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A trusted MCU source has hinted that something huge and extremely surprising is on the horizon.
First up, the source: it’s Charles Murphy, who is one of very few sources out there who has an extremely good success rate when it comes to calling Marvel Cinematic Universe developments correctly,
Murphy correctly reported every planned film and release date of Marvel’s Phase Four films weeks before they were officially announced at Comic-Con.
You’ll remember that at the San Diego panel, studio president Kevin Feige briefly mentioned that sequels for Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy were on the horizon beyond 2022. Well, Murphy claims to know the planned release dates for those films as well as another that will seemingly comprise Phase Five.
Marvel films – ranked worst to bestShow all 23 1 /23Marvel films – ranked worst to best Marvel films – ranked worst to best Iron Man 2 23. Iron Man 2 barely holds together. Rather than act as a straight sequel to the surprisingly successful Iron Man, Marvel Studios decided to overstuff the film with universe-building references (Black Widow, Nick Fury and SHIELD’s Agent Coulson all make appearances) and two-dimensional villains (played by Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke). The result is a film without any direction that serves as a Trojan horse set-up for the Avengers.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Thor: The Dark World 22. When the Thor franchise lost its director Kenneth Branagh between the first and second films, it also had to kiss goodbye to the Shakespearean theatrics that had lent it a sense of goofy charm. Directed by Game of Thrones’s Alan Taylor, The Dark World prioritises its VFX effects above all else. It’s a dull affair: Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith is (by far) Marvel’s worst villain, being a pile of prosthetics with zero personality, while Chris Hemsworth’s Thor completes one of the most unrealistic London Tube journeys in all of cinematic history.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best The Incredible Hulk 21. Edward Norton’s version of the smashing Hulk often gets forgotten by Marvel fans – and for good reason. Whereas Mark Ruffalo’s bumbling interpretation of the character has a gravitational charm, Norton’s moping monster is void of any charisma. With Liv Tyler phoning in her performance as love interest, Betty Ross, the film falls emotionally flat and serves only as a by-the-numbers origins story.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Avengers: Age of Ultron 20. Just in case we’d forgotten that the Disney corporation is an all-consuming titan that owns half of Hollywood, the sequel to 2012’s Avengers decided to sneak in a little corporate synergy: when Iron Man accidentally creates a sentient robot (voiced by James Spader) who decides the earth’s only salvation is through the destruction of humanity, he announces his grim plans with accompaniment of a little citation of the classic “I’ve Got No Strings” from 1940’s Pinocchio. It’s a moment that exemplifies how Ultron feels like a cold, calculated operation from Marvel Studios. It’s merely tick list of obligations to move us on to the next chapter of the MCU.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Thor 19. Although Kenneth Branagh’s introductory outing for Marvel’s God of Thunder fared perfectly well on release, it’s suffered massively from the MCU’s dramatic sense of progression over the years. Certainly, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is a strong, well-crafted character right out of the gate, and his plot against his adoptive father (Anthony Hopkins) is delightfully heightened. Yet, it arguably took until Thor: Ragnarok for Chris Hemsworth’s hero to develop much sense of character beyond the initial “fish out of water” trope.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Doctor Strange 18. A self-centred wealthy white man ventures to a distant land and realises his superhero potential – sound familiar? That’s because Doctor Strange and Iron Man are basically the same story, except one uses magic and the other explosives. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Marveldebut impresses with kaleidoscope visuals but lacks the heart of Robert Downey Jr’s hero, leading to a film that wastes the talents of both Tilda Swinton and Mads Mikkelsen.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 17. The first Guardians of the Galaxy was a risky Star Wars-inspired romp through space, following a bunch of a-holes who form an unlikely familiar bond. For the second film, James Gunn decided to turn everything up to 11, cramming half a dozen interweaving storylines, leading to Chris Pratt’s gaunt Star Lord getting side-lined. The sequel did, however, introduce the now beloved line “I’m Mary Poppins, y’all”, shouted by Yondu as he gracefully falls from the sky. A wonderfully comedic moment in a film that misses on another half-dozen punches.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Avengers Assemble 16. Marvel’s first crossover film was an unparalleled cinematic event – one that arguably changed Hollywood filmmaking forever, now that every major studio seems to be attempting the “shared universe” approach to franchises. Although the MCU has refined the template since, Avengers Assemble still established the focus on humour, character, and heart that would come to define the success story of Marvel Studios. It’s a blockbuster that feels large on all fronts, delivering thrills not only in the “Battle of New York” finale, but in the creation of a team of characters that feel perfectly balanced and complementary.