Yuki: Snow Fairy (1981)
A very rare anime film about a fairy who descends to Earth from the heavens and takes the side of downtrodden peasants in standing against a greedy landowner and a demon god
Warhead (1996)
Routine action film about the attempts to stop a rogue general who has hijacked a nuclear missile silo
Vampire Hunters (2002)
Tsui Hark scripted/produced Wu Xia effort that shuffles the familiar tropes about without seeming too enervated
The Stepford Wives (2004)
Frank Oz conducts a remake of The Stepford Wives, which becomes a broad comedy take on the gender wars in the modern world
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Possibly the most perfect of all Hayao Miyazaki’s anime, a work about childhood featuring an array of charmingly eccentric creatures. It is a film of absolutely magical charms beneath which lies a swim of adult emotions that children’s films rarely touch upon
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
Killer clown film directed by the Chiodo Brothers best known for their makeup effects who come up with an appealing arsenal of sinister clown figures. On the other hand, the film is a one-note joke
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
The first of the Resident Evil sequels and a better film than its predecessor, getting in a series of spectacular, if at times ridiculously silly, action sequences
Life Among the Cannibals (1996)
A black comedy that feels like a wannabe Coen Brothers film. Set among various Hollywood hangers-on, this starts with a surreal bizarreness that collapses into raucous farce
Crash (1996)
David Cronenberg tackles J.G. Ballard’s controversial novel, creating a fascinatingly perverse work that ventures into a world where people become sexually aroused by car crashes
Bullet Ballet (1998)
Shinya Tsukamoto of Tetsuo: The Iron Man fame turns his fascination with repressions to the story of a salaryman (played by himself) who deals with his girlfriend’s death by obsessively trying to obtain a gun
Corridors of Blood (1958)
Early Anglo-horror film that seems to be trying to push a story about a 19th century doctor (Boris Karloff)’s discovery of anaesthetic gas out of shape and make it into a horror story.
The Pack (1977)
Solid and effective entry in the 1970s Animals Attack genre with a group on an island under attack by killer dogs
The Bird People in China (1998)
An early Takashi Miike film that forsakes his usual ultra-violence and surreal weirdness for a genteel road movie through backwater China to the discovery of a lost culture
Home on the Range (2004)
The last hand-drawn animated film from Disney and one of their few flops, but by no means unlikeable. The premise of talking cows setting out on a quest gives this a madcap eccentricity
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie – Pyramid of Light (2004)
An animated film based on the hit playing card phenomenon, which proves largely incomprehensible to anybody not versed in the game
Garfield (2004)
Big screen version of the massively popular Garfield comic-strips in live-action with a CGI talking Garfield. Here Garfield has been tacked onto a plot that feels assembled from every other talking animals film
Catwoman (2004)
The long-planned Halle Berry-starring Catwoman movie proved a widely ridiculed bomb. The film throws out the comic-book Catwoman and instead opts for an approach the frequently collapses into the risible
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Beginning as fan mill speculation, 20th Century Fox finally brought their Alien and Predator franchises together on the screen here. The result is an okay effort in the hands of Paul W.S. Anderson, even if it never has the grueling intensity of the early entries in either series
A Cinderella Story (2004)
A contemporary take on Cinderella that relocates the story to a modern high school with a downtrodden Hillary Duff trying to make it to the prom
Making Waves (1994)
A bizarrely ridiculous erotic film with pretensions to being a relationship drama that features appearances from angels and smartass talking seagulls. An aging Mickey Rooney is the heavenly supervisor
Patlabor: The Mobile Police (1989)
