact in occupied France is, however, filled with German soldiers, and at least one of them is intrigued by the Commando's 'odd' German accent!

Inglourious Basterds is unlike any other WWII film. In fact, it's not a war film per se. It's a Spaghetti Western with all the trappings of a war film. However, it's also loaded with iconography from and references to iconic film shots and artwork. Like all Dir. Tarantino films, it's probably best to not even attempt to pigeonhole this film, and just enjoy it for what it is. Tarantino trusts in the intelligence of the audience, and he gives us large pieces of the story, with enough suggested for the audience to fill in the rest. In some ways it's more challenging than, for example, Dir. Nolan's Inception, but in other ways it isn't anywhere near as mentally taxing as that film can be.

That's not to say Inglourious Basterds is an easy film. On the one hand, it is a Tarantino film. While there's far less profanity, it's just as loaded with grotesqueries. On the other, it routinely switches between four languages. Most characters speak maybe one or two. However, the antagonist Landa speaks them all, and that—along with his character's other attributes and traits—is worth the price of admission. Christopher Waltz's performance of Landa (and his mastery of all those languages) is one of the highlights of the film, and it's no wonder that he won so many acting awards for his performance.

That said, the more effort the viewer puts into unlocking the film, the more rewarding it becomes. Another highlight is the depth of research that Tarantino put into his film. On the one hand, it is a film about the cinema: we get not only an examination of German cinema up to and into the war years, but also a close look at cinema operations, and how cinema can directly influence events—either as propaganda or as the key to the success or failure of military operations. On the other, it has many subtle but significant things, and the more one knows about the era the film is set in, the more insidious the challenges that the characters face become. Take, for example the whip cream on the strudel. At first blush, it looks innocuous and like Landa has a sweet tooth. However, Landa may be both challenging Shosanna to eat something that may not be kosher (something to do with butter being replaced by lard due to rationing during the war) and suggesting that he knows who she really is by ordering more and more dairy products for her. It's to the extent that the more one knows, the more tense those scenes become.

Nevertheless, this is a hard film to recommend. If you enjoy Tarantino's films and are a lover of Westerns and war movies, you'll be tickled pink. However, if Tarantino's tendency to depict violence in all its brutality isn't your thing, than you may want to give this film a pass. However, you'll be missing out on a visionary film by an auteur.

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Charlie Bucket, a poor paperboy, looks on enviously at the kids who can afford to buy sweets from the candy shop. He lives in a rundown home with his mother, and four bedridden grandparents. After finishing his evening route, he passes Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, where a street vendor tells him that no one ever goes in or comes out of the factory. That night, Charlie's Grandpa Joe tells him that Wonka locked the factory up several years earlier because his rivals were sending spies to steal his recipes. Wonka shut down the factory, but resumed production years later. The gates remained locked and the original workers never returned to their jobs, making everyone wonder who was running the factory. One day, Wonka announces that he has hidden five golden tickets in chocolate Wonka Bars. Finders of the tickets will receive a factory tour and a lifetime supply of chocolate. The first four tickets are found by gluttonous Augustus Gloop, spoiled Veruca Salt, constant gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde, and television-obsessed Mike Teevee. A news report reveals the fifth ticket was found by a millionaire in Paraguay, leaving Charlie brokenhearted. On the way home from school, he finds money in a gutter, and uses it to buy candy. He also buys a Wonka Bar for Joe. Overhearing that the millionaire forged his ticket, Charlie opens his Wonka Bar and discovers the final ticket. At home, he chooses Joe as his chaperone, who excitedly jumps out of bed for the first time in 20 years(!). The next day, Wonka greets the winners at the front gates of his factory and leads them inside. However, as wonderful as each room of the factory is, so to are they filled with things to tempt the children. And disastrous things happen to those that succumb to temptation—for Wonka is testing them, as he has his own hidden agenda.

Willy Wonka is a wonderful film from a more innocent time. While it is arguably aimed at younger children, it was apparently made for adults. As such, it has things for all ages, and doesn't leave adult viewers bored as there are a plethora of elements that only adults can truly grasp. Nevertheless, the film's heart and soul is the interesting parables that serve as both warnings and inspiration for younger viewers—crime, punishment, and the reward for good behaviour. However, the 'punishments' are presented innocently and whimsically, and this parent found it more than enjoyable seeing the badly behaved children getting their just desserts!

The highlight of the film, from a child's perspective, is the interior of the factory—which is loaded with all sorts of edible treats. However, as an adult, it is Gene Wilder's performance. He captures all the right notes in his performance, and presents a complicated character who isn't using the golden tickets as a marketing scheme (no matter how successful they are), but is looking for something much more profound. Intriguingly, he takes on a father-figure-like role for Charlie. That said, this film is a musical, and I'm not into musicals. Thankfully, the musical numbers are mercifully short and few in number, and most generally advance the story or provide more depth to the characters who sing them. While the film is dated, the sensibilities of film-making in the late 60's and early 70's add to the films uniqueness. There are even a handful of scenes that cross over from odd and unusual to creepy and alarming! Nevertheless, it is a great film for its nostalgia as well as for those parents seeking a fun way to teach (young) kids about proper behaviour.