The Hollywood remake of the BBC political thriller features Russell Crowe (who replaced Brad Pitt) as a slobbish, old school Washington DC hack who investigates a plot against his old student buddy-turned-congressman Ben Affleck. The tightly-plotted, tortuous tale weaves through numerous sub-plots involving the apparent suicide of Affleck's mistress, to dirty tricks from a sinister private homeland security firm. <\/p>
Lancastrian writer Paul Abbott's original script is beefed up by - among others - Bourne scribe Tony Gilroy while director Kevin McDonald effectively condenses the six hour-long episodes of the 2003 TV version.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/14/State-Of-Play-19-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"State Of Play 19"},{"captionHeading":"The Manchurian Candidate","caption":"
Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme remade the seminal 1962 original with Liev Shreiber playing an heroic Gulf War veteran (in John Frankenheimer's version it was Korea) who is standing for high office. <\/p>
Denzel Washington is the company commander whose suppressed memories of exactly what Shreiber did single him out as a target of dark political forces. Ambiguous and unsettling, this makes the Manchuria of the original (a region of China) became Manchurian Global, a huge Halliburton-style military service company and home to Shreiber's hawkish mother (Meryl Streep).<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/The-Manchurian-Candidate-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Manchurian Candidate 01"},{"captionHeading":"Enemy Of The State","caption":"
Lawyer Will Smith becomes a magnet for trouble when he stumbles across an assassination plot that could bring Washington to its knees. Tony Scott's breathless conspiracy thriller keeps the twists and turns coming, with Jon Voight as the villain with friends in high places and Gene Hackman as a surveillance wizard who is Smith's only ally. Or is he? As slippery as a politician in a grease bucket.<\/p>","url":"2008/12/8/enemy-of-the-state-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"enemy of the state"},{"captionHeading":"Conspiracy Theory","caption":"
Teeming with more conspiracy theories than the Labour backbenches, Mel Gibson plays Jerry, a troubled New York cab driver who tries to convince Julia Roberts' sceptical Justice Department lawyer of the truth behind his crackpot concepts. <\/p>
However, it's only when he's abducted and interrogated by Patrick Stewart's mysterious doctor does it become apparent he may be onto something. Cheekily, Jerry shrewdly notes that virtually all presidential assassins have three names and one in-joke suggests that Oliver Stone worked as a disinformant for George Bush Snr.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Conspiracy-Theory-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Conspiracy Theory 01"},{"captionHeading":"Clear And Present Danger","caption":"
CIA agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) discovers links between a Colombian drugs cartel and the US government. This fine follow-up to Patriot Games features a breathtaking setpiece where a convoy of CIA men are ambushed by rooftop snipers in a Colombian city. <\/p>
Ford lends the role a steely gravitas while conspiracy theorists will have a field day second guessing which American official is stitching up the administration. Superior action fare - it makes you wonder why bland Ben Affleck was chosen to replace Ford as Jack Ryan.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Clear-And-Present-Danger-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Clear And Present Danger 01"},{"captionHeading":"Michael Clayton","caption":"
George Clooney continues the cycle of left-leaning dramas like Good Night, And Good Luck and Syriana as a cash-strapped lawyer who finds himself up against a lethally rapacious chemical company. <\/p>
When his legal eagle buddy Tom Wilkinson goes ga-ga while defending the firm against a multi-billion lawsuit George discovers there may be a moral method in his madness. A sure-footed, efficient thriller from Bourne writer Tony Gilroy, who also made his directorial debut.<\/p>","url":"2009/2/18/Michael-Clayton-18.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Michael Clayton 18"},{"captionHeading":"All The President's Men","caption":"
True-story political thriller starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as the two Washington Post reporters who uncovered the political scandal which brought down US president Richard Nixon. Director Alan J Pakula shapes the gripping story with his usual emphasis on urban paranoia while the two stars never let their celebrity get in the way of two cracking roles. An absorbing and suspenseful reconstruction of real events.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/All-The-Presidents-Men-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"All The President's Men 01"},{"captionHeading":"Parallax View","caption":"