Early anime from Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell fame about a police squad set up to deal with giant robots gone amok. All of Oshii’s visuals and fascinating play of ideas are present
Shark Tale (2004)
DreamWorks animated talking fish film that was dismissed in the shadow of Pixar’s earlier Finding Nemo but is perfectly likeable in its own right
Thunderbirds (2004)
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
Porco Rosso (1992)
Hayao Miyazaki in a more whimsical comedic mood with this story of the adventures of a talking pig aviator. Even when in a lighter vein, Miyazaki cannot help but fill the film with images of charm and considerable beauty
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
Volcano (1997)
A disaster movie made early into the CGI era based around the ludicrous notion of an active volcano suddenly appearing in Los Angeles
Godsend (2004)
Film about a couple going to an institute where Robert De Niro promises a clone of their dead child. The film goes off the rails in an absurd and blatantly manipulative script that tries to turn this into a ghost story
The Spirit is Willing (1967)
Here gimmick master William Castle turns his attention away from the usual into making a light fantasy comedy about a family who buy a house inhabited by ghosts
The Village (2004)
M. Night Shyamalan creates three-quarters of a tense and eerie film about a 19th Century village under siege from mysterious creatures only for it to fall apart when he produces a damp squib of a twist ending
Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998)
he second of two cheap video-released sequels to the Jean-Claude Van Damme film. This has the novelty of featuring Burt Reynolds as the bad guy
A Page of Madness (1926)
Forgotten silent Japanese avant garde classic set in a mental asylum. This has many similarities to The Cabinet of Dr Caligari in its shifting perspectives that delve into the subjective mental space of the inmates
The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999)
Biopic about controversial philosopher/SF writer Ayn Rand or at least one that focuses on the extra-marital affair she had throughout her life. Given that the film is based on a book by other man’s wife, it does come with the odd axe to grind
My Favorite Martian (1999)
The big screen remake of the 1960s sitcom about a wacky alien visitor. However, this all of the original’s amusements promptly gets buried under frenetic slapstick and cheap CGI gags
Mr. Accident (2000)
The third and final film to date directed, written by and starring Yahoo Serious where he plays an accident prone man obsessed with alien life
The Arrival (1991)
This is a weird little film about an alien vampire that is slowly rejuvenating. This has an interesting swim of strange ideas but in reality isn’t very good
Kriemhild’s Revenge (1924)
The second part of Die Niebelungen, Fritz Lang’s silent film about the Germanic hero Siegfried in which Siegfried’s widow Kriemhild takes an epic revenge for the murder of her husband
The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988)
Ill-conceived US version of the popular children’s book character created by Astrid Lindgren. The result feels less a film as it does a kindergarten playground gone entirely out of control
The Pagemaster (1994)
Amiable if lightweight film where a live-action Macaulay Culkin gets animated and has a series of adventures in a Land of Fiction where he must pass through various classic stories
Open Water (2003)
A true story about a couple on a diving expedition who are accidentally stranded in a sea of sharks. A minimalist film, shot almost completely at sea, that works up incredibly raw tension
Conquest of the Earth (1981)
The third of the theatrically released films spun off from the original Battlestar Galactica. This is compiled from episodes of the dire follow-up series Galactica 1980 where the show relocates to contemporary Earth
Oldboy (2003)
Electrifyingly ultra-violent film from Park Chan-wook who ably borrows from Takashi Miike. The film equally becomes a conceptual twister as the protagonist is forced to go on a reality-bending quest through his own life.
