The Black Room (1935)
Jul 9, 2024Evil Twin/Historical Horror
A stylishly made historical horror where Boris Karloff plays an evil heir to a European province who seeks to gain power by masquerading as his good twin brother
Columbia
Lost Horizon (1937)
Jun 4, 2001Hidden Valley Paradise/The Secret of Longevity
Hugely successful and probably overrated classic from Frank Capra about the discovery of a lost valley in the Himalayas that offers the secret of immortality
Dr Cyclops (1940)
Sep 29, 2001Mad Scientist/Miniaturised People
From the people behind King Kong, a film in which a mad scientist shrinks a group of people to a few inches tall. Some excellent effects for the era, making this one of the best films on the theme of miniaturisation
The Shadow (1940)
Dec 10, 2024Masked Superhero/Serial
A serial adaptation of the popular radio superhero, which gets the look of the character perfect but drops all his mystical powers
The Devil Commands (1941)
May 10, 2016Mad Scientist
Boris Karloff mad scientist film with a fear of science at the most extreme of any work of this era. What seems absurd is the film's belief that doom will be brought by a device that is nothing more than an EEG machine
Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941)
Feb 3, 2000Afterlife Mixup
One of the original Hollywood afterlife films of the 1940s light fantasy boom, twice remade, most notedly as Warren Beatty’s Heaven Can Wait. Amiable and likeable while avoiding any deeper issues
The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942)
May 24, 2023Mad Scientist Screwball Comedy
Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre make an unexpectedly great comic pairing in this mad scientist screwball comedy that comes with an exhaustingly madcap pace
The Phantom (1943)
Oct 25, 2022Serial/Comic-Book Superhero
Serial adaptation of the famous comic-strip superhero. One of the better serial comic-book adaptations, featuring some great cliffhangers and maintaining great faith to the comic-strip original
Batman (1943)
Nov 26, 2000Comic-Book Superhero/Serial
Batman's first screen appearance in a fifteen-chapter serial. This is a dull, impoverished adaptation, which sees Batman and Robin rewritten in the service of the US government fighting a Japanese invasion force
A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
Nov 27, 2024Arabian Nights Adventure
Part of the fad during the 1940s for swashbuckling Arabian Nights adventures, this tells the story of Aladdin and is more embracing of the fantasy elements than most of the other films of this period
Down to Earth (1947)
Jan 23, 2001Greek Muse Comes Down to Earth
This was a semi-sequel to Here Comes Mr Jordan featuring Rita Hayworth as the goddess Terpsichore descended to Earth to inspire a Broadway producer
Superman (1948)
Dec 5, 2012Comic-Book Superhero/Serial
A 15 chapter serial that marks the very first live-action screen appearance of Superman. The superheroics and effects are painfully primitive today (where Superman flying is represented by animation) but the serial gets many aspects of the comic-book down right
Batman and Robin (1949)
Sep 16, 2015Comic-Book Superhero/Serial
Not to be confused with the Joel Schumacher atrocity, this was the second Batman film ever made, a 15-chapter serial. This is mostly worth watching as a novelty in its laughable attempts to approximate the superheroics of the comic-book in comparison to modern counterparts
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950)
Mar 29, 2022Serial/Comic-Book Superhero
This fifteen chapter serial was the second ever Superman film. It is a vigorously entertaining run through the comic’s basics and features the first screen appearance of Lex Luthor
Mysterious Island (1951)
Mar 27, 2024Serial/Desert Island Survival/Alien Invaders
A serial adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic survival story about escapees aboard a hot-air balloon who wash up on a desert island. To the regular story, this sees fit to add hostile natives, pirates and invading aliens from Mercury
The Mad Magician (1954)
Sep 7, 2001Psycho Stage Magician
Vincent Price had success as the mad waxworks curator in the 3D horror House of Wax. This cheap copycat casts Price as a mad stage magician and is also served up in 3D
The Glass Slipper (1955)
Aug 25, 2002Cinderella Adaptation
A live-action version of Cinderella starring Leslie Caron. This is a rather staid version with ballet sequences where the magic and romance never much ignites
Jungle Moon Men (1955)
Jun 11, 2005Jungle Adventure/Immortal Queen
Former Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller plays himself in a routine studio backlot jungle adventure that uncreditedly steals the plot from H. Rider Haggard's She
The Werewolf (1956)
Aug 17, 2000Atomic Werewolf
A real oddity among the werewolf genre – a film that tries to mix the werewolf up with the 1950s fad for the atomic monster movie in having the transformation brought on by atomically irradiated wolf blood
Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956)
Sep 9, 2000Alien Invasion
Cult stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen jumps aboard the 1950s flying saucer fad, making one of the era's better alien invader films, climaxing in some great scenes with the saucers demolishing much of Washington D.C.
