Gangster No. 1 is without doubt the most stylish British violent crime thriller from the many produced at the end of the 20th century. For all the pop-video glamour of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, neither have anywhere near as much a sense of danger as is shown here. Paul Bettany ignites the screen with a fury that explodes far more than it smoulders beneath his tautly kept temper. The tale concerns his ascent to the titular position of primacy in 1960s London, told in flashback by his present-day self (an equally riveting Malcolm McDowell). A lust for power won't allow anything to stand in either incarnation's way, especially the foppish posturing of established crime boss Freddie Mays (David Thewlis). What distinguishes this from many other tales of greed is that the never-named Gangster actually wants to be Freddie, not simply replace him. Saffron Burrows plays the suffering trophy moll in the middle of this personality clash and provides about the only level head and gentle tongue in what is otherwise a super-violent and super-profane script. This is what The Krays should have been, and therefore not for the squeamish. -Paul Tonks.

In the typical Don Simpson-Jerry Bruckheimer mould(the partnership yielded Top Gun and Days of Thunder, among many other films), this 1995 drama is a combination of one-dimensional but enjoyable performances, lots of high-tech nonsense taking place onscreen, and mechanistic movie-making at its loudest and most seizure-inducing. Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington play nuclear submarine officers squaring off over the former's apparent intention to do some unauthorized damage to an enemy. Tony Scott (Top Gun) directed, bringing his lustre and pop commercial sense to go with all that Simpson-Bruckheimer eye candy. -Tom Keogh.

Adapted from Andrew Klavan's bestselling suspense novel, Don't Say a Word is a suitable companion to director Gary Fleder's earlier hit Kiss the Girls, with solid performances serving a plot that begins promisingly. The tension starts when the daughter of a top-notch New York psychiatrist (Michael Douglas) is kidnapped by a bitter ex-con (Sean Bean) with an old score to settle. Aided by an unwitting colleague (Oliver Platt), Douglas can save his daughter by extracting crucial information from a traumatised patient (Brittany Murphy), while his bedridden wife (Famke Janssen) and a tenacious detective (Jennifer Esposito) do their part to solve the mystery. Fleder pushes all the routine buttons with effectively sombre style and Don't Say a Word will satisfy anyone with a preference for high-anxiety thrillers. Even as it grows increasingly conventional, it's still entertaining without being particularly original. As a by-the-book programmer, it's just right for rainy-day viewing. -Jeff Shannon.

You can take this 1992 thriller one of two ways: it's either a highly suspenseful movie about an unfortunate young woman's psychological breakdown, or it's a glossy slasher movie starring two of Hollywood's best young actresses. Or maybe it's both at the same time-or perhaps it's the clever and well-acted thriller for its first hour before resorting to the routine shocks of a cheap horror flick. However you look at it, there's no denying that this is a dynamite showcase for Jennifer Jason Leigh as the flatmate from hell who becomes the bane of Bridget Fonda's existence. First she picks up Fonda's mannerisms, then starts to borrow her wardrobe, cuts her hair to resemble Fonda's, and even "borrows" her roommate's boyfriend for a deceitful night of lovemaking. By that point Fonda's totally freaking out (wouldn't you?), and, well, that's when the whole thing gets a little too silly. Still, this is a nifty little shocker, and director Barbet Schroeder brings more intelligence and style to the material than it really deserves. Add that to the fine performances by the battling roommates and you've got a movie that will make you think twice before inviting total strangers to live with you. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