Warren Beatty plays an ambitious reporter who gets in way over his head while investigating a senator's assassination. It appears that hacks who were present at the murder are suffering the same fate themselves. Beatty's probings lead him to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind the worlds headlines. One in a trilogy of thrillers directed by Alan J Pakalu including All The President's Men and Klute, this featured an opening sequence designed to mirror that of Robert F Kennedy's 1968 assassination.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Parallax-View-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Parallax View 01"},{"captionHeading":"The Conversation","caption":"
Tight, unnerving and masterfully constructed, Francis Ford Coppola's gripping thriller stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert whose obsessively guarded private life begins to unravel on his latest job. <\/p>
A professional eavesdropper, he's haunted by the time his 'bugging' cost the lives of three people and terrified that it's happening again. The concept was used to Oscar-winning effect in 2006's Best Foreign Film The Lives Of Others. Look out for a young Harrison Ford in a minor role.<\/p>","url":"2009/3/23/The-Conversation05-5.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Conversation05"},{"captionHeading":"Three Days Of The Condor","caption":"
Tweedy Robert Redford - working as a reader for a CIA front - comes back to the office from lunch...to find all his colleagues murdered. While on the run from rogue CIA goons, the bookish New Yorker is forced to kidnap neurotic photographer Faye Dunaway to stay alive. <\/p>
However, someone is on his trail...and isn't going to give up. The late Sydney Pollack keeps the post-Watergate intrigue tight and the action fast in this cracking pre-cursor to the Bourne movies and Enemy of the State.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Three-Days-Of-The-Condor-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Three Days Of The Condor 01"},{"captionHeading":"Winter Kills","caption":"
In this faltering black comedy, Jeff Bridges plays the brother of an assassinated American president who - nineteen years on - discovers a dying man claiming to have been the gunman. While trying to avoid the controlling inclinations of his wealthy and domineering father, he finds there are interested parties who don't want him to find the truth. <\/p>
Loosely based on the conspiracies surrounding JFK's assassination, this spawned a documentary which looked at the troubled genesis of a movie which also featured walk-ons from Elizabeth Taylor and John Huston.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Winter-Kills-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Winter Kills 01"},{"captionHeading":"JFK","caption":"
Fascinating historically, persuasive and probably correct theoretically, but flawed dramatically, this account of New Orleans attorney Jim Garrison's (Kevin Costner) pursuit of the Kennedy assassins raises the question as to why no-one had (been allowed to?) filmed it before. Far from the powerful document it might have been, the film still grips almost throughout because of the subject, and Garrison's examination and exploration of it. <\/p>
Even director Oliver Stone's pretentious beginning and end-piece can't deny the enormity of the tragedy and its consequences.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/JFK-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"JFK 01"},{"captionHeading":"Klute","caption":"
Donald Sutherland is private detective John Klute who, while investigating the disappearance of a friend, becomes smitten with Jane Fonda's manipulative prostitute Bree Daniels. <\/p>
Fonda deservedly won a Best Actress Oscar but Sutherland makes an excellent stooge in this mesmerising and claustrophobic psychological thriller from the director of Watergate drama All The President's Men. Look out for a fleeting appearance from Sylvester Stallone as a dancer in a club scene.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Klute-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Klute 01"},{"captionHeading":"Capricorn One","caption":"
That old conspiracy theorist faithful 'the \"faked\" Apollo moon landings' gets the big screen treatment in this excellent 1978 thriller. Elliott Gould stars as a reporter who gets wind of the fact that the first manned mission to Mars was a giant hoax carried out by a corrupt US government. <\/p>
The taut yarn heads for a nerve-crunching climax as Gould and astronaut James Brolin flee the bad guys, helped by Telly Savalas as a crop-duster pilot. Look out for OJ Simpson as one of the astronauts who gets locked up - not for the last time.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Capricorn-One-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Capricorn One 01"},{"captionHeading":"Arlington Road","caption":"
In this entertaining thriller, an obsessed college professor (the ever-watchable Jeff Bridges), who lectures on the history of terrorism, finds himself drawn helplessly into a shady world of violence. <\/p>
After the death of his FBI agent wife, he now lives with his 10-year-old son in a leafy Washington DC suburb. But Bridges escapes his grief when he begins voicing suspicions about his new neighbours (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack).<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Arlington-Road-01jpg-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Arlington Road 01jpg"},{"captionHeading":"Defence Of The Realm","caption":"
