Ben Affleck doesn't need us. He's got a directorial career of three strong movies from three outings. He has a movie star spouse. He has two Oscars, one for both his downstairs and upstairs toilet, and he gets to tell his kids that he's Batman without having to lie. Furthermore, it's scary to think how good the boxset of his directorial work is going to be in 30 years' time.

But the resurgence of the Affleck, culminating in his Best Picture winning movie Argo, and his casting as Batman in Batmand some really good performances. Whilst most of the press he's endured this week has been people on the internet telling him he's spoiled a movie that won't come out for two years, his body of work serves him better than he's often given credit for.

Now okay, we're not taking a bullet for Gigli here. Likewise, Bounce - whilst a little bit different in its concept - wasn't something we'd joyfully sit through again. But the films that we're about to talk about? Every one of them is worth your time. So let's count them down...

7. Smokin' Aces

There's no such thing as a bad Joe Carnahan movie, and Smokin' Aces - while not the man's best - is not an exception to that rule. It's all a bit bananas this one, as Carnahan - who wrote the script as well - throws a bunch of hitmen against each other and basically sees who wins.

There's a fun cast here, too. Aside from Affleck himself, there's Ray Liotta, Ryan Reynolds, Jeremy Piven, Andy Garcia and Peter Berg on the call sheet (as well as a young Chris Pine). There's a reasonable amount of exposition you need to digest, and things are put into place early on that it really helps to pay attention to. Carnahan then puts his foot to the floor, unleashing a carnival of entertainment that rewards more than one viewing.

It'd be fair to acknowledge that Smokin' Aces is as divisive as any movie on this list. Some lost it altogether, others just report they think it's all a bit of a mess. But there's a more convincing argument, for us anything, that the whole thing is damn good - if confusing - fun. Worth watching at least once, probably twice.

6. Jersey Girl

Let's deal with the one that the law seems to say you have to hate. Jersey Girl struggled at the box office, not aided by following Gigli on the Affleck slate. It's also Kevin Smith taking a slightly different path than he had been doing with his View Askew movies. And, for my money, it's a charming, sold piece of work, with plenty to like about it.

Affleck here plays Ollie, a man who's life has dealt him some unpleasant cards, who's left in custody of his young daughter. It's a dark character he plays here, as Ollie tries to put his life back together. The key moment is when he meets Liv Tyler's Maya, but to gel with her he's got to get over all that's gone before. And as Jersey Girl progresses, it's clear that's no easy task.

It's a bit bumpy in places this one, and inevitably its tone is a little uneven. But I'd argue that the latter is part of the point: this is far from a cut and dried romcom, and Affleck is a good choice to lead it. Appreciating some people didn't like it, you can't shake the sense that some reacted to the circumstances it was released in rather than the final movie itself. Because if you pick it up and watch it on a quiet night in, Jersey Girl is a rewarding little movie.

5. Extract

Mike Judge's live action films have a habit of not finding the audience they deserve until several years after their original cinematic release. The most recent case in point: Extract. This one's set in an extraction plant owned and run by Jason Bateman's Joel. Joel's life isn't going too well though. He fears his wife is being unfaithful, and an accident at the plant leaves a worker injured. This in turn leaves the whole business potentially under threat.

Panic not, though, as this isn't a deep drama about a man falling into despair over it all. There's comedy ingrained throughout, and as with all of Judge's films, he's got some things to say bubbling away under the surface as well.

Where does Affleck fit it? He's got a cameo in this one as Joel's friend, Dean. He's the kind of friend that doesn't give particularly helpful life advice, and whilst he's not on screen for long, it's another wise choice from Affleck to take the role in the first place.

Extract isn't up to the level of Office Space and Idiocracy, but it's still a good, ambitious overlooked comedy. With added Affleckness.

