Haunts of the Very Rich (1972)
Nov 19, 2020Mysterious Happenings at a Luxury Resort
From the Golden Age of TV Movies, a name cast line-up arrive at a luxurious resort only to become trapped there and caught up in increasingly mysterious happenings
Cloris Leachman
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Jan 25, 2003Universal Frankenstein Spoof
Mel Brooks' finest moment, a witty stylistic homage to and spoof of the Universal Frankenstein films. A great cast are on perfect form all around.
The Extraordinary Adventures of the Mouse and His Child (1977)
Jul 5, 2002Animation/Windup Toy's Quest
Based on a popular children's book, this is a simplistic animated film for very young children about a toy mouse that goes on a quest to find freedom
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Feb 2, 2001Muppet Movie
The first and best of the Muppet films where Jim Henson spins them off onto the big screen with charm and sly humour
Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)
Jan 25, 2003Cute Car/Disney Comedy
The fourth and last of the original Herbie the Love Bug films from Disney, this takes a trip to South America where the inanity reaches a nadir for the series
Shadow Play (1986)
Feb 12, 2014Ghost Story
Very obscure independently-made ghost story – and justly so … It seems more interested in being a vague, incredibly pretentious woman's psychodrama than it ever is in the usual ghost story stuff of spooking and scaring an audience
Hansel and Gretel (1987)
Dec 24, 2002Fairy-Tale
One of a series of cheaply produced fairytale adaptations made by Cannon Films. This adapts the Brothers Grimm fairytale with tatty banality
Prancer (1989)
Dec 25, 2013Girl Discovers Santa's Reindeer
An appealing bittersweet film based around the improbable premise of a young girl finding what she believes is one of Santa's reindeer. In a genre that usually deals in sugary sentiment, this has a much more rewarding downbeat realism
My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)
Apr 27, 2003Teen Zombie Comedy
Rather silly and not particularly funny Disney comedy in which a teenager returns from the dead as a zombie and nobody seems to notice any difference. Does contain a number of before-they-were-famous names
A Troll in Central Park (1994)
May 4, 2008Animation/Troll's Adventures in Human Civilisation
Incredibly insipid animated film from Don Bluth about a kind-hearted troll that relocates to Central Park. This feels like a wannabe Disney film that is merely going through the moves.
Sky High (2005)
Oct 8, 2005School for Superheroes
This feels like a copy of the Harry Potter films set at a school for trainee superheroes. Alas after the set-up of its premise, the film appears at a loss of what to do and falls back on insipid cliches
Scary Movie 4 (2006)
Jun 21, 2006Genre Spoof
Fourth of the Scary Movie films and the usual crude inanity, although under David Zucker the movie parodies have expanded well beyond what can be labelled scary movies any longer
The Fields (2011)
May 5, 2014Coming of Age Story/Backwoods Happenings
This feels like Children of the Corn remade by Terrence Malick. The film does nicely with the wry, quietly observed naturalism of its Coming of Age story, less so when it moves into horror territory
The Croods (2013)
Mar 31, 2013Animation/Prehistoric Comedy
What gives the expectation of being a formulaic animated film about a prehistoric cave family instead comes with a fresh and naturalistic sense of humour that proves oddly appealing
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
Nov 9, 2015Zombie Comedy
There is something appealing to the film's premise – of boyscouts with their knowhow and do-gooder mentality being the best equipped to survive the zombie apocalypse.But this a film not nearly as clever as it thinks it is being
The Croods: A New Age (2020)
Aug 13, 2021Animation/Prehistoric Comedy
The sequel to DreamWorks' animated prehistoric film. For a very low expectation effort - the modern animated sequel - this emerges as far more colourful and entertaining than one expects