Marionette (2020)
Film about a psychiatrist dealing with a boy who appears to be able to cause things to happen. All before things get really weird
Fantasy
Marquis (1989)
Hilariously adult and filthy minded retelling of the Marquis de Sade story using puppets. Quills crossbred with Meet the Feebles if you like.
Marrowbone (2017)
Film about children hiding in big old house of secrets following the death of their mother. Filled with all manner of fascinating secrets and twist revelations
Mary and Max (2008)
A quirky and quite hilarious Australian-made claymation film about the mail correspondence between a young girl and a lonely middle-aged man
Mary and the Witch’s Flower (2017)
The third film from former Studio Ghibli employee Hiromasa Yonebayashi who is is seen as the carrier of Hayao Miyazaki’s mantle. Sweet and amiable, even if it never hits the emotional heights Miyazaki does
Mary Poppins (1964)
Disney classic that is mostly a series of dance and effects sequences strung together without any real plot nevertheless is conducted with a dizzying absurdism and perfect charm that never wears out its welcome
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
Mary Poppins was one of the greatest of all Disney live-action films. This is a sequel that is an exacting replication/homage to the original but never seems to create its own sparkle
The Mask (1994)
Comic-book adaptation featuring a ballistically OTT Jim Carrey who becomes a zany figure of chaos whenever he puts on a mask. The film has been designed to emulate cartoon physics but its lack of any grounding reality proves annoying
The Master of Disguise (2002)
Hardly anyone remembers Dana Carvey, Mike Myers’ co-star in Wayne’s World. This was Carvey’s attempt to copy the Austin Powers films and is regarded as a bad movie
Match Point (2005)
This was one of Woody Allen’s strongest films in some years, this is a London-set work about conscience and murder over which the spirit of Dostoevsky hangs
Matchless (1967)
This was one of the numerous spy films of the 1960s, an Italian-made effort featuring Patrick O’Neal who goes into action with the aid of a magic invisibility ring
Matilda (1996)
Danny DeVito directs an adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel with Mara Wilson as a mentally gifted child. In DeVito’s hands, Roald Dahl’s black bite overbalances into broad farce
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
British director Michael Powell creates the most visually stunning of all 1940s afterlife fantasies in lush Technicolor, depicting a heaven of dazzling architectural marvels
Max & Co (2007)
An amiable Swiss Claymation effort not dissimilar to Aardman’s films concerning a young fox troubadour who takes a stand against a tyrannical fly swat manufacturer
Max Payne (2008)
Based on the popular videogame, this is fairly much Death Wish by way of Jacob’s Ladder. An expensive studio film that proves an underwhelming delivery of its promise
Max Reload and the Nether Blasters (2020)
Videogamers fight a demonic entity unleashed from a 1980s game. A film that is far more fun that you expect and comes loaded with videogaming in-jokes
Maxie (1985)
Light fantasy comedy where Glenn Close plays a housewife who is possessed by the ghost of Maxie, a Hollywood starlet who is determined to revive her career
McDull – The Pork of Music (2012)
Fifth in a popular series of Hong Kong animated films. This has a sarcastic bite that resembles Beavis and Butt-Head in its story of a talking animal children’s choir before it starts to get mawkish
Me and Him (1988)
A comedy in which Griffin Dunne’s penis begins talking to him. Contrary to expectation, most of the film is PG-13 but some of the films attitudes and unfunny routines are fairly mind-boggling
Me Myself I (1999)
An Australian variant on Sliding Doors in which single woman Rachel Griffiths suddenly finds herself in an alternate timeline where she is now married and has kids
Me Two (2008)
Lightweight French bodyswap comedy where aging rocker Alain Chabat and mousy bureaucrat Daniel Auteuil end up sharing the same body
Meatballs III: Summer Job (1987)
Unrelated to the Bill Murray film in anything but name, this is a moronic teen summer camp comedy in which Patrick Dempsey is aided in trying to lose his virginity by angel Sally Kellerman
The Medallion (2003)
Flop Jackie Chan film that tries to recapture some of his Hong Kong heyday with Jackie in a quest for a boy and medallion with magical powers
Medea (1969)
Pier Paolo Pasolini makes a film based on Medea, the wife of Jason from Greek myth (not to be confused with Tyler Perry’s films), who slaughters their children after he leaves her for another woman
Meet Cute (2022)
An extremely clever romantic comedy where Kaley Cuoco repeatedly returns back through time to replay her one perfect day, a date with Pete Davidson
Meet Joe Black (1998)
A ponderous big screen remake of Death Takes a Holiday where Death in the form of Brad Pitt comes to Earth, engages in a romance and considers the meaning of the human condition
Meet Mr Lucifer (1953)
One of the forgotten comedies from UK’s Ealing Studios, this rails against the evils of the then new medium of television where The Devil contrives to make people miserable by getting them to watch tv
Meet the Feebles (1990)
Peter Jackson‘s second film, what might be called The Muppet Show by way of John Waters, an inspired work of puppet depravity that makes a beeline for bad taste
Meet the Santas (2005)
Sequel to Single Santa Seeks Mrs Claus where Santa’s son (Steve Guttenberg) ties the knot. Utterly predictable and amazingly traditional and conservative in its sentiments
