The Outsider (1996)
Feb 17, 2003Android Amusement Park Amok
Low-budget film that steals the premise of Westworld in the story of an amusement park that recreates the world of 1940s film noir with androids, which proceed to go amok
Evan Spiliotopoulos
Legion (1998)
Jun 28, 2003Soldiers vs Alien Nasty
Well-made Alien copy that seems to have been conceived as a crosshatch between The Dirty Dozen and The Thing where the creature remains mostly psychological
The Jungle Book 2 (2003)
Apr 27, 2003Disney Animation/Jungle Boy
From the late 90s/early 00s period where Disney were churning out cheap sequels to their animated classics of yesteryear, a wholly unnecessary continuation of The Jungle Book
Battle for Terra (2007)
Jan 8, 2014Animation/War Between Human Colonists and Aliens
Animated film that has a remarkable number of similarities to Avatar – even though it was released before. A simplistic variant of the same human colonists vs alien natives plot conducted with corner-cut CGI animation
The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning (2008)
Dec 20, 2009Disney Animation
One among the series of cheap video-released sequels to their classic animated films made during the 1990s/2000s, this is a prequel that offers up a Little Mermaid origin story
Hercules (2014)
Jul 26, 2014Greek Mythological Hero's Ordinary Exploits
Dwayne Johnson starring Hercules film that just wants to be a big dumb cartoon without a brain cell in its body. This takes the interesting approach that Hercules was an ordinary man whose exploits were all down to PR
The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016)
Apr 30, 2016Snow White and the Huntsman Sequel
Sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman. Despite low expectations, this emerged better than one thought it would. It has a better director and seems much more at home being an epic fantasy than the first film
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
May 27, 2017Fairy-Tale/Disney Live-Action Remake
This live-action remake of the Disney animated film is mounted with a lavishness. On the other hand, the romance at the centre never fully warms up, while the human characters have the show stolen from under by the cutlery and furnishings
Charlie’s Angels (2019)
Feb 28, 2020TV Series Remake/Action Film
The second big screen revival of the hit 1970s tv series. Essentially a Girl Power version of one of the Mission: Impossible films, which turns what was originally a girl-fronted detective show into a spy caper featuring SF gadgetry
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021)
Aug 27, 2021Martial Arts/Action Film
Part of the attempt to reboot the G.I. Joe film series into a shared universe, this is a kinetically driven martial arts film
The Unholy (2021)
Sep 10, 2021Sinisterly Ambiguous Miracleworker
Adaptation of a James Herbert book about a deafmute girl who suddenly speaks and performs miracles, which may have a sinister cause
The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)
May 19, 2023True-Life Exorcist
A film based on the true-life figure of the Vatican’s official exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth this could have been great but descends into tedious hokum