Night at the Museum 2 (2009)
May 24, 2009Museum Exhibits Come to Life
Sequel to the Ben Stiller hit offers more of the same with a bigger museum and more exhibits come to life but little else
Bill Hader
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
Nov 2, 2009Animation/Inventor Creates Rains of Food
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, later directors of The Lego Movie, create an animated film that is a delight with its nonsensical visions of a town inundated by weather phenomena made of food
Year One (2009)
Jan 30, 2010Cavemen Stumble Through the Old Testament Comedy
Not very funny comedy from Harold Ramis and Judd Apatow where Jack Black and Michael Cera are cavemen who stumble through many incidents from the Old Testament
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011)
May 7, 2011Animation/Fairytale Parody
A wholly unnecessary sequel to Hoodwinked!, this again runs the fairytale characters over with modern quips and pop culture references
Paul (2011)
Mar 27, 2011Science-Fiction Fans Encounter an Alien Comedy
Hilarious Simon Pegg-written homage to science-fiction fandom and alien visitor cinema. imagine Starman recast with two science-fiction fans and tv's sarcastically wisecracking ALF (voiced by Seth Rogen)
Men in Black 3 (2012)
May 24, 2012Alien Coverup Conspiracy Agency
One hardly greets the attempt to generate another entry out of this franchise with any enthusiasm. This mostly consists of tired and familiar gags, where maybe the most generous compliment you can pay is that it is better than Men in Black II was
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)
Sep 27, 2013Animation/Island of Living Food
The original film was a good deal of fun; this sequel feels like it is simply a repeat of the same but slightly different. Still there is a good deal of creativity to the visual puns and living food creatures
Turbo (2013)
Jul 26, 2013Animation/Racing Snail
The 24th film from DreamWorks Animation – the studio that once offered a reasonable challenge to Disney is now starting to slip into the bland formula of competitors like Blue Sky. While passable, this feels like a film substantially lacking in originality and where you can predict its every move
Inside Out (2015)
Jun 20, 2015Pixar Animation/The Personalities Inside a Girl's Head
Pixar have slumped into terminal sequelitis during the 2010s – this was only the second original work they have made during that time. While not perfect, it goes regains the creative heights from five years earlier
Angry Birds (2016)
Jun 24, 2016Animation/Videogame Adaptation
A film based on a mobile app surely counts as a world first. Mostly this is the equivalent of switching one's brain off and spending an hour-and-a-half watching cartoons for the single digit age group
The BFG (2016)
Jul 10, 2016Roald Dahl Adaptation/Friendly Giant
Steven Spielberg adapts the Roald Dahl story. Despite the film bombing at the box-office, it is one of considerable charms. Spielberg doesn't produce another E.T. but then he hasn't delivered another Hook either
Finding Dory (2016)
Jun 25, 2016Pixar Animation/Talking Fish
Pixar have never been the same since giving in to sequelitis but this sequel to Finding Nemo does recapturing some of their heyday. Not perfect but this has a winning array of new characters and some delightfully madcap comic set-pieces
Sausage Party (2016)
Aug 20, 2016Animation/Talking Supermarket Produce
The most demented premise of the year – an animated film about the lives of the talking produce in a supermarket. This is crude, rude and guaranteed to offend (as might be expected from a Seth Rogen penned vehicle); it is also one of the funniest and cleverest films of the year
Power Rangers (2017)
Jun 24, 2017Teen Power-Suit Superheroes
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with its ridiculous rubber monsters and dementedly over-the-top acting as one of the key pop culture phenomena of the 1990s. The question is what audience do producers possibly think that there might be for a dark and gritty cinematic reboot?
It: Chapter Two (2019)
Nov 30, 2019Stephen King Adaptation/Killer Clown Monster
I had mixed feelings about the first part Andy Muschietti's adaptation of Stephen King's novel. The second part here is a better film, although it too eventually gets buried in over an hour's worth of Muschietti's jumpshocks
Addams Family 2 (2021)
Oct 15, 2021Kinky Perverse Family/Animation
The animated revival of the Addams Family was a mixed affair. All of the same creative personnel and voice talents return here for a sequel, which takes the Addams Family on a road trip
Lightyear (2022)
Jul 23, 2022Pixar Animation/Space Opera
A spinoff from Pixar’s Toy Story films that gives Buzz Lightyear a film all of his own. A likeable if fairly routine space adventure but aargh the rewrites to series continuity
IF (2024)
Jun 29, 2024Imaginary Companions
Ryan Reynolds and director John Krasinski combine to make a film about imaginary companions, an appealingly quirky effort where a young girl befriends a large furry invisible creature