Long before The Full Monty there was this lovely fish-out-of-water comedy by deft Scots writer-director Bill Forsyth (Gregory's Girl). Set in the 1980s during a period of controversy over North Sea oil drilling, Local Hero follows a likeable, woolly American junior executive (Peter Riegert) dispatched from Texas by his blustering boss (a high-spirited Burt Lancaster) to a small fishing village on the coast of Scotland for the purpose of swindling the presumably simple-minded locals out of their drilling rights. The surprise isn't that the villagers turn the tables on the American schemers, but that they do so without displaying a hint of malice. They get a kick out of flummoxing the city slickers. Even Lancaster's greed-head Felix Happer eventually has a change of heart. In outline, this may sound more ordinary than it feels as you're watching it. The fine young British actor Denis Lawson, who had a tiny role as one of the fighter pilots in Star Wars plays Riegert's UK contact, Gordon Urquhart, a sad sack with a noble soul. -David Chute.

It was inevitable that Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut would be the most misunderstood film of 1999. Kubrick died four months prior to its release and there was no end to speculation about how much he would have tinkered with the picture, changed it, "fixed" it. We'll never know. But even without the haunting enigma of the director's death-and its eerie echo/anticipation in the scene when Dr Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) visits the deathbed of one of his patients-Eyes Wide Shut would have perplexed and polarised viewers and reviewers. After all, virtually every movie of Kubrick's post-US career had; only 1964's Dr. Strangelove opened to something approaching consensus. Quite apart from the author's tinkering, Kubrick's movies themselves always seemed to change-partly because they changed us, changed the world and the ways we experienced and understood it. And we may expect Eyes Wide Shut to do the same. Unlike Kubrick himself, it has time. So consider, as we settle in to live with this long, advisedly slow, mesmerising film, how challenging and ambiguous its narrative strategy is. [+]

Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films, To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made. A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film retains a timeless quality that transcends its historically dated subject matter (racism in the Depression-era South) and remains powerfully resonant in present-day America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity and loving, responsible parenthood. It's tempting to call this an important "message" movie that should be required viewing for children and adults alike, but this riveting courtroom drama is anything but stodgy or pedantic. As Atticus Finch, the small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, Gregory Peck gives one of his finest performances with his impassioned defence of a black man (Brock Peters) wrongfully accused of the rape and assault of a young white woman. While his children, Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford), learn the realities of racial prejudice and irrational hatred, they also learn to overcome their fear of the unknown as personified by their mysterious, mostly unseen neighbour Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his brilliant, almost completely nonverbal screen debut). What emerges from this evocative, exquisitely filmed drama is a pure distillation of the themes of Harper Lee's enduring novel, a showcase for some of the finest American acting ever assembled in one film, and a rare quality of humanitarian artistry (including Horton Foote's splendid screenplay and Elmer Bernstein's outstanding score) that seems all but lost in the chaotic morass of modern cinema. -Jeff Shannon.

Based on Alex Haley's bestseller, the 1977 TV mini-series Roots told the harrowing story of one man's ancestors, commencing with African warrior Kunta Kinte, captured, transported to America, stripped of his dignity, his rights, and even his name. He tries but fails to escape before accepting he can never return to Africa. He marries and bears a daughter, Kizzy, who is callously sold, then raped by her new "master". However, her son, Chicken George, a resourceful dab hand with gamecocks, lives long enough to see his own children attain a liberty of sorts following the Civil War. Roots is told in the same, accessible televisual language as The Waltons or Bonanza, yet it is never bland or evasive. It leaves no doubt as to the torment and abuse suffered by blacks, and although the series' conclusion is fictionally satisfying, for many of the black characters their only hope lies in generations yet unborn. It is sturdy enough drama but its greatest, most revolutionary effects were social. It persuaded American audiences to regard their history from a black perspective, and to see how-against odds far more desperate than those the pilgrims faced-Africans laid claim to their status as free African-Americans. Roots was massively popular, triggering a craze for genealogy and paving the way for series like 1979's Holocaust, which similarly raised the public's awareness of the slaughter of the Jews under Hitler. Most importantly, Roots changed forever the way black people were depicted on American TV. [+]

Should you ever meet Brian Dennehy, there's no need to be afraid. Beneath that creepy, intimidating manner, those squinting, inquisitive eyes, there's no bogeyman lurking in wait: just an underrated middle-aged character actor who keeps getting typecast as rotten apples and bad pennies. Bad pennies, in fact, like John Wayne Gacy, the notorious serial killer, whose public face as a pillar of the civic community-he even used to dress up as a clown for local children' parties-disguised, at least temporarily, his sadistic homicidal tendencies. (Incidentally, he was also the inspiration for the Anthony Perkins character in Psycho and the transvestite serial killer in Silence of the Lambs. ) Rather than attempting any kind of profound analysis of its subject, the made-for-TV film To Catch a Killer-as you might expect, given its title-instead concentrates on the attempt to ensnare him at last, led by pedestrian but stoical police-chief Joe Kozenczak (Michael Riley)-whose desperation to halt Gacy in his tracks eventually leads to calling in a psychic (Margot Kidder, a long way from her supposed big break in Superman). While director Eric Till never achieves much more than a simple, if unsettlingly atmospheric, recreation of events, he exhibits a sharp eye for detail, and an intelligence rare among movies made for the small-screen. But, of course, this is really Brian Dennehy's film: it's his presence which lends the project its authority, and his (frequently overlooked) acting prowess which gives it a foundation. -Danny Leigh.

