The players are a colourful bunch, the film referencing is smart, the football satire sharp and there are delightful moments of visual imagination in the appealing animation.

Stylish, twisted and daring, Gone Girl is a David Fincher date movie: dark, smart and dangerous. If it doesn’t deliver in its finale, its twist, turns and commitment to moral repugnance will leave you reeling.

Some inspired grace notes elevate a thriller that's more De Palma than Hitchcock.

It may not be an access-all-areas portrayal of one of rock's most enigmatic characters, but then, where would be the fun in that?

Well played across the board, The Riot Club is an entertaining glimpse into the dark side of privilege. Yet it lacks the richness and insight to be anything more.

Weightless, but not without its enchantments, this is Woody Allen coasting. But where better to coast than the loveliest coast of all?

Like a good butcher’s cleaver, it’s weighty, solid and sharp — an effective matching of director and star in what is hopefully the first of a new film series.

Where The Hole really scores — and this is rare in modern horror — is in its lead characters.

A well-meaning but corny football fable.

At the venerable age of 84, documentary maven Wiseman hasn't lost his touch.

For all its chilled intelligence and topical ambition this is a bloodless adaptation, but worth seeing for Hoffman’s deft and ghostly presence.

A clear winner that makes you laugh, cry, and generally want to party and parade like it’s 1984.

There’s slapstick and silliness to entertain small children and nefarious plots for the adult audience to untangle, making this a far more handsome prospect than any of its characters could imagine.

A curious mix of Britpop music cues and moppet-bait storytelling makes for a diverting, if derivative kids' animation.

Beautiful to look at but lacking a strong point.

Reinforcing the very rom-com tropes it's sending up, this is a little too postmodern for its own good. Happily, Poehler and Rudd are as irresistible as ever.

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

Missing the punchy plotting of the Coens thriller it resembles, the early chuckles don't quite translate into a satisfying whole.

Mainstream audiences may find this too oddball to appreciate as a straight thriller. But tune into its strange frequency and there is much to enjoy — perhaps even adore.

Strong performances keep the viewer guessing as much as our heroine, but the character drama recedes as the thriller element builds, to its detriment.

The Fannytastic Four leave us on a poo-flecked, piss-soaked, sun-burned high that more than overcomes its familiar flaws to become a real contender for the year’s funniest film.

Some nice comic beats and a sinister Andy Garcia turn make this far more watchable that the fratty conceit might suggest.

Too many false notes add up to a Nicholas Sparks-lite teen romance.

Sharp, funny and feeling, this isn't just Juno-meets-Girls but a smart film that tackles real-life issues with rare frankness.

Gripping, smart and well-tooled, this greenies-on-a-mission movie gives terrific build-up and a riveting central set-piece, with only a slight dip at the end. If she is looking for another genre to subvert, a Reichardt superhero movie would be a sight to behold.

Very funny underdog comedy that’s genuinely heartwarming and full of charm.

Intimate, delicate and delightful.

A Dame To Kill For shares some of the downsides of the first, particularly dubious female characterisation. But this retains the gritty, gruelling vice-grip on graphic-novel noir that made Sin City so enjoyable.

Filmmaker Sean Ellis does terrific work balancing the disparate elements of his crime-laced drama.

As Marmite-y as Stuart Murdoch's music, you'll find it either winningly charming or irritatingly fey. Either way, its warmth shines through.

Even if you’ve skipped the Dardennes’ work until now, this is a talking-point movie — and an outstanding lead performance — you need to see. It’s a rare film of unforced simplicity that will stick with you for a long time. And it’s honest right to its perfectly judged ending.

You’ll be jolted a couple of times, but these aren’t scares that will stay with you. How about retiring “based on a true story” in favour of “based on a good story”?

What begins as a thrilling pastiche of comic-book formula gets bogged down in its own scientific prattle — not that you ever stop adoring Johansson’s magnificent heroine.

