The Anyone For a Film 2009 Awards

Far from crying 'cinema is dead!' and 'they don't make 'em like they used to', I thought 2009 was a rich and vital period for film so in my small corner of the blogosphere, I've earmarked the finest and the foulest new releases, plus mentions of old faves...Thanks for reading, see you all in 2010! (Bear in mind this is based solely on films I've seen this year - I daresay the list would have been very different had I the time and the funds!)

Greatest Films of 2009

1) Slumdog Millionaire

The most gloriously humane and uplifting film of the year is a riot of colour, emotion and A.R. Rahman’s pounding score. Without a doubt, Danny Boyle’s most accessible effort to date, a feast for the heart as well as the senses, unspooling in careful layers to reveal a literate, brutal and beautiful fable on love, loss and chance.
2) Drag Me to Hell
Less humane certainly but Sam Raimi’s terrific, tongue-in-cheek shocker hearkens back to proper horror, relying on insidious camerawork, eerie sound design and Christopher Young’s nerve shredding score to scare the pants off the viewer. Watch out for that hankie…
3) In the Loop
Armando Ianucci’s superb potty mouthed political satire lacks the intensity of its TV predecessor The Thick Of It but there was no sharper, bleaker comedy released in 2009. And let’s face it, no one at the moment turns swearing into more of an art form than the magnificent Peter Calpaldi as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker.
4) District 9
The sleeper action hit of the year also turned out to be the summer’s best (and most unlikely) blockbuster, transcending its outsider status with an unfamiliar cast, crew and location (Johannesburg) to fuse a potent anti-apartheid message and arse-kicking action. Oh, and those aliens are damn cool.
5) Star Trek
More hyped than District 9 (and just pipped to the post here), JJ Abrams nevertheless proves it is possible to launch a lavish new franchise without compromising a sense of humour or fun. Inhabiting the world we are all passingly familiar with while opening it up fully to a new audience, for once, a sequel is needed!
6) Looking For Eric
Ken Loach goes light? Well, not really – Eric is still grounded in that familiar working class milieu but by adding a delightful sense of fantasy to the grit (hello, Cantona), Loach has made his most entertaining film to date. Steve Evets meanwhile makes a terrific lead and the unified-through-footie finale must be the most heart-warming this year
7) Let the Right One In
Poetry on celluloid, no horror in 2009 was more haunting, or more hauntingly shot, than Let the Right One In. Drag Me to Hell went for the gullet but this, in its snow-bound landscapes and tale of two lonely souls (one a vampire) drawn together, also finds humanity amid the bloodshed.
8) 500 Days of Summer
Not another smug indie comedy! No, Summer has more heart, not to mention brains, than that, neatly breaking up the comedy formula to depict the highs and lows of romance as felt by fool-for-love Joseph Gordon Levitt. And who can blame him, when the lovely Zooey Deschanel is doing the leading…
9) Up
Like it needs to be said again – Pixar are geniuses. But their latest masterpiece to top masterpieces will have those words falling from the lips of every viewer, bolting real adult themes to an ostensibly kiddie friendly caper. Who’s the film made for then? Ah, well there-in lies the real genius…
10) Avatar
Yes the storyline’s more pieced together than a McDonald’s hamburger but as an event, as a spectacle, Avatar is hard to beat. It also proves one thing absolute – Jim Cameron is no mere King of the World but a moviemaking God, creating no less than a new 3D universe for us to lose ourselves in

And the Worst?

1) Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
Bilge, bilge, bilge – Michael Bay’s hideously out-of-control colossus should be tried for crimes against decency let alone cinema. Abysmally edited and directed with shuddering sound design, the actors are simply lost in the blitzkrieg. But what does that matter when Megan Fox wears a pair of denim shorts?
2) The Box
If anyone can explain what was going on in Richard Kelly’s dreadful third effort, they deserve a million pounds. OK, it’s something to do with aliens... What on earth Cameron Diaz is doing in it though may be an even bigger mystery
3) Law Abiding Citizen
A prime example of how to cock-up a serious thoughtful premise, the consequences of revenge are here reduced to dreadful, Saw-esque titillation. And Gerard Butler should never be cast in any film other than one that requires him to shout ‘For Sparta!’

