The Independent Recommends: The Five Best Films

The Third Man (PG)

A front-runner for the greatest-film-of-all-time award. Carol Reed's thriller leads us around post-war Vienna, through which slithers Orson Welles's smirking racketeer.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (12)

Catchphrases, moon bases, groovy babies and crooked dentures. Welcome to the plastic-fantastic landscape of Mike Myers' irrepressible super- spy creation.

Place Vendome (15)

Nicole Garcia's upmarket Parisian thriller provides a velvet-lined showcase for the cut-glass skills of an on-form Catherine Deneuve.

West Beirut (15)

Involving rites-of-passage debut (right) from former Tarantino collaborator Ziad Doueiri, all played out in a divided-up, war-riven Beirut. A vibrant and authentic-looking walk on the wild side.

The Matrix (15)

Keanu Reeves makes for a very 1990s messiah in the Wachowski Brothers' slick and stylish arcade- game actioner.