High Spirits (1988)
Feb 27, 2003Haunted Castle Comedy
Neil Jordan has shown himself as an excellent director elsewhere but seems to have little aptitude for comedy when it comes to this raucous knockabout farce about a haunted castle
Liam Neeson
The Dead Pool (1988)
Sep 12, 2000Dirty Harry vs a Psycho
The fifth and last of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry films, the weakest of the series. Dirty Harry comes up against a betting pool on celebrity deaths and a killer who decides to help it along
Darkman (1990)
Jan 3, 2000Disfigured Avenging Superhero
Sam Raimi created one of the few original screen superheroes with Darkman, essentially a superhero film where The Joker (by way of The Phantom of the Opera) is the hero of the piece
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Jun 6, 1999Space Opera
George Lucas's return to the Star Wars series after a sixteen year absence and a build-up rivaled only by the Second Coming. Instead most audiences went away disappointed. Lucas has used the interim to push the technology to its heights but the story and characters are lacking
The Haunting (1999)
Jul 25, 1999Haunted House
The original 1963 version of The Haunting was a masterpiece of unseen psychological horrors. This, in which all of the psychological horrors are replaced by loud and unsubtle CGI bombast, is one of the worst remakes of all time
Batman Begins (2005)
Jun 15, 2005Comic-Book Superhero
After Joel Schumacher killed off the cinematic Batman franchise, Christopher Nolan successfully revives it, bringing back the dark, psychologically brooding superhero and telling a Batman origin story
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
Dec 15, 2005Epic Fantasy Adventure/Magical Otherworld
The film adaptation of C.S. Lewis's book sought to appeal to audiences for the Lord of the Rings films but between Lewis's heavy-handed Christian allegories and Andrew Adamson's inexperience as a director fails to fly
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
Jun 29, 2008Epic Fantasy Adventure/Magical Otherworld
The second of the Narnia films. Director Andrew Adamson seems so intent on copying Peter Jackson that the film becomes all epic fantasy flourishes and battle scenes to the exclusion of all else - even much of C.S. Lewis's book
After.Life (2009)
Dec 13, 2010Girl Caught Between Dead and Alive
A film that creates a unusual atmosphere where Christina Ricci lies on a morgue slab and a puzzle over whether is dead or alive. Certainly different if not fully satisfactory
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
Dec 13, 2010Epic Fantasy Adventure/Magical Otherworld
Another lacklustre entry in the banal Lord of the Rings Lite franchise from C.S. Lewis's books, a plodding run of the mill fantasy adventure for the most part. The mediocre reception killed off interest in the series
Clash of the Titans (2010)
Apr 3, 2010Greek Mythology Adventure
Heavily disappointing remake of the Ray Harryhausen film where the replacement of Harryhausen's stop-motion animation with CGI fails to achieve any magic
Battleship (2012)
May 17, 2012US Navy vs Alien Invaders/Boardgame Adaptation
Adaptation of the Battleship boardgame that emerges at best as wannabe Michael Bay. Imagine Pearl Harbor mashed up with a Transformers film and lots of bone-headed glorification of American militarism
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Jul 19, 2012Comic-Book Superhero
The Dark Knight is a hard act to follow and Christopher Nolan almost does but not quite. The story keeps Batman off-screen for half the film. Tom Hardy's Bane dominates the show, while Catwoman is surprisingly subdued
Wrath of the Titans (2012)
Mar 29, 2012Greek Mythology Adventure
Sequel to the Clash of the Titans remake. Much the same as before except with bigger monsters and more explosions … flash and spectacle that washes over you with all the substance of the light from a disco ball
The Lego Movie (2014)
Feb 7, 2014Animation/Adventures in the Lego Universe
How much fun can a film based around Lego characters be? A film that overflows with cleverness, wit and energy. The most fun is in the film's creating a madcap mix-up of characters from different franchises
The Nut Job (2014)
Jan 17, 2014Animation/Talking Animal Heist Film
I went into this with zero expectations, expecting no more than a work of formula family entertainment and came out gently surprised. Essentially a talking cartoon animals variant on a heist plot, it does the formula likeably and with none of the relentless smart-ass cynicism of too many contemporaries
A Monster Calls (2016)
Jan 28, 2017Boy Befriends Giant Monster
The story of the relationship between a giant monster and a boy whose mother is dying of cancer, this is perhaps the darkest children's film ever made. Adapted from an award-winning illustrated book
Spielberg (2017)
Oct 23, 2017Steven Spielberg Documentary
Documentary made for HBO about director Steven Spielberg in which he reflects on his life and films. The documentary tends to focus more on his major hits and skips his minor films but does give worthwhile insight into Spielberg, his life and formative years
Men in Black: International (2019)
Aug 3, 2019Alien Coverup Conspiracy Agency
The original Men in Black was a witty parody of alien coverup conspiracies; the sequels became slapstick films about pop-up aliens and gadgets hidden behind everyday things. This offers little that is new
The Naked Gun (2025)
Sep 28, 2025Hard-Boiled Detective Parody
A revival of the Leslie Nielsen starring Naked Gun films, which were a parody of the hard-boiled detective film. With Liam Neeson playing Nielsen’s son. Featuring a surprising degree of SF content
Cold Storage (2026)
May 22, 2026Deadly Fungus
David Koepp is the high-profile screenwriter of Jurassic Park and other works. Here he adapts his own novel about a deadly fungus that overruns a storage facility into a wonderfully snappy horror show