Arsène Lupin (2004)

As a kid, I was riveted by Maurice LeBlanc's stories of Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief who always wins, part The Scarlet Pimpernel, part Sherlock Holmes, and this movie adaptation - not of one book but a mash-up of many - gets everything right: the look of the debonair hero played by Romain Duris, the glamour of La Belle Époque, the enormously fun exploits, the derring-do, the twists and turns of inexplicable mystery, and although I don't remember his family life being quite so complex, that worked for me as well.

★★★★☆

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In The House (2012)

A French literature teacher enters into the thrall of a talented writer when a student starts submitting for correction excerpts of a work-in-progress, but his story is sinister, the student's motivation in telling the story is mysterious, and pretty soon author, reader, characters and story are all vying for creative control in François Ozon's initially intriguing drama that quickly becomes laboured as characters start behaving in farcical, theatrical rather than sinister Hitchcockian ways.

★★☆☆☆

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Tell No One (Ne Le Dis A Personne) (2006)

This Harlan Coben adaptation is like a gritty French The Fugitive but a great deal more complex because the doctor whose wife is murdered only goes on the run eight years later when two further bodies turn up at the scene of her disappearance, casting doubt on the theory that his wife was the victim of a serial killer.

★★★☆☆

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Love Crime (Crime d'amour) (2010)

It is hastily acted as though there wasn't time or concern for anything other than a first take, and it is as sparse as a Simenon novel without a frame or word of dialogue wasted, making this French thriller about corporate rivals and murder an uninvolving but nonetheless intriguing slip of a story.

★★★☆☆

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Random Hearts (1999)

Random Hearts tells the incredibly boring story of two complete strangers, played by Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas, whose worlds collide when their respective partners die in a plane crash together and it is revealed they'd been having an affair.

☆☆☆☆☆

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Mission: Impossible (1996)

Heralding a Hollywood trend that continues today (that of television series being reinvented as mega movies) Brian de Palma's Mission: Impossible made a big impact with its big name stars - Tom Cruise, Kirstin Scott Thomas, Jon Voight - and with its tv-style credit opening, with its thrilling plot and set pieces on a scale far bigger than its tv namesake, and it paved the way for three lesser sequels and a slew of similarly big budget 80s-tv inspired blockbusters (Charlies Angels, A Team, Lost In Space, Miami Vice...)

★★★★☆

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