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I know that I probably hold the minority view here, but I've always preferred Die Hard 2 to its predecessors. I take solace in the fact that the legendary American movie critic Roger Ebert agrees. Maybe it's because I like aircraft more than I like tall ugly buildings, but for my money this is the best of the first four Die Hard films (I have not seen the most recent).

Of course it stretches credibility to the point where it crashes and burns with more of a kaboom than any of the special effects on show, but this is not a movie intended to be taken seriously. Some outrageous stunts against absurd odds and some tongue-in-cheek dialogue, mixed in with a few crater-sized plot holes and a bagful of airport thriller clichés, say it all. This is John MacLane, not Jason Bourne.

The special effects are still excellent after 23 years, and while some very lax security issues give the movie's age away as being pre-9/11, who cares? This is one of the ultimate popcorn blockbusters, well worth watching if you somehow have not yet seen it and worth revisiting if you haven't seen it for years.

I must confess that I have to date only seen the first three episodes of Series 1, hence my reluctance to go overboard with my star rating, but at the moment this is top of the list of essential weekly viewing.

The exotic locale and the somewhat relaxed pace of life on the fictional island of St Marie (the show is filmed in Guadaloupe) is clearly not London policeman Richard Poole's cup of tea, although I get the impression he is steadily shedding his distaste for the Caribbean. He continues to wear highly inappropriate formal clothes and the local cuisine (and the local tea, for that matter) is not to his taste. But although in episode one he could not wait to jet back to England, he now seems rather more comfortable with his permanent posting in "paradise." Ben Miller plays the part of the straight-laced Poole to perfection, while Sara Martins is the perfect counter in the form of Detective Sergeant Camille Borday. She is slowly getting Poole to unwind and get more with the local way of life - could there be a romantic interlude coming up between them? (Or perhaps between Poole and Camille's mother, restaurant owner Catherine who makes a proper English meal of roast beef with all the trimmings for Poole at the end of episode three?) It's all a tad silly, because it is light-hearted and semi-comedic stuff, but I can easily see why Death In Paradise has become such a hit and why a third series has been commissioned. It is well worth watching, if you're not as starchy a TV viewer as Poole is a policeman.

Oh, and I just adore the bright green lizard who lives in the same beachfront shack as our intrepid copper. It makes an appearance several times in each episode, and even there Poole is clearly undergoing a change of heart. From trying to shoo the lizard way in episode one, he is now talking to it and even trying to feed it (cat food, no less). A nice touch!

A lame ending and some silly plot elements take the zing right out of what could have been a decent enough made-for-T stalker movie.

Laura Leighton may never win an Oscar, but she deserves better material than this lazy effort. A first year film student could have written a more sensible and more gripping script than this, and almost anybody over the age of puberty could have scripted a better conclusion.

The premise of a furious driver stalking a fellow motorist who cut him off on the freeway is reasonable, if over-the-top considering the two did not actually have an accident. Some people are nuts (for want of a more politically correct word), and extreme road rage is not unknown. However, in the world of fiction scenarios of this sort should not end in as lame and downright senseless fashion as they do in this instantly forgettable movie. And we won't even worry about some of the implausible and illogical things that happen in between - the brightest mom on the planet, this woman is not.