Iceman (1984)
Apr 27, 2003Revived Caveman
Excellent and underrated film about a caveman unthawed in the Arctic where attempts are made to help him adjust. This conducts the a creaky old story with modern scientific and anthropological realism
Danny Glover
Predator 2 (1990)
Nov 17, 2014Action/Humans Hunted by Alien Sportsman
Predator was one of the better Alien/Aliens copies of the 1980s. This sequel does little more than serve the same up all over again bar the substitution of a near-future L.A. for the jungle but manages to generate a reasonably intensive ride out of the action
Angels in the Outfield (1994)
May 1, 2000Angels Aid Baseball Team
Disney remake of the old light fantasy film in which angels step in to aid a losing baseball team. This is pitched to family audiences and holds a surprisingly ardent evangelical message
Switchback (1997)
Jun 22, 1999Psycho-Thriller
Directorial debut from the Die Hard scriptwriter Jeb Stuart is a solid thriller but the film was a surprise flop despite bringing together an impressive cast
Beloved (1998)
May 14, 2000African-American Ghost Story
Adapted from an award-winning Toni Morrison novel, this is an African-American ghost story that comes with Serious Drama written all over it. Produced by/starring Oprah Winfrey, the film was overlooked at the major award but is a stunning, emotionally raw work
Antz (1998)
Jun 11, 1999Animation/Talking Ants
The first animated film from DreamWorks, a rather charming effort that takes place in an ant nest with Woody Allen perfectly voice cast as a nebbish ant who decides to defy the crowd
Earthsea (2004)
Jun 21, 2006Epic Fantasy/Apprentice Wizard
This TV mini-series adaptation of the Ursula Le Guin books is an insult. This was quickly mounted on the back of the success of The Lord of the Rings films but feels like tv filler that has zero affinity for Le Guin's richly cultured world
Saw (2004)
Nov 16, 2004Killer's Sadistic Games
Forget the grim and sadistic sequels that followed, this low-budget directorial debut from James Wan is a masterwork that conjures unbearable dread and tension in its study of characters forced to consider the horribly inconceivable
Barnyard (2006)
Nov 10, 2006Animation/Talking Animals
An incredibly silly animated film set around the antics of talking barnyard animals. Directed by comedy writer Steve Oedekerk, this is almost entirely centred around gags involving animals doing parodies of human things
The Shaggy Dog (2006)
Nov 22, 2008Man Transforms Into a Dog Comedy
The remake of the old Disney comedy becomes a vehicle for Tim Allen, played with a manic slapstickery wherein Allen demonstrates there are few levels of silliness he will travel to in imitating dog-like behaviours
Battle for Terra (2007)
Jan 8, 2014Animation/War Between Human Colonists and Aliens
Animated film that has a remarkable number of similarities to Avatar – even though it was released before. A simplistic variant of the same human colonists vs alien natives plot conducted with corner-cut CGI animation
Be Kind Rewind (2008)
Sep 15, 2008Amateur Filmmakers Comedy
Riding at a peak during the mid-2000s, cult director Michel Gondry made this head-scratcher where he eccentrically devotes an entire film to homemade amateur fan filmmaking - all with appealingly wacky results
Blindness (2008)
Apr 17, 2010Plague of Blindness
A hugely underrated film that depicts the brutal collapse of society that occurs when the entire world is affected by a plague that causes blindness. Directed in strong and powerful images
2012 (2009)
Nov 14, 2009The End of the World/Disaster Movie
Roland Emmerich mass destruction spectacle loosely based around the supposed Mayan prophecies about the end of the world in 2012. Mostly just an excuse for massively scaled disaster sequences.
Alpha and Omega (2010)
Jun 1, 2011Animation/Talking Wolves
A contender in the animation stakes that never rises above formula and cutsie slapstick. Against its many competitors, it offers up only B-budget animation
Donovan’s Echo (2011)
Oct 21, 2011Precognition
Film about clairvoyance and predestination that owes much to Don't Look Now. Unfortunately, this reduces everything to the prosaic level of a tv movie thriller
Age of the Dragons (2011)
Jul 29, 2015Epic Fantasy/Moby Dick With Dragons
This has a concept so ridiculous it might actually work – a fantasy version of Moby Dick. The sea captain's obsessive hunt for a whale is transplanted to a fantasy kingdom and the whale made into a dragon
Andron (2015)
Dec 7, 2017Mysterious Labyrinth/Future Televised Games
A group of people whose memories have been blanked wake up in a mysterious labyrinth and have to survive death traps and each other. A promising mix of Cube and The Hunger Games killed by clumsy storytelling
Monster Trucks (2016)
Apr 8, 2017Creatures Inhabit Vehicles
You can almost see the process in the scriptwriters head "What if we had Monster Truck rallies where the trucks were actual monsters?". Way more entertaining than you ever expect it to be
Darkweb (2016)
Sep 28, 2017Human Bloodsports
This exploits the topical fascination with the darknet in a story ostensibly about making snuff videos for sale there. In actuality, this telescopes down to being no more a variant on The Most Dangerous Game
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Nov 8, 2019Gonzo Workplace Satire
This directorial debut for rapper Boots Riley is a very funny satire on telemarketing that becomes increasingly more surreal as it goes on. Imagine something like Spike Lee around the point of Do the Right Thing mixed with the absurdist humour of Kurt Vonnegut
Death Race: Beyond Anarchy (2018)
Apr 6, 2018Future Prison/Gladiatorial Road Races
The third sequel to Death Race and the most interesting of the series. This sets up an Escape from New York scenario and has fun with bad-ass posturing in depicting the interior of the prison as a open air biker bar
The Dead Don’t Die (2019)
Sep 14, 2019Zombie Comedy
Jim Jarmusch is one of the foremost American independent directors and here makes his first zombie comedy. The question is is what can he bring to a genre that has been in full-on self-parody mode since Shaun of the Dead
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
Mar 7, 2020Trapped Inside a Videogame
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the reboot of the 90s Jumanji, was a box-office success. That mandated a sequel. The central problem is where exactly does a film about characters sucked inside a videogame go with its premise?