Volcano (1997)
Sep 5, 2004Disaster Movie/Volcano Erupts in L.A.
A disaster movie made early into the CGI era based around the ludicrous notion of an active volcano suddenly appearing in Los Angeles
Neal H. Moritz
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Dec 13, 2010Slasher Film
Kevin Williamson's follow-up to Scream. There is not quite the same witty game-playing but this is still an above-average slasher film with a reasonable cast and more-than-adequate suspense generated
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
Apr 14, 1999Slasher Film
The sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer. This misses the playful humour and twists of Kevin Williamson's script and becomes no more than a routine slasher movie
Urban Legend (1998)
May 9, 1999Slasher Film
Following the success of Scream, this was an attempt to make an upmarket slasher film based around the motif of urban legends in the same way that Scream used 1980s slasher films. It is a stretch to make urban legends fit in some cases but director Jamie Blanks delivers reasonable tension
Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)
Sep 19, 2000Slasher Film
Sequel fairly much in name only to Urban Legend and barely at all about urban legends, this has the amusing idea of taking place at a film school and features a number of sly asides. This alas befalls routine direction
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
The Glass House (2001)
Sep 16, 2001Evil Foster Parents Psycho-Thriller
A modest and reasonably effective psycho-thriller about a brother and sister who are adopted after the death of their parents only to find their step-parents have sinister intent
xXx (2002)
Oct 19, 2002Extreme Adventure Sports Spy
One of the most brainless action films ever made. This has the laughable notion of trying to make a James Bond film but recasting it with Vin Diesel as an extreme sports junkie. Everything about the film is absurd.
Stealth (2005)
Oct 6, 2005Artifically Intelligent Fighter Plane Amok
Action film about an artificially intelligent fighter plane that goes amok. Rob Cohen directs in all the cliches of the genre and the seeming need to have something spectacular happening every few minutes
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
I Am Legend (2007)
Jan 19, 2008Last Man on Earth vs Mutants
The third film version of Richard Matheson’s book is only a remake of the previous version The Omega Man. Crucially, this throws out the essence of the book for a far less interesting piece about Will Smith fighting mutants in the ruins
Evan Almighty (2007)
Sep 23, 2007Modern-Day Noah's Ark Comedy
Sequel to Bruce Almighty in which Steve Carell is transformed into a modern-day Noah. This was pitched to the Christian audiences but feels like a series of lame gags playing on Noah and the Ark devoid of any biblical context
Prom Night (2008)
May 25, 2008Slasher Film
Another among the fad for remakes of 70s/80s horror films. Any connection to the original Jamie Lee Curtis disco slasher is thrown out in favour of a generic modern slasher
Battle Los Angeles (2011)
Mar 13, 2011Alien Invasion/War Film
Essentially this is a big-budget alien invasion film like Independence Day having been reconceived as a gritty, shakycam-shot war movie along the lines of Saving Private Ryan
The Green Hornet (2011)
Jan 14, 2011Masked Superhero
The long-planned big screen adaptation of the popular radio and tv masked hero becomes a disaster by placing the script in the hands of a badly miscast star Seth Rogen who plays everything for comedy
The Change-Up (2011)
Sep 10, 2011Bodyswap Comedy
A raucous and eminently predictable variant on the bodyswap comedy that also manages to be expertly played by leads Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds and pulls off some genuine laugh-out-loud moments
Total Recall (2012)
Aug 2, 2012Virtual Memories/Reality Bender/Action
I was never a particular fan of the Schwarzenegger original and this improves on it somewhat. This is far better conceived as an action film with some amazing Cyberpunk designs. On the other hand, the two decades interim has made the story's Philip K. Dick-ian reality bendings seem commonplace
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
Feb 28, 2013Fairytale Adaptation/Epic Fantasy
Bryan Singer was once the hope of fanboy cinema but this attempt to turn Jack and the Beanstalk into an epic fantasy feels exactly like formula studio product that could have been made by any hired director
R.I.P.D. (2013)
Jul 20, 2013Afterlife Police Force
This feels like someone has simply copied the idea of a secretive law enforcement agency from and substituted the dead escaped from Hell for aliens. The two have remarkably similar story arcs, although this is far more goofily entertaining that the absurdly overblown slapstick that overtook the Men in Black sequels
Goosebumps (2015)
Oct 25, 2015Horror Writer's Creations Unleashed
A film based on the hugely popular children's horror series. The film creates a story where the creatures from all the books are unleashed. This is fun to watch, yet what we ultimately have is easy, undemanding horror for family audiences
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
Goosebumps 2 (2018)
Apr 14, 2019Evil Ventriloquist's Dummy Amok
The second film spun off from R.L. Stine's popular horror stories promotes the wonderfully evil ventriloquist's dummy Slappy to principal nemesis. The rest of the film is predictable but Slappy deserves his own series
Escape Room (2019)
Apr 21, 2019Escape Room of Death Traps
The most high-profile of three identically titled films to come out around the same time all based around the popularity of escape rooms. This generates fair tension and has a certain WTF quality as the characters pass through each scenario
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Mar 14, 2020Videogame Adaptation/Supersonic Alien Hedgehog
After a disastrous fan reception of its initial trailer, the film of the videogame arrives on screen. The surprise is that for such a zero expectation film and one that defies the engagement of any of your braincells it is as much fun as it is.
Bloodshot (2020)
Apr 11, 2020Augmented Super-Soldier/Comic-Book Adaptation
That starts out seeming a standard mindless action film in which Vin Diesel is resurrected as an augmented super-soldier only for everything we assume to get turned on its head in interesting ways
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)
Sep 19, 2021Escape Room of Death Traps
Sequel to the 2019 Escape Room. This repeats everything that its predecessor did but bigger and more elaborate to the point that basic believability goes out the window
Fast & Furious 9 (2021)
Jul 29, 2024Action Film
The Fast and the Furious series has escalated from films about illegal street racing to essentially superhero films involving ridiculous stunt work that defies the laws of physics. This takes the characters into orbit
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
May 27, 2022Videogame Adaptation/Supersonic Alien Hedgehog
Sequel to the hit videogame adaptation, this offers up fairly much the same mix of elements as before - a cutely anthrompomorphic creature and Jim Carrey going to rafter-rattling excess
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
Jan 31, 2025Videogame Adaptation/Supersonic Alien Hedgehog
Third of the Sonic the Hedgehog films and surprisingly far more entertaining than you expect from such a lightweight formulaic film
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
Sep 12, 2025Slasher Film
In recent years, we have seen successful revivals of the Scream and Halloween franchises. Now it is the turn of another classic 1990s slasher film, a reworking that emerges with hugely underwhelming results
Afterburn (2025)
Jun 19, 2026Post-Apocalyptic Action
Action film with Dave Bautista as a treasure hunter retrieving items in a post-apocalyptic world. Directed by a former stuntman, this plays much to the action element with little else of substance
Scary Movie (2026)
Jul 31, 2026Genre Spoof
The Wayans Brothers and most of the regulars return to revive the franchise to make more crude farce of the Scream and Halloween revivals and other horror films to come out in the last few years