Paperhouse (1989)
Aug 22, 2009Girl Builds a House in Dreams
One of the most sophisticated and intelligent of the 80s copies of A Nightmare on Elm Street with a rich central idea about a girl who can enter the world of her own drawings
Working Title
Drop Dead Fred (1991)
Jun 20, 2002Anarchic Invisible Playmate
Sort of Harvey remade by way of Beetlejuice wherein Phoebe Cates's childhood imaginary companion returns to wreak havoc. A film that makes a beeline for mud-pie throwing and general anarchy
The Borrowers [<i>Season 1</i>] (1992)
![The Borrowers [<i>Season 1</i>] (1992)](https://moriareviews.com/rongulator/wp-content/uploads/borrowers-1992-poster.jpg)
Sep 16, 2025Miniature People Adventures
Absolutely delightful and charming BBC series about a family of miniature people who live in secrecy inside the walls of human houses. The best of several versions of the popular books
That Eye, The Sky (1994)
Sep 14, 2002Ambiguous Miraculous Visitor
Strange Australian film set in the Outback with Peter Coyote as an ambiguous stranger who claims to have been sent from God
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Sep 10, 2001Black Comedy/Divine Intervention
One of the Coen Brothers’ strangest films – imagine a homage to a 1940s Howard Hawks film conducted on giant oversized sets like something out of Brazil with a blacker-than-black sense of humour and angels in the mix
Loch Ness (1996)
Nov 24, 2002Quest for the Loch Ness Monster
Big-budget film with a CGI creature made not long after Jurassic Park with Ted Danson as a zoologist investigating the existence of the Loch Ness Monster film. This only resorts to simplistic cliches
The Borrowers (1997)
Jul 16, 1999Miniature People Adventures
Amiable adaptation of Mary Norton's books about a family of miniature people that live in hiding in a human house. Aimed for big scale effects and slapstick set-pieces but sufficiently engaging nevertheless
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Feb 2, 2001Depression-Era Version of The Odyssey
The Coen Brothers hilariously adapt The Odyssey into the Depression Era with George Clooney leading a trio of escaped convicts as he tries to return to his wife
The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
Nov 16, 2001Film Noir Thriller/UFOs
Coen Brothers black comedy with Billy Bob Thornton as an anonymous barber in the 1940s on the receiving end of life's cruelties as he becomes involved in a blackmail scheme and murder
Long Time Dead (2002)
Sep 5, 2002Malevolent Djinn
This is a modest British horror film about a group of students that accidentally summon a djinn during a seance that proceeds to possess one of the group and kill all the others present
My Little Eye (2002)
Jul 17, 2003Snuff Reality TV Show
One of the best of several horror films that came out immediately following the advent of the reality tv show in the early 2000s. Director Marc Evans creates a sense of clammy claustrophobia.
Johnny English (2003)
May 5, 2003Incompetent Spy Comedy
Spy movie parody with Rowan Atkinson as an inept agent who is constantly tripping over his own feet. It is Austin Powers reconceived as a Mr Bean film but offering little that is funny.
Thunderbirds (2004)
Sep 21, 2004Hi-Tech Rescue Organisation/TV Series Remake
This live-action film version of the cult Gerry Anderson puppet series is a disaster. Great effort is made to replicate the look of the original but the film is killed by the choice to rewrite everything as a modern formula kid’s movie
Nanny McPhee (2005)
Jan 7, 2006Magical Nanny
Emma Thompson written and starring adaptation of a series of children's books comes across as a lesser copy of Mary Poppins. A film that feels like it should have been more than it ends up being.
Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang (2010)
Sep 16, 2010Magical Nanny
I never much cared for Nanny McPhee. This is a sequel that replicates the original in fairly much the same amount mix of plot elements, slapstick sequences and nonsensical absurdism
Johnny English Reborn (2011)
Nov 3, 2011Incompetent Spy Comedy
Rowan Atkinson is a very funny man but try as I might I cannot get into these Johnny English films - they seem at best lame Austin Powers castoffs with gags designed for the single digit age range
Paul (2011)
Mar 27, 2011Science-Fiction Fans Encounter an Alien Comedy
Hilarious Simon Pegg-written homage to science-fiction fandom and alien visitor cinema. imagine Starman recast with two science-fiction fans and tv's sarcastically wisecracking ALF (voiced by Seth Rogen)
The World’s End (2013)
Aug 23, 2013Alien Body Snatchers Comedy
Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the trio behind Shaun of the Dead, return to conduct a very similar effort – the story of a pub crawl that is affectionately mocking the characters' nowhere lives, before taking an abrupt dogleg turn to become a comedic take on the alien body snatchers film
About Time (2013)
Nov 3, 2013Time Travel Romantic Comedy
Time travel film that feels like a romantic comedy version of The Time Traveler's Wife (with Rachel McAdams in the same role in both films). Played with a good deal of feelgood warmth and likeability by all
The Snowman (2017)
Dec 24, 2017Norwegian Serial Killer Thriller
International production based on a series of books about a Norwegian detective. This flopped badly and was called confusing. Mostly, it is a serial killer thriller that fails to hold you gripped with its unfoldings
Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)
Feb 11, 2021Incompetent Spy Comedy
Rowan Atkinson in his third outing as the inept spy. Atkinson is a talented comic but these Johnny English films, which are like less sophisticated versions of Peter Sellers’ Inspector Closeau, are the least of his comedy incarnations
The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
Mar 29, 2021Modern-Day Arthurian Legends
Joe Cornish gained much buzz with Attack the Block. His follow-up film concerns a kid who inherits Excalibur. Cornish has fun translating elements of the Arthurian legends to the present-day
Yesterday (2019)
Sep 21, 2019Alternate History Where The Beatles Never Existed
Feelgood Danny Boyle film that most audiences missed was also an alternate history film set in a world where The Beatles never existed and one sideslipped singer is able to claim their songs as his own
Cats (2019)
Mar 29, 2020Musical/Singing Cats
The film version of the smash Andrew Lloyd Webber musical phenomenon was widely ridiculed. Seen, it is a colourful and absorbing entity and by no means as bad as its rap gives it
Last Night in Soho (2021)
Nov 27, 2021Ghosts of 1960s Soho
Edgar Wright creates a dazzlingly stylish recreation of 1960s London in a work with Thomasine McKenzie as a modern girl haunted by ghosts of the era’s dark underside
The Substance (2024)
Oct 25, 2024Rejuvenation Serum/Alternate Youthful Self
An absurdly over-the-top film where aging Demi Moore takes a serum that turns her into a youthful Margaret Qualley. A ridiculous film that for some reason did well at awards season
The Sheep Detectives (2026)
Jul 3, 2026Talking Sheep Detective Story
This has one of the most off the wall premises in some time – talking sheep team up to act as detectives and solve the murder of their shepherd. Think Babe meets Agatha Christie. The results are hilarious