Ambitious newsman Nick Mullen, played by then-newcomer Gabriel Byrne, latches on to a Profumoesque exposé, and a prominent Labour MP (Ian Bannen) resigns. <\/p>
There's a story bigger than Watergate ripe for the writing but can Mullen survive to tell the tale? Director David Drury keeps the plot on a tight rein. The excellent Byrne is edged out by Denholm Elliott as a dandruffed, alcoholic war horse of the newsroom (he won a BAFTA award for what may be his best work).<\/p>","url":"2008/10/28/Defence-Of-The-Realm-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Defence Of The Realm"},{"captionHeading":"The International","caption":"
Sound familiar? A maverick bank whose immoral dealings threatens to bring down the Western world? No, it’s not the greedy high street incompetents but a shady financial giant who wants to destabilise the Middle East. Clive Owen is the Interpol trouble-shooter assigned to settle the account while Naomi Watts is the New York public prosecutor helping him credit crunch the baddies.<\/p>","url":"2008/12/19/The-International-03-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The International 03"},{"captionHeading":"The Constant Gardener","caption":"
Ralph Fiennes stars alongside worthy Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz in this stunning adaptation of the best-selling John Le Carre novel. Tense, and thought-provoking, it enthralls from the start, with Fiennes's mild-mannered diplomat desperately trying to uncover the truth behind his wife’s brutal killing. <\/p>
He discovers a powerful mystery involving the members of the British High Commission and the dodgy practices of the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>","url":"2009/2/18/The-Constant-Gardener-19.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Constant Gardener 19"},{"captionHeading":"The Big Clock","caption":"
Charles Laughton is a meglomaniac media mogul who kills his mistress and attempts to track down the one witness who can identify him, charging Ray Milland, the editor of his crime magazine, with the task. Problem is Milland is the man, and he must subvert the investigation to clear his name and reveal the real killer. <\/p>
When producer Richard Maibaum first came on the set, director John Farrow, who liked to intimidate people who worked with him, kept him at a distance by using a walking stick. Maibaum went to the props department and returned with a baseball bat.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/The-Big-Clock-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Big Clock 01"},{"captionHeading":"Eagle Eye","caption":"
An all-seeing, all-powerful blackmailer zeroes in on slacker Shia Labeouf and single mom Michelle Monaghan and obliges them into setting up an act of world-shattering treachery. Tracked by every CCTV, mobile phone and satellite across the USA, the only ally the desperate pair have is Billy Bob Thornton's nonchalant FBI agent. <\/p>
Based on an idea by Steven Spielberg and directed by DJ Caruso, this is a fast-moving collision between cyber thriller and sci-fi conspiracy theory.<\/p>","url":"2008/10/10/Eagle-Eye-5.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Eagle Eye"},{"captionHeading":"Silkwood","caption":"
Meryl Streep is on terrific form in this true story as Karen Silkwood - the worker at an Oklahoma plutonium processing plant who is purposefully contaminated to prevent her exposing blatant worker safety violations at the plant. <\/p>
The circumstances of her death are still under debate to this day. Nominated for five Oscars, the controversial movie also featured a break-out performance from Cher as her buddy Dolly.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Silkwood-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Silkwood 01"},{"captionHeading":"The China Syndrome","caption":"
Director James Bridges' 1979 thriller tells the story of the attempted cover-up of an accident at a nuclear power station. An opportunistic TV reporter (Jane Fonda along with her cameraman Michael Douglas) is determined to uncover the truth and soon finds herself entangled in a sinister conspiracy to keep the full impact of the incident a secret. <\/p>
Jack Lemmon steals the show as a techie-with-a-conscience.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/The-China-Syndrome-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The China Syndrome 01"},{"captionHeading":"The Da Vinci Code","caption":"
Dan Brown's bestselling novel of Catholic intrigue, monk assassins and mythical relics is brought to the big screen. Tom Hanks plays the Harvard professor who hooks up with Audrey Tautou's cryptologist to solve the riddle of the whereabouts of the Holy Grail. <\/p>
It looks grand but never really gets out of first gear thanks to director Ron Howard's glum inclusion of every trick in the (good) book. It will intrigue fans of the novel but Da Vinci virgins will be left bemused.<\/p>","url":"2008/12/9/The-Da-Vinci-Code-4.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Da Vinci Code"},{"captionHeading":"The Spanish Prisoner","caption":"
