Kim Newman

Written by Roddy Doyle this was never going to be a depressing tale of single parenthood. Instead we watch through rose-tinted glasses as the ever watchable Colm Meaney bonds with his family over his daughter's pregnancy out of wedlock in Catholic Ireland.

Bogdanovich’s perfect recreation of the sense of time and place, and his ability to mix wit with poignancy that make this such a charming, timeless film.

This gripping character study becomes more agonisingly suspenseful as it gets closer to an answer that can't be confirmed.

Macy hasn’t had a role this good since Fargo, and demonstrates again his mastery of the droopy-eyed, apologetically desperate, borderline bitter shrug.

Super sexy, silly Meyer fun where he takes his own self-styled genre to its heights/depths.

Well, even if it is essentially four hours about a selfish, silly cow, it's impeccably well made, and should be seen by anyone with even a passing interest in romance or movies.

Once you get past the ridiculous story this is a fine example of De Palma's lush overkill style and certainly has a redeeming thread of silly sick humour.

Kurosawa is always worth a look but this is a particular classic that has influenced so much to come, it's almost essential.

DiCaprio delivers a startling prettyboy-to-tough nut makeover – but he has to play it close to his chest here for the storyline to play out. Once you get past the trickery, Shutter Island offers sumptuous, enthralling, shivery gothic filmmaking with a hardboiled heart and a sly line in asylum humour. If a pot is being boiled, at least it’s an intricately-decorated pot on a spectacular fire.

It sets some sort of record for use of the expressions "nigga" and "muthafucka".

Genuinely disturbing horror but with Cronenberg producing a slightly deeper edge in his portrait of a troubled family.

Earlier Clancy films alternated between the dull and the ridiculous. First-rate writers like Steven Zaillian and the great John Milius have managed to make this considerably meatier.

Whether horror fans are ready for high-notes or musical buffs will appreciate Dario Argento levels of gore is an open question, but this is a rich, demented experience.

Very 'talky', but the three lead females are excellent, as are the costumes and sets.

As horror, it's a worn-out succession of gory, meaningless, hard-to-enjoy deaths, and too much of the running time is given over to puppets arguing with each other.

Mad Max 2 with Thought for the Day thrown in. There’s some ace post-holocaust action, but you can’t help feel you were invited to a party with fizzy pop and cream cake and got suckered into a sermon instead.

Worse than Scary Movies 1 through 3… And they were terrible.

Fascinating, funny, wicked and to the point, this is an excellent film about a week every Briton over the age of 15 will remember vividly.

A small but perfectly formed crime drama. And, without making a fuss, a proper nail-biter, too.

Sharper than a stake in it's genre references, The Monster Squad appeals to cinephile as well as teen sensibilities.

A curiously compulsive drama that for all its inevitable Dead Sailors’ Society trappings is still highly entertaining.

A successful mix of literary adaptation, meta-fictional discourse and inside-showbiz comedy. Both funny and clever.

Effective melodrama with some satisfying emotional confrontations, particularly from Lana Turner.

The tension revs along nicely and - if you're not heisted out already - there's some suspense to be had.

Day is on top form as the boastful sharpshooter, but she's ably matched by her supporting cast and the music.

A disjointed mish-M.A.S.H. of cliched comedy and misplaced observational wit.

Unlucky for almost everyone. It's a sad day when a Friday the 13th remake is shown up by a My Bloody Valentine remake – couldn't they at least have sprung for 3-D?

Thoughtful trial movie with a disturbing edge.