Nick's Favourites
Through the musty halls of the old Harbour Light Picture theatre Lyttelton and where the old merchant crusty sea captains checked their hand held compasses with the metallic 'star' inbuilt in the foyer floor I knew i had a passion till life's end. Contained therein is my retina's wink of approval with no one genre favoured. Ladies and Gentleman "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war'
The Third Man (1949)
8.2/10
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard
Joseph Cotten is pulp fiction writer Holly Matins, who arrives in Vienna to work for his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to be told that Lime h... Read more
Annie Hall (1977)
8/10
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Paul Simon, Carol Kane, Shelley Duvall,...
One of Woody Allen's most well-loved and funniest films, with Diane Keaton as the ditsy sometime object of Woody's neurotic affections. Originally co... Read more
Magnolia (1999)
8/10
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Jeremy Blackman, Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William...
Paul Thomas Anderson's third feature film is an exhilarating, almost reckless display of cinematic ambition. Weaving together more than a dozen charac... Read more
Citizen Kane (1941)
8.4/10
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane
Generally regarded as the greatest and most influential films of all time; Orson Welles directorial debut (he was only 25!) is the story of newspaper... Read more
Raging Bull (1980)
8.2/10
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty
Robert De Niro gives an incredible performance as Jake LaMotta, the controversial middleweight fighter of the 1940's. 'Raging Bull' shows how LaMotta... Read more
Touch of Evil (1958)
8.1/10
Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Akim Tamiroff, Joseph Calleia, Marle...
This twisting cinematic masterpiece of style and suspense, based on the Whit Masterson novel, features Orson Welles as a corrupt cane-wielding officia... Read more
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963)
8.4/10
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: George C Scott, James Earl Jones, Keenan Wynn, Peter Bull, Peter Sellers, Slim P...
A commie-hating, paranoid American general launches a flight of B-52 bombers at the Soviet Union with nuclear annihilation in mind. Since he is the on... Read more
The Wire: Season 1 (2002)
9.3/10
Director: Agnieszka Holland, Daniel Attias, Ernest Dickerson, Peter Medak, Brad Anderson, Tim Van Patten
Starring: Dominic West, Idris Elba, Wood Harris
From Emmy-winning David Simon, this unvarnished, highly realistic HBO series follows a single sprawling drug and murder investigation in Baltimore. To... Read more
The Big Sleep (1946)
8/10
Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Malone, Martha Vickers
Raymond Chandler's witty and convoluted whodunit comes to life under director Howard Hawks. Humphrey Bogart is tough private eye Philip Marlowe, Laure... Read more
Taxi Driver (1976)
8.3/10
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Albert Brooks, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle, Robert...
A disturbingly brutal depiction of a lonely, unstable New York City cab driver (Robert De Niro) who stalks a presidential candidate, then turns his vi... Read more