Greatest Surprises – Film

1) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Well here was an unexpected joy. In the same year that we sadly lost teenage muse John Hughes, I had the good fortune to finally watch what is arguably his finest effort, emerging unscathed from its 80s setting to present fresh wit, brilliant performances and even a show-stopping musical number down the streets of Chicago
2) The Ghost and Mrs Muir
Black and white movies? Huh, boring! Rubbish – here is one of the most moving old-school melodramas I’ve watched, a light comedy that quite impeccably transforms into a tear jerking tale about love defying the spectre of death. The influence for Edward Scissorhands? Absolutely
3) Happy Go Lucky
Mike Leigh is renowned for doing misery. This is why the sparkling Happy Go Lucky is such a wonderful experience, deriving hilarity from the perennially upbeat Sally Hawkins’ interactions with her near psychotic driving instructor Eddie Marsan. ‘En-ra-ha!’

Greatest Soundtracks

1) Drag Me to Hell
The epitome of what a soundtrack can do for a film, criminally underrated Christopher Young finally gets some spotlight with this lavishly operatic score, mixing a sinister gypsy violin motif with a massed choir and all sorts of orchestral carnage. Alison Lohman in the graveyard? Best movie music moment of 2009.
2) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Alexandre Desplat has had an outstanding year in 2009, composing eight scores. His studied, reserved, classical stylings though were best served in David Fincher’s epic romance, capturing the palpitations of symmetrical, diverging love across the decades while also evoking the New Orleans setting with subtle jazz
3) Up
Michael Giacchino’s Star Trek score was louder but merely competent – give him a Pixar film though and his heart shines through. Blending 30s jazz revue for the character of Carl with some blistering action material and moments of heartbreak, Giacchino’s wonderfully mature score could be mistaken for not coming from an animation at all.
4) The Young Victoria
Ilan Eshkeri may not do anything new with the score for the Emily Blunt-starring Queen Victoria biopic. But it does brilliantly nonetheless, an appropriately regal, powerful, sometimes moving portrayal of England, and England’s longest serving monarch, at their peak
5) Slumdog Millionaire
Did it deserve an Oscar? Debatable, as it’s closer to a pop album than an actual film score. But A.R. Rahman’s contributions are terrific nonetheless, more-so in the film itself where the driving percussion and interweaving of choice hits captures the freewheeling energy of Boyle’s vision. Away from it, the haunting ‘Latika’s Theme’ lingers best
6) Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
A bit of a cheat this as the film doesn’t come out in the UK until next year but Spotify unearthed a real gem here. Joe Hisaishi’s lovely contributions to many Studio Ghibli films have been overlooked and this one will likely be too – a crying shame when the sense of gentle fantasy and whimsy is better generated than any in Hollywood at the moment
7) A Christmas Carol
Alan Silvestri’s been coasting in bad action films for some years but this marked a glorious celebration of the festive season, a lavish orchestral delight interweaving traditional carols with Silvestri’s typically spirited underscore. Welcome back, Al.
8) Taking Woodstock
Ang Lee’s collaboration with Danny Elfman here results in one of the composers most personal scores in years. Composed almost entirely for guitar (acoustic and electric), it hearkens back to the days when Elfman was at his most unique, not diluted in bilge like Terminator Salvation.
9) Avatar
So it didn’t turn out to be my favourite score of the year but a listen to Avatar’s score confirms James Horner’s keen sense of the dramatic, a blend of beautiful tribal melodies for the Pandoran Na’vi and crushing action for the military baddies. If any score though is crying out for an expanded release, this is it...
10) Knowing
Another underdog like Christopher Young, Marco Beltrami wastes too much time fashioning competent music for less than competent films yet occasionally blinds us with his ingenuity. Knowing is the latter, a classic thriller score, building unease to an astonishing apocalyptic finale.

