Adam Smith

Likeable leads and the odd good joke makes this romance an amiable time-passer.

This would have been a striking calling card, and it’s still an impressively solid piece of genre filmmaking with great cinematography and score. But there’s not much here of the ambition of Animal Kingdom, leaving Michôd in ‘difficult third movie’ territory. Let’s hope he gets a move on this time.

Disappointingly dull account of a tale desperately in need of a sharper screenplay and some directorial vim. Might as well wait for the Blu-ray, Jules.

With a frustrating format and poor animation, it's still worth it for Franco and the chance to engage with a key work of poetry.

Gothika never delivers anything more than the occasional, cynically engineered jolt and often drifts close to provoking giggles.

A decent enough little B-movie which delivers some pleasingly weird violence and endless plot reversals. But there’s still a mild sense of pointlessness to the whole thing and the feeling that in different hands it could have been much better.

Stone's film could have allowed political voices that are rarely present to get a fair, and critical hearing. Instead he near smooches them to death.

Hill, shooting by night and on location together with his OOP Andrew Laszlo, gives the film dazzling style. New York's oil-slicked streets become a labyrinth lit by pools of reflecting light, both scary and strangely beautiful - grimy realism it isn't. It also manages to humanize the gang-bangers to a surprising extent, illustrating the material and emotional poverty that forces them onto the streets in the first place.

Decent belly laughs occur, but they are spread thinly over a prolonged period.

The film's real strength is the way it sounds, with Ry Cooder's jangling score competing with thunderous gunplay for the shell-like's appreciative attention.

Gorgeously realised, gripping and doused in De Palma’s familiar technical wizardry, this is only let down by the director’s equally familiar uninterest in the humanity of his characters.

Nobody does vapid bollocks as enjoyably as Tony Scott, and while this isn't as inventive as "Man On Fire" or as compelling as "Crimson Tide," it's still the right side of dumb.

A director who can't decide whether he's aiming for high comedy or gritty noirishness combine to shoot the whole caboodle squarely in the foot.

Certainly difficult to define, this period piece messes with genres, power relationships and your head.

Scorses's skill as a scene-maker are fully evident and Lewis' quietly rageful performance offers to out-do De Niro in intensity, but neither funny enough to be an effective black comedy nor scary enough to capitalise on its thriller/horror elements, The King Of Comedy sits awkwardly between the two.

Competently made, and enjoyably played. But you do really end up wondering what the point was. Cinematic déjà vu is the most likely response.

If you can see beyond the eye-scorching neon and don't mind the desecration of a superhero icon, there's a few crumbs of enjoyment to be had.

As an exploration of cultural discord, Nagisa Oshima's film is pretty thin stuff, despite its reputation. Bowie is a potent irritant, but Tom Conti is solid in support and Sakamoto's mesmerising score sparkles anew.

A second-rate slasher, but it shows the odd bit of directorial promise and a great deal of ambition.

Hard to call something this gratuitous entertainment but certainly lingers in the memory, thanks mainly to the bombast of Stone's script.

in the end, Paycheck never quite cashes out.

It’s occasionally sick-funny, but large swathes are unforgivably dull.

Aniston deports herself competently, here showing us nothing she hasn't on Friends, and Bacon is pretty much on autopilot as the company stud but it is Mohr who actually shines, skilfully giving an underwritten role a genuinely deft sense of nobility and charm.

Nothing Landis can do makes up for a limp plot bolstered by distinctly Cannonball Run-ish car smashes and an irritating sprog. And the movie's not even out in the year 2000.

Bart, the bear used in the dramatic attack sequences, gets top billing in the end credit crawl. Which is fair enough, but hardly inspiring.

Apart from an irritating plot glitch this is a solidly entertaining ride, more than competently directed and played.

Heavy but fascinating creepy drama, that lacks pace in the first half but has some genuinely thrilling moments.