A-Z of favourite films - Especially for U.

Right we're on the home straight now in the A-Z blog of my favourite films - Part 21 out of 26

After the three-pronged horror of the Rs. The Ss and the Ts, with their hundreds of films, we move onto the U and refreshingly there are only 17 films to choose from – I needed a smaller category following the last three.

From 1929 there’s Laurel and Hardy’s first talkie film, Unaccustomed as We Are. It’s a bit stagey to be honest, and would later be remade more successfully as the second half of Blockheads. Twenty years later comes another underwhelming film; Hitchcock’s Under Capricorn was, thankfully, his only costume drama; despite the presence of Ingrid Bergman it doesn’t work very well. A much better film is Vittorio De Sica’s Italian neo-realist film, Umberto D. You may remember the same director made Bicycle Thieves, which featured in the top 5 of my B list, and this is no more cheerful – it centres on a man whose life becomes unbearable until he wants to commit suicide, but first needs to find someone to care for his only true friend – his dog, Flike. Despite its themes, it’s a beautiful film and one of the finest examples of neo-realism.

Into the 1960s and Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is certainly a unique film. Starring Catherine Deneuve it’s a musical with a difference – instead of set piece songs, every single line is sung, even mundane dialogue. The story’s fairly generic – a romance gone wrong, but the tale’s all in the style of the telling.

No decent entries here from the 1970s, but moving into the 1980s we have Under Fire, a film about a romantic triangle between journalists covering the conflict in Nicaragua. Starring Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman and Ed Harris, there’s a fine cast in a well-made film. Also from the 1980s comes The Untouchables with Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness, trying to bring down Robert De Niro’s Al Capone. One of De Palma’s best films, it’s an involving crime drama. Rounding off the 1980s we change genre slightly with Uncle Buck, starring the likeable John Candy as the Uncle of the title, trying to take charge of his nieces of nephews, one of which is Macauley Culkin.

Into the 1990s and Clint Eastwood’s revisionist western Unforgiven was the surprise hit of 1992, garnering awards left, right and centre. Fine support came from, among others, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris, and the Western was back on cinema screens. Continuing in the 1990s, Under Siege and Under Siege 2 were probably two of Steven Segal’s better films – not that that’s saying much. Much better was Brian Singer’s The Usual Suspects, a superb crime thriller and one of the most talked about films of the 1990s. Kevin Spacey picked up a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, but the rest of the ensemble cast is also tremendous. From 1997 comes U-turn, a film that’s not all that well known which is a shame because it’s pretty good and has a good cast including Sean Penn, Billy Bob Thornton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez and John Voigt. A claustrophobic tale involving incest, it’s not to everyone tastes and perhaps suffers from a lack of likeable characters, but as you’d expect from an Oliver Stone film, it’s well told and directed. The following year came US Marshals, the sort of follow-up to The Fugitive, but nowhere near as good, and with no Harrison Ford this time. The same year came an interesting documentary, Universal Horror which looks back to the classic horror films from the Universal studio in the 1930s.

Into the last decade and M Night Shymalan’s follow up to The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, is decent enough – at least it was made before he really started going downhill fast. It’s not up there with The Sixth Sense but, starring Samuel L Jackson and Bruce Willis, it’s worth a watch. From the same year came Under Suspicion – again a good cast with Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman, but the story doesn’t really come together. Our last entry is Up, the recent Pixar release which I saw at that there cinema, replete with 3D glasses. I have my doubts as to how much the 3D added to it, but it was a superb film; the first 20 minutes in particular is cinema making at its finest.

And that’s all the contenders for U, but what about the final five?

Umberto D - Neo-realism, and humanism from the director of Bicycle Thieves, following a retired civil servant as he faces debts, loneliness, and finds life unbearable. The only happiness in his life comes from his dog Flike, but will that be enough to save him?

The Untouchables - It's 1930 in prohibition America and Kevin Costner is Elliot Ness, a man given the task of bringing down Al Capone (Robert De Niro). Corruption is rife throughout the police force so he gets together a small gang including veteran Irish cop Sean Connery and new recruit Andy Garcia. Some of the film may be factually inaccurate but I liked it and it's one of De Palma's best films

Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman star in this Oscar winning Western. The old West is coming to an end; Eastwood is trying to block out his past; his character is not proud of the gun slinger he used to be but when a prostitute is cut up her friends put together $1,000 dollar reward for the person that kills the men who did it. A cocky young wannabe gunslinger comes to enlist Eastwood who eventually agrees, bringing Freeman along. In the town is Gene Hackman, another figure from the past, now a dodgy Sheriff trying to build himself a house. Conflict ensues and there's not a great deal of triumph in the killing; the general theme of the film is anti-violence, no-one can forgive each other and things inevitably end up in a shoot out. The movie is really well filmed and the film is dedicated to Eastwood's two mentors, Don Siegel and Sergio Leone.

The Usual Suspects - Superb crime thriller from Bryan Singer. Kevin Pollack Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin and Benico Del Toro are the criminals brought together in a police line-up and then enlisted to carry out a job for the mysterious Keyzer Soze. The story is told in flashback through police interrogation of Spacey’s character, Verbal Kint, the sole survivor of the gang. Contains one of the biggest twists you’ll see but even disregarding this, it is still a tremendously entertaining film with fine performances all round. Also stars Pete Postlewaite

Up - Fine offering from Pixar telling the tale of an old man who, after his wife's death, and being hassled by property developers, attaches balloons to his house and flies off to South America for adventure. Unbeknownst to him an 8 year old cub scout is along for the ride. Touching and moving to begin with as the relationship between the old man and his wife is told from beginning to end with little dialogue, things then go slightly off kilter when the talking dogs arrive, but if you go with it, it's an enjoyable and involving experience.


And the winner is… The Usual Suspects, just for its sheer audacity.