Night of the Demon (1957)
Jan 4, 2001Occult Curse
Classic occult film from former Val Lewton associate Jacques Tourneur that sits in a wonderfully ambiguous place where we cannot be certain whether the supernatural is real or imagined
Bell Book and Candle (1958)
Dec 13, 2000Witch in Love
Charming fantasy in which James Stewart is tempted by capricious witch Kim Novak. This almost certainly served as the inspiration for tv's Bewitched
The Tingler (1959)
May 10, 2009Capturing the Spirit of Fear
The finest moment from gimmick master William Castle with Vincent Price as a coroner searching for a parasite that feeds on fear. Full of Castle's luridly sensationalistic effects and containing the first portrayal of an LSD trip on screen.
Have Rocket — Will Travel (1959)
Jan 4, 2023Idiots Launched Into Space Comedy
Full-length comedy from The Three Stooges where the idiots are janitors at a space centre who accidentally launch themselves into space. One of several Space Age films where popular comics where launched into space
Valley of the Dragons (1961)
Aug 25, 2014Jules Verne Adaptation/Prehistoric Lost World on a Comet
Among the 1950s/60s spate of Jules Verne films, this was an adaptation of one of Vernr's lesser-known works Hector Servadac/Off on a Comet. That said, all the but the notion of people swept up on a comet is thrown out and the rest played as a prehistoric lost world adventure
Mysterious Island (1961)
Jan 4, 2001Desert Island Survival/Giant Animals
Amid the fad for Jules Verne adaptations of the 1950s/60s, we had this version of Verne’s desert island story, which has been pumped up with the addition of giant-size Ray Harryhausen animals and insects
The Collector (1965)
Apr 3, 2001Obsession and Abduction/Comedy-Thriller
Adaptation of a John Fowles novel where shy Terence Stamp makes Samantha Eggar a prisoner so she can love him. Made not long after Psycho, this tries similar but becomes more of an Odd Couple comedy
Bunny Lake is Missing (1965)
Aug 16, 1999Missing Child Psycho-Thriller
Psycho-thriller from Otto Preminger about the disappearance of a young girl. As much for the twists and turns of the story, Preminger enjoys the portrayal of the darkly laced characters on the periphery
Murderers Row (1966)
May 3, 2006Spy Film
An excruciating copy of the James Bond films, the second of the Matt Helm films starring Dean Martin as a drunken lounge lizard spy
The Silencers (1966)
Mar 10, 2003Spy Film
The first and probably the least worst in a series of James Bond copycat films starring Dean Martin as agent Matt Helm. Martin plays the part as a tipsy lounge lizard and the film comes stuffed with excruciating double entendres
Casino Royale (1967)
Aug 7, 2001James Bond Spoof
During the James Bond craze of the 1960s, the only Ian Fleming novel not owned by Albert R. Broccoli was turned into a giant farce. The film has five directors, a host of stars (including three playing Bond) and is an incoherent mess
The Mad Room (1969)
Oct 2, 2024Psycho Film
One among the spate of 1960s psycho films with Stella Stevens dealing with her brother and sister, one of whom is a killer
Marooned (1969)
Jul 9, 2000NASA Space Mission Disaster
Released three months after the Moon Landing, this was a big-budget film depicting a space mission disaster that leaves three astronauts marooned in orbit
Watermelon Man (1970)
May 16, 2018White Man Wakes Up as a Black Man/Satiric Comedy
From Melvin Van Peebles who made the first Blaxploitation film, a satire in which a white man wakes up to find he has turned black. This takes a savage bite out of race relations but ends up without teeth in being distracted by Godfrey Cambridge's raucous loudmouth performance
Creatures the World Forgot (1971)
Apr 3, 2001Prehistory/Caveman Drama
The fourth and final of Hammer Films' cycle of prehistoric adventure films, this far less interestingly throws out stop-motion animated dinosaurs and opts for relative anthropological realism
Taxi Driver (1976)
Jun 14, 2002Urban Psychosis
Possibly the best film made by Martin Scorsese. A disturbing vision of urban psychosis set in a morally festering New York City where the psycho, Robert De Niro’s title character who spills over with pent-up violence, actually becomes the hero of the show
