Lord of Illusions (1995)
Mar 18, 2003Occult Detective/War Between Magicians
Clive Braker's third and final outing as a director. Barker is trying to tell an occult detective story but fails to get any of the mood that film noir operates by
Famke Janssen
GoldenEye (1995)
Feb 1, 2001James Bond Film
The 17th James Bond film, the first featuring Pierce Brosnan who gives a dazzlingly ruthless performance. The series is rebooted and takes the opportunity to reconstruct the mythos in terms of modern politics in ways that often take you aback
Deep Rising (1998)
Feb 27, 2003Sea Monsters
Early Stephen Sommers film that feels like it has been mounted as Alien meets Titanic. Between the ridiculous one-dimensional writing and Sommers’ CGI overkill, this heads well into bad movie material
The Faculty (1998)
Dec 16, 1999Alien Body Snatchers Take Over a High School
Robert Rodriguez directs from a script by Scream writer Kevin Williamson. This wittily deconstructs the 1950s alien body snatchers film by way of The Breakfast Club
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Oct 31, 1999Haunted House
The announcement of the remake of The Haunting was followed by this remake of the 1959 William Castle film, which turns out far more unpretentious and altogether more fun than the bloated flop of The Haunting
X-Men (2000)
Jul 14, 2000Comic-Book Superheroes
Bryan Singer’s dynamic and exciting adaptation of the Marvel Comic title fairly much kicked off the massive fad for Marvel superheroes in the 00s/10s. This was also the film that mad Hugh Jackman into an international superstar.
I Spy (2002)
Feb 17, 2003Spy Comedy/TV Series Remake
Painfully unfunny big screen revival of the 1960s spy tv series. This has been reduced to a series of plotless gags that involve Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson doing nothing except bickering with each other
X2 (2003)
May 5, 2003Comic-Book Superheroes
Bryan Singer's immediate sequel to X-Men, this ups the number of new mutant characters, although only sporadically manages to kick in with the spectacular superheroic action sequences the first film had
Hide and Seek (2005)
Feb 22, 2005Child's Sinister Invisible Companion
A variant on the sinister child's invisible companion theme. A fine cast has been assembled but the film goes and kills itself with a lame twist ending
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Jun 21, 2006Comic-Book Superheroes
Brett Ratner inherits the X-Men franchise from Bryan Singer for the third film in the series and promptly killed it off (after this point everything became prequels featuring Young X-Men). Ratner's handling of the superheroic action lacks Singer's exhilaration or any affinity for the characters
100 Feet (2008)
Sep 23, 2015Woman Confined on Home Detention in a Haunted Apartment
This lifts the premise of Disturbia – protagonist confined to home detention who spies a killer next door – but then asks what would happen if the space they were confined was haunted
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Jan 31, 2013Dark Adult Fairytale Adaptation
Amid the early 2010s fad for adult fairytale reinterpretations, this has an anachronistic absurdity that invites you not to take it seriously. A series of action movie poses, CGI and splatter effects are transplanted into the fairytale.
The Wolverine (2013)
Aug 3, 2013X-Men Spinoff Film
While this received a good deal of fan buzz, I must admit to being disappointed. It strips much of the superheroics and mutant cameos of the other X-Men films until it feels more like a Westerner in Japan thriller like Black Rain or even a routine film noir plot that happens to be cast with Wolverine
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
May 25, 2014Comic-Book Superheroes
It is nice to see Bryan Singer regain his form after several years lull. The plot is nothing world-shattering but it is nice to see a character-driven X-Men, while Singer delivers the superheroics with a cheer-out loud elan that most of the sequels missed by a wide margin
Status Update (2018)
Apr 4, 2024Magical Cellphone That Causes Things to Come True
Light fantasy comedy in which a teenager gets a magical cellphone that causes whatever he types into his status update to come true
Boy Kills World (2023)
Jul 27, 2024Gonzo Ultra-Violence/Action Film Parody
A film where you are struggling to find any easy labelling. What it is is an hilariously ultra-violent and over-the-top parody of an action movie that will have your sides splitting