A medical horror movie from Germany, Anatomy is every bit as slick as its Hollywood equivalents (most notably Coma) but cuts a lot deeper thanks to its connections with a Gothic past. Brilliant medical student Paula Haller (Franka Potente) is accepted into a prestigious summer anatomy course at Heidelberg University and gradually learns that many of her teachers and classmates are members of the Antihippocratic League. This secret society carries out unethical vivisection experiments on live human specimens and has been active in the medical profession since the 16th century with a special peak during the Third Reich. Director-writer Stefan Ruzowitsky plays some distinctive and personal games as the heroine uncovers the conspiracy, then learns that her own family is intimately connected with the League. In gruesome but delicate horror scenes, kidnapped human specimens awake anaesthetised to the sound of easy-listening music as masked students dissect them alive to create the impressive, grotesque and beautifully preserved cutaway specimens used in the anatomy classes. Potente, the star of Run, Lola Run, has a very different role as the serious but passionate heroine and her character is affected by the revelations of the plot in a way that deepens the movie beyond the terrific suspense mechanisms of its lady-in-peril climax, in which Paula's medical knowledge and personal grit enable her to fight back. A great moment has the heroine forced to instruct her non-medical student boyfriend (Sebastian Blomberg) how to administer a simple but crucial intravenous injection to save her life, while the plausible villain turns out to be a renegade even by the standards of his secret society. On the DVD: An extremely high-quality DVD, this offers a pristine widescreen transfer (1:2. 35) of the film (enhanced for 16:9 TVs); soundtracks in German, Spanish and English with optional subtitles in English, German and a dozen other languages; a full-length commentary in German by Ruzovitsky, with English subtitles; a couple of deleted scenes, with director commentary; on-set interviews with the cast and crew and a snippets of behind-the-scenes footage; a music video by co-star Anna Loos, shot on the set of the film; trailers; filmographies; and a neat animated menu. -Kim Newman.

Rules of Engagement opens strongly with a Vietnam battle sequence that sets the stage for the rest of the story. But then director William Friedkin knows a thing or two about staging harrowing action sequences, and if you don't believe that, you've never seen The French Connectionor To Live and Die in LA. Unfortunately, Friedkin can't do much about the implausible plot that follows, in which the Marine commander, played by the always-terrific Samuel L Jackson, is accused of slaughtering innocent civilians (who actually were shooting at him and his men). He must rely on an old Marine buddy-a lawyer played by Tommy Lee Jones-to get him through the jury-rigged court martial. But the central premise-that an evil presidential aide would perjure himself and destroy evidence simply to maintain good relations with US allies in the Middle East, rather than defending a highly decorated Marine colonel who risked his life-is inevitably hard to swallow. And the ending is even flimsier. -Marshall Fine, Amazon. com.

Like many other films by Canadian director David Cronenberg (especially Crash), Dead Ringers presents the cinematic and psychological equivalent of an automobile accident-you dare not look, but you can't turn away. The film marked a directorial breakthrough for Cronenberg, who was able to continue some of the themes explored in his earlier horror films while graduating to a higher, more critically "respectable" level of artistic sophistication. The film is loosely based, amazingly enough, on a true story about twin gynaecologists who routinely traded each others' identities, lives and even lovers. Utilizing innovative split-screen technology (years before computer manipulation made such trickery much easier), the film stars Jeremy Irons in flawless dual roles as the identical brothers Beverly and Elliot Mantle. Their ability to instantly switch identities leads them to a shared relationship with a well-known actress (Genevieve Bujold) and, ultimately, a physical and psychological tailspin that sends them both to the brink of madness and death. The scenario suggests that both men are halves of a whole, and that one cannot exist without the other. But when Beverly pursues a kinky, drug-addicted affair with the actress, his more self-controlled brother is helpless to prevent their mutual decline. In this way Dead Ringers becomes a fascinating and stylistically clinical study of duality, and Cronenberg doesn't shy away from the dark and unpleasant aspects of the story. (One look at the movie's display of bizarre gynaecological instruments and you'll know why women find this film particularly-and unforgettably-disturbing. ) The Criterion Collection DVD includes illuminating commentary by Cronenberg, Irons, production designer Carol Spier and others; extensive production information; interviews with the principal cast; and a detailed examination of the film's groundbreaking use of invisible special effects. [+]