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Captain America: Civil War 15. Despite Captain America: Civil War (AKA Avengers 2.5) featuring Iron Man, Black Widow, and Ant-Man (as well as introducing Black Panther and Spider-Man), the film remains first and foremost about Captain America. And that’s perhaps why the stuffed blockbuster works – were it not for a central focus, Civil War could have fallen into the trappings of other Marvel sequels in being too convoluted. The Russo Brothers also direct one of the best actions scenes in Marvel history so far, the airport scene, which looks as if it leapt straight out of a comic book.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Ant-Man and the Wasp 14. While the first Ant Man was a mirror image of its star Paul Rudd, essentially delivering a studio comedy dressed in spandex, the second found a new trick up its sleeve in the form of Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne – a smart, capable female hero who didn’t simply exist to serve as a caretaker for the male characters.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Spider-Man: Far From Home 13. What comes after the end? It’s the question that was hanging over the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since the release of Avengers: Endgame was sold to us as the ultimate, cumulative chapter in a series of 22 interconnected films. And yet, while Far From Home is distinctly mid-level Marvel fare, there’s a lot to be said for the fact it isn’t crushed under the weight of its own ambitions. It feels comfortably like the end of a chapter, the beginning of a new one, an epilogue, and a palate cleanser all at once. It also works perfectly well as a film about Spider-Man.
AP
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Ant-Man 12. Ant-Man should not have worked as a film. Just look at the title! Ridiculous to think a movie about a man with ant powers should work – let alone be a blockbuster success and part of the biggest cinematic universe going. Yet, despite production problems (Edgar Wright was initially meant to helm the film), Peyton Reed directs this hilarious heist film with aplomb, taking the Marvel world a little less seriously than others.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Avengers: Infinity War 11. Marvel redefined cinematic narratives once more in 2018, creating a single culmination to a decade’s worth of films. While it plays as total nonsense to anyone who’s a newcomer to the franchise (if that’s possible), it was, for fans, an unmatched emotional release. The Russo brothers faced the monumental task of making each crossover – from the Guardians of the Galaxy to the kingdom of Wakanda – work in a way that feels natural, while also ushering the MCU’s biggest villain, Thanos, into centre stage. Epic both in its sense of scale and stakes, Infinity War also stages one of the most memorable finales in blockbuster history.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Captain America: The First Avenger 10. With or without the beard, Steve Rogers aka Captain America has now become the brooding centre of the Avengers, but there was once a time when he was all about the old-fashioned heroics. Director Joe Johnston stayed true to the film’s 1940s setting in a film that embraces that pulpiness of early comic book history, as Steve punches Nazis and romances military officer Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), although her character is thankfully never relegated to the role of damsel in distress.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Captain America: The Winter Soldier 9. Despite centring on a super-powered American nationalist, the Captain America trilogy has the most consistent quality in the MCU. Its crowning moment comes with The Winter Soldier – an adrenaline-fuelled conspiracy thriller that features a spectacular twist and provokes questions regarding modern day surveillance. However, given The Russo Brothers root the rest of the movie in realism, the bombastic CGI-heavy ending is a little ridiculous.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Captain Marvel 8. Brie Larson gives a superpowered performance as Carol Danvers, the actor playing a hero that's both relatable and aspirational, strong but vulnerable. While Captain Marvel may not revolutionise the studio’s formula, the superhero's debut outing provides a platform to show off her Thanos-annihilating powers. Thanks to a smart script, it also offers some of the very best character development in the MCU.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Spider-Man: Homecoming 7. While Spider-Man’s miraculous arrival in the MCU came with Captain America: Civil War, it was not until Homecoming that we truly got to know Peter Parker. Tom Holland’s incarnation swings past Andrew Garfield’s version, thanks to the film’s lower-stakes high school story allowing for intimate moments with the character. Along with including some great comic performances (Jacob Batalon as Ned stands out), Michael Keaton’s Vulture makes for a terrifying villain, and the twist is superbly done.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Iron Man 3 6. While divisive among Marvel fans, Shane Black’s superhero outing – with the writer/director’s sharp, stinging dialogue – brings Tony Stark's story arc to an end (or what should have been its end) with humour and heart aplenty. As Robert Downey Jr’s genius, billionaire philanthropist deals with PTSD and struggles with his robotic creations, we see an actor giving his all.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Avengers: Endgame 5. It’s a film that’s hard to place within the MCU canon, simply because the majority of its emotional pay-offs only work due to the groundwork laid by over a decade of filmmaking. Avengers: Endgame is less about individual storytelling and so much more about the collective experience of cinema itself. This exists to be consumed in the dark, surrounded by loved ones, as you all cheer, gasp, and cry in unison. The fan service at work may, at times, feel a little outrageous in just how bold it feels, but Endgame earns the right to indulge. This, above all, is a celebration of these movies and their impact on the world.
