Kim Newman

A little too exactly like the original but with (fewer) memorable performances.

All-in-all a fairly unpleasant experience for most audiences.

Inventive suspense, spiky characters, outrageous horror and wicked satire. Welcome back, George - you've been away too long.

It must be hard for actresses as unconventional and gutsy as Weaver and Hunter to find scripts worth making. Although this offers them both meaty parts with plentiful neuroses and snappy lines, it is otherwise a completely mechanical load of old cods.

Still creepy, ooky, mysterious and spooky, but trying to follow the storylines is like sorting spaghetti.

Originating the genre of 'dedicated teacher reaches troubled kids in a ghetto school', this is still affecting although heavy-handed.

Not as affecting as Ozu's classic Tokyo Story, Late Spring still charms with it's similar theme of development of the parental bond as the children mature and become more independent. Although well acted, the visual are equally arresting but when the themes are so similar a new approach is required to keep it interesting.

Writer-director Jack Hill (Spider Baby) evidently didn't try very hard on this one.

With its genuinely cute hero and appealing storyline, Dumbo's exactly right for younger children but not too milk-soppy for anyone over eight. Indispensible.

Despite delicate performances, the lead characters never escape stereotype, and the relationship between them, which should be the emotional heart of the movie, never becomes remotely convincing even on an I Love Lucy level.

Director Steve Miner, on board because Carpenter passed, made two of the early Friday The 13th sequels and manages the business of the sudden knee-jerk shocks with ease, realising (as the previous sequels didn't) that Halloween movies are supposed to be scary not violent.

Uncomfortable viewing which isn't afraid to engage with race-related violence.

Polanski arrived on the scene with an almost super-human knack for tension; one of the great directorial debuts in cinema's history.

Fascinating history, very good movie -- but demanding, and its lack of easy answers will frustrate some. Lessons about 21st century terrorism are implicit, but not overly stressed.

Mason's urbane genius and Douglas' dimpled two-fistedness (and stripy sailor shirt) beef up a floppy script.

Even thought it's the third such effort to employ handheld camera in a zombie flick, this has more than enough shocks to hold its own.

The City Of Lost Children is as great a film as you thought "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was when you were five years old.

A chilling, intense character study.

A very pompous version of the kind of nonsense Chuck Norris has been doing in far less embarrassing fashion for so many years.

This will not appeal to everyone, whether it will appeal to anyone is another question. With dark humour from time to time, underneath an extremely repulsive concept, this is a relatively conventional horror movie.

Episodic western with a great performance from Hoffman.

For fans of Cassavetes, Opening night is a must see. As per usual it features a superb cast.

It’s almost as structurally daring as "Memento," demanding that the audience fills in the gaps.

A noisy but enjoyable destruction derby of a film, sadly with none of the subtlety, invention or skill of Spielberg's Duel.

It's not exactly good, and it has some very bad scenes indeed, but the performances sometimes sparkle and the unusual happy ending -- scored with David Bowie's 'Putting Out the Fire With Gasoline' -- is surprisingly moving.

Pitched halfway between a comedy and a morality tale, this space race often falls between the two, but is mildly diverting and boasts a strong young cast that will go on to make better things.

All pout and pose, with no spine to speak of; a beast with no back.

Trying to break expectations isn't always a wise idea and here Disney show how not to do it. With this supposed-family movie, they disappoint on nearly every level. The plot is weak, the action poor and it's got Bette Midler, simply dreadful.