The Lost Boys (1987)
Mar 12, 2002Teen Vampires
Popular 80s vampire film that suffers the curse of Joel Schumacher. A promising opening dissolves into posturing cool, flashy visuals with zero substance underneath
Kiefer Sutherland
Flatliners (1990)
Aug 17, 2002Exploring the Afterlife/Haunting
A film about med students stopping their hearts so as to explore the afterlife. This aims for big ideas but befalls director Joel Schumacher who delivers pretty visuals but finds nothing any more profound than a figurative group hug
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
Nov 6, 1999Twin Peaks Prequel
David Lynch's cinematic prequel to his cult tv series critically divides people. Charting the last days of the doomed prom queen Laura Palmer, Sheryl Lee gives a tour-de-force performance
The Vanishing (1993)
Feb 3, 2000Psycho-Thriller/Unexplained Disappearance
Disastrous English-language remake of the brilliant Dutch thriller The Vanishing, which miscalculates everything including mangling the classic ending
Freeway (1996)
Jun 30, 2010Modernised Little Red Riding Hood/Juvenile Delinquent Drama
Matthew Bright's extraordinary modernisation/trashing of Little Red Riding Hood who becomes Reese Witherspoon's juvenile delinquent who goes hitchhiking and is targeted by serial killer Kiefer Sutherland
Dark City (1998)
Jun 7, 1999Reality Manipulation
From Alex Proyas and David S. Goyer, this has an astonishing conceptual audacity in its plot dealing with shifting realities and transplanted memories, making it arguably the finest science-fiction film of the 1990s
After Alice (1999)
Apr 4, 2001Clairvoyant/Serial Killer Thriller
Kiefer Sutherland is a detective investigating a serial killer who finds he is having clairvoyant dreams. A fairly routine thriller on all counts.
Phone Booth (2002)
Jun 28, 2003Man Trapped in a Phone Booth by a Psycho Sniper
Sharp and original script from Larry Cohen in which Colin Farrell is trapped inside a phone booth by a sniper. Good story that even the awful Joel Schumacher in the director's seat doesn't screw up too badly
Taking Lives (2004)
May 12, 2004Serial Killer Thriller
Serial killer thriller with Angelina Jolie as an FBI profiler tracking a killer in Montreal and becoming involved with suspect Ethan Hawke. The plot falls apart in some shabby twists
River Queen (2005)
Feb 25, 2006Maori Wars Historical Epic/Precognitive Dream
Vincent Ward is one of the directors who should be granted more opportunities to make films. This is his least satisfying work, a troubled behind-the-scenes epic set during New Zealand's Maori Wars with some Magical Realist touches
The Wild (2006)
Nov 10, 2006Animation/Talking Zoo Animals
Likeable animated film about a group of zoo animals making an escape that ended up being overshadowed by the similar, more high-profile Madagascar
Mirrors (2008)
Nov 22, 2008Haunted Mirrors
Alexandre Aja film about haunted mirrors. Aja is more a director of physical horror and seems less attuned to the supernatural mood
Monsters vs Aliens (2009)
Apr 4, 2009Animation/Friendly Monsters vs Alien Invaders
Cutley appealing DreamWorks animated film that brings together a bunch of oddball creatures clearly intended as an affectionate homage to various 1950s sf films
Melancholia (2011)
Nov 20, 2011Depression and the End of the World
Lars von Trier’s exploration of his depression continues in this nihilistic end of the world film. It is bleak and relentless but the characters are opaque in their motivations. Somehow I prefer von Trier back in agent provocateur mode
Flatliners (2017)
Dec 23, 2017Exploring the Afterlife/Haunting
Another remake we never asked for. Considering that this had the entire CGI revolution to conceive of the afterlife journey and merely has to top Joel Schumacher, it is amazing how dull and uninteresting this emerges as
They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
Aug 4, 2023Illicit Experiments in the Ghetto
A wonderfully paranoid film where drug dealer John Boyega discovers illicit mind control experiments are being conducted on a ghetto neighbourhood and that he is one in a series of clones