Obsession (1976)
Feb 6, 2002Reincarnation Thriller
Brian De Palma with Paul Schrader on script make a homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo with Cliff Robertson wandering Venice believing he has found the reincarnation of his late wife
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Nov 4, 2000UFOs/Alien Contact
Steven Spielberg's film about alien contact was every bit as big as Star Wars in 1977. The whole film is the equivalent of sitting gazing up at a starry sky wondering if we are alone and built up to the wondrous climactic appearance of the UFOs
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
Jul 15, 2002Arabian Nights Adventure
The third of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad films, this came out the same year as Star Wars and Harryhauden's stop-motion animated creatures look much more flat in comparison
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
Jul 5, 2002Psychic Link with a Serial Killer
Faye Dunaway is a fashion photographer who gains a psychic link into the mind of a killer. From a John Carpenter script but the thriller plotting is never up to the chic suggestiveness the film is given
All That Jazz (1979)
May 11, 1999Dance Choreographer's Self-Analysis/Angel of Death
Dance choreographer/director Bob Fosse makes an autobiographical film in which dance choreographer (played by Roy Scheider) reflects on his life to the Angel of Death
The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb (1980)
May 8, 2018"True Story" of the Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb
TV movie about the historical discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter that inflates the tabloid notion there was a curse and so distorts the historical record that it more properly enters the realm of fantasy
Heavy Metal (1981)
May 3, 2000Adult Animation Anthology
Cult animated film that adapts several stories from the adult fantasy comic-book Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal. These vary but in its better moments that has a trippy cult hallucinatory quality
Wrong is Right (1982)
Jun 10, 2002International Political Thriller/Stolen Nuclear Weaponry
A sprawling international political thriller/satire about stolen nuclear weapons starring Sean Connery as a journalist
Tempest (1982)
Jul 1, 2000Modernised Shakespeare Adaptation
Paul Mazursky conducts a contemporary version of the Shakespeare play set in the Greek islands, which serves to give the original a potent resonance
Christine (1983)
May 4, 2001Evil Car/Stephen King Adaptation
John Carpenter takes on Stephen King’s novel about an evil car and a boy’s relationship with it with dynamic results. The film is made by Carpenter’s slick direction and a series of sensational effects set-pieces
Krull (1983)
Jun 14, 2002Sword and Sorcery
A big-budget fantasy film made too much in the shadow of Star Wars by people with little understanding of the genre. The fantasy elements feel leaden and fail to take any imaginative flight
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
Jun 19, 2000Planetary Adventure
Planetary adventure in the Star Wars vein with a few shakes of the junkyard future look of Mad Max 2. This was made to exploit the short-lived early 80s 3D revival fad
Sheena (1984)
Feb 1, 2001Jungle Girl
Big screen adaptation of the Will Eisner comic-book and 1950s tv series about a female Tarzan. A blank Tanya Roberts in the title role and a campy script pushes it well into bad movie status
Body Double (1984)
Jan 16, 2000Psycho-Sexual Thriller
Brian De Palma psycho-thriller that blatantly copies Hitchcock's Vertigo and a few dashes of Rear Window. But De Palma's stylish moves collapse under the weight of an absurdly contrived plot
Fright Night (1985)
Jan 28, 2001Vampire Next Door Neighbour
Slick well made film that successfully transplants the vampire to modern suburbia. Made with a top-drawer arsenal of effects, including taking a leaf from An American Werewolf in London and showing a detailed man into bat transformation
The Bride (1985)
Jul 29, 2006Frankenstein Film
Lushly mounted remake of Bride of Frankenstein with Sting as Frankenstein and Jennifer Beals as the Bride. More costume drama than it ever is a horror story.