Meet the Spartans (2008)
The painfully unfunny films of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are a random assortment of films of the last six months run over with crude and vulgar jokes. In this case, they take on parodying principally 300
Megiddo (2001)
Sequel to the Biblical End Times film The Omega Code as Michael York’s Antichrist seeks to brings about Armageddon, This dispenses with preaching faith but still slips into absurdity
Mekong Hotel (2012)
As with any of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films, this has some intensely haunted moments but is severely lacking in plot or any dramatic momentum
Melies Cinemagician (2011)
Melies Cinemagician was a special screening of a selection of films from Georges Melies presented by Vancouver’s Vancity Theater to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth
The Melies Mystery (2021)
A documentary that offers the best discussion of the life of Georges Melies to date. Much of the film is focused on the recent rediscovery of a complete trove of negatives of Melies’s film
Memoir of a Snail (2024)
The second Claymation film from Adam Elliot, who made the sublime Mary and Max, concerning the banally hilarious lives of two twins and the weird, eccentric characters surrounding them
Meridian (1990)
A much better than usual film from Charles Band, an erotic fairytale in which Sherilyn Fenn becomes involved with a circusmaster and his twin brother who turns into a werewolf
Merlin and the Book of Beasts (2008)
A work of Arthurian sequelia made for the Syfy Channal featuring Arthur’s daughter inheriting the sword. This has the feel more of a B-budgeted D&D adventure made without much effort
Merlin’s Apprentice (2006)
Sequel to Hallmark’s earlier tv mini-series Merlin featuring a return performance from Sam Neill in the title role, this is otherwise a generic and unmemorable work of Arthurian fantasy
The Mermaid (2016)
Stephen Chow has proven himself a comic genius in his directorial works of the 90s/00s. Unfortunately, as he has gained mainstream acclaim, his films have started to disappear under their big-budgets. This is sort of a version of Splash! by way of the fad for madcap Hong Kong slapstick
Mermaid Down (2019)
This comes with the promising premise of a mermaid having her tail hacked off then being placed in an asylum where she tries to convince the other patients of who she is
Merry Little Batman (2023)
A real head-scratching oddity, a Batman animated Christmas film. This takes nothing seriously and most count as possibly the weirdest entry to go out bearing the Batman name
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
Luc Besson takes on the Joan of Arc story with then wife Milla Jovovich in the title role but in Besson’s hands it becomes a crazed historical action film that unquestioningly accepts Joan’s visions as real
Metamorphosis (2010)
Wildly experimental South Korean adaptation of the Kafka story about a man turning into an insect – a film shot entirely by the director in bed with the camera pointed at his feet
Metegol (2013)
Spanish-Argentinean animated film about the miniature players of a table football game come to life. Everything plays out to to fairly predictable sports movies cliches
The Mexican (2001)
Romantic comedy pairing Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts as separated lovers in a plot involving Mob shenanigans and a cursed pistol. The two never click and give unmemorable performances
Michael (1996)
A Nora Ephron romantic comedy with John Travolta cast as angel who is a is less than angel-like slob. A rather aimless shapeless comedy that thinks it is funnier than it is
Michel Gondry: Do It Yourself (2023)
A documentary focused on the unique and distinctive French director Michel Gondry, tracing his emergence through music video and to the success of films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Midnight in Paris (2011)
An appealingly lightweight whimsy from Woody Allen in which Owen Wilson keeps timeslipping between the present and 1920s Paris where he meets the artistic/literary greats
Midnight’s Children (2012)
Adaptation of a Salman Rushdie novel that acts as a superhero film of sorts about a secret war between people with unique powers set against the backdrop of 20th Century Indian history
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)
Amid Kenneth Branagh’s dynamic cinematic revival of Shakespeare in the 1990s, there was this all-star adaptation of Shakespeare’s whimsy about fairy enchantments
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2005)
Under the umbrella title ShakespeareRetold, Shakespeare’s tale of fairy enchantments and romantic mix-ups is reimagined in a modern day British holiday camp
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014)
A filmed version of Julie Taymor’s staging of the Shakespeare play about fairt enchantments. Forget standard interpretations, Taymor opens the play up with an extraordinary visual flair
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2016)
Adaptation of the Shakespeare play about fairy enchantments by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies. Davies goes with a standard interpretation alongside radical reinvention – Athens as a fascist dictatorship
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982)
One of Woody Allen’s slighter films, a sexual rondeau set at the turn of the 20th Century, although mostly riffing on Allen’s familiar sexual neuroses. Contains minor fantasy elements.
