There Will Be Blood (2007) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson's multi-award winning colonial epic is a mixed affair.
The plot: Daniel Day-Lewis, turning in the performance of a lifetime - quite a feat in a career already littered with more 'powerhouse' turns than you can swing an OSCAR at - plays Daniel Plainview, a prospector on the hunt for oil. On a visit with his adopted son to a small town, he learns that a local man believes that there is oil on his property. With difficulty, he convinces the man to give him the rights, and it's not long before the full might of his corporate machinery is in full swing.
But all will not be as easy as he hopes.
Conflict with his adopted son, a run in with the local evangelic nutter and industrial accidents all stand between him and his lucrative find.
Stunning acting and direction should render this a towering epic, to rival even Anderson's own Magnolia in terms of scope and power, but somehow the over-emoting and all too apparent 'award-hunting' get in the way.
Complex it is, but it is also a little too soap opera at times and, frankly, these moments bored me.
Of course, the standout here is Day-Lewis, whose bizarre interpretation of the lead character is both bewitching and irritating. Let's be honest: No-one has ever spoken this way, and no-one has ever had these mannerisms or affectations, but that does not mean it is not engaging and, as a result, it makes for compulsive viewing.
Not the work of genius others would try to persuade you it is, this is actually a touch disappointing from the usually magnificent PTA.

An American Werewolf in London (1981) Dir: John Landis

There are certain moments in life that define an individual; the goal scored to secure your school county champions, that first kiss with the semi-Down Syndrome new girl underneath the tunnel on the way to the chip shop, a bit proud, a bit afraid lest your fellow teachers find out, the first time you realise your genitalia is capable of producing more than that insignificant bead of excitement...
So it was for me with An American Werewolf in London, my first true horror movie experience and one that sent chills down the spine. I recall the fear, recall the absolute dread as the attack took place on the Yorkshire Moors, geographically less than twenty miles away from my very own bedroom at the time, yet loving every minute even though I was obliged to go to bed lest I piss my pants when David's friend Jack appeared, all rotting skin and bloody lacerations.
As horror comedies go, this is the cream of the crop: funny, sick, genre bending and sexy, it really is hard to beat.
Just in case, here's the plot: Two adventurous, young, spunky American sorts are on a hiking holiday through the Yorkshire Moors (God alone knows why) and venture into The Slaughtered Lamb, a pub about as welcoming as the security guards at LAX. They are sent on their way, with mysterious warnings about watching out for the moon and staying on the road when, in the death of night, they hear howling and realise they have drifted far from the road and, horror of horror's, the moon is full. Well, not long until they are attacked, Jack killed outright, David surviving though at a price: he will become a werewolf when next the moon is full.
Wilfully playing with the audience, director Landis clearly a fan of the genre though not afraid to meddle, this is riotously good fun.
With the added bonus of the delicious Jenny Agutter, a storming soundtrack and Oscar winning special effects that stand up even to this day, this is about as good as horror gets.
Simply marvellous.