Back To The Future (1985) 10/10

Starring : Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F Wilson, Claudia Wells
Director : Robert Zemeckis
Running Time : 111 mins

Marty McFly (Fox) is invited to witness his friend Doc Brown (Lloyd) unveil his latest invention – a time machine in the form of a DeLorean car, but when terrorists gun the Doc down, Marty has to jumps into the Doc’s car in order to try and escape. The time circuits are accidentally activated, and Marty finds himself in 1955, trying to make sure that his parents get together, or he may never exist!

This is probably the strongest movie the entire 1980s has to offer. The plot has been painstakingly thought through so as to avoid any possible plot holes, unlike other movies of it’s ilk. Both Fox and Lloyd are brilliant as the main two characters, and the supporting cast are energetic and clearly enjoying themselves throughout.

Dark Star (1974) 7/10

Starring : Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm, Dre Pahich, Dan O’Bannon
Director : John Carpenter
Running Time : 83 mins

Four astronauts, charged with the duty of destroying unstable planets in potential colony star systems, find themselves faced with a runaway alien beachball with a mischievous side and a smart bomb that has decided that it is God.

Basically if it wasn’t for this movie there would have been no Alien movies! This showed Dan O’Bannon, writer of the original Alien movie, taking his first stab at making a truly suspenseful space movie. This, due to the low budget, is more of a tongue in cheek homage to 2001 : A Space Odyssey than the horror it would eventually become, but any true fan of the Alien saga should not be without this classic in their collection.

Misery (1990) 8/10

Starring : James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, Lauren Bacall
Director : Rob Reiner
Running Time : 104 mins

Famous novelist Paul Sheldon (Caan) is involved in a life threatening car crash, but thankfully he is rescued by local nurse Annie Wilkes (Bates). He soon discovers that Annie is his biggest fan and has read all of his novels featuring heroine Misery Chastaine. Things are bad enough as Annie keeps Paul medicated and won’t call a doctor or let him leave, but when she discovers his latest novel has killed Misery off, she becomes very upset and demands he write a new book bringing her back from the dead.

One of the best Stephen King adaptations, and in many ways better than the book, this movie is probably one of the best horror / thrillers of the 90’s without having to go too over the top.

Carry On Screaming (1966) 8/10

Starring : Harry H Corbett, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey, Fenella Fielding, Angela Douglas
Director : Gerald Thomas
Running Time : 93 mins

Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung (Corbett) is called in to investigate a series of disappearances, all involving young girls. To his horror he discovers that the sinister Dr Watt (Williams) has been using a monster he created to kidnap women and then he transforms them into shop window mannequins! Unfortunately Bung finds himself distracted from the case by Dr Watt’s scary yet attractive sister, Valeria (Fielding).

Even though this doesn’t feature many of the more popular members of the team, such as Sid James and Barbara Windsor, this is possibly the strongest of the Carry On series with the most detailed plot. A lot of the movies that followed pretty much relied on a single central set piece and threw in the odd pun here and there.

National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982) 8/10

Starring : Gerrit Graham, Fred McCarren, Miriam Flynn, Stephen Furst, Shelley Smith, Michael Lerner, Blackie Dammett
Director : Michael Miller
Running Time : 82 mins

It’s the tenth-year school reunion at Lizzie Borden High for the Class of ‘72, and everything is just as boring as it always was, that is until Walter Baylor (Dammett) escapes from a mental home he’s been in since graduation, when he was driven insane by a prank that went horribly wrong, and gatecrashes the party!

This is without a doubt the silliest of the National Lampoon movies, and it makes me chuckle every time I’ve watched it. Very few of the actors in this are still known today, although Stephen Furst will be familiar to fans of The Dream Team or Babylon Five.

Ghostbusters (1984) 10/10

Starring : Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts
Director : Ivan Reitman
Running Time : 102 mins

Three scientists get kicked out of the university where they work when their grants expire. Playing on a theory concocted by Dr Egon Spengler (Ramis) that they can actually trap a ghost, they go into business as Ghostbusters, offering their services to the public for large sums of money. Things start to look bad, however, when paranormal activity begins to rise in New York City, and they realise that an ancient Sumarian God named Gozer may be trying to find its way into the human world, with the aim of taking over and enslaving mankind.

One of my all time favourite films which stands the test of time, Ghostbusters is an 80s classic that was somewhat of a pioneer in the realms of action comedies, and made overnight successes out of Bill Murray and Rick Moranis, who until then had only really been known through Saturday Night Live and a handful of lesser known movie parts.

The Delicate Delinquent (1957) 8/10

Starring : Jerry Lewis, Darren McGavin
Director : Don McGuire
Running Time : 98 mins

Sydney Pythias (Lewis) is a janitor who is mistaken for a juvenile delinquent by the police. Thinking he’s a gang member, Officer Mike Damon makes it his duty to transform Sydney into a model citizen to prove that delinquents aren’t beyond redemption.

This was Jerry Lewis’s first film following the dissolution of his movie partnership with Dean Martin, and it’s clear to see that he works much better without his erstwhile partner disrupting his performance. Following this classic comic flipside version of Rebel Without A Cause, his movies just went from strength to strength.