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
One of Woody Allen’s most warmly funny films of the 90s, featuring a side-splitting and Academy Award-winning performance from Mira Sorvino. Allen gently spoofs Greek tragedy.
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Many of the people involved in the 1933 King Kong came back together to create another giant ape film. Much overlooked, this is one of the masterpieces of stop-motion animation
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
Charming, delightful venture into Magical Realism directed by Robert Redford as the angels step in to aid the impoverished residents of a New Mexico town
Millennium Actress (2001)
An anime from Satoshi Kon that tells the story of a famous Japanese actress that in turn become a meta-fictional work and a surreal journey through Japanese cinema history
Mindgame (2004)
Anime based on an autobiographical manga that leaps off into a variety of styles and comes filled with madcap surrealistic visuals
A Minecraft Movie (2025)
A live-action film based on the popular
Minions & Monsters (2026)
This is the third of the Minions films where they are placed in the setting of silent Hollywood, which comes with a number of classic movie jokes amid all their usual manic antics
The Miracle (1959)
A ridiculously melodramatic Catholic historical drama wherein a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life to take the place of a nun so she can run off and woo a young Roger Moore … A lushly made canvas but otherwise absurdly overwrought piety
Miracle in Milan (1951)
One of the classics of the Italian Neo-Realist period, a charming whimsy about homeless people who built a shantytown
Miracle in the Rain (1956)
One of a spate of miracle films during this period, Catholic nonsense with Jane Wyman and Van Johnson finding love that transcends death
The Miracle of the Bells (1948)
A ghastly sanctimonious Catholic miracle film from the 1940s about the elevation of a Hollywood starlet to sainthood simply because she was glamorous
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Classic Christmas film with Edmund Gwenn as a man who is placed on trial after he insists he is the real Santa Claus
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
A John Hughes written remake of the classic Christmas film where a man (Richard Attenborough) claiming to be Santa ends up tried in court.
Mirage (2018)
Intelligent and absorbing thriller where a freak storm allows a woman to communicate with the past only to inadvertently create a new timeline where her life is very different
Mirai (2018)
Mamoru Hosoda film nominated for the Best Animated Film at Academy Awards. A young boy jealous at the arrival of a baby sister is visited by her future self and travels through time to meet his family at different periods
Miranda (1948)
The very first mermaid film, a wonderfully droll comedy in which a capricious Glynis Johns innocently wreaks havoc on all the men around her
Mirror Mirror (2012)
Tarsem Singh makes a Snow White film. Tarsem’s sets, costumes and visuals are expectedly exquisite and extravagant but all is unwound by a campy, unserious approach
MirrorMask (2005)
Neil Gaiman and comic-book artist Dave McKean create a venture into a fantasy world with an extraordinary level of visual imagination and peopled with a remarkable panoply of creations. The results are quite unlike any other film you have seen
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Tim Burton used to be the great hope of fantastic cinema but his efforts since 2000 have disappointed. This Young Adult adaptation plays out like a fantasy version of the X-Men
Miss Potter (2006)
Renee Zellweger stars in a biopic of children’s author Beatrix Potter from Babe director Chris Noonan
The Missing (2003)
Ron Howard makes a Western that has some horror overtones featuring an evil Indian sorcerer. In the hands of a classic director like John Ford this could have been an epic work but Howard’s plodding predictability kills interest
Missing Link (2019)
Amiable knockabout stop-motion animated film from Laika Entertainment, although the title is a misnomer and the film is actually about a Bigfoot rather than a Missing Link
Mister Frost (1990)
Fine film that deserves wider recognition with Jeff Goldblum as a man in an asylum who claims to be The Devil
The Mistress of Spices (2005)
Magical Realist film with Aishwarya Rai running a spice bazaar where she is able to tell fortunes
The Mists of Avalon (2001)
TV mini-series based on Marion Zimmer Bradley’s book that offers a revisionist take on the Arthurian legends, telling the story through the eyes of the women of the saga
Moana 2 (2024)