I, Robot (2004)
Disappointing adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Robot stories. The film pays token acknowledgement to Asimov’s characters and universe and mostly seems interested in spectacular effects set-pieces
Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998)
The first of two cheap Universal Soldier sequels made in Canada with Matt Battaglia inheriting Jean-Claude Van Damme’s role
Hamlet (1996)
Kenneth Branagh emerged as an director with his dynamic cinematic Shakespeare adaptations. In this lavish production, he attempts no less than a definitive version of what is regarded as Shakespeare’s greatest play
Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)
A classic Troma title that is actually more interesting than the actual film, which concerns wars between surf gangs in a collapsed future. The film does eventually achieve a bizarre over-the-top lunacy
The Skull (1965)
Peter Cushing-Christopher Lee vehicle from Amicus with Cushing as a collector who obtains the Marquis de Sade’s possessed skull. One of the more over-rated Anglo-horror films, this feels more like an episode from one of their anthologies than a full film
King Arthur (2004)
A big-budget version of the Arthurian legends that makes dubious claim about being rooted in historical fact. The fantasy elements are stripped out and what we have is more of an historical spectacle
Cold Fever (1995)
Eccentric road movie where a Japanese salaryman travels to Iceland for a funeral ceremony for his parents. Filled with ravishing landscapes and quirkily surreal encounters
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
The sequel to Pitch Black where Vin Diesel’s serial killer now becomes the hero of the show and the original planetary survival story is expanded out into an ornate Gothic space opera
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
This sounds more like a tabloid headline “Elvis and JFK vs a mummy in a retirement home” than it does a film. It is however a work of considerable ingenuity from Phantasm series director Don Coscarelli
Beyond Forgiveness (1994)
Action film with Thomas Ian Griffith tracking the killers of his brother to Poland and uncovering an organ harvesting scheme run by Rutger Hauer
13 Going on 30 (2004)
Essentially a rehash of Big in which a tormented teen wishes she was thirty and wakes up as Jennifer Garner. Amiably average without ever finding the wistful charms that Big had
Ring 0: Birthdays (2000)
The third of the Japanese Ringu/Ring films. A new director means a different approach but what also becomes apparent is that the original was never intended as a series and the attempts to further draw it out result in a confusing mishmash of ideas
The Tulse Luper Suitcases: The Moab Story (2003)
The first part in Peter Greenaway’s three-part mock biography, a surreal, sprawling work of mad information overload and obsessive lists
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
A warm parody/tribute to the George Romero zombie films that saw the emergence of Simon Pegg as a star. It also saw the zombie film move towards a more comedic emphasis, although few subsequent entries come with such good-natured humour
Tamala 2010 (2002)
Grungy low tech anime that comes out like a sarcastic version of Hello Kitty
In Your Hands (2004)
Dogme 95 film about a woman convicted to prison who has miraculous healing abilities. There are undeniable similarities to The Green Mile but this uses them to delve into issues of faith
Frodo is Great … Who is That!!? (2004)
Documentary devoted to a fan following that grew up around Bret McKenzie who had only a single shot appearance as an elf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Tintin and I (2003)
Documentary about Tintin creator Hergé based on audio recordings he made in the 1970s
Tropical Malady (2004)
An early film from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, two tales – the first a gay love story, the second about a ghost tiger
The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Splendidly original and completely off the wall work of stylised animation from Sylvain Chomet
Primer (2004)
Complex and fascinating film where two friends accidentally create a time machine and soon faces multiple versions of themselves
Memories of Murder (2003)
Early film from Bong Joon-ho, a true crime work about the investigation into a rural Korean serial killer
Cowards Bend the Knee, or The Blue Hands (2003)
Another of the surreal films from Guy Maddin, involving incest, strange love triangles and transplanted hands, all shot of which has been shot as a silent movie
Twisted (2004)
Disappointing Philip Kaufman thriller where detective Ashley Judd finds she is dealing with a serial killer who is obsessed with her
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
The best budgeted of Guy Maddin’s films, a renaissance of his familiar kitsch surrealism and silent movie homages
Hero (2003)
Made following the international success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang Yimou makes an exquisite Wu Xia fantasy that is an even superior film, filled with visually stunning set-pieces and costuming
One Missed Call (2003)
Cult director Takashi Miike jumps aboard the J-horror fad of the 2000s and makes a Ringu copy that substitutes haunted videos for haunted cellphone calls. Two sequels and an English-language remake followed
Malice@doll (2001)
Perversely original anime about a sex robot in the aftermath of civilisation who is transformed into a human. Imagine Pinocchio by way of H.R. Giger
The Cat Returns (2002)
Studio Ghibli anime in which a girl saves the life of a cat only to be drawn into a world of cats where a cat prince decides she will be his bride