AP
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Thor: Ragnarok 4. Completely transforming the Thor franchise in a single, effortless move, director Taika Waititi injected new energy into the MCU. Ragnarok is perfectly balanced both as a standard Marvel movie, with all the right heroics and world-building intact, and as a work belonging exclusively to Waititi, filled with the humour and charm he’d previously displayed in What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. By finding a way to incorporate individual voices into its massive franchise machine, Marvel found the secret to true long-term success.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Iron Man 3. Where it all started. Iron Man subverted expectations by not only reintroducing Robert Downey Jr to the world, but by showing that a relatively unknown B-character could be at the centre of a blockbuster. Other cinematic universes fail because they attempt to introduce too much (a mistake made in Iron Man 2). The first Iron Man, though, had a self-contained story that only hinted at a bigger world – a world that would eventually become a multi-billion-dollar franchise.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Blasting the Marvel universe into space for an adventure with a truly ragtag group of heroes, including both a talking racoon and a sentient tree-creature, Guardians of the Galaxy is arguably the biggest risk the franchise ever took. And it paid off in spectacular fashion, with director James Gunn giving the superhero genre a light coat of B-movie glee. It also transformed Parks and Recreation star Chris Pratt into the major box office draw he is today.
Marvel/Disney
Marvel films – ranked worst to best Black Panther 1. Although Black Panther still dutifully fulfils all the requirements of a Marvel film, providing a bridge to films both past and future plus ending in a cinematic battle filled with CGI trickery, Ryan Coogler’s achievement as a director is to use a familiar framework to tell a radical story within mainstream filmmaking. In the strife between Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, the ruler of Wakanda, and Michael B Jordan’s Killmonger, he provided a nuanced, layered commentary on colonialism and black identity. It’s a film that triumphs both within its genre, bringing new perspectives to the superhero story, and outside of it, satisfying purely as a piece of narrative drama.
Marvel/Disney
He reports that the undated films announced at Comic-Con will be Black Panther 2 (18 February, 2022) with James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 arriving on 6 May, 2022.
We know one more film will be released July 2022, but he doesn’t claim to know what it will be (fans are theorising it will be Captain Marvel 2 , which Feige confirmed was in development at Comic-Con).
That’s where things get really interesting. The next film is listed for 2024 and the only thing accompanying this detail is an emoji depicting a shocked face.
You can see the tweet below.
What can be gleamed from this? Apart from the fact that Murphy is seemingly suggesting there will be no Marvel films in 2023, it certainly seems like the three aforementioned sequels will build to something pretty huge.
The only other things that Feige mentioned at the end of the Comic-Con panel were a reboot of Blade , starring Mahershala Ali , and plans to introduce Fantastic Four and X-Men into the MCU.
But, look at the date he claims this mysterious film will be released: 3 or 10 May. This is the release date that was reserved for Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame . Could a brand new Avengers film be on the way? And, if so, could it be comprised a younger group of superheroes?
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Try for free This isn’t outside the realms of possibility. Firstly, Kate Bishop will be introduced in the Hawkeye TV show, which will show the character being trained up as female version of Jeremy Renner’s character. It’s scheduled to be released on Dinsey+ in Autumn 2021.
Another character to comprise the Young Avengers include Iron Lad – who could absolutely be played by Ty Simpkins’ Harley Keener, who befriended Tony Stark in Iron Man 3 (remember the kid at Stark’s funeral in Avengers: Endgame ? That was him).
