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If you were to pick a quintessential 1980s movie, Tony Scott's 'Top Gun' would come pretty high up the list. Scott's movie was big.  It was gung ho.  It had Tom Cruise, the hottest young star in Hollywood. The film was pretty much emblematic of Reagan's America. It was also the product of a country that was pretty assured about its place in the world in spite of Vietnam. It's taken 36 years for a 'Top Gun' sequel to materialise but in the intervening years the United States has become more insecure. After the polarised politics of the Clinton, Bush and Obama era, the wrecking ball years of the Trump Presidency and the mess that Joe Biden has inherited, the country hasn't seemed this ill at ease since Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. A nation divided has seen stock tumble internationally. Old Cold War certainties have gone. America's international rivals are wide and varied including Russia and China, while Islamic fundamentalist terror gr

When Ray Liotta's mentioned, the chances are that the first film that comes to mind is his electric lead performance in 'GoodFellas'. Bizarrely, Liotta never received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his charismatic turn as the Mafia hood Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's classic gangster film - even though he more than held his own alongside Robert de Niro and Joe Pesci. But then again, he didn't land a BAFTA or a Golden Globe nomination either. In many ways that summed up Liotta's career. While he certainly had more than his fair share of box office and critical duds during his career, he was also an inveterate scene stealer in his strongest films whose greatest performances didn't get the accolades they deserved. Take one look at his glorious screen career which included Jonathan Demme's 'Something Wild,' Phil Alden Robinson's 'Field of Dreams,' James Mangold's 'Copland' and Simon J Smith and Steve Hickner's animated

In the non stop parade of ITV thrillers, it takes something extra special to stand out from the pack. 'DI Ray' almost achieves that. Written and created by ' Line of Duty ' actress and occasional screenwriter Maya Sondhi, it is a tale about a detective of South Asian heritage making her way up the ranks of the police in Birmingham  It follows many familiar police procedural tropes but poses timely questions about institutional racism. Parminder Nagra of 'ER' and 'Bend It Like Beckham' fame is DI Rachita Ray, an officer commended for her bravery when encountering a distressed man wielding a knife after he stabs a police officer. The series gets off to a rip-roaring start chronicling the knife incident but it also crucially begins with DI Ray purchasing wine in a Birmingham supermarket and being asked by another customer, an elderly man, where he can find some goods because he assumes as an Asian she works there. Almost being runover on leaving the superma

There are some movie concepts that just make me groan. Action stars fronting comedies where they have to look after toddlers are very much in that bracket. Comedies or dramas featuring animals, usually dogs, as the narrator are another one. Pretty much at the top, though, are comedies where adult characters are forced to go back to high school. Think of Rodney Dangerfield in the imaginatively titled 'Back to School' - actually try not to. Or Adam Sandler mugging his way through 'Billy Madison'. Now you can add Rebel Wilson to the list. 'Senior Year' on Netflix finds the Australian's 37 year old Stephanie Conway going back to school after spending 20 years in a coma. Directed by Alex Hardcastle, the younger version of Stephanie, played by fellow Australian Angourie Rice, is an immigrant from Down Under who sets about becoming the most popular student at high school after being humiliated on her 14th birthday at a bowling alley because her friends are too nerd