what we've got here is failure to communicate

As I was flicking TV channels the other night I came across one of those movies that no matter how many times you have seen it before and no matter how much of the movie you have already missed, you simply have to watch the rest of it. The movie was Cool Hand Luke and it made me realise again what a great actor Paul Newman was. A man fit to be called a Hollywood Legend from the time when movie stars were held in awe.

My top 5 Paul Newman movies would be

1. Cool Hand Luke
2. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
3. Hombre
4. The Hudsucker Proxy
5. The Road To Perdition (showing that even in 2002 he still had what it takes)


When I was young my dad often took me to the movies and I grew up on a diet of Tarzan and Cowboy movies (going by the size of me now there must have been a lot of them). Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster were my heroes although I never quite forgave Gary for shooting Burt in Vera Cruz. It was only recently when I was watching High Noon again that I realised Gary was 51 at the time and Grace Kelly 22, but hey he was Gary Cooper

In those days we had stars like Newman, McQueen, Brando, Redford and as I grew older there was De Niro and Pacino. I am not sure that the stars today have the same aura. Now it is DiCaprio and Tom Cruise but in a movie like Inception the special effects seem more important than the leading man

I remember watching Casablanca again recently on TV and this iconic movie takes place almost entirely in a bar but it still looks as good almost 70 years on. The scene where The Marseillaise is sung over the German song is still one of the most powerful and moving scenes I have ever seen. Of course it helped that Casablanca had Bogey and Ingrid "here's looking at you kid" Bergman

They also have a very bad habit in Hollywood of doing really awful remakes of movies that I saw when I was young and which just should not have been allowed

I leave you this week with my Top 5 Worst Ever Remakes

1. Psycho...the 1960 original is still the scariest movie I have ever seen and has Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. The 1998 remake has Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche. I liked Vince Vaughn in Old School and Anchorman but as Norman Bates? That's just not going to fly.

2. Rollerball...the 1975 version had James Caan and was right for it's time. The 2002 remake had Chris Klein and LL Cool J...enough said

3. Planet Of The Apes....I remember going to The Odeon in Ayr to see this in 1968. It starred Charlton Heston and had the crazy Statue of Liberty ending. Needless to say I did not go to the movies in 2001 to see the remake which starred Mark Wahlberg and which tried to have a crazier ending and failed miserably

4. The Wicker Man...the 1973 original was a strange disturbing movie with Edward Woodward and a writhing Britt Ekland. The 2006 remake.....Nicolas what were you thinking? This is right up there with Captain Corelli's Mandolin for worst ever Nic Cage movies

5. The Pink Panther...it takes a brave man to follow Peter Sellers (1963) and although Steve Martin has made some funny films (Trains, Planes etc) unfortunately this 2006 remake was not one of them

If they ever make a new version of The Deer Hunter I will be a very worried man