The truly effective emotional arc is handed to the furry member of the cast.

A curiously resistable drama, despite several strong elements - the most notable being newcomer Idina Menzel.

While the backgrounds and animation are wonderful, the film suffers from an intensely depressing middle section, full of heart-stopping chases, damaged friendships and forgettable songs more likely to invoke fidgets than sniffles among the younger contingent in the audience.

An interesting, well played and well made attempt to reframe Shakespeare’s most famous play through a feminist lens, Ophelia ultimately doesn’t have the boldness to deliver on its resonant idea.

Catfish pair Joost and Ariel Schulman keep the franchise firmly on track with a satisfyingly scary fourth instalment.

It doesn’t completely work and lacks complexity, but Capone is scene-for-scene more interesting than many slicker films. Hardy’s swing-for-the-fences performance is a must-see.

A droll and vigorous psychological study of an everyday egomaniac, but we’ve seen Stiller do this sort of thing before, and better.

Another mean, violent and decently acted slab of Ellroy-flavoured criminality, with an impressively battered Keanu Reeves, but Ayers is no Curtis Hanson.

If it could decide whether it was a cute romcom or a dirty one, Man Up would be a real gem, but as charming as it is, it falls between two stools and never manages to, ahem, Man Up.

A word of warning: this is not the knockabout comedy the trailer suggests. Instead, it cleaves closer to what you expect from Burton: darkness, quirk and Johnny Depp on great form. A step up, then, from Alice In Wonderland and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, but not tip-top Tim.

With Cage as a harried cop, Cusack as a serial killer and 50 Cent as a pimp, we're assuming the casting department kicked off early on this one. Still, there's plenty in this taut thriller for you to stick around for, not least the reuniting of the Con Air duo.

A divisive film - too overwrought for some, perfectly emotionally pitched for others - how much it will appeal will depend on how romantically inclined the viewer is feeling.

Smart and satirical but very dated, obviously.

This looks, in retrospect, like nothing much more than a glossy soap passed off as serious drama.

It doesn’t always land, but it dares to be different, from the title to the team-up. Fresh and thoughtful in a way recent Marvel efforts haven’t always managed.

The visuals are an animation student's wet dream, the dialogue an English student's nightmare - but for Japanimation fans it's a big-screen must-see.

Prisoners Of The Ghostland is by turns brilliant and rubbish. Cage is in his element, it has visual invention to spare, and the fight scenes are fun, but it’s a shame such imagination is tethered to equally all-over-the-place storytelling.

It hardly breaks the romcom mould, but You People is funny and thoughtful on how race can still divide a relationship. As the in-laws from hell, meanwhile, Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are the undeniable highlights.

Hill, shooting by night and on location together with his OOP Andrew Laszlo, gives the film dazzling style. New York's oil-slicked streets become a labyrinth lit by pools of reflecting light, both scary and strangely beautiful - grimy realism it isn't. It also manages to humanize the gang-bangers to a surprising extent, illustrating the material and emotional poverty that forces them onto the streets in the first place.

An improvement on the last outing for Jackman’s not-so-merry mutant. If only it trusted enough in its unique setting to forgo a descent into aggressively awful formula.

A better-than-expected entry in the all-too-often neglected sub sub-genre, with Butler showing impressive restraint.

Despite the amiable charms of the central couple of Cheers' Kirstie Alley and a back-from-the-dead John Travolta, it is director Heckerling's goofy willingness to let her imagination run riot that prevents her film from sinking into soap.

Poetic but bleekly pessimistic version of the Danish tragedy.

A love story, but not in the way you think. Carney’s latest ballad to the musical arts stays in tune, with a stand-out central performance from Hewson.

Decent belly laughs occur, but they are spread thinly over a prolonged period.

A touching melodrama illuminated by a solid turn from Tatum.

Cage and Wood make a hugely enjoyable double act (has True Detective season three been cast yet?) in this deceptively dark thriller with comic undertones, arguably sunk by a seismic tonal shift that not only wipes the smile off your face, but leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Tune into its offbeat frequency, however, and there is much to enjoy.

An award-worthy performance from the reliably exceptional Andrea Riseborough elevates an affecting portrait of the road to recovery that fails to tread new ground.

Terrific effects and considerable charm, but, once again, you can't help wishing the filmmakers had been bolder with the adaptation.

More Damon Runyan than Irvine Welsh, but as entertaining as it is important.

While the storyline is a little underpowered, it's so packed with vinyl gems (Edwin Starr, The Salvadores, Frankie Valli) that Northern Soul fans will be doing backdrops in the aisles.

