Whispers in the Dark (1992)
May 21, 1999Psychotherapy Thriller
Smart and tightly wound psycho-thriller as psychotherapist Annabella Sciorra is wound into the murder of a patient
John Leguizamo
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
May 28, 2000Videogame Adaptation/Evolved Dinosaurs
The first film to be adapted from a videogame and inauspiciously one of the worst. This is a film made on a decent budget that seems to have set out to be as stupid and brainless as possible
The Fan (1996)
Aug 20, 2003Psycho Sports Celebrity Stalker
A dense, visually afire film from the great Tony Scott starring Robert De Niro as a sports fan who snaps from the pressures of ordinary life and then stalks baseball star Wesley Snipes
Spawn (1997)
Mar 8, 2008Demon Superhero/Comic-Book Adaptation
A very disappointing film adaptation of Todd MacFarlane's cult comic-book where all of the moody darkness emerges with one-dimensional effect as little more than The Punisher with horns
Summer of Sam (1999)
Jul 12, 1999True Life Serial Killer/Urban Paranoia
A Spike Lee film, a fictional work set during the real-life Son of Sam killings, although Lee seems less interested in the true crime aspect than the various storylines of his characters
Arabian Nights (2000)
Jul 2, 2005Tales of Arabian Nights
Hallmark tv mini-series adaptation of the classic tales has been granted a decent budget that allows the stories to emerge with lavish spectacle and the fantasy to fly with exceptional regard
Titan A.E. (2000)
Jun 18, 2000Animation/Space Opera
Very nicely made space opera from animator Don Bluth, operating from a Joss Whedon script, that unfortunately proved a big box-office flop
Ice Age (2002)
Mar 22, 2002Animation/Prehistoric Talking Animals
This begat an interminable number of tedious sequels. However, the original is a still likeable and appealing animated film about a group of prehistoric talking animals migrating with the onset of an Ice Age
Land of the Dead (2005)
Aug 5, 2005Zombies
George Romero's return to the zombie genre after twenty years, after others starting remaking and homaging his films. Romero still makes potent social metaphors but the gory extremes of his earlier films seem tamed down
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Apr 11, 2005Urban Siege
Fair-to-reasonable remake of John Carpenter's low-budget 1976 film about a handful of staff in a police station under siege from gangs outside. Much of the original has undergone change
Ice Age 2 (2006)
Jun 21, 2006Animation/Prehistoric Talking Animals
The first in a series of interminable sequels to Blue Sky Studios' animated prehistoric adventure. Everything has a tediousness that feels as though it is created by a script generating computer
The Happening (2008)
Jun 15, 2008Mysterious Catastrophe
M. Night Shyamalan came majorly unstuck with this catastrophe film where humanity is driven to mass suicide by plant pollens. The idea is interesting but Shyamalan gets lost in vagueness and loopy mysticism
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
Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)
Jul 17, 2009Animation/Prehistoric Talking Animals
Another of Blue Sky Studios' interminable animated sequels to its likeable original about prehistoric talking animals. This has little substance beyond a kinetic rush from one gag to the next
Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)
Feb 20, 2011Mysterious Disappearance/Last People on Earth
Enigmatic film in the vein of The Quiet Earth where everybody vanishes except for a handful of survivors who have to now deal with creatures the lurk in the dark
Mirror Mirror (2012)
Mar 23, 2012Snow White Adaptation
Tarsem Singh makes a Snow White film. Tarsem's sets, costumes and visuals are expectedly exquisite and extravagant but all is unwound by a campy, unserious approach
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
Jul 20, 2012Animation/Prehistoric Talking Animals
This is not a film, it is a money-making machine in the guise of a film aimed squarely at undiscerning family audiences that plays to familiar characters and comic routines and has minimal difference to the preceding three Ice Age films
Walking With Dinosaurs (2013)
Dec 22, 2013Animation/Talking Dinosaurs
Walking With Dinosaurs was an amazing documentary series that recreated prehistoric life with CGI animation. By contrast. the film spinoff is a cutsie animated film with talking dinosaurs. It is a film that is killed by the decision to let the dinosaurs talk with smartass one-liners and contemporary in-jokes
Kick-Ass 2 (2013)
Aug 17, 2013Superhero Wannabes
A much better sequel that gives the characters a thorough workover while making clever play out of the contrasts of masked superhero and reality that ran through the first film
Ice Age: Collision Course (2016)
Sep 9, 2016Animation/Prehistoric Talking Animals
I hate the Ice Age films and their tediously extruded adventures. The opening sequence here and its ignorance of even basic science is the most inane thing in the entire series
Encanto (2021)
Jan 7, 2022Disney Animation/Magical House
One of the best Disney animated films in some time. Set around a Colombian American family that have hereditary magic powers and live in a magical house, this comes with an enormous degree of colour and energy
Violent Night (2022)
Dec 31, 2022Dark Christmas Film
Dark and definitely not sentimental Christmas film with David Harbour as a cynical Santa repelling a home invasion. This does not let down on the violent half of the title
The Menu (2022)
Jan 14, 2023Fine Dining and Horror
Hilariously black horror comedy that works as a sublime satire of fine dining – with a nasty sting underneath