Jamie Graham

An impressively cinematic drama that fully immerses viewers in a time and place but offers links to our divided present.

The gleeful nastiness will be too much for many. Fans, meanwhile, will rejoice as Art wraps intestines around a Christmas tree like tinsel.

Don’t be put off by the long wait. This is a little slimline but a lot of fun.

It’s a triumph of design, offering a creepy twist on such classic monsters as living dolls, the mummy and, in particular, the golem of Jewish folklore, a large clay figure that can be brought to life to do its creator’s bidding...

Boasting great music cues, vivid 35mm lensing (by, of all people, Avatar actor Giovanni Ribisi, who here makes his classy debut as director of photography), and engaging gender politics that establish Mollner’s interest in more than just the thrill of the chase, Strange Darling is a slick game of cat and mouse.

The Crooked Man is at its best in a flavoursome first half that serves up crepuscular, shallow-focus photography (take a bow, DoP Ivan Vatsov) and backwoods dialect as tangy and prickly as wild gooseberries.

The best horror remakes are not afraid to push the source material in new directions – exhibit a) The Thing; exhibit b) The Fly – and while Watkins’ movie is nowhere near the level of those masterpieces (few are), it’s shrewd, engrossing and pleasingly nasty.

The action’s routine (as is the norm for this sub-genre) and the spy plot skimps on mystery and twists. But Bautista and Coleman maintain their winning rapport from the first film, and Schaal’s inappropriate comments never fail to amuse. It’s just about enough.

Glen Powell’s whirlwind ascent continues in a film that does pretty much all you could ask for from a Twisters movie.

Much more fun than Coming 2 America. Don’t be surprised to see a fifth film greenlit.

As time passes, a real sadness creeps in as we suspect that we might be witnessing the extinction of a species, though an inspired sight gag is never far away. This is a film that needs to be seen to be believed.

Marking Harlin’s trumpeted return to a genre in which he established himself as something of a journeyman (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Exorcist: The Beginning), The Strangers: Chapter 1 makes decent use of its contained setting – the house itself, to wheel out the cliché, is its own character – but can’t cut through the sense of fatigue.

Is Furiosa as magnificent as Fury Road? No, though not because it’s the first Mad Max movie without Max, whose absence barely registers. At 140 minutes minus credits, it’s a touch unwieldy, while its lament for the inevitability of war and the emptiness of revenge feels hollow given the giddy excitement it stirs from just these things. But what can’t be disputed is that Miller, the Mad genius, has done it again, once more refusing to simply repeat himself and instead choosing to kick up dust rather than gather it as he forges a new path through the Wasteland in often spectacular fashion.

A savage triumph.

This franchise is never happy to cruise - and M:I 7 goes all-out. It judders at times, but when it delivers, it delivers big time.

The fast and furious action is a bit plasticky, but the two starry leads bring some real sparks.

While it hardly stays with you like The Invisible Man, Renfield is a fun Friday night at the movies.

This easily surpasses Fede Alvarez’s overrated 2013 reboot and suggests there’s plenty more life – and death – in the franchise yet.

A propulsive thriller that’ll appeal to die-hard fans and newbies alike.

Despite its 95-minute running time, Banks’ wild adventure feels drawn out. Never sure if it wants to conjure real suspense and scares (it fails) or embrace riotous comedy in a full-on bear hug, Cocaine Bear also suffers from moments of cartoonish CGI.

While some might have preferred this story with its edges unsmoothed, The Fabelmans is better viewed as the tale of how Spielberg’s personal values inform his every artistic decision, and how he became who he is: The Greatest Showman On Earth.

It’s the filmic equivalent of a Penn and Teller magic trick: amaze, show the mechanics, amaze again.

It’s a delight to watch Amy Adams do Jekyll and Hyde as she incrementally transforms from cheery Giselle to noxious stepmother, while Maya Rudolph is a whole heap of fun as the ultimate control-freak soccer mom who - of course - becomes queen when Monroeville turns into “one big fantasia”.

Fans, naturally, might simply want what they came for, and leave licking wounds. But they should be partially sated by some grisly kills and nods to Carpenter classics Christine and The Thing. And besides, let’s not fool ourselves that it really ends here. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was followed a year later by Friday the 13th: A New Beginning.

It's a rocky, at times patience-testing ride that plays something like a screwball riff on The Plot Against America, but Amsterdam is ultimately worth the trip.

Peele is three for three. You’ll spill out into the night jawing with your friends and gazing at the stars.

Favoring charisma over character, this action-espionage thriller hangs lots of action – some solid, some ace – on a threadbare plot.

Andy’s favourite sci-fi movie won’t be yours. But it’s a fun adventure with animation that sucks your eyeballs from their sockets.