Entertaining while you're watching it but, as deceptive as a party's election promises, there's less to it than meets the eye.

A much bolder, braver horror sequel than most. Except for a wispy ending, it’s a match for the first.

Derivative sci-fi hokum but some imaginative touches here and there.

Individual sequences are all impeccably assembled, Rourke's grizzled vet chips in some memorable deadpan dialogue.

Surprisingly, even after waiting 20 years, they managed to turn out a smart, darkly-comic thriller with some imaginative twists.

Packed with amusing graphics, animated sequences and damning testimonies, this is a landmark denunciation of Hollywood infantilisation and protectionism.

While it won’t be remembered as one of the great Christmas films, Last Christmas delivers enough moments of heart and humour to keep the festive spirit alive.

Another dazzling Jennifer Lawrence performance anchors a blue-collar parable that boasts some inspired moments but never quite gels.

Remember the film you hoped "Snakes On A Plane" would be – this is it! By any sane cinematic standards, meretricious trash … but thrown at you with such good-humoured glee that it's hard to resist. It's a bumper-sticker of a movie: honk if you love tits and gore! Honk honk honk.

A familiar story oddly presented, but with a powerful central performance from Woody Harrelson.

The dialogue and storyline are both a little on the clunky side, but the action excels.

It works as a suspense-building scare machine, given heart and depth by Olsen's performance - though it's still an effective exercise in misdirection rather than a strikingly original vision, and now it's a remake of an effective exercise in misdirection.

Seize Them! turns the Dark Ages into the daft ages, delivering a mostly entertaining, female-centred comedy enlivened by winning performances.

Great songs, gentle humour and a dose of syrup which is not to everyone's tastes, but worth buying to keep that Christmas spirit going until next year.

A more modest success than the first "Kick-Ass," but still of-a-piece with its scurrilous predecessor. Nobody flies a jet-pack up a skyscraper this time, but Kick-Ass 2 still has its share of over-the-top action, and the sweary laughs are just about intact.

Swinging between ice and space, Clooney has upped his directorial ambition and delivered a big-scale, big-hearted story, even if it struggles to match the films it riffs on.

It looks gorgeous and offers strong performances from Driver and Ridley in particular, but ultimately the saga ends with neither a bang nor a whimper but something inbetween.

That innocuous title disguises a Mexican thriller with genuine bite, though the hokey ending doesn't quite live up to the edgy plotting and Sigman's classy turn as a tough heroine in an impossible situation.

A playful industry satire made by victors. That's actually pretty cold when you think about it.

Whilst this fly is not as tightly scripted or keenly directed as its parent, it does have pace, breathless tension and the sort of gross-out effects that rules out kebabs for some time after the credits have rolled.

Some developments seriously stretch credulity and the dialogue doesn’t always ring true. But the performances — including a sinister, matronly Kerry Fox — are as enjoyable as the tawdry film noir vibe.

A well told, beautifully acted drama that offers nothing new but a comforting level of familiarity and cosiness.

Well above the standards of your average romantic comedy, it's funny, sexy and smart. It's just not smart enough to stick to its guns to the end.

Eastwood hits all the right notes in exactly the right order, but it’s his least personal film for a while.

Initially, the film works well as a tense, teasing suspense vehicle. But one of Dead Calm’s major problems is that it brings to mind ideas and plot similarities from so many other films that you are constantly being reminded of its own rather humble status.

Like every one of its songs, it makes a lot of noise about nothing much and cockily straddles awfulness and greatness. It's enormously entertaining nonsense.

An uplifting film that cemented the reputation of its star.

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

Like Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody is three parts good but not terribly exciting, and one part absolute joyful, fabulous entertainment that makes you forget everything else around it.

A quartet of great performances and gorgeous scenery go some way to compensating for some strange variances in tone.

Skewers the action genre while also finding room for sheer madness. We've still yet to see the equal of Ron Burgundy, but this latest offering is a wonky yet worthy addition to the McKay/Ferrell pantheon.

It's no Anchorman, but it's several steps in the right direction.

It's a shame the suggested theme of identity remains undeveloped, but there are enough laughs and splashes of nostalgic glamour to excuse that.

Goofball fun that will have kids - big and small - rolling in the aisles.

Director Chloé Zhao’s entry into the superhero world is assured, ambitious and told on a dizzyingly cosmic scale — but even it can’t escape the clichés of superhero storytelling.

Brimful of glorious sounds, this affectionate fan letter says as much about Pops Staples's artistic and political evolution as it does about his devoted daughter, one of the all-time greats.