Greatest Surprises – Soundtrack

1) Young Sherlock Holmes
My greatest soundtrack find of the year – heck, my greatest find of the year – is Bruce Broughton’s magnificent adventure score for Barry Levinson’s 1985 caper, furiously exciting, scary, romantic and delightful in equal measure. Give this man Harry Potter!
2) Restoration
A spotty composer, when James Newton Howard is on top form there are few better. Restoration is arguably his masterpiece, for a forgotten costume drama from 1995. The score should never be forgotten though – a terrific processional theme mixed with tender, pastoral melodies, it’s a superb piece of work
3) A River Runs Through It
Having paid little attention to composer Mark Isham previously, A River Runs Through It caught me completely off guard, offering almost an hour of unbroken, tranquil, utterly beautiful melodies. The finale ‘In Half Light of the Canyon’ may be the single loveliest film music cue to bless my speakers this year

Happy Christmas!

Festive greetings and happy new year to all those following me in the blogosphere - especially my small group of 3 loyal followers!

Long may it continue into next year - stay safe

Avatar

After 12 years and spending somewhere in the region of $300 million greenbacks, James Cameron hasn't made a film with Avatar...he's created a whole new world (it's not Aladdin, though). In spite of a wobbly, poor plot that threatens to morph into Dances With Pixels or Bravebyte, Cameron's showmanship wins through: this is one film that demands to be seen on the big screen.

After all, Cameron is, at heart, a showman, his films hearkening back to the earliest Cinema of Attractions in offering audiences unrivalled spectacle. Think the Titanic breaking in half or the T-1000 reforming itself from a frozen, brittle mess. On his best days though, he's also able to fuse this with a palpably emotional centre: Ripley mourning over her daughter's death or a machine 'learning the value of human life'.

Avatar, to be frank, doesn't fall into the latter category; the premise is thin and underdeveloped, a derivative collage of 'rally the clan' epics, and there's some serious neglect of major background players (Michelle Rodriguez? She never gets a look-in). It's not difficult to see where the director's heart truly lies: rather than hanging his new creation on a tangible narrative, he's done the opposite, so consumed is he with transporting the audience to a far away land that the story fades into silence.

But what a land it is. Our introduction to it comes courtesy of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic Marine who's taking the place of his deceased brother for a scientific mission on Pandora, a primal savage planet pitted against an invading corporation. Jake's task is to take over an 'avatar', a simulation of the planet's indigenous Na'avi population, infiltrate the tribe and gain their trust so the insidious military types can gain a foothold. However, no sooner has he been inducted into the tribe that he questions his orders and starts to respect the Na'vi way of life.

In other words, the scenario is classic Cameron, a world of faceless company men versus an exotic, savage society; watching it, it's hard not to see the film as an allegory for what we're doing to the Amazon. As always, his future settings have a refreshing, lived-in feel to them away from all the military hardware, where cynical doctors and scientists (here represented by another patented Sigourney Weaver performance) think nothing of puffing nonchalantly on a cigarette while the slimy bureaucrats (an underused Giovanni Ribisi) play golf with coffee mugs.

So, the set-up is brisk and effective but the real treat comes when Jake enters his avatar world for the first time. This is where our 12 years of patience pays off and Cameron really gets to have fun: Pandora is an extraordinary creation, where beasts range in size and scale, where some have Jurassic Park-esque trills on their heads, where others glide, bioluminescent style through the air. It's truly heaven-sent and the attention to detail is extraordinary, a place of myths.

It also needs to be said that 3D is the only way to see this movie. Perfunctory in recent efforts as mere window-dressing, Cameron has a reason to shoot in this fashion; watching it, you can almost reach out and touch the flora and fauna. An immersive experience? That barely describes it.

Of course, the movie also wouldn't be Cameron without an intergalactic lovestory crossing impossible boundaries. Here the wonderfully expressive Zoe Saldana continues Cameron's trend of strong female leads as the coiled, agile Neytiri, the human soul of the Na'vi world and the one who convinces Jake to switch sides against his employers. Of course we have to put up with the moments where they bond over a botched horseback ride and lots of mumbo-jumbo but that's par for the course.

