Dan Jolin

The scares and monsters are effectively conjured, but if you’re not familiar with Austin Schwartz’s source material, you may be left a little cold.

A fascinating and visually impressive intellectual helter-skelter ride, but the lack of narrative coherence lets down its promising sci-fi concepts and satire.

Barry Jenkins’ verve only faintly shines through in an origin story that is mildly, not wildly, entertaining.

Jeunet himself describes the film best: Delicatessen meets Amélie. But we'd add that, while it's certainly breezy fun, it's not quite as good as either.

An interesting new take on a very well-known tale and a praiseworthy act of revisionism, but one which doesn’t ultimately deliver on its early promise.

We've seen all these stunts pulled before, and seen them done better, but there's some pleasure to be had here — even if it's of the extremely guilty kind.

Sounds rather soapy and melodramatic, but director Susanne Bier, assisted by an able cast, ensures the traumas are painfully realistic and subtly observed.

An odd but frothily entertaining genre cocktail, which coasts on the charisma of its two biggest names and keeps things just fun enough to forgive its considerable lapses in narrative.

It’s as predictable as an Advent calendar, but thanks to Kurt Russell’s grizzly charms, The Christmas Chronicles at least gives us one of the movies’ best Santas yet.

A sometimes clunkily executed true-life story which at least has potency in its blend of subject matter and lead actor. Despite often being hard to watch, this is Rosamund Pike’s best work yet.

Despite its thorough classiness and pristine presentation, it is not a film you can really warm to – much like its characters.

While the sun shines, it’s a four-star thriller with a superb turn from Smith. When the moon rises, it’s a two-star horror cartoon with some of the worst FX we’ve seen all year. So, really, it has to average out at…

A laudably amoral and superbly caustic comedy for those who like their satire strong and unfiltered.

Stupid, with three o's. But also fun, never boring, and never insulting (to anyone other than Dumas) - unlike certain of the summer's A-pics…

Best enjoyed for the fun, slick action and the astonishing, super-expressive realisation of Alita herself, because elsewhere it’s cyberpunk business as usual, marred by some sloppy plotting.

A solid, often entertaining life-of-crimer which benefits from some stylistic touches and a faithful, convincing central performance.

Odd, confident, challenging, and featuring a brilliant turn by Williams. If only there was just a little more to it.

A tangled narrative and damp-squib ending detract from an otherwise joyous Spaghetti Eastern.

It is engagingly played by a cast including Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington and Luke Wilson, and handsomely mounted too, with Costner’s vision of the West’s untamed grandeur fully deserving the big-screen treatment.

Karate Kid: Legends doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its Cobra Kai-meets-Mr Han marketing. But for breezy feel-goodness, you’ve come to the right dojo.

Blue Beetle owes a lot to the sheer wit and warmth of its supporting cast, which will earn it far more approval than its so-so CG antics and origin-story familiarity.

With Hercules, Brett Ratner and Dwayne Johnson are out to entertain you — no more, no less. And that is just what they do.

A fiendishly effective holiday-gone-wrong thriller that's better at cranking up the agoraphobic action than fleshing out its characters. Still, it'll find few fans at the Mexican Tourist Board...

Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis, predictably impressive in the roles of abusive, alcoholic dad and troubled-but-tough mum.

A coming-of-age story which thoughtfully and heartfully tackles the repellent practice of conversion therapy. Moretz is excellent, but this summer camp/institution drama cocktail could have done with a little more fizz.

The film is let down by an approach that goes for impact over insight, but Last Breath is a worthy entry to the ‘hostile environment’ documentary subgenre.

This is unlikely to win Kathryn Lansky's antipodean owl fantasy any new fans, but even the bemused (and confused) can luxuriate in some grand-scale visual storytelling.

A compelling curio from Werner Herzog, who investigates a strange real-life phenomenon through a fictional lens. It's worth watching, especially if you enjoy Herzog's lateral take on life, but it's hard not to wish he'd just made it as a straight documentary.