Olly Richards

Strong performances and direction make the most of a lightweight tale.

As a perfectly serviceable horror movie, it at least gets the Exorcist franchise back into respectable territory, but there was the potential for something much better.

It starts off very sprightly and witty and maintains a high giggle-count throughout.

A likeable comedy that uses its greatest asset, its talented, funny cast, to good effect.

It’s impossible to overstate how much this film owes to Ryan Reynolds. Even if you don’t understand Pikachu’s world, everyone can understand a great joke superbly delivered.

There's more here for the under-tens than over-, but it's still charming, amusing and energetic enough to win you over.

The first film was so middle-of-the-road that most have probably forgotten it existed. Its sequel creates a more lasting impression, with vibrant animation and a wackadoodle sense of humour.

Like its slack-jawed clones, The Island is full of energy and incredibly pretty but burdened with only the minimum of smarts.

Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi epic-cum-period-romance-cum-stalker-thriller is absolutely teeming with ideas. That they don’t all come together in an entirely convincing way doesn’t spoil the overall effect of something thought-provoking, very handsomely made, and appealingly weird.

It may share a narrator with "March Of The Penguins" but this short documentary is happily more sturdily scientific.

A step back from the last film in terms of ambition, this nevertheless continues the series’ chirpy, amiable mood. Nothing to be po-faced about here.

The horror-lite element gives it a boost, with Branagh’s direction conjuring up a few jumps, but this gently entertaining mystery could have used far more scares. If he’d gone the full leering Hammer Horror, rather than tastefully occult, this could have been a scream.

The animals are cute and Gleeson is extremely game. What keeps Peter from Paddington-style delight is a self-conscious need to distance itself from its source material.

This is everything you might expect of a Baz Luhrmann biopic. It’s brash, loud, maximalist, and certainly never boring, but also keeps its subject at a distance, enthralled by his glamour not his soul.

Like the Minions, this instalment is barely distinguishable from any of the others, but it’s easy to be won over by its nutty joy and enthusiasm.

In stripping Jack Ryan back to basics it’s lost some sophistication, but reinvigorated an action hero who’s unlike any other on offer and who absolutely earns his second — or rather fourth — shot.

Eastwood’s message that no good deed goes unpunished feels misplaced, but for the crash sequences and Hanks’ turn it’s worthwhile. But for goodness’ sake, don’t watch it on a plane.

While lacking the richness of its source material, it remains an enjoyable, immoral and sometimes beautifully Gothic tale.

A dream cast are on good form in a film that makes you want to call your siblings, but very glad you don’t live with them.

Its brainless brawn is again pretty entertaining, until the credits roll and you can instantly forget the whole thing.

The gleefully Gothic fingerprints of Guillermo del Toro are all over this zippy excursion into Mexico's myths and legends, although the gag-count falls quite a lot short of Pixar greatness.

A movie that while thin and silly, moves with such joyous speed that you almost want to throw your arms in the air and scream.

Highly likeable, pleasantly unpretentious and plenty amusing.

Filmically it's more of a pleasantly diverting kick about in the park than a 90th minute back-of-the-net at the world cup final.

The film is at its best when it’s sitting just with them, not doing much, not trying too hard to be eccentric; just shooting the breeze and being cheerfully weird.

High in gloss if not necessary insight, this is manna for fashion fans but a marginally slighter piece of work than The September Issue.

This is far from the disaster that was predicted. It’s cute and cheerful, but its efforts to make Snow White both respectful to the original and relevant to a new audience leave it stranded in some smudgy grey areas.

The jokes are strong and delivered by a very talented cast, but the heart isn’t there. It’s easy to laugh, but hard to care.