So it all sounds promising but then we reach the halfway point and start to realise there's only so much seductive imagery one can take in place of a strong backbone. A victim to modern storytelling trends, Cameron then has to pack pretty much all the dramatic conflict into the second half, leaving it both flabby and corny. As Jake rallies the Na'vi to take sides against the coffee swigging aggressors, one does expect Mel Gibson to rock up in woad (hey, he'd fit in, right?)

This is in spite of some jaw dropping moments (a giant tree collapsing evokes memories of the Titanic's funnel doing just that) and excellent performances from scenery chewing Stephen Lang as Colonel Quaritch (a man so hard, he doesn't need an oxygen mask outside the base) and of course, Worthington. Is he the new Harrison Ford? On the basis of his effortless charisma, he may just be. He's also brilliantly charismatic, if not, more so, as the avatar Jake, given to freewheeling joy at the return of his legs. More watchable when rendered on a computer? The kid's got a bright future.

But is this the future writ-cinema? It's a yes and no answer but the film is nevertheless raw, unfettered Cameron. In a day and age where filmmakers are frequently forced to compromise their own vision, here is someone with the gumption to wait 15 years so the age can catch up. As a piece of spectacle, it's unmatched, even if all other departments are familiar. Perhaps then, Jake is our own avatar - into Cameron's world. And it's a wondrous place to be.

Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak's classic 1963 children's story Where the Wild Things Are lasts a princely total of 10 sentences. Not that this is a hindrance to Spike Jonze, one of our most idiosyncratic directors who seems to revel in opening up Sendak's slim story to a viewing audience. Truly, Wild Things (not that one) feels more like a Jonze film than a children's one.

He's made a terrific find in Max Records, taking on the lead role of the same name: Max is a mischievous but lonely boy, given to tearing around his house in a wolf costume. Deft storytelling beats establish in a matter of moments that his father is absent, his older sister's attention lies elsewhere and his mother (a nicely sympathetic Catherine Keener) is seeking affection from a new beau (Mark Ruffalo - stare and you'll miss him).

Jonze instantly nails the painful side of childhood, especially the flip from smiles to tantrums (the destruction of Max' outdoor igloo exemplifies such a reaction) and the wanton sense of savagery. Yet it's tempered by that irresistible sense of adventure, deep down in our primal selves: Max flees his house after an argument and, on discovering a boat, takes off across an unknown sea to an uncharted land. There he discovers a tribe of boisterous yet likeable creatures who seem to mirror his own fractured family life.

They range from the impressionable (James Gandolfini's Carol) to the discerning (Catherine O'Hara's Judith) to the neglected (Paul Dano's Alexander). Crowning Max their king, it doesn't take long for Max to realise human dynamics transgress any boundaries, be they fantastical or real. The joyous organic puppet and costume effects meanwhile hearken back to the earlier days of children's films and Karen O and Carter Burwell's inventive score is beautifully elegaic. Other favourites among the excellent vocal cast are Chris Cooper, Forest Whitaker and Lauren Ambrose.

And yet...there's more than a passing feeling it's more an intellectual exercise than an emotional one. In spite of the freewheeling fun the wild things share with Max, it doesn't take Jonze long to cut to the allegorical heart of the story, brightly sketched as it is. It's perfectly easy to see what drew Jonze to the story: replace the wild things with his usual array of misanthropes and freaks a la Being John Malkovich and the integrity of Sendak's story would still have been intact. He keeps things resolutely intimate, the camerawork hemmed in and the humour subtle. Refreshing as it is to have a children's film that doesn't pander to its audience, one can't help think that Wild Things could do with being a little more...wild.

The Box

Few films in 2009 come as bonkers as The Box. Imagine Aliens meets NASA meets The X Files meets Lost meets Dr Who meets The Twilight Zone...and you're only halfway to discovering how ridiculous Richard Kelly's film is. Oh, and there's also a pack of Body Snatchers knock-offs who stare at our lead characters in a creepy way for no reason.