A Nation Without Women (2003)
Indian film set in a future where female infanticide has become so widespread there are no longer any women. A fundamentally implausible idea is treated with some conviction
Labyrinth (1986)
Stunning Jim Henson directed fantasy film set in a world of visual illusions where the Henson team’s puppetry effects are at the peak of their game to provide the creature effects
Madhouse (1974)
An attempt to copy the Dr Phibes films with Vincent Price as a horror actor facing a series of killings on the set of his comeback film
The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo (1997)
Lesser budgeted sequel to the 1994 remake of The Jungle Book, which actually comes closer in tone to the original Rudyard Kipling stories
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
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 (*)
Evil of Dracula (1974)
The third in a trilogy of spookily eerie Japanese vampire films. This echoes the basics of Hammer’s Lust for a Vampire in being set at a girls’ boarding school, which is spun in interesting ways
Yellow Submarine (1968)
The third of The Beatles films, in this case an animated work that features likenesses of The Fab Four as they trip through some amazing nonsensical psychedelic visuals
The Tempest (1979)
Derek Jarman’s take on Shakespeare’s play filled with weird imagery and staged like a journey through a haunted house where all the players are verging on madness
Shrek 2 (2004)
Shrek was a fresh and original hit. The first of four insipid sequels, this seems to merely coast by on our liking of the characters while upping the fairytale parody
Senseless (1998)
Comedy vehicle for Marlon Wayans in which he becomes a test subject for a sense-heightening drug. Marlon’s natural comic energy far exceeds the slightness of the premise
Hellboy (2004)
The first of Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptations of Mike Mignola’s comic-book about a demon superhero. Not as good as the sequel, the film’s ace in the hole is Ron Perlman in the title role
Paws (1997)
Australian-made children’s film about a kid who creates a computer program so his dog can talk where it then becomes voiced by Billy Connolly
LunarCop (1995)
Low-budget Mad Max copycat with Michael Paré as an officer from the lunar colony who comes down to Earth to take on the marauders of the post-apocalyptic wasteland
The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (1997)
The fifth of The Land Before Time animated films about talking dinosaurs, all having been made for very young children
The Cooler (2003)
Drama with standout performances. William H. Macy is a loser with perpetual bad luck who is employed by Las Vegas casinos to cool tables that have a winning streak – only for his luck to change when he meets a woman
Anaconda (1997)
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
The Cat from Outer Space (1978)
From the era of Disney live-action comedies, this involves assorted slapstick tomfoolery as various parties try to aid or capture a telepathic alien cat that is stranded on Earth
Boarding House (1982)
An incredibly bad film, the first ever shot on videotape concerning a man who lets nubile girls move into his home only for them to come under psychic attack
Megiddo (2001)
Sequel to the Biblical End Times/Antichrist film The Omega Code, this dispenses with preaching faith but still slips into absurdity
No Way to Treat a Lady (1968)
Amid the host of Psycho copies that came out during the 1960s, this was one that played everything as a comedy. A wildly overacting Rod Steiger is a psycho actor who adopts a different disguises every time he goes out to kill
Personal Column (1947)
Psycho-thriller with an unknown Lucille Ball as a showgirl used by Scotland Yard as a lure to trap a maniac killer
Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000)
Theatrical film spinoff from the Thomas the Tank Engine tv series using several imported American actors
Mindwarp (1992)
One of three films produced by Fangoria magazine, this takes place in a post-holocaust wasteland of crazies and is certainly gore-drenched but unfortunately only churns cliches
Vampires: Los Muertos (2002)
Sequel to John Carpenter’s Vampires given over to his regular associate Tommy Lee Wallace, this looks tatty in trying to replicate the action sequences on a B-budget and with the script holes showing through
Mantis in Lace (1968)
A 1960s LSD film where a stripper kills men while under the influence. Mostly this is just a series of nudie scenes that go on and on without any plot
Elephant (2003)
Gus Van Sant makes a film about the high school shooting phenomenon, although has almost nothing to say about it. Where the film does mesmerise is in Van Sant’s seemingly naturalistic style and non-linear narrative.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
The third Harry Potter film where it seems all that it took for the series to become quite good was the exit of the perpetually banal Chris Columbus and the entry of a new director in Alfonso Cuaron
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman collaborate on a mind-bending film about erased memories. The film comes with a series of characteristic eccentricities and whiplash twists that are positively ingenious
From Beijing with Love (1994)
Way before Austin Powers, Hong Kong director/star Stephen Chow made the funniest of all James Bond parodies with this deliriously madcap comedy
Soylent Green (1973)
The film mangles and fails to understand the fine Harry Harrison novel it is based on but in its own right creates an effective and worthwhile portrait of a badly overpopulated 21st Century New York