4. Hollywoodland

If you're looking for the movie that marked a turnaround in the press that Affleck was receiving in the early to mid-2000s, that this was the one. There was Oscar talk at one stage when Hollywoodland came out, for Affleck's supporting role as George Reeves, the man who played Superman on the small screen. The movie itself is a look at the circumstances surrounding Reeves' death, and whilst the movie is not a factual recreation (lots of liberties are taken to help shape the story), Affleck captures Reeves really very well. It's unsurprising that there was awards chatter. Bob Hoskins and Diane Lane are excellent, too.

Hollywoodland's best filed under good but not great, if we're being picky. The period recreation and the interplay between the characters work a little better than the actual narrative itself. But it's still a really interesting project, that had to go through quite a legal journey just to get near the screen in the first place. Recommended, definitely.

3. Changing Lanes

Director Roger Michell went from the huge global hit Notting Hill to this challenging mix of drama and thriller, that throws Samuel L Jackson and Affleck together, almost literally, as the pair are involved in a car accident. Affleck here is the be-suited rich man, an attorney by the name of Gavin Banek, who's desperately racing against the clock to get to a crucial business appointment. Jackson plays an insurance salesman, who's also in a mad hurry, this time to get to court to try and stop his wife taking his children from him.

This sets the scene for a complication between the two characters, not least when one suddenly needs the other. But what makes the movie interesting is that by turns it makes both men dislikeable in different ways. You'd expect a movie of this ilk to paint the businessman as bad, the family man as good, but Changing Lanes finds both of them willing to show their darker side to the other.

It makes for a fascinating clash, one that tames by the very end, but is compelling, particularly in the second act. And do you know what? Affleck is really good here, holding his own against Jackson, with the pair of them together really helping the piece come to life.

2. Boiler Room

Ben Affleck works well in ensemble casts - just look at the excellent School Ties, which we've left off this list as a) he's not a big part of it and b) we've already talked about it recently on the site.

Boiler Room, then, sees him lining up alongside Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi and Tom Everett Scott. It's a mix of drama and thriller, framed through the eyes of Ribisi's 19-year old who is recruited by his friend to a brokerage firm.

Affleck is one of the co-founders of said firm, which promises riches and success to those who work for it. So it turns out, but soon the reasons for this begin to become apparent, and here Boiler Room switches from the camaraderie of ensemble drama into something darker and far less predictable.

It's surprising that Boiler Room didn't resonate more than it did, and in the light of financial meltdowns to come, there's an argument that it was a bit ahead of its time. Furthermore, its ending doesn't really do it too many favours.

That notwithstanding though, Boiler Room is really good, and once again demonstrated Affleck's eye for an interesting script. The screenplay in question came from the pen/posh computer keyboard of Ben Younger. He also directed the movie, and would go on to make 2005's Prime. Boiler Room remains the one to dig out so far.

1. The Sum Of All Fears

It seems a little crass, given that we've focused on some interesting indie and smaller dramas thus far, to top the list with a big, successful blockbuster. But have you seen it? There's never, in our view, been a bad Jack Ryan movie, and we'd bore you to death in a bar for hours on the majesty of Clear And Present Danger. But The Sum Of All Fears is a genuinely terrific thriller, with a solid performance from Affleck at the heart of it.

It arrived, though, just as Affleck's career was going through its rocky period. His personal life was making headlines, Gigli was happening, and for reasons other than the movie and its eventual box office performance, Ben Affleck never got to be Jack Ryan again. And that's a pity.

As with all of the big screen Jack Ryan movies, The Sum Of All Fears is expertly cast. The gravitas role here is taken by Morgan Freeman, who mixes wit with weight. James Cromwell and Philip Baker Hall add further gravity. And, as we charted here, there's a brilliantly-distracting appearance from 'Allo 'Allo's Colonel, Richard Marner, as the President of the Russian Federation.

The star of the show here though is Phil Alden Robinson. He doesn't direct many films - he's made four in total. In The Mood, back in 1987, was the first. The all-time classic Field Of Dreams was the second. The fresh as a daisy techno caper thriller Sneakers, which we looked at in more depth here, was the third.

And then there was The Sum Of All Fears, which has moments in it that are staggeringly bold for a blockbuster movie. No spoilers here, save to say that just when you think you might have second-guessed the movie, you really find that you haven't.

