Penelope (2006)
Aug 6, 2024Modern Fairytale/Girl Cursed with a Pig-Like Face
This has the feel of a fairytale where Christina Ricci plays a girl who suffers from a hereditary curse that has left her with a pig-like snout
Burn Gorman
Johnny English Reborn (2011)
Nov 3, 2011Incompetent Spy Comedy
Rowan Atkinson is a very funny man but try as I might I cannot get into these Johnny English films - they seem at best lame Austin Powers castoffs with gags designed for the single digit age range
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Jul 19, 2012Comic-Book Superhero
The Dark Knight is a hard act to follow and Christopher Nolan almost does but not quite. The story keeps Batman off-screen for half the film. Tom Hardy's Bane dominates the show, while Catwoman is surprisingly subdued
Red Lights (2012)
Jul 9, 2012Psychic Debunkers
Strong, well-written film from Buried director Rodrigo Cortes about investigators of psychic frauds encountering a possibly real example. This takes a welcomely sceptical, rationalist perspective, has a great cast and fine build-up but alas falls apart in a lame twist ending
Up There (2012)
Dec 7, 2013Afterlife Comedy
Rather appealing British comedy set in an afterlife that is conceived as a dreary world of social services agencies and encounter groups. A frequently extremely black and funny but eventually charming film that gets lit up by the eccentricity of its performances
Pacific Rim (2013)
Jul 12, 2013Giant Mecha Robots vs Giant Monsters
Giant mecha robots beating the crap out of giant monsters – what's not to like? In comparison to the Transformers films, Guillermo Del Toro looks to find the soul of the robot jock – in essence, Transformers for grown-ups
And Then There Were None (2015)
Feb 13, 2016Agatha Christie Murder Mystery
Lush, beautifully produced version of the Agatha Christie murder mystery from the BBC to celebrate Christie's 125th anniversary. The story is a chamber mystery with guests in an isolated house being bumped off – sort of Big Brother with dead bodies
Crimson Peak (2015)
Oct 31, 2015Ghost Story
Guillermo Del Toro takes on the Victorian ghost story. What we get is the most gorgeously designed and costumed haunted house film ever but where the excess scenography actually distracts from producing any boo moment
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
May 5, 2018Giant Mecha Robots
Pacific Rim wasn't Guillermo Del Toro's best film but it was a fun attempt to imagine giant Japanese mecha robots battling giant monsters. This is a sequel but without Del Toro it is reduced to no more than one of Michael Bay's Transformers films
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
Dec 17, 2022Living Puppet Boy/Stop-Motion Animation
Guillermo Del Toro offers up his dark, more adult take on the classic children’s story in this beautifully made stop-motion animated film. Winner of that year's Academy Award for Best Animated Film.
Watcher (2022)
Dec 10, 2022Possible Stalker in the Apartment Opposite
Nicely chilling film in which Maika Monroe believes that the person in the apartment opposite might be stalking her
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
Jan 13, 2024Future Televised Human Hunting
The Hunger Games was one of the biggest franchise of the 2010s. Here a number of the key talents return to make a prequel to the events, telling a story from the early days of the Hunger Games
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Oct 19, 2024Gonzo Afterlife Comedy
After 36 years and several abortive attempts, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder reunite to make a sequel to Beetlejuice, but the essentials that fired up the young Burton now feel as they come by the numbers