Crossroads (1986)
Dec 8, 2001Blues Music Quest/Pact With The Devil
One of Walter Hill's finest films that sets out in search of the soul of blues music, featuring a superlative performance from Joe Seneca as an aging bluesman who wants back the soul he traded to The Devil for success
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Feb 1, 2002Team of Spook Chasers Comedy
A weak follow-up to the hit original that essentially killed off any further Ghostbusters sequels. Most of the the cast are back but the plot and proceedings feel like a walk-through for all involved.
The Fisher King (1991)
Sep 14, 2002Modern-Day Grail Quest
Terry Gilliam's finest moment, a modernised knightly quest where radio dj Jeff Bridges is dragged into helping homeless man Robin Williams find the Holy Grail. A film made by its performances and warm and eventually soaring characterisations
Single White Female (1992)
Jul 20, 2000Psycho Roommate
Part of the late 1980s/early 90s spate of post-Fatal Attraction psycho-thrillers featuring deranged women stalkers. A creepy Jennifer Jason Leigh moves into Bridget Fonda's apartment and then turns obsessive
Radio Flyer (1992)
Jan 3, 2001Childhood Abuse/Fantasy of Flight
Rare flop from Richard Donner, a Coming of Age story where a young Elijah Wood receives visions from a buffalo and dreams of flying away from an abusive childhood
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Jan 7, 2001Dracula Adaptation
Francis Ford Coppola remakes and reinvents Dracula, transforming the text of Bram Stoker's book into a sensual, visually ravishing film with lush production values that make you gasp in excitement
Striking Distance (1993)
Aug 14, 2000Action/Psycho-Thriller
Action thriller with Bruce Willis as a river patrol detective hunting a serial killer
Groundhog Day (1993)
Jan 2, 2000Timeloop Comedy
Winning comedy with Bill Murray trapped in a timeloop and forced to repeat the same day over. Murray is at a career-peak best and served by a great script. The surprise is how much the timeloop theme was copied by subsequent films
Last Action Hero (1993)
Jan 6, 2002Adventures Inside the Movie Screen/Action Movie Parody
A big flop but highly underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger film, a sophisticated meta-fiction that views the cinema screen as another dimension and wittily deflates action cliches
Wolf (1994)
Feb 15, 2002Werewolf Film
Reasonable box-office hit that offers a stripped-back werewolf film with minimalist effects as milquetoast Jack Nicholson suddenly discovers the beast within
Street Fighter (1994)
May 22, 2001Videogame Adaptation/Action Team
Based on the popular videogame, you cannot complain that this is exactly what you expect – wall-to-wall action, comic-book heroes and villains. The complaint might be that the action is never particularly enervated and the film lacks anything beyond that
The Net (1995)
Oct 31, 2001Cyber-Thriller
Film that tried to jump aboard the newly arrived paradigm of the internet but is mostly a cliched thriller about Sandra Bullock trying to recover her erased identity
First Knight (1995)
May 27, 2002Arthurian Legends
A version of the Arthurian legends that has stripped out Merlin and all of the magic and mounted it as an historical romance. With Sean Connery as King Arthur and Richard Gere as Lancelot
Multiplicity (1996)
Sep 2, 2003Cloning Comedy
Harold Ramis followed up the hit of Groundhog Day with this amiable comedy in which Michael Keaton is an overworked husband who creates several clones of himself to help with the workload
The Craft (1996)
Jan 25, 2003Teen Witches
A smart and well cast film about a quartet of modern teen high school girls who form a coven of witches. This starts well but loses it in an overblown second act
Men in Black (1997)
Aug 20, 2001Alien Coverup Conspiracy Agency
A huge box-office hit, this comedy turns UFO conspiracy of on its head in a witty script with the heroes part of an organisation that covers up the existence of aliens
Anaconda (1997)
Jul 5, 2004Giant Snake
A film crew in the Amazon headed by Jennifer Lopez encounter a giant snake. Mounted as a CGI monster movie in the aftermath of Jurassic Park, this has scripting that frequently descends into the ludicrous
8MM (1999)
Apr 29, 1999Snuff Movie Thriller
This seeks to be another Se7en, adapting a script by Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker and employing the same visual style in the story of Nicolas Cage delving into a seedy underworld in search of a snuff movie.
