Simon (1980)
Jul 5, 2001Fake Alien Comedy
A directorial debut from Woody Allen co-writer Marshall Brickman, an offbeat comedy where scientists hypnotise Alan Arkin into believing he is an alien
Alan Arkin
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Mar 7, 2004Unicorn's Quest/Animation
Beautiful and underrated animated fantasy film about an apprentice magician who protects the last unicorn. This has a maturity that most animated fantasy lacks
Full Moon High (1982)
May 21, 2001Werewolf Comedy
Werewolf films were all the thing around 1980-1 with hits like The Howling and An American Werewolf in London. This is cult director Larry Cohen's often extremely silly but not entirely unamusing comedy take
The Return of Captain Invincible (1983)
Nov 21, 2003Superhero Spoof
Witty and overlooked parody of the superhero with Alan Arkin as a retired superhero trying to get back into the game. Made before superhero films became big and has a number of charms that were ahead of its time
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Jul 5, 2002Alienated Artificial Boy
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp in one of their best collaborations. Burton creates this sweet oddball fable that is a take on Frankenstein where the monster becomes an alienated youth with scissors for hands
North (1994)
Dec 26, 1999Fabulist Adventure
Likeable absurdist fable from Rob Reiner with Elijah Wood as a boy searching the world for perfect parents. With Bruce Willis as the Easter Bunny
Gattaca (1997)
Aug 9, 1999Genetically-Engineered Dystopia
The first film from Andrew Niccol, a smart work set in a dystopian future where genetic engineering has perfected the human species and those who are born naturally are doomed to an underclass
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006)
Feb 11, 2007Santa vs Jack Frost
Third of the Santa Clause films starring Tim Allen as Santa where his reality is upended by the evil Jack Frost
Get Smart (2008)
Jul 27, 2009TV Series Remake/Spy Comedy
There seems something crushingly redundant about conducting a big screen revival of tv's Get Smart in the era after Austin Powers. The film is a middle-of-the-road comedy that never finds the zaniness of the original
The Muppets (2011)
Nov 19, 2011Muppet Movie
Surprisingly fun revival of the Muppets that reboots the series after the insipid entries of the last few years and succeeds by going back to recapture the sly double-level of humour that Jim Henson patented
The Change-Up (2011)
Sep 10, 2011Bodyswap Comedy
A raucous and eminently predictable variant on the bodyswap comedy that also manages to be expertly played by leads Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds and pulls off some genuine laugh-out-loud moments
Dumbo (2019)
Jun 29, 2019Flying Elephant/Disney Live-Action Remake
Another in the spate of live-action remakes of Disney animated films - one of four to be released in 2019 alone. This comes from Tim Burton who reconceives as Dumbo as another of his oddball outsiders.
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
Aug 20, 2022Animation/Super-Villain and Cute Mischievous Creatures
The cutely nonsensical Minions have become a pop culture phenomenon. Here we get more of them in the second film outing, although this acts more as a Gru origin story