The Good Son (1993)
Apr 8, 2001Psycho Child
A variant on the evil child psycho-thriller, this seems set up specifically to allow Macaulay Culkin, the obnoxious cute kid from Home Alone, to trash his wholesome image
David Morse
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Nov 24, 2002Time Paradox
Terry Gilliam remakes the classic short film La Jetee as one of the most impressive of modern time travel films with an exceptional plot that is built around a sophisticated time paradox
Extreme Measures (1996)
Sep 23, 2000Illicit Medical Experiments
Solid and effective thriller in the vein of Coma where ER doctor Hugh Grant finds himself in the midst of a conspiracy involving illicit medical experiments at the hospital where he works
Contact (1997)
May 25, 2009Communications from Space
Carl Sagan's novel about SETI is inflated into a big budget film determined to impress even though the story did not need it. Sagan's interesting debate about religion and science is emasculated so as not to offend any religious groups
The Green Mile (1999)
Dec 24, 1999Miracle-Healing Death Row Inmate/Stephen King Addaptation
Frank Darabont had a hit with the Stephen King adaptation The Shawshank Redemption. Here he makes another King adaptation about a Death Row inmate with healing powers
Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Sep 29, 2001Clairvoyance/Stephen King Adaptation
Another in the spate of serious Stephen King adaptations that seeks to avoid the horror label. Although psychic powers do feature, this is more of a wistful 1960s Coming of Age story
Disturbia (2007)
Apr 19, 2007Suburban Voyeurism Psycho-Thriller
A hackneyed rehash of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window where Shia LaBeouf is a teenager on home detention spying with a pair of binoculars who realises that his neighbour might be a serial killer
Passengers (2008)
Feb 18, 2015Haunted Plane Crash Survivors/Deathdream
Well-cast, nicely made film that seems to be setting out as a supernatural variant on Fearless, which had Jeff Bridges as a reinvigorated plane crash survivor, only to fall apart in a groan-worthy twist ending that has become tediously overused in recent years
Drive Angry (2011)
Feb 26, 2011Occult Car Chase Film
Essentially a supernatural version of a 1970s car chase movie with Nicolas Cage as a motorist who has escaped from Hell to settle a score. This makes a play for the trashy and absurd and comes out all the more entertaining for it
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)
Aug 14, 2012Magic Child Appears Out of the Garden
On one level, this sets out to be a warm-hearted fantasy about the appearance of a magic child to a childless couple. On another possibly unintentional level, it is a rather unlikeable film about how two parents continually force a child to conform to the social expectations of those around them
World War Z (2013)
Jun 22, 2013Zombie Apocalypse
You wonder what this can do with such an overworked genre as the zombie apocalypse. It is not a film that reinvents the wheel for the genre but spins the basics out into an exciting, international locale hopping survival story
Horns (2013)
Dec 6, 2014Man Grows a Set of Devil Horns
An Alexandra Aja adaptation of a Joe Hill novel that comes with a diabolical glee as Daniel Radcliffe develops a set of devil horns and finds everyone confessing their deepest secrets to him
The Boy (2015)
Nov 26, 2018Psychopathic Child
Not to be confused with the more profile film of the same name around the same time, this is a standout work about a psychopathic child. A real slow burn film that comes so understated that it can leave you gasping