Helen O'Hara

Perhaps it was too much to hope that we’d have a little bit of food for thought as well as the eye candy on display, but this will still wile away a dull evening very pleasantly.

It's an effectively made, beautifully acted piece, but as with many family dramas, much of this could have been sorted out if a few confidences had been shared a few decades earlier. 

A delightfully silly film for a perfectly stupid franchise. It could have had a few sharper lines and more narrative drive, but this should still win over a new generation of He-fans.

A relentless mess of a film. Other short-form animation works at feature length, but even children would have to be pretty undemanding to enjoy this Tom and Jerry.

Who was it made for? Everyone. You don’t have to be a diehard Eilish fan to appreciate the artistry in music, performance and filmmaking here. 

The film’s final moments mix compassion and vengeance to create something genuinely surprising, and if Cronin ultimately pulls a few punches in his body count, chances are you’ll be too traumatised by all the gore to notice.

It’s a light diversion rather than a symphonic masterpiece, but it’s still pleasantly in-tune entertainment.

The moments of fan service might keep the hardcore happy, but for everyone else over the age of five it’s just a succession of loud, bright things happening without any real point.

Blood-drenched and gore-splattered, anchored by a hard-as-nails performance by Beetz, this is a thinly plotted but immensely fun horrorfest. Best watched with a strong stomach.

Its magical denizens too often look and feel like out-of-season pantomime characters, but there’s just enough heart and humour to make this enchanting.

It’s easy on the eye, and indeed the brain, but this is nowhere near as sharply written or plotted as it should be to bring these characters to life.

This starts strong but doesn’t always have the room to explore all the ideas it crams in, even with a lengthy running time. Still, Rockwell’s man-on-a-mission is a delight.

It’s beautifully designed and pleasantly quirky, with fun performances from the cast, yet the arch narrative style and structure can make the whole feel thin and unsatisfying.

It’s another spin on the usual Statham actioner, solidly performed but with a ridiculous plot and – even by the standards of the genre – a predictable outcome. Less gimme shelter, more gimme a break.

Gnarly, gross and delightfully unconventional, this is exactly the kind of Sam Raimi film his fans have been waiting for, carried by a committed, no-holds-barred Rachel McAdams performance.

It has aspirations to be RoboCop but this feels more like autopilot. Pratt is committed and the plotting is sometimes effective, but Rebecca Ferguson’s non-Dredd-ful judge is the only good reason to watch it.

It’s relentless and exhausting for adults, but kids and die-hard SpongeBob fans may find something to love here as the consistently cheery fry cook once again out-dimwits a dastardly foe.

A strong directorial debut from Winslet with — as you’d expect — stellar performances from her cast. It might be the perfect antidote to other, overly saccharine Christmas films.

The plot is predictable and the look unmemorable, but Johansson has nevertheless crafted a pleasingly old-fashioned character piece with just enough bite to balance its emotion.

It loses sight of its own heroes amid the hustle and bustle of its wildly entertaining environment, but Zootropolis is still a blast to visit for a couple of hours.

Finnish him! Gore-soaked and unbelievably bloody, this will make you wince, gasp and cheer for the little guy. Another authoritarian regime is in for a bad day, and that’s a lovely thing to watch.

Although the quips aren’t always sharp enough and the sleight of hand a little lacking, it takes a hard heart not to cheer as a few young victims of a broken system carve out their own little bit of magic.

A crime thriller with no interest in thrills and not much in crime, this is an at times frustrating character study of a guy who can’t get out of his own way.

It’s not as scary or as effective as the first film, but points for the performances, and for trying hard to do something different and fresh.

The fire scenes are terrifying and may well sear themselves into your brain, but however well-intentioned, the human element is less involving than the disaster they must endure.

There are colourful characters and cool moments to keep you entertained on the road to nowhere, but they can’t disguise the fact that this is a shaggy-dog story with no real point.

A fun blend of scares and sentiment, this largely justifies a lengthy run time with effective frights and a valedictory feel. Just don’t watch it before trying to clear out the attic.

It’s not the toothless remake we feared, and is often very funny, but there’s a slight imbalance between the Roses that blunts some of its effect.