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Michael Caine is one hell of an actor, not least for his longevity. He's Connery's vintage, but still in the blockbusters.

I'd recommend The Ipcress File and Alfie next, they are his 60s cornerstone films.

That said, he did some real dross. Stuff like The Wrong Box and Gambit, though he looks good. In the 1970s he drew scorn for critics for just taking the money on stuff, but as The Italian Job and maybe even Get Carter didn't get the box office or plaudits they deserved, who can blame him?

Oh alright Gambit isn't that bad but it's a glossy heist vehicle to show off the new British star. Nothing wrong with that I suppose. The really dodgy one is the Bryan Forbes film with the John Barry score. Nice to look at, again, but it doesn't quite work. Can't remember its name and I hate nipping out of Comments pages to visit imdb..

Thank you for the suggestions. I have already watched The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin (which I did not care for, FiB I mean) I have also seen Gambit and enjoyed that too. I have ZULU on DVD and intend to watch that soon.

As for The Forth Protocol I have watched that. C&D as I said elsewhere, just because I think Pierce Brosnan is (for me) the worst Bond, it is nothing to do with him or his other acting. I enjoyed him in that role as the Russian agent.

I think it's well known that Caine himself said he did many films just for the big pay cheque. As he came
from a very poor background and didn't know when his success would end.

PLEASE DO NOT MENTION PIERCE BROSNAN TO ME AGAIN!!!!!!!!!        

speaking of Michael Caine, I just watched DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS again last night.  Considering what's going on in my country right now, I needed some humor.

Pretty much a perfect comedy.  Caine and Steve Martin are pretty wonderful together, and the film itself is well paced with 95% of the jokes landing with perfect efficiency.  Just a very fun movie.

for my money, Steve Martin has two perfect comedies: DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS and BOWFINGER.  He has other good ones but those two are virtually flawless.

TEA WITH MUSSOLINI

This isn't a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it passes pleasantly a couple of hours and took my mind off the world outside my window. Franco Zeffirelli directs a movie loosely based on his own wartime experiences in Italy. A band of English and American women refuse to leave Florence when war breaks out in 1939 and end up prisoners of the Fascists, but in a rather different manner than their captors expected. Lovely scenery among the Tuscan hill towns. Willing performances from a stellar cast. Judi Dench is a bit OTT, Cher rather good but underused, Joan Plowright excellent. Maggie Smith gives an interesting turn as Lady Hestor, an ex-ambassador's wife deluded into believing Mussolini was a benign dictator; this neatly plays against her Oscar winning role as Jean Brodie, who of course was a proto-fascist in all but name. Beautiful photography. The amusing script could have been a bit more involved; it's very condensed and the characters are sketched instead of moulded. Enjoyed it though.

I'd put THE JERK, THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS, ALL OF ME, and ROXANNE in the grouping right below BOWFINGER and DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS.  All are great, but I think BF and DRS are close to perfect.

Jack Reacher

I'd seen the dodgy sequel to this but the original was never shown on telly until recently, I've no idea how the scheduling of films comes about. Anyway, this co-stars Bond star Rosaumund Pike putting in a decent performance, she's a proper grown up in this. Not really quite the totty by now (God I'm showing my age now myself) and she seemed younger in Gone Girl which came later, right? But this is more a grown-up movie, it's old school, no CGI.
The film was overshadowed by the whole 'Cruise ain't tall enough to be Reacher' along with Cruise bashing at the time but forgetting that it works and tbf the whole thing of him blending in and disappearing makes more sense than if he were 6ft 4. I found him convincing in the fight scenes albeit up against lacklustre hoodlums.
Some daft snags occur only later in the film, it had a damn good run until then. The plot is a good one, and it throws you early on with some unexpected stuff.
Cruise is the cliche role of the super detective like Sherlock who has command and knows his stuff, he is way ahead of everyone. This is always enjoyable to watch. It's almost Bond like but these days there has to be a downside, and Reacher is a loner like The Hitcher or The Fugitive, that's his thing and he doesn't get to settle. Really that's a bit like many an Army Vet who actually is traumatised and can't quite settle, always avoiding themselves, but Cruise sells it as a virtue of sorts.
It's implied his sex comes from prostitutes however which is a bit of a downer.

Agree with the Nap and Gymkata, I really enjoyed the first Jack Reacher without ever warming to the character. I too saw the second film first and thought it was terrible. Very violent and uninteresting, no character development at all. The debut has thoughtful plotting. The end was a trifle naff, with the old timer half blind vet giving Reacher a helping hand,but generally this one was a good crack. Cruise was rather good, I thought.

Here's another second film that fell foul of everyone.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

It's crap, isn't it.

It starts as it means to go on... spectacular opening in a Shanghai nightclub, but all the protagonists are unlikeable and behave badly. Indiana uses the singing star as bait against the gangsters, holding a knife to her. Said singing star only caring about the diamond. Gangsters horrible too but that's okay. No chemistry between Ford and Capshaw, perhaps because the latter was servicing the director. Nobody has any charm or charisma.