Simon Magus (1999)
May 22, 2001Orthodox Jewish Village/Visions of the Devil
Film set in a small 19th Century Orthodox Jewish village struggling to deal with the modern world, featuring Noah Taylor as a fool troubled by visions of The Devil
Noah Taylor
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider (2001)
Jun 15, 2001Videogame Adaptation
The first film adaptation of the popular videogame is a film largely premised around the personality of Angelina Jolie. Outside of that, the film is a half-baked series of plot ends and action scenes taken from better films
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Dec 14, 2001Reality Bender
The English-language remake of Open Your Eyes, starring Tom Cruise. The Spanish version is still the superior of the two but this stays surprisingly faithful to the original
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
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Sep 16, 2005Gonzo Children's Film/Fantastical Candy Factory
Tim Burton's remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a peculiarly lifeless confection that fails to find any of the zaniness of the original, something that one would have thought would have been Burton's forte
Red, White & Blue (2010)
May 13, 2014Revenge Film
A disturbingly effective film that starts as a character study of people on the edge before eventually segueing into a savage revenge drama. The film astonishes you with its bared rawness, its uniquely condensed narrative and eventually the harrowing brutality of its ending
The Double (2013)
Jun 27, 2014Doppelganger
Socially inept Jesse Eisenberg encounters a charming doppelganger that takes over his life. Richard Ayoade adapts a Dostoevsky novella but for some reason transplants it into a blackly comic dystopia
Mindscape (2013)
Mar 2, 2015Therapist Journeys Inside People's Memories
It would be safe to say that without Inception there would be no Mindscape, which involves people entering memories rather than dreams but is similar in many other ways. Where this fails is in having no interest in the sf potential of the idea beyond using it as springboard for a thriller plot
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Jun 7, 2014Man Forced to Repeat the Same Day Over/Alien Invasion
The rarity of a summer blockbuster with smarts – think Groundhog Day reworked by way of Battle Los Angeles. The timeloop idea is dealt with in clever ways making for an action film driven by an original sf story
Predestination (2014)
Feb 1, 2015Time Paradox
An exceptional time travel film, one of the best to emerge in some time. Adapted from a classic Robert Heinlein story, the pleasure of the film all comes in seeing its twists and turns come together into the most ingenious temporal paradox ever conceived
And Then There Were None (2015)
Feb 13, 2016Agatha Christie Murder Mystery
Lush, beautifully produced version of the Agatha Christie murder mystery from the BBC to celebrate Christie's 125th anniversary. The story is a chamber mystery with guests in an isolated house being bumped off – sort of Big Brother with dead bodies
Paddington 2 (2017)
Mar 18, 2018Talking Bear
Sequel to the 2014 film based on the much loved children's books … This comes with exactly the same mix of silliness, overblown slapstick and sweetness that made the first film work – albeit on a more elaborate budget – and succeeds with the same winning charms
Bulk (2025)
May 2, 2026Multiverse Film
Ben Wheatley has gained a cult following in recent years with films like Kill List and High Rise. Here he sets out to make a deliberately low-tech multiverse film that becomes a real head-scratcher