Stuart Little (1999)
Dec 18, 1999Mouse Boy
Taking its its cue from the mix of animatronics and CGI in Babe, this is a live-action adaptation of the E.B. White book. A sweet and charming film about a family that adopts a little mouse boy that proved an unexpected hit
The Bone Collector (1999)
Nov 6, 1999Serial Killer Thriller
Serial killer thriller with Denzel Washington as Jeffrey Deaver's quadriplegic profiler Lincoln Rhyme and Anjelina Jolie as a rookie cop who becomes his aide
Bicentennial Man (1999)
Dec 21, 1999Robot Gains Self-Awareness/Isaac Asimov Adaptation
Isaac Asimov may not have been the best science-fiction writer ever but his stories buzzed with challenging ideas. In the hands of Chris Columbus, one of Asimov's robot stories is reduced to mawkish sentimentalism
What Planet Are You From? (2000)
Mar 4, 2000Alien Visitor Comedy
A sex-changed version of My Stepmother is an Alien in which Garry Shandling is an alien come to Earth to breed with a woman. Despite being directed by Mike Nichols this is as lame as it sounds and stumbles through tired routines that were not even funny the first time around
Hollow Man (2000)
Aug 6, 2000Invisible Maniac
Paul Verhoeven uses CGI effects to revamp the invisible man film with amazing results. On the other hand, Verhoeven’s penchant for sex and violence overkill quickly emerges with distasteful results
Evolution (2001)
Jun 8, 2001Rapidly Evolving Alien Lifeforms/Comedy
Ivan Reitman comedy that is essentially a rehash of his earlier hit Ghostbusters but where instead of ghosts he has a team investigating rapidly alien lifeforms at a meteor crash site
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Jul 15, 2001Anime/Alien Soul Devourers
Despite being made by the same company, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Final Fantasy videogame. It is a visually stunning work of anime that takes place on an epic scale set after Earth has been invaded by spirit beings
Enough (2002)
Nov 1, 2002Abusive Husband Psycho-Thriller
Thriller about an abused wife standing up to take the law into her own hands against her husband. This has its credibility shot out by being made as a Jennifer Lopez film who does not seem to want taint the glamour of her image by seeming battered
Stuart Little 2 (2002)
Oct 19, 2002Mouse Boy
The sequel to Stuart Little proves as equally likeable as its predecessor
Peter Pan (2003)
Dec 30, 2003Children's Adventures in a Magic Land
Live-action remake of the classic story this has some lovely moments but also feels over-produced and adds unnecessary adult psychological motivations to the mix
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Jul 5, 2004Comic-Book Superhero
Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire get it just right in the second entry in their trilogy of Spider-Man films. The writing team deliver a fantastic Soul of the Superhero script while Raimi delivers some superheroic action sequences that are about as exciting as it is possible to get (*)
Bewitched (2005)
Sep 3, 2005Witch in Love/TV Series Remake
The hit 1960s sitcom is repackaged as a frothy Nora Ephron romcom that suffers from a fatal mismatching of a showboating Will Ferrell and a more subdued Nicole Kidman who do not seem to connect in any way as Darren and Samantha
Click (2006)
Jun 21, 2006Remote Control to Life Comedy
An Adam Sandler comedy in which he is an ordinary family man who is given a magical remote control that allows him to pause and fast forward his way through the boring bits of his life
Monster House (2006)
Nov 10, 2006Animation/Living House Amok
Delightful motion capture animated film about children discovering a neighbourhood house that is alive. Written with refreshingly well-rounded characters and directed with a great sense of comic grotesque
30 Days of Night (2007)
Feb 3, 2008Small Town in Alaska Overrun by Vampires
Solid vampire film produced by Sam Raimi about a small Alaskan town that suddenly finds itself besieged by vampires who have come because of the month of night
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
The Messengers (2007)
Oct 9, 2008Haunting
The Pang Brothers, two of the most exciting genre directors in the world, have their distinctive style swallowed up in their bland US mainstream debut produced by Sam Raimi
Zombieland (2009)
Nov 3, 2009Zombie Comedy
Enjoyable zombie comedy that has been regarded as a classic by many and contains an appealing nonchalant sense of humour and some great performances, even if it owes much to Shaun of the Dead
2012 (2009)
Nov 14, 2009The End of the World/Disaster Movie
Roland Emmerich mass destruction spectacle loosely based around the supposed Mayan prophecies about the end of the world in 2012. Mostly just an excuse for massively scaled disaster sequences.
