Soul Survivors (2001)
Sep 9, 2001Haunting
This is essentially The Sixth Sense rehashed as a teen horror film and conducted without any finesse - here you can see the twist ending coming miles in advance
Wes Bentley
P2 (2007)
Apr 2, 2009Imprisonment Psycho-Thriller
Tense and twist-filled thriller with Rachel Nichols trapped inside a carpark building by a psychopathic Wes Bentley
Ghost Rider (2007)
Mar 26, 2007Comic-Book Avenger/Demonic Superhero
Film adaptation of Marvel Comics' demon superhero emerges as better than it had the right to be. The risibility of the image of a motorcycle-riding demon hero is made to work through some vivid and way-out effects
Ligeia (2009)
Jan 14, 2012Modernised Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation
Modernised adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story. Poe might be turning in his grave with visits to fetish clubs added to the mix but mostly the film befalls a low-budget and tepid delivery
Jonah Hex (2010)
Jun 19, 2010Western Comic-Book Adaptation/Supernatural Bounty Hunter
This is an adaptation of the DC comic-book character of a supernatural avenging Western gunslinger that fails to burn with the grim mood it should have
The Hunger Games (2012)
Mar 29, 2012Future Televised Human Hunting
A Young Adult box-office hit that does little more than competently shuffle around ideas from other SF films. Jennifer Lawrence makes an impressive showing but the film also soft-pedals the moral reality of its scenario
Gone (2012)
Mar 5, 2012Psycho-Thriller
This feels like a post-Silence of the Lambs thriller with Amanda Seyfried as an abduction survivor trying to find her missing sister. The film never rises above the cliches of the genre
Interstellar (2014)
Nov 8, 2014Space Expedition
This could be Christopher Nolan's 2001: A Space Odyssey. But where Kubrick was cold and oblique, this is a 2001 with a heart. A pleasure to see a film rooted in credible science and dealing with high concept SF
Amnesiac (2014)
Nov 12, 2019Imprisonment Thriller
Michael Polish is one of the underrated American directors. Here an amnesiac Wes Bentley wakes up a prisoner of a wonderfully chilling Kate Bosworth who insists that she is his wife
Final Girl (2015)
Sep 20, 2015Girl Vigilante Turns the Tables on Killers
Not to be confused with The Final Girls that came out earlier this year, this is an extremely original work, neither quite slasher nor a vigilante film, yet turning the expectations of either on their heads
Pete’s Dragon (2016)
Aug 27, 2016Boy and Invisible Dragon/Disney Remake
Another Disney remake that hardly resemble its source – the original was light slapstick with a big cartoon dragon, this is a sober wild child story where the dragon is now an endangered species
Broken Vows (2016)
Apr 15, 2018Stalker Film
Jaimie Alexander has an affair with barman Wes Bentley whereafter he stalks her and throws her wedding plans awry. Wes Bentley plays with a darkly magnetic intensity but the film slides into the tamely PG-rated Fatal Attraction cliches
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Dec 29, 2018Spy/Action Film
The sixth of the Mission: Impossible films. Not the best of the series but Tom Cruise and associates have everything polished to an expertly honed formula by now and the film is a kinetic ride of intensive and often jaw-dropping action sequences