Dracula 2000 (2000)
Dec 22, 2000Dracula in the Modern Day
An interesting attempt to bring Dracula into the modern day - the film that Dracula A.D. 1972 should have been. An unknown Gerard Butler makes a captivatingly magnetic Dracula
Gerard Butler
Reign of Fire (2002)
Nov 1, 2002Dragon-Ruled Future
This has the interestingly original premise of being set in a post-apocalyptic world where revived dragons have eliminated most of humanity. The show is stolen by Matthew McConaughey in wild man mode
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Nov 21, 2003Videogame Adaptation
The first Tomb Raider film was empty-headed but a hit but the series was then killed off by this sequel. Angelina Jolie's performance is detached from human emotion and the action sequences ludicrous
Timeline (2003)
Feb 1, 2004Time Travel/Michael Crichton Adaptation
Michael Crichton adaptation that flopped at the box-office. Crichton tells a story about time travel to the Mediaeval period where he spends a good deal of time researching the era. The film ditches all of this to make no more than an historical film with an SF gimmick
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Jan 6, 2005Disfigured Madman Beneath the Opera House/Musical Adaptation
The long-planned film adaptation of The Phantom musical emerges as disaster under Joel Schumacher. The Phantom's presence has all been watered down and the film exists as no more than a series of scenographic poses
Beowulf & Grendel (2005)
Nov 10, 2006Epic Legend
An interesting and worthwhile attempt to retell the epic legend of Beowulf but to give it grounding as an historical work. Filmed in Iceland with an international cast
300 (2007)
Apr 19, 2007Fantasticised Historical Battle/Graphic Novel Adaptation
Zack Snyder's adaptation of the classic Frank Miller graphic novel about the Greek battle of Thermopylae. In replicating the look of the original's panels, Snyder pushes what would otherwise be a standard historical film into something extraordinarily stylised and fantastic
Gamer (2009)
Jan 30, 2010Future Live-Action Videogames
Film somewhere between Counterstrike and The Running Man where convicts are controlled as avatars inside a live-action videogame. A difficult to believe premise that is pumped up with hyper-adrenalised action visuals
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Nov 2, 2009Jailed Genius Enacts Vigilante Justice
Vigilante film where Gerard Butler exacts revenge against the justice system while imprisoned in a jail cell. The dispatches become entertainingly improbable to the point that Butler almost becomes a Batman villain in all but name
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Apr 3, 2010Animation/Boy Befriends Dragon
Popular animated adaptation of a children's book. This hits all the right story arcs and in sufficiently likeable measure to work amiably. Two sequels and a live-action remake followed.
Movie 43 (2013)
Nov 8, 2013Anthology of Bad Taste Comedy Skits
An anthology of comedy skits that sets out to be in as bad taste as possible – you are left astounded how far a film has to go to offend in this post-South Park era. That and wondering if the producers had kidnapped some of the stars' family members to force them to participate
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
Jun 20, 2014Animation/World of Dragons
This is a film that leaves you in two minds – one that is constantly going wow at the animated artistry and detail before us; the other that is realising that this is yet another formula animated film
Gods of Egypt (2016)
Mar 5, 2016Ancient Egyptian Mythology
This could be considered the Michael Bay version of Ancient Egyptian mythology, a film buried under numbing CGI overkill. For all that, Alex Proyas gives it a loopy grandeur that you can't entirely dislike
Geostorm (2017)
Dec 3, 2017Weather Control/Disaster Movie
Directorial debut of Roland Emmerich's regular screenwriter Dean Devlin who has clearly been given orders to make another Emmerich film. Thus we get all the same effects-driven mass destruction spectacle, absurd science and pro-environmental messages
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
Apr 20, 2019Animation/World of Dragons
One of the most beautifully made formula animated films of recent vintage but at the end of the day no more than a film that is by the numbers where the artistry is unsupported by the banal script
Greenland (2020)
Feb 19, 2021Disaster Movie/Comet on a Collision Course with the Earth
There seems something redundant in 2021 with the world in the grip of a very real apocalypse about watching an old-fashioned mass destruction disaster movie about an oncoming comet impact
How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
Jul 26, 2025Animation in Live-Action/World of Dragons
With Disney having remade most of their animated catalogue in live-action, other studios are now getting in on the act with this live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon
Greenland: Migration (2026)
Feb 6, 2026Post-Apocalyptic Disaster Movie
Greenland was a disaster movie on the familiar theme of a comet colliding with the Earth. This is a desultory sequel where the survivors emerge from the shelters to now have to survive in a changed post-apocalyptic world