Spy Kids (2001)
Apr 3, 2001Juvenile Spy Adventures
Robert Rodriguez has a huge amount of fun by recasting James Bond antics with kids. The film was a success that spawned several sequels
Carla Gugino
She Creature (2001)
Oct 5, 2001Mermaid Horror Film
Taking only the name of the 1950s B movie, this is otherwise a horror film about an imprisoned mermaid creature that wields a sinister threat. This works with a modest effectiveness
The One (2001)
Nov 2, 2001Alternative Universe Hopping Action
Promising idea of an alternate world-hopping film from James Wong, this spends too much time copying moves from The Matrix and lets most of its possibilities pass by
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)
Jan 25, 2002Juvenile Spy Adventures
The second of Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids films is slightly the lesser of its predecessor – it makes the mistake of stripping out the gadgets – but is still fun and has the wacky surrealism Rodriguez gave the first film
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
Jan 13, 2004Adventures Inside a Videogame
The third in the series is no longer even a Spy Kids film but a Virtual Reality videogame film. Robert Rodriguez has some fun creating the virtual worlds but the parody that the other films engaged in is missing
The Singing Detective (2003)
Nov 8, 2005Detective Story Daydreams
Disastrous Hollywood version of Dennis Potter's classic tv mini-series where a hospitalised Robert Downey jr fantasises a dream world of 1940s film noir
Sin City (2005)
Aug 20, 2005Graphic Novel Adaptation/Ultra-Violent Film Noir Tales
Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novels is groundbreaking and one of the most visually adventurous films in years. A trio of film noir-styled tales where he sets out to replicate the look of Miller's comic panels
Night at the Museum (2006)
Feb 11, 2007Museum Exhibits Come to Life
Popular family hit with Ben Stiller as a night watchman at New York’s Museum of Natural History who discovers that the exhibits come to life at night. More a cute idea than a full film, there is some fun to the characters and effects
Rise (2007)
Mar 7, 2008Vampire Hunter
Overlooked at the time it was released, this is a stylish and quite well made film with Lucy Liu playing a vampire hunter
Watchmen (2009)
Mar 8, 2009Comic-Book Superheroes
Zack Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's groundbreaking graphic novel is exceedingly faithful to the original. Often called unfilmable, Snyder articulates the material in ways that quite surprise
Race to Witch Mountain (2009)
Apr 14, 2009Psi-Powered Alien Children/Disney Remake
Revival of the Disney Witch Mountain films of the 1970s. Now the films have been dragged into the post-X Files era and flashy effects added to negligible result
The Unborn (2009)
May 5, 2010Haunting/Possession
Scriptwriter David S. Goyer takes the director's choice to make a possession film. The one distinction here is that Goyer draws from Jewish mythology, otherwise this feels like another canned teen horror film
Sucker Punch (2011)
Mar 27, 2011Fantasy Action in Dreamed Alternate Realities
Bizarrely uncategorisable film from Zack Snyder that seems a mix of Girl, Interrupted and Inception
San Andreas (2015)
May 31, 2015Disaster Movie/California Hit by Super-Earthquake
As the spectacle of mass destruction goes, you could hardly get more epic in scale than this. On the other hand, as someone whose hometown was obliterated by an earthquake in 2011, I find it offensive that such devastation is arranged for our enjoyment while the suffering and even the idea that anybody has been killed has been edited out
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Oct 15, 2017Woman Handuffed to a Bed/Stephen King Adaptation
Mike Flanagan tackles one of the most difficult Stephen King books from a logistics perspective – the book has only one character who is handcuffed naked to a bed for the duration – but pulls it off with great faithfulness
The Space Between Us (2017)
Apr 1, 2017First Kid Born on Mars Comes to Earth
Following the huge success of films like Gravity and The Martian that portray space travel with scrupulous realism, this can be considered the Young Adult version. It pays surprising attention to getting its science right; on the other hand, that doesn't excuse the gaping implausibilities elsewhere
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
Dec 22, 2018Haunted House
The original The Haunting is the finest ghost story ever made. One was sceptical that this remake as a tv mini-series of ten 50 minute episodes would come anywhere near that. Happily, Mike Flanagan proved me wrong.
Elizabeth Harvest (2018)
Aug 23, 2019Cloned Woman
A novel take on the story of Bluebeard who forbids his wives to enter a room and kills them when they do. Here Bluebeard is a scientist who keeps cloning the same wife over. A sophisticated and intelligent film full of sharp and intriguing twists
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Oct 24, 2020Haunted House
Mike Flanagan follows up the hit of The Haunting of Hill House with a mini-series that adapts another classic work The Turn of the Screw out into a similar kind of cross-generational ghost story. The results are extraordinary
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
Nov 18, 2023Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation
Mike Flanagan mini-series that expands on the story to incorporate a host of other Poe stories. More like another of Mike Flanagan’s cross-generational ghost stories by way of tv’s Succession with a lot of Poe-esque margin notes
Lisa Frankenstein (2024)
Mar 8, 2024Modernised Frankenstein Comedy
A modernised comedy take on the Frankenstein film that comes with a script from Diablo Cody where Kathryn Newton turns a resurrected man into the ideal boyfriend