\"How do we know who people are?\" is the key slice of dialogue in writer-director David Mamet's craftily serpentine conspiracy yarn. <\/p>
Campbell Scott's inventive company employee is taken to a secret Caribbean island to reveal his groundbreaking product. However, he suspects he may be being taken for a ride...and puts his trust in Steve Martin's confident businessman. An elegantly crafted noir, this takes several viewings to reveal all its subtle glories.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/The-Spanish-Prisoner-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Spanish Prisoner 01"},{"captionHeading":"The Insider","caption":"
Russell Crowe stars as former tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand, who decides to appear on the hard-hitting US news show 60 Minutes. Prodded by TV producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), he reveals the industry not only knew of the harmful effects of cigs...but wanted to boost addiction. Heat director Michael Mann turns the screw on the dirty tricks of the ciggie industry.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/The-Insider-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Insider 01"},{"captionHeading":"Syriana","caption":"
A multi-stranded, complex story of the widespread damage corporate oil interests are wreaking on the world, this is one of 2005's best and possibly one of the bravest films ever to come out of Hollywood. <\/p>
George Clooney, who has directed his own political polemic with Good Night, And Good Luck, picked up the Best Supporting Actor Oscar while heading up a name cast in a movie that is politically explosive and poses vitally important questions.<\/p>","url":"2009/2/18/Syriana-15.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Syriana 15"},{"captionHeading":"Rosemary's Baby","caption":"
Roman Polanski's fiendish chiller stars Mia Farrow as the young mother-to-be who fears that the outwardly nice old folks in her apartment block have diabolical plans for her unborn child. <\/p>
Hormones gone crazy or neighbours from Hell? Either way, she also starts to suspect that husband John Cassavetes has sympathy for the Devil too. As disturbing as The Exorcist, this is birth control in movie form.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Rosemarys-Baby-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Rosemary's Baby 01"},{"captionHeading":"Valkyrie","caption":"
Germany throws up its own conspiracy thriller in this true-life tale of derring-do. Tom Cruise guns for Hitler as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the real-life German officer who masterminded a traitorous plot to kill the Fuhrer. <\/p>
Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard and Terence Stamp also conspire to put the jackboot into Adolf as Stauffenberg’s fellow dissenters. If only their plan had been as efficiently executed as this achtung thriller from Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, the director and Oscar-winning writer of The Usual Suspects...<\/p>","url":"2008/10/31/Valkyrie-10.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Valkyrie 1"},{"captionHeading":"Wag The Dog","caption":"
A Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) is recruited by a White House spin doctor (Robert De Niro) to invent a phoney war in Albania in order to distract the US public from a presidential scandal. The David Mamet-scripted satire chimed perfectly with the morally questionable tail end of the Clinton administration and still has the power to amuse a decade later. Most definitely a hidden gem.<\/p>","url":"2008/10/28/wag-the-dog-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"wag the dog"},{"captionHeading":"Burn After Reading","caption":"
The Coen Brothers are in darkly playful mood for a cockamamie farce that swivels around the memoirs of a disgruntled CIA agent (John Malkovich), his wife (Tilda Swinton), her lover (George Clooney), and a pair of inept blackmailers (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand). But whether their affairs are of national security or an extra-marital nature, it soon becomes clear that this is no country for dumb men. Funny. With menaces.<\/p>","url":"2008/9/10/Burn-after-reading-04-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Burn after reading 04"},{"captionHeading":"Edge Of Darkness","caption":"
In this big screen adaptation of the 1985 British TV thriller, Mel Gibson plays murder detective Thomas Craven. While investigating the death of his activist daughter, he uncovers not only her secret life, but a corporate cover-up and government collusion. <\/p>
Casino Royale director Martin Campbell takes the reins in Gibson's first major outing since he got into trouble for making a series of anti-Semitic comments to a police officer during an arrest in 2006 for drink-driving. An early casualty was Robert De Niro, who allegedly walked off set after differences with little Mel.<\/p>","url":"2009/4/3/Edge-Of-Darkness-01-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Edge Of Darkness 01"}];