Samuel L. Jackson on his favourite Marvel movies It might be a stretch, but it certainly seems like recent Marvel films have been introducing younger characters to take over the mantle of the older generation.
But, let’s not forget, there’s still a lot of existing Avengers character in the MCU. Could Black Panther, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man and company team up for a surprising stand in May 2024?
During an Empire Q&A, Feige detailed a scrapped Avengers: Endgame scene that would have been extremely traumatic for kids and also recently revealed which Avenger could have single-handedly taken down Thanos if he had no back up from his army.
Films to watch before you dieShow all 35 1 /35Films to watch before you die Films to watch before you die Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) With this update and upgrade of the 1930s serial adventure, Steven Spielberg turns what could have been pastiche into a practically perfect film. Harrison Ford’s daring archaeologist is almost always out of his depth but has impeccable underdog charm, and Douglas Slocombe’s casually stunning cinematography is matched by one of John Williams's finest scores. Indy is ultimately irrelevant to the entire plot, interestingly, but his indefatigable effort to do the right thing still inspires. HO
Rex
Films to watch before you die Spirited Away (2001) Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki's films delight kids with their bright colours, imaginative characters and plucky heroines (usually). But there's meat to their bones for adults to digest, especially in this towering fantasy epic. As young Chihiro takes a job in a mysterious bathhouse peopled by spirits in order to save her parents, viewers can explore everything from deeply rooted interpretations of traditional Japanese myth to Miyazaki's fascination with Western filmmaking and the Second World War. And visually it’s unparalleled. HO
Toho
Films to watch before you die Avengers (2012) Yes, but hear us out: Avengers is a grand experimental film. Marvel risked four popular franchises on this superhero throw of the dice, something never attempted in cinema history. They won, and made the fizzing chemistry of the unlikely gang who must save us from aliens look easy. But the failure of every Marvel imitator since makes clear how impressive this billion-dollar gamble really was, and how difficult it is to tell character-driven stories in blockbuster cinema on this scale. And as a bonus, it has a Hulk. HO
Marvel Studios
Films to watch before you die The Shining (1980) Stanley Kubrick’s creep-show classic is remembered for the indelible images of that violent finale chase, but its reputation and influence stem from the slow-winding tension that precedes it. Jack Nicholson is the struggling writer whose sanity frays over a winter season at an isolated and haunted hotel; Shelley Duvall plays his increasingly desperate wife. Touching on questions of domestic violence as well as delivering a ghost story for the ages, this will get under your skin and stay there. HO
Warner Bros/Hawk Films/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Films to watch before you die Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) One of those remakes that justifies remakes, Philip Kaufman’s beautifully skilful spin on the McCarthy-era alien-clone thriller translates it wickedly to the psychobabble age of the 1970s, with a bit of post-Watergate panic thrown in. Donald Sutherland’s lugubrious health inspector is a nicely grumpy enemy of the pod people, and the hysteria ratchets up masterfully. PS
Films to watch before you die The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) Wes Anderson's meticulously mannered and beautifully composed films are not to all tastes, but when combined with a cast of this calibre and a more-than-usually heartfelt script, they are capable of magic. Gene Hackman plays the disgraced patriarch of a family of geniuses, making one last attempt at redemption. With a who’s who of Hollywood in support, it’s a story that is as bizarre, hilarious and moving as family life itself. HO
Buena Vista Pictures
Films to watch before you die Lawrence of Arabia (1962) David Lean’s First World War epic about TE Lawrence remains a filmmaking milestone, the movie that Steven Spielberg rewatches before starting each new film. Its genius is to combine huge scale battles – notably the attack on Aqaba – with psychological insight into the toll that the war took on Lawrence’s mind. The white-led casting of Arab characters is appalling to modern eyes, but with its daring, dazzling filmmaking it remains one to watch despite that. HO
Rex
Films to watch before you die Bicycle Thieves (1948) A devastating portrait of the poverty trap, Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist masterpiece remains all too relevant. Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) is offered a desperately-needed job – but it requires a bicycle, and when his is stolen he and his son resort to desperate measures to get it back. Shot with non-professional actors who lived in circumstances close to that of their characters, this is a study in compassion and empathy. HO
Rex Features
Films to watch before you die Farewell My Concubine (1993) Spanning five decades of Chinese history, this sprawling epic follows two stars of the Peking Opera from harsh childhood training through the perils of the Second World War, the Communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution. Director Chen Keige drew on his own experience of the Cultural Revolution to shape this groundbreaking, tormented romance both between Zhang Fengyi’s Ziaolou and Leslie Cheng’s Dieyi, and between Ziaolou and his former prostitute wife Juxian (Gong Li). HO
