Weird Science (1985)
May 23, 2003Two Geeks Create the Perfect Woman
John Hughes cornered a certain 80s market on teen angst with films like The Breakfast Club. He also made this head-scratching oddity in which two nerds create the perfect woman
Robert Downey Jr
Chances Are (1989)
Jan 11, 2003Reincarnation Romantic Comedy
From the director of the hit Dirty Dancing, an inane romantic comedy in which Cybill Shepard thinks her daughter's boyfriend Robert Downey Jr is her reincarnated husband
Heart and Souls (1993)
Nov 3, 1999Disembodied Souls Comedy
Likeable light fantasy comedy where Robert Downey Jr is possessed by four disembodies souls and sets out to help them achieve their purpose. Filled with some great performances.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Sep 11, 2000Mass Murder Spree
Oliver Stone film with Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as a couple on an ultra-violent mass murder spree. Stone gets heavy-handedly preachy but directs with an excess of style that proves enormously entertaining
In Dreams (1999)
Apr 19, 1999Clairvoyance Thriller
In one of his more mainstream films, Neil Jordan takes a leaf from Eyes of Laura Mars as Annette Bening gains psychic insight into the mind of serial killer Robert Downey Jr
Gothika (2003)
Feb 23, 2004Asylum Haunting
Halle Berry is a psychiatrist who comes around to find she has been incarcerated in her own asylum only to then find it is haunted. An improbably contrived set up with some jumps
The Singing Detective (2003)
Nov 8, 2005Detective Story Daydreams
Disastrous Hollywood version of Dennis Potter's classic tv mini-series where a hospitalised Robert Downey jr fantasises a dream world of 1940s film noir
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Jul 24, 2006Animation/Philip K. Dick Adaptation/Identity Bending Drugs
Richard Linklater conducts an animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel with extremely faithful results. Keanu Reeves is a police officer assigned to investigate what he realises is himself
The Shaggy Dog (2006)
Nov 22, 2008Man Transforms Into a Dog Comedy
The remake of the old Disney comedy becomes a vehicle for Tim Allen, played with a manic slapstickery wherein Allen demonstrates there are few levels of silliness he will travel to in imitating dog-like behaviours
Zodiac (2007)
May 27, 2007True Life Serial Killer
David Fincher's gripping investigation into the unsolved true-life Zodiac Killer case. Fincher's stagings are exacting and the mystery he builds intensely absorbing
Iron Man (2008)
May 6, 2008Comic-Book Superhero
This where the MCU began after a spate of high-profile Marvel Comics adaptations in the early 2000s. Jon Favreau conducts a highly enjoyable adaptation of the comic-book with Robert Downey Jr shining as Tony Stark
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Jan 1, 2010Sherlock Holmes vs Black Magic
Guy Ritchie's reinvention of Sherlock Holmes seemed a miscalculated disaster in the offing. It doesn't radically reinvent the basics but emerges passably well
Iron Man 2 (2010)
May 21, 2010Comic-Book Superhero
Iron Man was very enjoyable. True to typical superhero sequel form, this complicates the original by introducing so many new villains and characters that it becomes an overcrowded narrative juggling act
The Avengers (2012)
May 4, 2012Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
The culmination of one of the most ambitious cinematic exercises ever conducted, with Marvel weaving storylines through several films to finally merge here with flawless regard. The characters get far more depth than in all of their previous films
Iron Man Three (2013)
May 3, 2013Comic-Book Superhero
A major disappointment. Stripping the superhero of the show of his suit makes for no more than a regular action hero, while the film's reduction of Iron Man's No 1 villain to a cardboard threat ranks down alongside a Batsuit with nipples
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
May 2, 2015Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
The first Avengers film came with a massive anticipation in seeing the characters come together and the snappiness of their interplay; here this seems more flat, while the rest is overrun by wall-to-wall action
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
May 14, 2016War Between Comic-Book Superheroes
Less Captain America 3 than The Avengers 3 – the entire film has been conceived as a massive superheroic punch-up. The results move with an exhilarating pace, but the Russo Brothers haven't yet mastered Joss Whedon's hand with character humour
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Oct 7, 2017Comic-Book Superhero
Sony's reboot of the Spider-Man franchise bursts with a freshness and creative energy. This is also a Spider-Man that has integrated with the MCU with the script kowtowing to Marvel at every point
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Nov 3, 2018Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
Marvel’s third Avengers film, uniting almost every superhero under their roof, resulting in some thirty characters on screen and a plot that becomes a blur of changing locations and superheroic punch-ups
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Aug 10, 2019Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
Marvel conclude the cliffhanger they left Avengers: Infinity War on and offer up a bigger-than-big line-up, overspilling with just about every MCU character to ever appear on screen up to that point
Dolittle (2020)
Feb 29, 2020Doctor That Can Speak to Animals
This revival of the classic children's character who can speak to animals took a critical battering but I kind of liked it. It has a completely madcap slapstick tone and more crucially returns to the stories and banishes any bad memory of Eddie Murphy