It's an excellent thriller, this, and Affleck is an important part of it. Certainly the upcoming next reboot, starring Chris Pine, is going to have to go some way to top it.

What we didn't include:

State Of Play (lots of praise for that one already), Daredevil: Director's Cut (we talked about that here), Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season!), 200 Cigarettes (which isn't bad), the big hits, the acclaimed Kevin Smith movies and Forces Of Nature (although we have a very slight soft spot for that one).

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You rarely see real-life airline companies in movies, and for good reason - planes in the movies are always being overrun by snakes, art thieves, the undead, and that actor who plays Hercule Poirot.

movie airline companies are so unlucky, in fact, that even the best efforts of Hollywood's finest actors, heart-throbs and action heroes - from Brad Pitt to Bruce Willis, and Jack Lemmon to Mark Hamill - can't stop their planes from dropping out of the sky or getting into some kind of mishap or other.

To this end, here's a far-from-exhaustive look at what we think are the 10 unluckiest airlines in movie theater...

Stevens Corporation

As seen in: Airport 77 (1977)

You'd be forgiven for thinking that a company with just one passenger jet to its name would be able to keep the thing in the air, but the Stevens Corporation, which some reason uses its sole plane as a home for its priceless art collection, hadn't reckoned on the antics of a group of daring thieves. 

One bungled mid-air heist later, and the Boeing 747 has crashed into the ocean and sunk to the bottom with its all-star cast still on board. The moral of this story is, surely, that valuable works of art shouldn't be kept on aeroplanes. The stuff might give the passengers something to look at, but it attracts thieves and makes the plane too heavy to float.

In 1978, the Stevens Corporation saw sense and purchased a luxury cruise ship instead, which now houses a handsome collection of art and regular cabaret performances from Cleo Laine and Liza Minnelli.

Trans American Airlines

As seen in: Airplane! (1980)

Remarkably, Trans American Airlines isn't the worst company on this list, but it's probably one of the clumsiest. Not only do they serve terrible meals (avoid the fish supper option, that's our advice), but their in-flight entertainment's horrendous, too.

And even if you don't happen to be flying with TAA, don't think that you're safe while relaxing in the departure lounge, either. 

Probably best to wait in the car park.

Windsor Airlines

As seen in: Die Hard 2 (1990)

"I've got 230 people flying up here on gasoline fumes!"

You have to feel sorry for Colm Meaney's British pilot in Die Hard 2. Tricked by William Sadler's villain into thinking the runway's a good few feet further below his plane than it actually is, he prepares to make a blind landing at a snowbound Dulles Airport.

Macho cop John McClane does his best to avert disaster by waving a couple of burning twigs in the air, but it's too late. No sooner has an air hostess reassured an elderly passenger with a breezy, "We're like British Rail, love - we may be late, but we get you there", than the Windsor Airlines plane has crashed into the runway, killing everyone on board.

Plummy British accents aside, it's a disquietingly horrible moment in Renny Harlin's 1990 sequel, particularly if you're a viewer in the UK - to this day, we refuse to fly to Dulles airport. In memory of the passengers who lost their lives on the Windsor Airlines flight, commemorative T-shirts are now available.

As for Windsor Airlines, they were privatised in the early 90s, resulting in several smaller British airlines, higher ticket prices, and an at-seat trolley service selling hot drinks and light refreshments.

Atlantic International Airlines

As seen in: Passenger 57 (1992)

When the FBI finally catches up with "the world's most dangerous hijacker" Charles Rane (played by Bruce Payne), what do they do with him? Sit him on an ordinary passenger jet (belonging to Atlantic International Airlines) in the hope of flying him to a court in Los Angeles. And did they clap him irons and keep him in the hold with the luggage? No, they put him in what appears to be business class, where he enjoys a "bloody" sirloin steak before he makes a break for freedom and takes over the jet.