The Sex and the City phenomenon continues in Series 3 of this outrageously addictive cult show. The four highly sexed thirtysomethings share their hopes, fears and even boyfriends (when Charlotte decides to throw a "used boyfriend party") in a New York where you can buy Manolo Blahniks on the proceeds of one article a week and eat mountains of junk food yet stay as thin as a pencil. But if the peripheral details remain somewhat fantastical, the searing honesty of the main storyline takes this third season to dramatic heights only suggested by the previous seasons. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) falls head-over-heels for chunky furniture designer Aidan Joff (John Corbett) but still embarks on a disastrous affair with her newlywed ex, Mr Big (Chris Noth). The resulting triangle, set against the background of Charlotte's outwardly perfect marriage to Trey (Kyle MacLachlan), proves to be electrifying viewing. But the humour is as sharp as ever too: Samantha's run-in with her drag-queen prostitute neighbours, Miranda pretending to be an air stewardess so as not to frighten men away and one of Charlotte's boyfriends talking dirty to her in bed are all moments of great high comedy. It just gets better and better. -Warwick Thompson.

Producer Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) is behind this decadent comedy about a pair of lowlife but oddly intelligent Welsh brothers who generally make a pain of themselves in their small community, but who get serious about exacting revenge for a family tragedy. Director Kevin Allen succeeds at turning the entire film into a jacked-up freak show, with petty terrorism, cops on the take, a young virgin getting it on with a middle-aged creep and a male choir inexplicably singing Mungo Jerry's ancient hit "In the Summertime". Twin Town is loony, nasty stuff all around, but the only good laughs in the movie are top loaded into the first few minutes. After that, it's sheer tedium. -Tom Keogh.

Writer Harold Pinter (Betrayal) and director Karel Reisz (Isadora) take an experimental spin with John Fowles's magnificent novel set in Victorian England, and come up with something puzzling. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the forbidden lovers in Fowles's story, but in a parallel story line they also play contemporary actors performing those characters in a movie production and having an affair of their own during off-hours. Got that? Considering that Fowles himself presents alternative endings in his novel, something equally eccentric is called for here. But little is accomplished by this intertwining of a fictional past and present, and the opportunity to do justice to a great story is lost. On the plus side, Irons and Streep are instantly striking as a natural couple on screen, and their presence makes watching The French Lieutenant's Woman easy enough despite the larger problems. -Tom Keogh With The French Lieutenant's Woman writer Harold Pinter and director Karel Reisz take an experimental spin on John Fowles' magnificent novel set in Victorian England, and come up with something puzzling. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the forbidden lovers in Fowles' story, but in a parallel story line they also play contemporary actors performing those characters in a movie production and having an affair of their own during off-hours. Got that? Considering that Fowles himself presents alternative endings in his novel, something equally eccentric is called for here. But little is accomplished by this intertwining of a fictional past and present, and the opportunity to do justice to a great story is lost. On the plus side, Irons and Streep are instantly striking as a natural couple on screen, and their presence makes watching this film easy enough despite the larger problems. [+]

When a pop singer at the height of her career appears in a film there's never going to be any doubt who the star is, and Crossroads makes sure the audience doesn't forget it. Britney Spears is Lucy, who, along with her friends Kit (Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning), buries a time capsule to be opened upon their high-school graduation. They all grow apart because of their different backgrounds, but reunite after the prom and bizarrely decide to embark on a road trip to Los Angeles for various reasons. Enter Enrique Iglesias look-alike, the lovable rogue Ben (Anson Mount), who kindly drives them all the way cross country. Throw in car trouble, singing for money and Britney falling in love and that's the journey over with. By the time they get to LA it gets even more predictable and ends with Britney singing "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" at the audition for Slide Records, winning the respect of her father (played by Dan Aykroyd) and gaining the love of Ben. Spears performance and that of her costars is perfect for the nature of the film-an homage to 80s flicks about teen angst-which even begins with Lucy dancing round her 80s-themed bedroom singing along to an old Madonna record. Spears' Lucy is a resourceful gal who saves the day every time, whether they need a mechanic, an accountant, a driver, a lead singer, or just a shoulder to cry on. She writes poetry, too. Is there anything Britney Spears can't do? On the DVD: Crossroads the DVD comes with an impressive list of interactive features, including a "Pop-Up Britney" where her head bursts through the screen and describes how she felt filming the current scene. [+]