Miramax Films
Films to watch before you die Tokyo Story (1953) Pauline Kael thought that the basic appeal of movies was the “kiss kiss bang bang” of action and romance, but Yasujirō Ozu demonstrates that film is capable of much more in this quiet family drama. It’s a simple story about two elderly parents visiting their adult children, only to find that the younger generation is busy with other things. But it’s also a meditation on the passing of time, and on grief, and on the constant push towards the new that will break your heart every time you watch it. HO
Rex Features
Films to watch before you die Double Indemnity (1944) If we have learned anything from film noir, it is that murder pacts never work out well for both parties. That’s certainly the lesson when Fred MacMurray’s infatuated salesman offers life insurance to Barbara Stanwyck’s femme fatale Phyllis against her unloved husband. The scheme gives way to a riveting stew of suspicion and paranoia, with Stanwyck’s ruthless determination warping MacMurray’s Neff out of all recognition as director Billy Wilder tightens the screws. HO
Rex Features
Films to watch before you die Days of Heaven (1978) Terrence Malick’s second, and for many, greatest film is a mesmerisingly gorgeous love triangle set in the Texas Panhandle in 1916, loosely based on an Old Testament parable. Richard Gere and Brooke Adams are the lovers who pose as brother and sister to fool a rich, dying farmer (Sam Shepard). Nestor Almendros’s astounding magic-hour photography rightly won an Oscar, and Linda Manz supplies heartbreaking, plainspoken narration as Gere’s younger sister. PS
Paramount Pictures
Films to watch before you die Citizen Kane (1941) The problem with calling something “the greatest film ever made” is that it begins to sound like homework. Forget that: beyond all the technical dazzle and ground-breaking filmmaking Orson Welles’s masterpiece has red blood in its veins and a huge beating heart. What’s more, its portrait of a thrusting, occasionally demagogic tycoon and the hollowness at the heart of his success remains as relevant as it ever was, and the suggestion that America might be susceptible to media manipulation all too believable. HO
Films to watch before you die Les Enfants du Paradis (1945) Marcel Carné's immortal saga about a 19th-century Parisian theatre company – often called the French Gone with the Wind – has a swooning romanticism but majors in heartbreak, too. Among this ensemble, brilliantly played by some of the best Gallic actors of their day, hopes rise and are shattered, and jealousy mounts among all the acolytes of a courtesan called Garance. It looks back to mime and stagecraft as essential components in the prehistory of cinema, while also being great cinema.
Rex Features
Films to watch before you die Rear Window (1954) Whether you see it as Alfred Hitchcock’s celebration of voyeurism or simply one of the most nail-biting thrillers ever made, it’s a superb example of the Master of Suspense at work. James Stewart’s photographer, laid up with a broken leg, becomes obsessed with the lives of his neighbours and suspects one of murder. The unusually vulnerable hero – as in Vertigo – increases the stakes and ensures that simple brawn won’t save the day, while Hitchcock ratchets up the tension unbearably by putting Grace Kelly’s plucky girlfriend in the lion’s mouth. HO
Films to watch before you die It Happened One Night (1934) Claudette Colbert's eloping heiress and Clark Gable's hack on his uppers warily team up on a Greyhound bus, only to aggravatingly fall for each other. Frank Capra's evergreen romcom all but invented the love-hate formula that's one model for silver screen chemistry, hoicking up Colbert's skirt to flash a leg when they need to hitch-hike, and dismantling Gable's smarmy defences. The biggest hit of its day for a reason, it was also the first ever film to win the big five at the Oscars. PS
Films to watch before you die Hoop Dreams (1994) The trials of young black basketball hopefuls in Chicago tell us volumes, from their upbringing to all-or-nothing career rimshots, about the opportunities otherwise denied them. For these portraits of inner-city poverty, gliding between frustration and triumph, Steve James’s epic of ghetto realities has been influential on every sports doc that has come in its wake. The Academy’s documentary branch will never quite live down failing to nominate it. PS
Kartemquin Films
Films to watch before you die The Apartment (1960) This blistering Billy Wilder and IAL Diamond script is a demonstration of just how dark a love story can be get without tipping entirely into bitterness, a standing rebuke to every lazy, schmaltzy comedy going. While the entire cast is stellar and Shirley MacLaine was never better, it’s worth ignoring them all and just watching Jack Lemmon’s meek office worker CC Baxter. Every gesture and glance is flawless; he carries entire scenes without a word. HO
Rex
Films to watch before you die Paris, Texas (1984) In Wim Wenders's Palme d'Or winning trek through America's byways, Harry Dean Stanton plays a wreck of a man who's gone missing, found wandering silently through the Texan wilderness. He travels hundreds of miles to reconcile with his ex (Nastassja Kinski), whom he finds, oblivious to who he is, on the other side of a Houston peepshow window. Culminating unforgettably with this long-take tête-a-tête, it's a shattering quest for redemption, eerily scored by Ry Cooder.