Rich with ambiguity, this smooth adaptation of Scott Turow's bestselling mystery novel stars Harrison Ford as Rusty Sabich, the prosecuting attorney assigned to a case involving the murder of a beautiful, seductive lawyer (Greta Scacchi) with whom he'd been having a secret affair. After the investigation gets off to a slow start, damning evidence points to Rusty as the prime suspect. His career is destroyed when his superior and secondary suspect Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy) sets him up for the fall. Bonnie Bedelia plays Rusty's wife Barbara, who is not above suspicion herself. While Ford's performance rides a fine line between presumed innocence and possible guilt, director Alan J Pakula (All the President's Men) maintains a consistent tone of uncertainty that keeps the viewer guessing. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

"I see dead people," whispers little Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), scared to affirm what is to him now a daily occurrence. This peaked nine-year old, already hypersensitive to begin with, is now being haunted by seemingly malevolent spirits. Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is trying to find out what's triggering Cole's visions, but what appears to be a psychological manifestation turns out to be frighteningly real. It might be enough to scare off a lesser man, but for Malcolm it's personal-several months before, he was accosted and shot by an unhinged patient, who then turned the gun on himself. Since then, Malcolm has been in turmoil-he and his wife (Olivia Williams) are barely speaking, and his life has taken an aimless turn. Having failed his loved ones and himself, he's not about to give up on Cole. The Sixth Sense, M Night Shyamalan's third feature, sets itself up as a thriller, poised on the brink of delivering monstrous scares, but gradually evolves into more of a psychological drama with supernatural undertones. Many critics faulted the film for being mawkish and New Age-y, but no matter how you slice it, this is one mightily effective piece of filmmaking. The bare bones of the story are basic enough, but the moody atmosphere created by Shyamalan and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto made this one of the creepiest pictures of 1999, forsaking excessive gore for a sinisterly simple feeling of chilly otherworldliness. Willis is in his strong, silent type mode here, and gives the film wholly over to Osment, whose crumpled face and big eyes convey a child too wise for his years; his scenes with his mother (Toni Collette) are small, heartbreaking marvels. [+]

From the opening scene of Way of the Gun, writer and first time director Christopher McQuarrie (who also penned Academy Award winner The Usual Suspects) plays with the audience's allegiances: the guys who would be heroes (Benicio Del Torro and Ryan Phillippe) are immediately shown to have qualities which make us hesitate in supporting their cause-they punch women in the face. Del Torro and Phillippe are criminals and chancers. During a trip to a clinic to donate sperm (for a fee, natch), they prick up their ears when they overhear a conversation about a surrogate mother and her very wealthy sponsors. Soon they have kidnapped heavily pregnant Robyn (Juliette Lewis) and made off towards Mexico to wait out the rest of the gestation period. Inevitably, complications arise. What they don't realise is that would-be father, Hale Chidduck (Scott Wilson) is a criminal overlord whose many employees are determined not to see their master lose his money or his baby. James Caan plays Chidduck's right-hand man with avuncular charm. Like McQuarrie's earlier Usual Suspects script, this pacey yarn is full of complex twists and turns, with all manner of visual clues given in a look or a gesture. These subtleties and the squeak-and-you'll-miss-it dialogue keep audience involvement at a high level. The film is also full of beautifully put together set pieces edited with precision and wit-most memorable are a suspenseful low speed car chase and the shoot out at the film's climax. [+]

Val Kilmer stars in The Ghost and the Darkness as Lt Col John Patterson, a 19th-century Irish engineer drafted by Britain's railroad bosses to build a trestle bridge over an African river, thus expanding the empire a tiny bit more. In Tsavo, Patterson is instantly hailed for killing a man-eating lion that had been making life hell for native workers. But morale sinks when two more unstoppable big cats devour more men and destroy the project. Along comes an, expatriate American hunter (Michael Douglas) to help Patterson face the almost preternatural powers of the two killers. The script by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) is based on fact, though the film owes more to Steven Spielberg (specifically to Jaws) than history. There are also suggestive echoes of Kipling and Conrad in the material and characters, and there are hints of emotional complexity and psychological nuance that make one wish this could have been a great film instead of a merely fun one. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Someone to Watch Over Me is a stylish, smart film noir directed by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner). The movie stars Tom Berenger as a New York cop and family man who falls for the rich and beautiful witness (Mimi Rogers) he's assigned to protect. Scott, who always displays a distinctive eye for extraordinary art direction, does something here he should be doing a lot more often: directing contemporary noir. Berenger and Rogers rise to the occasion, seemingly aware that they're making something special. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