Disney make a sequel to Moana, their venture into Pacific Island mythology
Moana (2016)
Despite being a huge box-office and critical success and being nominated for an Academy Award, I am in a minority in disliking this. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that it appropriates the culture from my neck of the woods and only spins it out as a series of glib jokes and one-liners
Modesty Blaise (1966)
Modesty Blaise was a classic British comic-book about a smart female thief. On screen, it is turned into a copy of the James Bond films that goes for excruciatingly over-the-top camp excess
Moksha – Or The World and I, How Does That Work? (2012)
Imagine a weird mix between the basic premise of Saw and Waiting for Godot. A South Korean film about a man inexplicably chained up in a park that is less interested in his escape than it becomes a surreal existential allegory for life
Molom, A Legend of Mongolia (1995)
Gentle affecting film about a boy learning Buddhist life lessons as he journeys across Mongolia with an old man
The Moment After (1999)
One of a cluster of faith-based films made around the turn of the millennium dealing with the biblical apocalypse and The Rapture, this has not dated well
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2021)
Ana Lily Amirpour, director of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, returns with a film about a psychic girl and the eccentric grifters that accumulate around her
The Monkey King (2014)
Enjoyably colourful and silly retelling of the classic Chinese legend. This is one Wu Xia film that leaps aboard the CGI and 3D bandwagon to create a wildly fantastical airbrushed world that comes out resembling a flying swordsman film by way of Avatar
The Monkey King 2 (2016)
Sequel to the earlier The Monkey King, which was fun but this is altogether a better film. While the first film was more prelude to Journey to the West, this sets out on the journey and tells one of its stories. Directed with an immensely assured command of the live-action and CGi elements
The Monkey King 3 (2018)
The Monkey King films are a series of extraordinary works that exists somewhere between CGI and live-action and have a lushness of design. That is balanced against a dated plot that basically rehashes Cat Women of the Moon
The Monkey King (2001)
A tv mini-series adaptation of the famous Chinese legend Journey to the West made for US audiences by Hallmark Entertainment. The story remains stolidly earthbound and the meta-fictional contortions the story has to add to engage in to have the monk hero replaced by a contemporary Thomas Gibson are bizarre
Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015)
An animated version of the epic Chinese legend Journey to the West that was overshadowed by the hit live-action film that came out some months earlier that retold the tale with CGI
The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven (1965)
3D restoration of a classic Chinese adaptation of Journey to the West and the best film version of the story to date … an incredible film filled with psychedelically eye-popping animation and amazing action scenes, while gleefully celebrating a defiance of all authority
Monkeybone (2001)
Henry Selick’s first venture into live-action in which Brendan Fraser becomes trapped in a bizarre afterlife while a mischievous monkey steals his body
A Monster Calls (2016)
The story of the relationship between a giant monster and a boy whose mother is dying of cancer, this is perhaps the darkest children’s film ever made. Adapted from an award-winning illustrated book
Monster House (2006)
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
Monster Hunt 2 (2018)
Sequel to Monster Hunt, an audience pleasing comedy about a couple and a cute monster that became the biggest hit in Chinese box-office history. This offers more of the same
Monster Hunt (2015)
Apparently the biggest grossing film in China ever. What we get is not much more than a rehash of E.T. with the addition of flying swordsmen. What kills the film is an emphasis of excrutiating slapstick and low-res CGI that makes the various creatures resemble versions of Mr Blobby
Monster Hunter (2020)
Resident Evil series director Paul W.S. Anderson and star Milla Jovovich return with an adaptation of another popular videogame series
A Monster in Paris (2011)
A charming French-made animated film about a genteel singing monster. Nothing profound but this is beautifully animated and sweetly appealing in all the right places
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
This was the fourth animated film from Pixar and is a winning and delightful Maurice Sendakian tale about the monsters in the closet and their friendship with a young girl