Thankfully, one of the passengers happens to be ex-cop John Cutter (Wesley Snipes) who responds to the threat by side-kicking Rane and everyone he's associated with in the sternum. Unfortunately for Atlantic International Airlines, the damage to its reputation had already been done. A court hearing failed to get to the bottom of how all those guns got past security, and the company folded in 1993.

Oceanic Airlines

As seen in: Executive Decision (1996)

Arguably the most unlucky fictional airline company in the world, Oceanic first leapt to prominence in 1996's Executive Decision, when Flight 343 was hijacked by a group of terrorists led by David Suchet. The situation was saved thanks to a dangerous operation which involved sneaking a group of specialists on board with the use of a stealth bomber. Steven Seagal was shockingly killed in the early stages of the mission, but Kurt Russell manages to disarm a bomb, get rid of the terrorists and land the stricken plane.

Remarkably, Oceanic Airlines survived the negative publicity surrounding the Executive Decision incident, and its name has turned up repeatedly in movie and television since 1996 - most infamously in Lost, when the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 resulted in the deaths of several passengers and the confusion of millions of unsuspecting viewers.  

Volée Airlines

As seen in: Final Destination (2000)

Volee Airlines Flight 180 from New York to France exploded in mid-air following an engine failure in the 2000 horror movie, Final Destination. Thanks to a mysterious premonition, American teenager Alex (Devon Sawa) managed to save himself and his friends by stepping off the plane before take-off - the rest of the passengers were less fortunate.

When the passengers who failed to board the ill-fated flight later died in unrelated freak accidents, Volée Airlines released a statement in 2001 stating that horrible and unexpected deaths were statistically rare among their customers. In a bid to drum up business, passengers were also given vouchers entitling them to a free in-flight chicken dinner and a single cup of house white wine.

Fresh Airways

As seen in: Red Eye (2005)

In Wes Craven's 2005 suspense thriller, Rachel McAdams' hotel manager is quietly threatened by pal Fresh Airways passenger Jack Ripner (Cillian Murphy) into assisting him in a plot to kill a high-ranking US politician. Although the stewards and stewardesses aboard the flight were utterly oblivious to what was going on, the heroine managed to escape Ripner's clutches and thwart his terrorist plot.

In the wake of the incident, Fresh Airways has promised to improve its security by bringing in a new form of eye scanning technology. Basically, if a passenger's eyes look as cold and unblinking as Cillian Murphy's, they're immediately refused a seat on the plane.

South Pacific Airlines

As seen in: Snakes On A Plane (2006)

The real South Pacific Airlines was defunct by the mid 1960s, which could be why the security in Snakes On A Plane was so lax - how else do you explain the ease with which crime boss Eddie Kim manages to sneak a crate full of snakes on a Boeing 747? Kim hopes that the snakes will cause the plane to crash, thus preventing key prosecution witness John Sanders from testifying in a Los Angeles court.

Fortunately, FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L Jackson) keeps his cool when a varied collection of vipers starts biting the passengers in the middle of a flight to Los Angeles. Using his superior skills of shooting and shouting, Flynn successfully ejects the snakes from the plane and saves the day, though the plane's almost totally wrecked in the process.

In a statement posted shortly after the incident, South Pacific Airlines said that, in the light of this movie's events and those of Passenger 57, it would be willing to pay for all captured hijackers and mob-killing witnesses be taken to Los Angeles via bus in future.

Atlantic

As seen in: Airborne (2012)

Yet more terrorists take over a plane in this low-budget British horror, only this time, they're after a vase which contains an ancient god of death. What is it about terrorists stealing things from planes in mid-flight? Why couldn't they have snatched the vase at the airport? Wouldn't one of the luggage handlers broken it anyway?

With the hijackers proving just as inept as those in Airport 77, the god in the vase is unleashed and begins possessing the passengers, who then start killing each other in grisly ways.

Shortly after the incident, an airline representative said to an assembled group of journalists, "Vase? I didn't hear anything about a missing vase. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to keep with Abholos, Devourer in the Mist."

