There’s nothing I love more on a rainy Saturday than watching movies. With an abundance of cheap TVs and video players on the market (I recommend a reasonably priced yet reliable Samsung DVD player), there’s little excuse for not having the equipment at home to turn your afternoon into a mini-Cannes Film Festival. While the films listed below may not make the programme at the real Cannes, they are nevertheless worth a viewing and are among my picks for the top movies available on DVD.
1. Memento (2000) – Inception was awesome, and The Dark Knight was (in my opinion) robbed of a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. And yet, this tiny firecracker of a movie may well be Christopher Nolan’s best work. Told in reverse chronological order, the film features Guy Pearce as a man with short-term amnesia struggling to unravel a murder. It’s a trip, but certainly one worth taking.
2. Zombieland (2009) – I want to make man love to this movie (I’m not certain what this is, but I’m sure it’s the kind of love I make). It’s funny, it’s irreverent, it features some of the best young actors in Hollywood, and it was my pick for the best comedy of 2009. The perfect send-up of twenty-first century America, watch it for the decade’s best cameo alone. I won’t give it away, but it’s a killer.
3. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) – The Bourne series was a shocker for me – the rare trilogy that started strong and only got better with each film. The third offering is not only the finest of the three but also stands its ground against the best of the action genre. Smart and suspenseful in spades, The Bourne Ultimatum offers thrills from start to finish. The best of them? A heart-stopping chase through Waterloo Station that just might be the most masterfully crafted action scene of all time.
