Ian Freer

Lacking anything approaching originality, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is a generic, by-the-numbers action-comedy sequel. Praise be for Hayek, who at least gives it gusto.

Suburbicon is a strange beast: a by-the-numbers ’40s film noir bolted to an unsatisfying ’60s racial drama wrapped up in a ’50s Americana satire. A strong cast and talented director never make the whole add up.

Tom & Jerry: The Movie joins Garfield , Yogi Bear and The Smurfs as misfiring attempts to combine popular ’toons with live action. Our kids deserve better. They deserve Tom & Jerry 1940-’58.

Featuring strong work from LaBeouf, Man Down is a fascinating example of how a powerful performance and good intentions can be derailed by a misguided concept and flawed execution.

A Street Cat Named Bob has its heart in the right place but doesn’t quite land on a tone to unite hard hitting drama and a cat-based comedy.

Amsterdam suffers from a surfeit of story detail without the vigour to whizz you through it. It has likable leads and the craft is on point, but the result, given all the talent involved, is a tonally uneasy disappointment — a romp that fails to romp.

On paper, Don’t Let Go’s premise — a supernaturally flecked crime story with a hint of time travel — should be exciting but it is let down down by workaday writing and routine filmmaking.

Take out the BDSM, and Fifty Shades Freed would play perfectly as afternoon thriller on Channel 5. An end to a damp squib of a trilogy which sees Johnson as the only one to emerge unscathed.

Clint Eastwood’s bold choice to have real protagonists does little to enliven a listless story about friendship. Although the terrorist attack is effectively staged, The 15:17 To Paris fails to spin a remarkable film out of a remarkable act of heroism.

Precious Cargo is a film out of time. In the ’90s it would have been a serviceable DTV alternative when the Van Damme/Jeff Wincott flick was out at Blockbuster. These days it is a lacklustre anachronism. Bruce Willis should really know better.

It has all the required Police Academy staples and is one of the better sequels but this whole franchise is so dated that isn't saying much.

Venom is neither triumph nor train-wreck. It’s a mediocre origin story, a superhero host that sadly fails to bond with its comedy parasite. Which is a shame, as there is enough here to to suggest it could have been a blast.

Wasting big-name actors, The Mauritanian is simultaneously over-stuffed and under-powered, turning a horrifying real-life ordeal into something flat and formulaic. Only Tahar Rahim’s consummate portrayal of grace under duress stands out.

Midway is a big, bold, brazen attempt to detail one of World War II’s most significant moments. But in a post Saving Private Ryan-Dunkirk landscape, it feels astonishing anyone is still making war movies like this.

Eddie Murphy’s Dr. Dolittle generated four sequels. On this showing, Downey Jr’s will be a standalone, an uncynical but mostly lacklustre kids’ flick that doesn’t find its voice, animal or otherwise.

Astronaut doesn’t have the budget or cinematic ambition to deliver on its premise. Despite the best efforts of Richard Dreyfuss, it reaches for the stars and misses by a mile.

Parts of Outcome work a treat (see: Martin Scorsese). Shame, then, that long stretches give in to blunt parody, leaving the feeling there’s a much better movie in here somewhere.

Despite some inventive photography and decent gore for its day, its uneven pace renders it a curio for Coppola fans.

The fifth Purge outing goes for broke and comes out wanting, working neither as political commentary nor horror-action-thriller. In this case, bigger is definitely not better.

This all feels a long way from Chandor’s glory days of Margin Call and All Is Lost. Save the occasional flourish, Kraven The Hunter is limp, tired, uninvolving superhero fare.

It’s a great premise but, over-populated by dull characters and a flat feel, Cocaine Bear is sadly a party animal that never gets started. Not quite a coke zero but close.

With Soderbergh now only on cinematography duties, this one takes all of the original’s surface — chiefly the hip gyrations — and none of the substance, interesting character arcs or charms.

Bay’s genuine determination to give you a good time still doesn’t result in fun. Overlong, overstuffed and soulless, for fans who grew up with Optimus and Co, The Last Knight will sting like a bee.

A Rainy Day In New York hits all of Allen’s touchstones, has a few good one-liners and is well played, but it sorely lacks the wit, vitality and veracity of his ’70s/’80s heyday.

One’s a cop who can’t shoot straight! One’s a kid with a nose for trouble! Together… they lack the wit, thrills and rapport to deliver fun genre times.

The Last Days Of American Crime takes a potentially entertaining, if silly, premise and drains it of any reason to get invested. You can just imagine a John Carpenter would have doubled the thrills in half the time.

It’s Sliding Doors with place settings, but Love Wedding Repeat can’t make its time-loop conceit work (stick with About Time). Bouquets to the cast and production values; a quickie divorce from everything else.