Said leads are Cameron Diaz (miscast) and James Marsden (bland) as supposedly hard-done-by 70s couple Norma and Arthur. She's a teacher; he works at NASA and judging by their spacious (if garishly decorated home), they've got to be on the breadline. When Norma loses a research grant (or something) and Arthur loses an astronaut grant (or something), things look desperate...until typically sinister Frank Langella turns up.

His Arlington Steward has a proposal: if they push the button on the box he left on their doorstep, they will receive $1 million in 24 hours but someone they don't know will die. Clearly not in-tune with our recession-hit times, Kelly's film has Norma and Arthur debate in tedious fashion rather than just press the thing instantly. You can practically see the wizard behind the curtain cranking the (deus-ex)-machina.

That is until one reaches the halfway point and the film suddenly goes completely off its rocker. When the button is finally pressed, it seems to open a rift in the space-time continuum: a creepy man appears outside Norma's house; their possessed baby-sitter babbles about a 'white light'; Steward appears randomly presiding over a hanger big enough to house the Starship Enterprise; and everyone suffers inexplicable nosebleeds.

Like a car-wreck though, the film itself is possessed by a quality that demands one keeps watching. After an admittedly intriguing and creepy set-up, it's hard to know whether Kelly was directing (or editing) with a straight face. Post-production problems? Undoubtedly. It can't be a coincidence that the film has taken 18 months to see the light of day. Whereas his debut Donnie Darko was infused with a darkly beautiful sensibility in spite of its confusing narrative, this has no sensibility at all. It's just a mess. Forget trying to think outside The Box; just thinking inside it will result in nothing but misery.

Reel Retrospective: The Abyss (1989): Watery Masterpiece or Soggy Mess?

Like Apocalypse Now, James Cameron's The Abyss is a film almost outshone by its notoriously troubled production. Shot in an abandoned nuclear reactor in South Carolina, stories abound about star Ed Harris almost drowning in an oxygen tank cock-up; Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio being driven to the brink by the director's endless takes; and the crew being submerged in underwater darkness for hours on end.

Cameron's notorious pursuit of technical perfection subsequently lends The Abyss a lived-in, claustrophobic feel rivalling even that of his beloved masterpieces, the two Terminators and Aliens. Yet it's perhaps the most humane of all his efforts, not to mention his most ambitious on a character-driven level. Few of the director's movies feature characters as plausible as those in The Abyss, either centering on non-human robots (the T-101) or archetypes (Aliens' colonial marines or Titanic's snobby upper class).

Integral to the film's success is the fractious central relationship between Harris' genial 'Bud' Brigman and Mastrantonio's plucky, tough talking Lindsey, separated husband and wife thrown together once again on Lindsey's underwater rig when the Navy choose to commandeer it for shady purposes. Led by Cameron regular Michael Biehn (in a stand-out performance) as twitchy Lt Coffey, the Seals claim they're investigating the crash of a nuclear sub, the Montana, and want Bud's crew to document their efforts. But of course the motives are darker than that - and the presence of what appears to be a pink, glowing, Russian submersible only complicates matters...Is the threat coming from a domestic level, or something extra-terrestrial?

The film draws unfavourably close comparisons with Steven Spielberg's ET (even down to the aliens being classed instead as 'NTI's') but more on that momentarily. For the most part, it's a lean, taut thriller benefiting from its director's stringent shooting conditions: all narrow corridors, actors performing their own stunts and intimate group dynamics. Fleshing out the varied cast are Leo Burmeister's Cat, Todd Graff's Hippy and Kimberly Scott's wiseass driver 'One Night'. True they fulfill the cliches of the stock crew (friendly giant, paranoid clutz, loveable dope etc) familiar from siege flicks like Rio Bravo and The Thing, but there's a believable quality and humour to the performances (even, occasionally, in Biehn's villain) that lends the film a more personal edge.