The sly conceit at the heart of The Tailor of Panama is that tailors are the secret-keepers of the power elite: customise fine apparel for the rich and powerful, and you'll hear things only whispered in the halls of government. The film was co-adapted by John le Carré from his own novel, and directed by John Boorman with a delicious spin on the traditions of the spy genre. Pierce Brosnan qualifies as James Bond's black-sheep sibling as British MI6 agent Andy Osnard, viewing women only in terms of sexual conquest and conducting spy business by his own flexible set of rules. Banished to Panama to pay for recent indiscretions, Andy connects with Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), a British ex-convict who's built a lucrative cover as tailor to Panama's highest officials. With the coveted Panama canal now under local control, Andy's arrived to see what Harry knows about the canal's pending multinational sale. As Andy observes, Panama is "Casablanca without heroes", and that's precisely how Boorman depicts it: a melting pot of greed, ambition, and backroom manoeuvring, where Andy can bed an embassy official (Catherine McCormack) while squeezing information from Harry, who concocts a phony "silent opposition" that puts British and American forces on full alert. Harry's wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) is pulled into the scenario by Andy's ruthless scheming, and The Tailor of Panama reveals how a simple fabrication can provoke trigger-happy forces around the globe. Part comedy and part political horror thriller-with a tragic supporting role for Brendan Gleason, from Boorman's The General-this is old-fashioned spy stuff made new by leCarré's inventive plotting and keen ear for the dialogue of rogues. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Numerous critics had already sharpened their knives even before Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot colour "re-creation" of the 1960 black-and-white Hitchcock classic was released, chiding the Good Will Hunting director for defiling hallowed ground. But this intriguing cinematic curiosity is hardly as sacrilegious as critics would lead you to believe. If anything, Van Sant doesn't take enough liberties with his almost slavish devotion to the material, now updated with modern references. At times, you wish Van Sant would cut loose with a little spontaneity, a little energy, a little something. Unfortunately, when he does venture outside Hitchcock's parameters-with inserted shots of storm clouds during the murder sequences, for example-it's to little effect. Granted, he liberally splashes colour throughout the film (especially in the case of the infamous shower scene), and this is a great-looking movie, but in his obsession with adding a new physical dimension to the film, there's little insight into these characters that Hitchcock hadn't already provided. Vince Vaughn, a robotic and giggly Norman, doesn't crawl under your skin the way boy-next-door Anthony Perkins did, and Anne Heche is admirable if not very sympathetic in the Janet Leigh role. Van Sant does score a minor coup, though, in his casting of the supporting roles: Julianne Moore provides a welcome shot of energy as Heche's irritable and curious sister, William H. Macy is a perfect small-time detective, Viggo Mortensen is studly enough to make you understand why Heche would want to run away with him, and James LeGros walks away with his one brief scene as a used car salesman. Danny Elfman's gorgeous rerecording of Bernard Herrmann's score is a potent supporting character unto itself. [+]

Described by director Mark Pellington as "a psychological mystery with naturally surreal overtones", The Mothman Prophecies begins like an ambitious episode of The X-Files. Richard Gere brings adequate torment, portent, and ambiguity to his role as a Washington Post reporter and grieving widower plagued by a mysterious, unseen urban legend known as the Mothman. Pellington develops subtle doom and gloom that's as effective as the paranoid streak he brought to Arlington Road. As the Mothman terrifies a West Virginia town, he remains an enigma, glimpsed almost subliminally. This-along with a magnificently creepy soundtrack-amplifies the movie's surreal overtones while keeping everything else (unsettling phone calls, prophesied disasters, suggestions of the afterlife) completely unexplained. With Laura Linney and Debra Messing in underdeveloped roles, The Mothman Prophecies feels a bit underdeveloped itself (and ends in desperate need of Mulder and Scully). But if you like your weirdness open-ended, this moody thriller's worth a look. -Jeff Shannon.