The Expendables 3 has its cake and shoots it: armed to the nipples with vast action and bulging A-listers, but over-over-blown and overcrowded. See it for Gibson’s big-bad.

Like "The Cover" and "Man On Wire," this documentary comes clad in the garb of a thriller. And a heck of a good one at that.

A fascinating and visually impressive intellectual helter-skelter ride, but the lack of narrative coherence lets down its promising sci-fi concepts and satire.

Despite the gusto its star brings to the role, it's hard to ride shotgun on Hector's voyage of discovery.

This would have been a striking calling card, and it’s still an impressively solid piece of genre filmmaking with great cinematography and score. But there’s not much here of the ambition of Animal Kingdom, leaving Michôd in ‘difficult third movie’ territory. Let’s hope he gets a move on this time.

Even Oedipus would be left scratching his head by this bonkers but drily funny tale of one family's forlorn search for normality.

An uneven debut from John Slattery that nonetheless shows flashes of flair and a jet-black sense of humour.

Paced with steady assurance, this gentle bildungsroman is a impressive debut from director Daniel Patrick Carbone.

Endless wordplay and dumb slapstick do not a rewarding animation make. Pun-ishing.

If you enjoy Gondry’s brand of homemade art direction then there’s plenty to delight early on, but it’s all wallpaper.

As darkly disturbing as Jim Thompson's novel, this is a genuinely upsetting film that might also be Winterbottom's best. Not for everyone, but near-faultless all the same.

As much as Guardians largely thrives through its lovably scuzzy style, it cannot avoid the immense tractor-beam pull of The Big Marvel Studios Final Act.

With Hercules, Brett Ratner and Dwayne Johnson are out to entertain you — no more, no less. And that is just what they do.

Does for "E.T." what "Super 8" did for "Close Encounters." As lovably '80s as Reece's Pieces and pop socks.

An understated Nicolas Cage — there’s a phrase you don’t get to write too often these days — anchors a superbly realised film, which, like its eponymous hero, has a brittle outer shell concealing a surprisingly warm heart.

Touching and funny. Waters fans should sign up now.

Filipino maven Diaz delivers a bravura, literary human drama that does justice to its great source material.

It might veer towards hagiography at times, but its subject is so entertaining you don't even care.

An intriguing look at a lost voice.

A superbly mounted, powerfully performed, if slightly underfed Apes sequel. That Reeves is set to direct Untitled Of The Planet Of The Apes next is cause for much celebration. This guy’s fur real. No pun intended.

The loyal fans — and they are legion — will trot out clichés like, “Leave your brain at the door,” and defend Age Of Extinction’s right to be nothing but a succession of varoom! and kersmash! sequences. For those who aren’t still blindly faithful to something they liked when they were nine, despite the colossal scale, there’s little to see here.

An impassioned, fly-on-the-wall look at a serious social issue.

At times terrifying and too tough for tinies, this is nevertheless a triumphant sequel that puts its faith in Hiccup and Toothless to find a way through dark times for man and dragon. Until we all get our own dragon to go flying with, the result is a story sufficiently thrilling to have us all airborne.

Linklater’s beautiful film is an extraordinary achievement — tender, funny, wise and wistful, full of warmth and humanity.

A sparse and languid Italian thriller that carries a debt to Melville.

An interesting premise but stodgy, suspense-free execution.

Considering the danger, spectacular setting and sheer derring-do of its subject matter, this is pretty leaden stuff. Disappointing.

Strong performances, warmth and light comedy abound, even if it is a bit stagey.

Shot with grace and precision but paced with all the urgency of a Sunday afternoon stroll, Joanna Hogg's Haneke-lite study of an English middle class family is a well-crafted affair elevated by terrific moments.

Hogg stages some scenes with a sure sense of composition and dramatic tension but too often the film feels self-conscious and ponderous.

Begin Again is a joyous movie about the good things in life: love, family, relationships, New York, creativity and music. And Knightley and Ruffalo make for one of the most unusual engaging couples of the year.