The astonishing practical effects also lend the film a sense of realism rivalled in few sci-fi efforts since (bar Cameron's own work) and Mikael Solomon's blue-tinged cinematography adds to the potent mystery and danger of the deep. Tension is built carefully and relentlessly for the duration, as Bud and Lindsey come into conflict with the Seals' hijack of a nuclear warhead in the close confines of the rig. There are several uncomfortably intense set-pieces (including the infamous one where Lindsey is forced to drown and be resucitated), lent credibility by Harris and Mastrantonio's physical, committed performances (even if they were under duress). Alan Silvestri's score percolates effectively under the surface, with subtle choral and synth interventions leading the film into even more fantastical territory.

And then...we arrive at that ending, as Bud, having gone into the abyss to defuse the warhead and in his death throes, meets some unexpected saviours. A bone of contention ever since the film's release, it has been dismissed as both sappy drivel and an underwater knock-off of every alien film ever made. Truthfully, this is extremely unfair: astute viewers will have noted that Cameron has melded the fantastical with the human from the onset of the story, the landmark CGI effects making a famous appearance in the Pseudopod sequence, among others. Its apparent final submergence (boom boom) into sub-ET territory is hardly unexpected but offers the redemptive resolution to the characters' travails (hamfisted as the moral is) that has been promised all along.

Corny? At odds with the earlier slow-build? Hell yeah, and Cameron's controversial 'Director's Cut' adds more cheese to the mix by fleshing out the aliens' master plan. There's no doubt he (for once) bites off more than he can chew but as Silvestri's magnificent score reaches its astonishing choral opus, it becomes apparent once more how life-affirming, as opposed to scary, the presence of little green men is: all you need to save your marriage, it seems, is some interstellar intervention. Told you it's Cameron's most humane film.

This Time...It's War: Cameron Vs Cameron

So, if the thought of James Cameron's upcoming Avatar doesn't get your pulse racing, either your adrenal glands aren't working properly...or you're not a true film fan. The much touted release of 'the movies' mad toymaker' (to quote Time's Richard Corliss) has been an astonishing twelve years in the making, costing somewhere in the region of $300 million. Hopefully it can reward our investment and patience with its much hyped mix of 3D CGI action and real actors.

To sate your appetite in the meantime, here's a little Cameron themed contest. Who will win? Will you start the fans, please! (Sorry, that's The Crystal Maze - now, there's a show dying for a Cameron-themed remake...)

Round One: The Women

Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) Vs Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)

To be fair, all of Cameron's movies feature spunky female characters (something he attributes to his mother) but the remarkable and pleasing thing is how he never labours the fact. In Cameron's world, women are equal to men and that's an end of it, while also harbouring strong maternal bonds (something Neil Marshall's Cameron-riffing The Descent also highlighted). And you don't get more significant than the mother of the saviour of the human race (Sarah Connor) and tough as nails Ellen Ripley, plugging xenomorphs and overcoming the grief of her daughter's death while in hypersleep.



And the winner is...? Ellen Ripley: This may be a wee bit controversial as Cameron didn't create the character but in terms of expanding on the fierce/fragile heroine of the original, adding both nuance and grit, he transforms an iconic character into something arguably more haunting. Weaver's statuesque, commanding authority was never better.



Round Two: The Effects

T-1000 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) Vs The Sinking (Titanic)

One of the true technical pioneers of recent action/sci-fi cinema, Cameron is reported to be ruthlessly exacting in getting what he wants (see the behind the scenes footage of the Aliens shoot for proof). However, the results on-screen are plain to see; it just shows, a lot of hard work goes a long way. Also key to the man's movies is the artistry at work in the effects, blending miniatures, CGI and model-work to seamless effect but always in service of the narrative. The two above examples highlight that beautifully. Are you listening, Michael Bay?