Belarus Airways

As seen in: World War Z (2013)

If you think the other airlines on this list were unfortunate, at least they didn't suffer from a mid-air zombie outbreak. It's during a flight from Israel to Wales that the passengers of a Belarus Airways jet are suddenly set upon by a zombie, who comes snapping and drooling from a closet.

Quickly realising that everyone on board faces certain death (especially when an attempt to prevent the outbreak with a stack of luggage fails to do the trick), UN operative Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) sets off a hand grenade, destroying several zombies but causing an air crash in the process.

In the wake of the crash, Belarus Airways remained defiant. "Sure, Gerry Lane - if that is, in fact, his real name - saved the entire world with his zombie vaccine", a representative said, "but he destroyed several Welsh cottages with his hand grenade antics, and he owes us a new passenger jet. Besides, we have it on good authority that the people on board weren't zombies - they were just suffering from food poisoning brought on by the in-flight fish supper."

Over the past few weeks, we've been going year-by-year through the 1990s to try and shine some light on films in the decade that otherwise don't seem to get talked about as much as they should. Granted, we've missed a few that we should have included, but our aim when we started this was to salute lots and lots of films that didn't top the blockbuster charts, or walk off with lots of Oscars.

Here then, all in one place, are the links to the ten individual pieces. And that makes 250 films in all. Many thanks for your support of this particular project, and we hope you've found it of some interest. Now? We're going to dig out our DVD of Red Rock West to watch again...

The top 20 underappreciated films of 1990

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1991

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1992

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1993

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1994

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1995

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1996

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1997

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1998

The top 30 underappreciated films of 1999

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2014 should be quite a year for Chris Pratt. The actor already has good work under his belt, but his high-profile turns in The LEGO Movie and Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy movie should see his star lifted. In the latter, he's playing Star Lord, and he's been chatting to Fandango about the movie, and the character.

"Just the fact that he was part of the Marvel brand was really exciting", Pratt admitted. "I was signed up to do the movie before I was even allowed to read a script, so it wasn't like something about this particular character that got me to do it. The fact that it was a Marvel movie is what got me to do it".

He added that "once I did read it there were so many things about the character that I love, and one thing is that he's very much a kid at heart. He's like a man-child. And I like the idea that he's got a false sense of bravado. Deep down inside he's lonely and desperate. But on the outside he walks around like he's big and tough, and I don't think he does a great job of convincing everybody that he's not a scared little child".

Guardians Of The Galaxy, directed by James Gunn, is released on August 1st 2014.

Fandango

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MGM is set to continue its plan to remake some of its popular 80s and 90s movies, and this time, the fickle finger of movie fate has landed at the door of a much-loved Patrick Swayze movie. That movie is Road House.

The movie saw the late Swayze starring opposite Kelly Lynch, with the former playing a bouncer in a bar that... well, let's just say it's the kind of bar where bouncers come in useful.

The remake already has a writer in place, with Michael Stokes having penning a screenplay for the new Road House. And Rob Cohen, the director of the original xXx and The Fast And The Furious movies is set to helm it.

There's no timescale for the movie that we know of, but if there's a script and director already locked down, sooner rather than later seems likely.

More on the new Road House as we get it.

The Wrap.

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Here's a disappointing, but not surprising story. Duncan Jones is currently hard at work on this third directorial outing, the big budget blockbuster take on the videogame Warcraft. It's due in cinemas at the end of 2015, and it sees the Moon and Source Code director with an awful lot of work to undertake.

Perhaps inevitably then, it's now meant that he's had to drop a terrific-looking project that he'd been attached to for a while. For Jones had been attached to a biopic of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, that was going by the title of Fleming.

John Orloff - whose work includes Roland Emmerich's Anonymous - has penned the script for the movie, which its producers remain keen to get moving next year. As such, The Wrap reports that whilst Jones was still keen to make Fleming, they couldn't wait for him to finish on Warcraft. Duncan Jones has thus now left the project.

The Fleming team are on the hunt for a replacement director "who can hit the ground running and start casting next year". When we find out who that is, we'll let you know...

The Wrap.

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