A Clockwork Orange (1971) Director: Stanley Kubrick Starring: Malcolm McDowel, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess' 1962 novel was a film so incendiary, the thought, that he withdrew it from release in the UK and it went unseen here for an astonishing 27 years. It was only after the director's death in the Spring of 1999, that the iconic images of Malcolm McDowell's exposed eyeballs returned to our screens, alongside the coldly disturbing scenes of rape and beating that pepper the movie's ultraviolent landscape of rampaging thugs, stark, social conditioning and giant penis sculptures. All made somewhat the worse by Kubrick missing out Burgess' redemptive epilogue…
Hard Boiled (1992) Director: John Woo Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung, Teresa Mo, Anthony Wong
John Woo's action-packed thriller retains some of the themes that give his best films soul - redemption through violence, brotherhood, honour among thieves - but really, they're just window dressing for scenes of spectacular gunplay and violence that boggle the mind. From an opening tea-house massacre to the final 40-minute blast-a-thon in a hospital, Woo unleashes more heavy firepower, squibs and explosions than you would find in your average war scene, co-ordinating it all with the timing of a magician, aided by action stars (lChow Yun-fat and Tony Leung,) action stars who can not only act, but who make American action heroes look like girlymen.
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