And the winner is...? The T-1000: Titanic may be drawn on a larger scale (astonishingly so) but Robert Patrick's shape-shifting villain giving Arnie a run for his money is still extraordinary after 18 years. For effects to hold up that well after that long, it means they demand special recognition. Truly the only other rival to its 90s SFX crown is Jurassic Park. It's all in the little details: an explosion reflecting off the liquid metal surface; the fluid horror as it morphs into someone you know; a blunt instrument reforming into the shape of a human arm...

Round Three: The Score

Aliens (James Horner) Vs The Abyss (Alan Silvestri)

Forget the sappy melodrama of Titanic; these two soundtracks are where it's at. As tyrannical in the recording studio as he was on-set, Cameron's insistent meddling with James Horner's Oscar nominated Aliens led it to be chopped and changed in the film but it does evoke a brilliantly creepy atmosphere, before exploding in some of the best action work of his career, the London Symphony Orchestra going full bore in cues such as Bishop's Countdown (a trailer favourite). Alan Silvestri reportedly had a less difficult time on The Abyss (if Cameron's glowing album notes are anything to go by), evoking the both the beauty and horror of the undersea fantasy before a magnificent choral climax.

And the winner is...? The Abyss: Not only does Silvestri's score make a bigger impression on the film than Horner's, ranging from the gentle expressionism of The Pseudopod to eerie, watery synths to stupendous choir and orchestra, it's also the highpoint of the composer's career to date. Horner went on to bigger and better things but Silvestri's grasp of disparate musical elements seals The Abyss as his masterpiece.

Round Four: The Wit

You're Fired! (True Lies) Vs Gimme a Cigarette (The Terminator)

Never one to clog up his films with pompousness (OK so the earthy Oirish vs the oily upper class in Titanic comes close), Cameron has always alternated tension with a solid laugh or two, bringing his frequently outlandish concepts down to Earth with a bump. It also engages the audience at heart with the narrative, with the above examples giving reign to either the ridiculous (Arnie rescuing his daughter from Art Malik in True Lies) or the subtle (Paul Winfield's strung out cop drinking fag-strewn coffee in The Terminator).

And the winner is...? You're Fired! No, Alan Sugar's not in a supporting role but the sublimely OTT climax of Cameron's most tongue-in-cheek, humourous film is magnificent in its self-aware stupidity, boasting one of the all-time great baddie dispatches (death by hanging-from-missile). True Lies isn't a complete success but you're compelled to keep watching - and it finally rewards patience with this showdown to top all showdowns.

Round Five: The Set-Pieces

Helicopter Chase (Terminator 2) Vs The Queen (Aliens)

Cameron is a master of the set-piece, staging thrilling extravaganzas of chaos and destruction - see the splitting of the ship in Titanic or the police-station shootout in The Terminator. The above choices are noteworthy in extending narrative tension in wildly opposing ways: T2 all choppers flying under bridges as our heroes try to outrun the T-1000, Aliens, unbearably creepy fear, as the edits build closer and closer to the reveal of 'the Mama', the Alien Queen herself.

And the winner is...? The Queen: It's not viscerally exciting like its T2 rival clip but in terms of generating potent fear laced with uneasy subtext (motherhood; children) and emotional pathos, this is what Cameron's superb sequel to Alien has been building to all along. Be sure to catch the directors cut of Aliens to see the fleshed-out meta-plot in full.

Round Six: The Icons

The Terminator (The Terminator) Vs T-101 (Terminator 2)

Pitting the same characters against one another? Kinda pointless? Ah, well the key lies in the differing audience perceptions of Arnie's status. After all, The Terminator was what established him as the beefcake 80s megastar, whereas T2 both turned the character on its head and humanised it though the T-101's paternal relationship with young John Connor. The sight of Arnie in leathers wielding a shotgun ceased to be scary. Instead, it was damn cool

And the winner is...? The Terminator: But the winner is the one that started it all for Ahnuld, the gritty, 'tech-noir' sci-fi thriller from 1984. Without The Terminator we'd have no Predator; no Total Recall; heck, no Jingle All the Way (OK that's garbage but still)

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So where will Avatar rank in terms of music, set-pieces, performances? Only a week till we find out!