Angels & Demons (2009)
May 19, 2009The Da Vinci Code Sequel
Ron Howard and Tom Hanks follow up their adaptation of The Da Vinci Code by turning to an earlier Dan Brown novel concerning conspiratorial goings-on in The Vatican but the show collapses amid absurdly contrived plotting
Year One (2009)
Jan 30, 2010Cavemen Stumble Through the Old Testament Comedy
Not very funny comedy from Harold Ramis and Judd Apatow where Jack Black and Michael Cera are cavemen who stumble through many incidents from the Old Testament
The Smurfs (2011)
Aug 10, 2011Cute Blue-Skinned Creatures
Live-action version of the popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. In its favour, it is at least slickly polished and comes with far less in the way of irritating smartass humour that one expected
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Dec 20, 2011Serial Killer Thriller
David Fincher's English-language remake of the Swedish film is capably made but a lesser shadow of something that worked perfectly the first time. In particular, Rooney Mara is no substitute for Noomi Rapace
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
Dec 20, 2011Animation/Comic-Book Character
Steven Spielberg makes a solid effort to bring Hergé's much loved comic-book character to life in this motion-capture animated effort. This plays free and easy with the original stories but generally gets the spirit of the comics right
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Jul 2, 2012Comic-Book Superhero
The reasoning behind rebooting the Spider-Man franchise after ten years and only three films is a puzzle. That said, this offers an edgier origin story than Sam Raimi's take and Andrew Garfield makes for a fine Spider-Man
Passengers (2016)
Jan 21, 2017Cryogenic Sleepers Awake Aboard a Space Voyage
The gratifying pleasure of a solid conceptually-driven science-fiction film – all based around the premise of "what if a cryogenic sleeper woke up halfway through a deep space voyage?" and the moral choices he must make. Strong, intelligent character-driven science-fiction and possibly the best designed film of the year
Ghostbusters (2016)
Jul 23, 2016Team of Spook Chasers Comedy
There was a lot of hate centred on this for recasting what is considered a classic film with an all-girl cast. It emerges mostly likeably, no better, no worse on the whole, where the new ensemble make a solid showing
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Mar 25, 2018Trapped Inside a Jungle-Themed Videogame
A revival of Jumanji. The original's boardgame is now a videogame that sucks the players inside. The adventure elements are routine but the film's has comedic fun with its bodyswapped characters
Venom (2018)
Jan 5, 2019Marvel Comics Superhero
Anything with the Marvel Comics name on it is box-office gold. This spins a standalone film off from one of the main villains of the Spider-Man comic-book. This is watchable by several showstopping effects set-pieces.
Peter Rabbit (2018)
Apr 29, 2018Talking Animals
Beatrix Potter wrote genteel stories of talking animals in the English countryside. This is a film so astonishingly awful in its treatment of the source material - it feels like someone drunkenly urinating on Beatrix Potter's gravestone for lulz. The No 1 contender for Worst Film of 2018