Entry Two.

Forbidden Kingdom: Jackie Chan and Jet Li's first onscreen collaboration is a bit of a waste of both their talents, showcasing only a small amount of what they can do and doling out the rest of the action to undercooked peripheral characters. It's not a bad film in its own right, though, with a couple of set-pieces doing justice to the two legends - the fight between the two of them is short but memorable - and a young lead that isn't too annoying. It's a minor film, but a decent time waster.

The Man Who Laughs: Lavish adaptation of Victor Hugo's tragedy, with an impressive Conrad Veidt playing the man whose features have been mutilated into a rictus smile. He plies his trade as a clown, who though in love with a blind girl, is afraid to commit to her as he believes her blindness stops her from seeing his true self. Veidt wore a wire prosthetic that forced his mouth into a smile (the inspiration for DC Comics' Joker), but the rest of his face reveals the true sorrow within. It's a beautifully made film, and the lack of dialogue strangely works.

Masada: Originally screened as a 6 hour mini-series, this historical epic was edited to two hours and released theatrically (and was subsequently the lowest grossing movie of 1981 in the UK). The plot centres around the siege of the titular Masada fortress by a Roman Legion and defended by rebel Jews. Being edited into a third of its original screen time causes no end of problems, with aborted character arcs (and characters who just appear and disappear with no explanation) and a general inconsistency of pace, but it also betrays its TV roots with its lack of budget: the mentions of thousands of troops and slaves that never appear onscreen don't help, but it's bolstered by a haunted performance from Peter O'Toole and a satisfyingly anti-climactic ending.

Tommy: A collaboration between The Who and Ken Russell was never going to the most subtle of movies, but this one has to be seen to be believed. Tommy (Roger Daltry) is a deaf, dumb, and blind boy who lives with his mother (Ann-Margret) and conniving step-father (Oliver Reed) who discovers he has the ability to play pinball better than anyone else in the world, after being cured, Tommy starts up a religion based on freedom of thought and expression based around playing pinball(!) , though his step-father ruins everything by charging everyone extortionate prices for merchandise. The plot really isn't important, as most of the enjoyment comes from individual scenes and images - Tina Turner's 'Acid Queen' is perhaps the highlight - and from the soundtrack itself. It won't be for everyone, but if you like your films weird and wonderful, this one's for you.

Reform School Girls: Though it may sound like a bad porno film from the 80's, it is in fact, only a bad film from the 80s. The plot's in the title: some girls get sent to Reform School and are beaten and abused by the senior matron and her inmate lackeys. It's so resoundingly awful, that it actually slips into so-bad-its-good territory, with some quite unbelievably stupid moments, casting the 36 year-old Wendy Williams as a teenager is one, the silly over-the-top ending is another, but mostly the bad outweighs the good. It's something we've seen a hundred times before and in much better variations.