Hero (2002)
One man defeats three assassins who seek to murder the most powerful warlord in ancient China.
"Big and epic and fantastic. Just a simmering, smouldering performance by Jet Li. I really like his acting too even though he’s known as a martial artist. He’s the real deal, Jet Li. Plus, I love the old Hong Kong kung fu movies and I remember seeing The Matrix for the first time and everyone was blown away by these fight sequences but if you had been a fan of the old Hong Kong kung fu genre, you would have seen all those moves years and years before The Matrix."
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Vietnam War affects the lives of people in a small industrial town in the USA.
"Well, we all know about that fabulous roulette scene that they had in there. DeNiro was probably at his best along with Christopher Walken. Two great performances. Again, Michael Cimino directing another masterpiece. It was a real intense but riveting film. You know, the whole transition. From the coal-mining, industrial place where all these guys came from. And then the Vietnam war."
The Godfather (1972)
Francis Ford Coppola's crime-drama saga about the Corleone dynasty, with Brando and Pacino.
"Brando’s performance was amazing, along with Pacino’s. Plus it was one of the best directed films ever made. In the world. What’s the director’s name again? The big guy? Francis Ford Coppola. A masterpiece"
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
David Lean's epic about the legendary, flamboyant British military figure.
"You see how much the land really has an impact in those old films. The scenery and the land is all part of filmmaking, eh? Just using the scenery as further ammunition, as another character, as another element. And Peter O’Toole’s performance was fantastic as well. They don’t make movies like that anymore because in those days they didn’t have the computers or the CGI technology. They literally had to use real people and real locations."
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Classic western about three men in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
"I remember growing up and my dad used to love cowboy films and always used to wake us kids up if there was a good cowboy flick on TV. Normally we were supposed to be in bed but if there was a good cowboy film on, we were allowed to get up and watch it with our dad. That was our highlight, other than that we weren’t allowed to do anything."