It could easily have been a workaday music doc, but amid all the gigs, pit stops and sound checks emerges a funny and wry story of brothers at work.

Eat well beforehand or you’ll be in tummy-rumbling, tongue-hanging-out agony as the merry band cook their way across America. Good fun and happy, filling fare.

A character-driven thriller with more twists than an off-the-map dirt road, awards-quality performances from the three leads, a rare sensitivity to the after-effects of horror and a sure directorial hand. Mickle and Damici officially segue from ‘promising’ to ‘delivering’.

For all it boasts in ingenious style, this genial American yarn lacks the delicious bile of Jenuet’s early days.

Hogg’s films are never conventional stories, but this is a rewarding and affecting watch.

A romance not nearly as seductive as its lead actress.

A commanding, troubling domestic horror that should launch a long career for Avranas.

As meticulous as one of Claudel's sculptures, Hors Satan director Dumont and his star do this true-life story justice with an empathetic telling.

A satisfaction conclusion to the trilogy.

Conventional to an almost eye-watering degree, this could have used a little more effort to subvert the genre - and a little more Terence Stamp.

Half "GoodFellas," half "Dreamgirls," Jersey Boys is an appealing take on a grit-to-glamour biopic. What it ultimately fails to do, though, is convince.

Despite a few missteps this is a spirited, touching romance and Shailene Woodley’s best performance yet. Divergent fans after a weepie need look no further.

If not a star-making turn, Mbatha-Raw's tough, tender performances should give her plenty of opportunities in sharper fare.

Rare is the film that understands the pleasures of letting an enraged Ice Cube take out his wrath on an all-you-can-eat buffet. And which other blockbuster in 2014 would interrupt its climactic car chase to lob in a gag about Benny Hill?

A grimly funny social allegory that doesn't pull a single punch.

Like Chronicle, it's a fresh spin on the high-school flick. Unlike Chronicle, its execution never quite matches its ideas.

The toxic reaction in Cannes should offer fair warning: Weinstein's glossbuster is a bust.

A deeply moving drama played out on the small stage of ordinary people’s lives. An unforgettable performance from Jordan invests Grant with real humanity, while Coogler’s unvarnished script and sure-handed direction propel the film to its inevitable, terrible conclusion.

If this tiresome yarn is the ‘true’ story of one of Disney’s most popular villains then, please, give us colourful lies and happy ignorance.

An unlikely but effective found-footage horror from Goldthwait.

A road trip movie filled with simple pleasures. Ashmore does a solid job as a mariachi musician without a single grenade-launcher in his guitar case

Polanski’s unavoidably stagy adaptation of David Ives’ celebrated Broadway play is an enjoyably witty two-hander, confined to its theatre setting, yet with much to say about gender roles in the world beyond.

Despite visceral moments, it often feels like an excuse to use footage that didn’t make the 2010 film.

An unsparing look at the winter of life, salted with humour and emotion.

A playful and frantic science-fiction twister which mimics the best (Aliens, The Matrix, Groundhog Day) while offering something fresh and — most importantly — thrilling.

No surprises here, nor many laughs, though the romance has a simple, sentimental appeal.

The premise is slightly bizarre but there's enough wink-and-a-nod charm in the performances to earn it a pass.

Grim and gritty. Warning: contains punishing scenes of testicle burning.

Forte and Peake excel in a notable debut from Green that marks her out as a director to watch.

Kid-friendly with some neat visuals. Adults will appreciate the dulcet tones of Frasier as the Tin Man.

With so much going on, and such a ferocious pace, several parts of the story feel undernourished... But what we do get here is largely fantastic.

There's more than a nod to King Hu's Touch Of Zen as Zhangke unleashes a four-fisted chunk of ultraviolent fury. Tarantino would approve.

Director Stacie Passion doesn't try to ape Buñuel’s surrealist twist on ennui in Belle Du Jour, instead crafting an enthralling, modern tale in which intimacy is a goal rarely achieved.

Sensitive performances from a willing cast bring Zola's novel to life on the big screen.