Films to watch before you die Before Midnight (2013) Céline (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) have settled down since the two earlier films in Richard Linklater’s essential trilogy, Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004), but the problems in their lives – self-inflicted by now – only keep proliferating. Trenchantly pushing them into full-on battle-of-the-sexes territory, the film squares them off for a bitterly adult dissection of a long-term relationship, asking stark questions about love, compromise and lasting the course. PS
Films to watch before you die Le Mépris (1963) Other Jean-Luc Godard films are punchier, ruder, more experimental. But this is his most lavish, measured, and sad: an elegiac fantasy of filmmaking, as a loose adaptation of the Odyssey grinds to a halt on Capri, with Jack Palance as the brash American producer trying to sell art by the yard. Meanwhile, the screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) and his beautiful, bored wife (Brigitte Bardot) tussle and reconcile in an incessant, pained ballet. PS
Films to watch before you die Casablanca (1942) Some films strain under the weight of greatness; Casablanca’s quality bubbles through. Against the backdrop of the Second World War, two former lovers reunite though everything in the world is pulling them apart. Bogart’s Rick hides a huge heart under a thin veneer of cynicism; opposite him Ingrid Bergman’s luminous Ilsa would melt an iceberg. Packed with quotable lines and brimming over with impeccable cool, here we are, still lookin' at you, kid. HO
Films to watch before you die A Trip to the Moon (1902) Georges Méliès pioneered many of the visual and special effects techniques that have formed the backbone of fantastical filmmaking ever since, and he pushed them all to their limits in this turn-of-the-century tale of a rocket trip to the moon to meet the strange creatures who live upon it. Witty touches and a real sense of story mean that this is still entertaining more than a century later, and if the effects are less awe-inspiring now, they’re still beautifully designed and executed. HO
Rex Features
Films to watch before you die His Girl Friday (1940) A screwball comedy of substance, Howard Hawks's remake of The Front Page is an objectively odd mix of high stakes and high comedy. Yet it works because the machine-gun dialogue is so quick that there's never a moment to question what’s happening (the great screenwriter Ben Hecht, who co-wrote the original Broadway play, worked on it uncredited). Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, as the warring editor and star-reporter trying to work together long enough to land the story of the year, remain the standard by which all on-screen chemistry should be judged. HO
Films to watch before you die The Conversation (1974) Francis Ford Coppola slipped this paranoid masterpiece in between the first two Godfathers, though it was left to his wizardly editor Walter Murch to resolve the plot in post-production. Gene Hackman, never better, plays Harry Caul, a loner surveillance expert called upon to pry into a situation he doesn't fully understand, and winding up dangerously complicit in murderous malfeasance. No other film managed to foreshadow Watergate quite so uncannily.
