Blu-ray

Since time immemorial (well, 1975) Hollywood has been obsessed with making movies about people being eaten by sharks. The past decade, in particular, has seen the predatory piscine sub-genre go into overdrive, thanks largely to the availability of low-cost digital effects. But in a world of gimmicky fish flicks like Shark in Venice and Ghost Shark, slick survival movie The Shallows is a breath of salty air.

1958's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad finds the legendary adventurer (Kerwin Matthews) planning to settle down and marry Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant). Luckily for us things don't go to plan and a scheming magician (Torin Thatcher) shrinks Parisa down to the size of a Barbie doll, forcing Sinbad to set sail in search of a cure.

The Social Network might seem to be a film about the creation of Facebook, but once past the surface it’s so much more than that. Director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin have used Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires as the springboard for a rich and rewarding intellectual property battle-cum-morality play, albeit one that is almost indecently smart and quite probably plays a little fast and loose with the facts. While Fincher’s direction is as assured and fastidious as ever, it’s Sorkin’s script that is the real star this time around. Loaded with genuine wit and wisdom, it transforms what could be a dry and technical history lesson into one of the most engrossing and invigorating Hollywood films in ages.

What should have been a joyous event celebrating the engagement of Dr. Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) and Miss Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro) is transformed into a deadly orgy of sex and violence when a depraved maniac starts assaulting the guests.

While many prefer the spectacle delivered by T2 or Avatar, here at HCC we hold fast in our belief that James Cameron's 1984 hit remains his greatest film.

If Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a response to the concerns about American identity following Watergate and Vietnam, his 1986 sequel is imbued with the notion of excess that defined the decade in which it was made. The big budget Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is bigger (if actually not better) than the original in every imaginable way. It's got more action, (much) more gore and more gags. A deliriously sick and funny film that has actually improved with age, with Dennis Hopper brilliant as the vengeful lawman hunting Leatherface et al.

Let’s get this out of the way up front – John Carpenter’s The Thing ranks alongside Singin’ in the Rain and Casablanca as one of my all-time favourite movies. That said, while I wasn’t exactly delighted at the prospect of this prequel/remake (premake?), the fact that Carpenter’s film was itself an update of the 1951 sci-fi The Thing from Another World meant that I would have been a hypocrite to be opposed to the concept on principle alone. I was happy to approach the film with an open mind. Not that it helped in any way…