Film4

The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw

This is the first ever western shot in Spain, its standing set later used for Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy. The title role in this super spoof is played by British actor Kenneth More at his most diffident, and the director is the great Raoul Walsh, who films in the grand tradition of the genre. Fifties sex symbol Jayne Mansfield provides the love interest and there's a touching musical interlude in which she croons In the Valley of Love, dubbed by Connie Francis. The film's soundtrack is especially witty - check out that primitive car in Robert Morley's garage - and there's the added value of an entertaining Anglo-American supporting cast. Did you know that, with his roles in this film, Ramsbottom Rides Again and Carry On Cowboy, Sidney James appeared in all three British westerns?

The Man Who Knew Too Little

As the parodic Hitchcock title suggests, this sweet-natured Bill Murray comedy is an entertaining throwback to the espionage thrillers of yesteryear. Murray plays a naive, slow-witted videostore clerk, who unwittingly becomes entangled in an assassination plot while visiting his brother (Peter Gallagher) in London, the inspired twist being that Murray thinks it's all part of a participatory drama group known as the "Theatre of Life". It's enjoyable to see the normally vitriolic comedian as an Inspector Clouseau-esque bumbling dimwit, even if the one-joke premise does eventually start to lose its lustre. There's great British comic support, too, from Alfred Molina as a Russian hitman and Richard Wilson as a corrupt government agent.

Blade II

Mexican genre maestro Guillermo del Toro (Cronos, Mimic) took over the directing duties for this episode in the Daywalker chronicles, based on the character from cult Marvel comic Tomb of Dracula. Pitching the moody half-vampire/half-human Blade (Wesley Snipes) as a sort of nocturnal James Bond with gadgets and gimmicks galore, the film's unrelenting action kicks in within seconds and never flags. This time Blade reluctantly joins forces with vampire overlord Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann) to wipe out the Reapers - a new breed of super-vampire unaffected by most traditional methods of eradication - who are cutting a swathe through both the human and undead communities in Prague. It's a fabulous-looking package, elegantly orchestrated by del Toro, who has an unerring eye for undead iconography, which he takes to visually imaginative extremes. While it has zero character substance and isn't remotely scary, Blade II at least unapologetically delivers the requisite amount of attitude, splatter and grisly shock-horror.