MikePadgett.com

• Director: Harold Becker
• United States, 1989
• 

There are similarities between Sea of Love and Adrian Lyne’s marginally superior Fatal Attraction, in that both feature uniquely edgy female leads and leading men who lack self-control at crucial moments. In both movies, that lack of self-control is vital to the plot, yet only Pacino in Sea of Love is able to turn it into a character asset.

Pacino’s haggard detective has given twenty years’ service, his domestic stability and his sobriety to the police force when he falls for a murder suspect. The movie then plays out a pretty straightforward “is-she-isn’t-she” storyline with a side order of buddy cop congeniality provided by the ever-reliable John Goodman.

Whilst Ellen Barkin’s Helen cannot compete with the unnerving excellence of Glenn Close’s bunny boiler Alex Forrest - a true movie original - she does bring a streetwise roughness to the relationship which rubs up well against the detective’s barely hidden vulnerability.

• Director: Spike Lee
• United States, 2006
• 

Spike Lee’s bank heist movie feels like it’s been buffed to a high shine. There’s absolutely no dirt on Inside Man: the characters are impeccably attired and sharp as glass, whilst the cool marble halls of the bank - in which most of the action takes place - are a far cry from the grimy heat of Dog Day Afternoon (which actually gets a mention in the script).

Inside Man is intelligent, stylish, literate, even occasionally witty. But it’s disappointing to find that your engagement with the movie is limited to the appreciation of its cleverness.

Ultimately then, this movie is a limo kitted out with one-way glass. You’ll admire it from a distance as it passes by, but there’s no way you’ll be invited to take a ride in it.

• Director: Martin Scorsese
• United States, 2002
• 

Gangs Of New York follows the fortunes of Amsterdam Vallon, orphaned as a young boy by the mercurial leader of a rival gang in 19th century lower Manhattan.

The film marks the return of Leonardo DiCaprio who had given a string of pin-up roles the slip and DiCaprio’s protagonist Amsterdam Vallon is backed by a fine cast of Irish players.

Daniel Day-Lewis was persuaded by Martin Scorsese to quit his apprenticeship as a Florentine cobbler - a job he’d been doing since his self-imposed retirement from acting five years previous - and join the cast of Gangs. His picaresque performance as the formidable object of Vallon’s vengeance dominates Scorsese’s most successful period drama to date.