Paramount Pictures
Films to watch before you die Blow Out (1981) John Travolta's Z-movie sound man, out recording one night, accidentally tapes what turns out to be a political assassination. Brian De Palma hit peak ingenuity and gut-punch profundity with this stunning conspiracy thriller, mounted with a showman's élan but also harrowing emotional voltage from its star. It’s one of the most delirious thrillers of the 1980s, with a bitterly ironic pay-off that’s played for keeps. PS
Filmways Pictures
Films to watch before you die City of God (2002) There’s a deep contradiction at the heart of this acid-bright portrait of the violence in Rio’s favelas. On one hand these child hustlers and teen gangsters have an intense lust for life, an exuberance displayed in dance and play and love; on the other, they value life cheaply and take it without a qualm. Director Fernando Meirelles and co-director Kátia Lund cast a talented band of local kids to give it authenticity and then punctuated their story with Scorsese-esque violence that still shocks. HO
Films to watch before you die Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) The diverging romantic fortunes of Hannah (Mia Farrow), Lee (Barbara Hershey) and Holly (Dianne Wiest, who won an Oscar, as did Michael Caine) provide an ideal structure for Woody Allen to check in on a midway state of adulthood, when there's already a sense of disappointment about squandered promise, but still much to play for. It hits the miraculous sweet spot between all Allen’s modes and tones. PS
Moviestore/Rex
Films to watch before you die Raising Arizona (1987) The Coen Brothers had already established a ghoulish signature style with Blood Simple, but here they showed us how funny they could be, in a zig-zagging kidnap farce which manages the difficult feat of being both zany and adorable. Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter are the unlikely couple whose abduction of a spare newborn quintuplet, Nathan Jr, causes all hell to break loose. PS
20th Century Fox
Films to watch before you die Caché (2005) This looks and acts like a thriller, but in reality Michael Haneke’s exploration of colonialism, guilt, paranoia and privacy cares more about subtext than about scares or mystery. A well-to-do Parisian family are tormented by the arrival of surveillance tapes of their lives, but it’s not clear who could be sending them or why, leading patriarch Georges (Daniel Auteuil, never better) to confront his own past sins. As a subversion of genre and viewer expectation, there are few to match it. HO
Rex
Films to watch before you die The General (1926) Orson Welles suggested that Buster Keaton’s silent Civil War comedy might be the greatest film ever made, and who are we to argue? Keaton’s Johnny Gray is a key figure on the railroads of the Confederacy, but he and his engine, The General, must go above and beyond to defeat a Union spy. Ignore the dodgy politics and focus on the sublime physical comedy of Keaton’s beautifully composed routines. You’ll come out wondering if movies even need sound. HO
Rex
Films to watch before you die The Babadook (2014) The Babadook is a black, hunched pop-up book monster who raps on your door three times before paying a visit. And you can’t get rid of him. Widowed mum Amelia (brilliant Essie Davis) can’t remember reading his book to her emotionally disturbed misfit of a son (Noah Wiseman) before. Jennifer Kent’s thoughtful Australian chamber shocker, a feast of inventive design, claws its way into you and leaves scratch marks. PS
Films to watch before you die When Harry Met Sally (1989) Is it impossible for men and women to be purely platonic? It is according to Harry, in this beautiful, brainy comedy about two neurotic New Yorkers who become friends and then more. Directed by Rob Reiner and written by wonderful Nora Ephron, it's a paean of sorts to Woody Allen's early films, with razor-sharp observations about sex and dating ("I'll have what she's having"). It's still the pinnacle of both Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan's careers.
Columbia Pictures
Films to watch before you die Inside Out (2015) Toy Story revolutionised animation; Up and Wall-E vie for the best opening of any film this century, but for sheer audacity Pete Docter’s head-trip must prevail. As a little girl struggles to adapt following a family move across country, her emotions go on a madcap adventure through the mind itself. What’s dazzling here is that two completely separate films unfold at once. Kids watch brightly coloured sprites on a quest; adults watch a psychologically dense depiction of how we think and feel. It’s wonderful.
Getty
Films to watch before you die True Romance (1993) Disinterred from a script Tarantino wrote in the mid-Eighties called The Open Road – the same screenplay that also spawned Natural Born Killers – Tony Scott's True Romance is a pulpy, hyperviolent twist on a damsel-in-distress fairytale, with a plinky-plonky score that is based on Badlands. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette are the lovers on the lam, chased by Christopher Walken's suave mafioso. Bombastic, brash – and totally brilliant.
Rex
You can find a rundown of the 10 biggest Comic-Con announcements – including Natalie Portman’s promotion to female superhero alongside Chris Hemsworth’s Thor – here and a ranking of every character, from worst to best, here .
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