Ryan and Broderick, while individually first-rate, don't combine as sexily as they ought, making the inevitable outcome a little too pat in an otherwise genre-bucking affair.

Tolerably exciting spycraft, but stuck with a see-through plot. Washington and Reynolds are watchable, but not exactly stretched by these roles.

Always intelligent and thought-provoking, it's a welcome return from Amenábar.

Plot-wise Ocean’s 8 cleaves closely to the tenets of Heist Movie Lore but does little to enliven or tweak the formula. It lacks the jazzy swagger of Soderbergh’s trio but delivers a fun, likeable romp built on the charm and charisma of its cast.

It’s long and sometimes gets swept astray by currents of family drama and period detail, but Ridley’s plucky determination and can-do energy carries the whole thing along. The result is an old-fashioned inspirational pleasure.

Handsomely crafted, with meticulous performances, yet it plays out drily and in monotone.

A simplistic portrayal of historic race relations boosted by terrific performances from some of the best actresses working in Hollywood today. Sure, it's corny, but it mostly works.

If you like fast food movies that you digest and then 10 minutes later forget what you had - or if a simple evening’s entertainment is what you’re after, this will certainly do the trick.

Disney’s adaptation of the first book in T. W. White’s colourful Arthurian trilogy The Once And Future King (which also served as the source for the musical Camelot) is formulaic matinee fare, competent and sprightly but undistinguished.

This isn’t your average against-the-odds survival story.

Immaculate has the look of something as lightly spooky as the Nun films, but is prepared to go a lot further — abetted by a committed lead performance — than your average haunted convent picture.

Ultimately make no more than a cosmetic effort to disguise its stage origins.

Andra Day is excellent as the jazz singer struggling to survive in a hostile world — but the film around her can’t decide exactly what story about Billie Holiday it wants to tell.

Funny, whimsical and as warming as a big bowl of Irish stew.

Powerhouse performance from Richard Burton but a little too old to play the angry young man stuff that is essential to this tale.

There’s little interest in probing characterisation, but the plot progress is steady and the performances likeable.

Though low-stakes for an adventure film, this is nonetheless an engaging, found-family eco-fable that imparts an important conservationist message with considerable, at times impressionistic, style.

An intelligent thriller that effectively conveys the message that terrorism, even in apartheid-era South Africa, is rarely a black-and-white issue.

So horrifying it caused a number of hardcore journos to storm out of its Sundance screening, btu if you've got thick, thick skin, you might find something here.

Fear, a sort of pubescent Fatal Attraction, is derivative and often risible, in the competent hands of Foley it's also highly enjoyable.

A decent, mid-list spy thriller, suspended somewhere between le Carré and Bond but with a budgetary austerity in keeping with UK government spending cuts that keeps it out of the real high-stakes game.

A respectful look at the rise of the world’s biggest musical sensation, from her own perspective and those closest to her. A treat for fans, but too conventional to fully do justice to the extraordinary phenomenon.

Sadly Lewis lite and not without flaws but this is as Burtonesque as one could wish for, a real treat for fans of his twisted imagination and great British character actors.

Howard the Duck manages to be two or three types of fun: as a crazy comedy, it has some good risque/sick jokes to go along with its messy slapstick and bland rock music; as a monster movie, it has an outstanding performance from Jeffrey Jones as a scientist-cum-monster and an astonishingly repulsive Dark Overlord of the Universe shows up for the exciting climax.

It’s a mix of impressive on-location cycle spills (the roaring-down-the-empty-road opening is still a grabber) and embarrassingly hokey rumbles on obvious poverty row sound-stages. Lee Marvin is superbly grungy as a supporting troublemaker, and his character doesn’t sell out by reforming for the love of a weedy but decent woman.

Too long, and too wrapped up in its various plot contrivances to notice it’s veering off course. But Jack just about pulls the wheel back, aided by Verbinski’s flair for cartoonish comedy action.

This is not a perfect film, but it handles the important stuff — abuse, trauma and recovery — unexpectedly well. If its reception is anything like the book’s, it will be a powerful vessel for people with similar stories of their own.

This isn’t an atrocity on the level of, say, Rob Zombie’s Halloween — but it is a horror designed to test your patience rather than your nerves.

The comedy is hit-and-miss but this is a vibrant, watchable movie.

All is very much what it seems from another one of these all-is-not-what-it-seems thrillers — but there are fun, enjoyably unhinged performances from Edebiri and Malkovich.

It seesaws between disturbing psychosis and freewheeling nouvelle vague romance, then turns awkwardly editorial in the last reel.