Not a sequel to the bland film of Jacqueline Susann’s trashy best-seller, this is more like a demented remake, alternating modish psychedelia with deliberately square moralising.

Not dire, but you can’t escape the feeling that there’s a good movie in here trying to get out.

A close encounter of the wordless kind, this is a smart and splendidly scary horror sci-fi, with a brilliantly brittle turn from Kaitlyn Dever.

As well-constructed, unique, hardboiled and brutal as Zahler’s prior films, but this one leaves a less welcome bad taste in your mouth, thanks to its repugnant heroes and racial stereotypes. Impossible to dismiss, but hard to warm to.

A very thin story stretched out for over two hours, this is a melange of the wonderful and the pompous.

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum make a sweet and spiky couple in this likeable caper. It’s never going to challenge The African Queen for quality, but it offers 
a consistently good time.

A pick-up after the second film, if not as assured as the first. Rapace sets a high watermark for Rooney Mara in David Fincher's remakes.

The X-Files can stand proud as a genuine movie with a beginning, a middle and an end, two charismatic leads and a franchise ahead of it.

There are no real surprises, and it's arguable whether three such disparate souls as these would, in reality, bond so well. But the acting is flawless, the principals fleshing out their characters far beyond their hastily sketched stereotypes.

Running at just over four hours, it is as spectacular, lush and extravagant as the studio would have liked its audience to believe. But it also has moments of mind-numbing boredom as the plot,– slowed by extraneous dialogue, drags from Egypt to Rome.

Even if this is less satisfying overall than Skyfall, there are sequences that rank with Bond’s best.

The stories are all individually charming, but overly familiar animation and underwhelming character-design blunt the effect. 

Shelton keeps the humour straight down the middle and, just like "Bull Durham" before it, uses the rituals and metaphors of sport to relate the complexities of love and relationships.

The film works for the most part, and even though the laughs notably dry up as the CGI spectacular kicks into gear, its feelgood vibes will most likely have already won you over.

Marvel's most deranged and energetic movie yet, as much of a winning comeback for director Sam Raimi as it is a mega-budget exercise in universal stakes-raising.

Slightly chaotic plotting under-serves the story in places, but it’s saved by an endlessly entertaining Lohan and Curtis.

It's good to know that the widely liked but underused Andy Garcia has here a juicy dramatic role he can get his chops into.

Joe Eszterhas conceives a winning formula, and this is perhaps his best film.

It works better as a weird relationship movie than a murder-mystery but See How They Run is the whodunnit as hoot, with lots of laughs, oodles of style and played with verve by a quality cast. It also reconfirms Saoirse Ronan as a comedy god.

Renner’s solid performance anchors a formidable ensemble in the type of well-intentioned docudrama more likely to leave your head shaking than your pulse pounding.

There's undoubtedly comedy mileage in an irreverent sending up of the Signs/Magnolia school of everything-is-connected philosophy. Despite the calibre of the cast, the Duplass brothers mostly fail to find it.

New Orleans looks as photogenic as ever but ultimately Johnny Handsome never quite leapfrogs over its fundamental cracks.

This is a must-see film for its unashamed romanticism, its breathtaking visual delirium, the excellent performance of Cusack as the only rational person in the county and the sheer spirit with which the fundamental daftness of the plot is served up.

Wolfs has all the practised professionalism of its two anti-heroes, if not quite their spark. But there are few movie stars as straightforwardly enjoyable to watch as Clooney and Pitt.

Moving beyond the confines of the app’s premises, The Angry Birds Movie 2 starts slow but flourishes into breezy, colourful fun.

Shifting between bourgeois soap, tabloid parable and tale of the unexpected, this three-storied study of salvation in extremis makes for unsettling but compelling viewing.

Ostensibly, a lovingly made study of homemade cooking and old-fashioned values, this beautifully played drama also contains a mordant denunciation of the lack of compassion that shapes Japanese attitudes to social stigma.

It feels terrestrial rather than cinematic, but the joy of Trumbo is in the heroism of its subject and an amazing performance from Cranston.

Both women are impeccably played by Maria Bonnevie.

A busier proposition than its HBO forefather, this sets up more than it can pay off. But it does manage to balance fan-service with plenty of rich, original, complex material.

Moving if low-key, Jim Loach's debut feature is proof that compassionate, socially conscious filmmaking runs in the family.

A musical with almost 100% sung verse is not for everyone but Kendrick is as bewitching as ever.

A history lesson with more fire in the belly than most. It turns out that a feminist angle really can revive the same old Tudor psychodramas, thanks in large part to Ronan and Robbie’s authoritative performance.

Bertolucci fans of old may well sigh for the political passion that made his earlier work more powerful. But the grace, craft and real wit in this country house party make it his most seductive film in a very long while.

Zemeckis’ old-school romance has its moments and Cotillard gives it her all, but it lacks the zip and chemistry to truly spark.

There was much to dread about this new iteration of Dredd, but it's a solid, occasionally excellent take on the character, with Urban's chin particularly impressive.

By keeping the pace quick, the explanation light and the characters strong, Nolfi achieves the near-impossible: a film puzzle you won't mind leaving unexplained.

Thick with sharpened scissors, and barbers with barbed tongues, Medusa Deluxe is a unique take on the whodunnit mould, and a hell of a debut from British filmmaker Thomas Hardiman.

For the most part, this is a ‘re-quel’ as fast, funny and ferocious as a Scream movie should be. In an era of elevated horror, it’s a gloriously gory basement party.

Trouble is, James Ivory just doesn't do sleaze. The tawdry milieu of taxi dancers, pleasure-seekers and spies rings hollow.

Despite its messy plot and underwhelming villain, the strong voice performances and stunning visuals — and, of course, Sox the cat — make Lightyear a solid space adventure.

Overlord injects a healthy dose of schlock into familiar war-movie tropes to create an entertainingly grungy hybrid, but it never quite kicks into overdrive.

Despite one or two nice moments and the naturalistic tone, it's all a bit of a slog.

Lovely visuals, but this is a rare miss from Sony Pictures Animation. Watch KPop Demon Hunters again, instead.

Its kids-say-the-funniest-things gags become one-note, but Good Boys has consistent laughs, winning performances, and a dollop of sweetness to boot.

A solid, old-fashioned Irish Western about what it means to hang up your rifle. It isn’t especially deep, but it’s good to see Liam Neeson find some character depth among the usual shooting and grumbling.

There’s quite a bit to admire in Motherless Brooklyn, but mostly in detail work — the hats, the cars, the join-the-dots conspiracy theory — but it doesn’t really catch fire as either a private-eye mystery or a study in Tourette syndrome savantry.

Neither a great step forward for fat acceptance nor a damning blow against it, The Whale is best appreciated as a moving, stripped-back character study, with a stunning lead performance.

It’s handsome, involving and stars the cream of British acting talent — but so did Lean’s unbeatable version, and Newell and Nicholls’ safe, schoolteacher-friendly interpretation makes no real case for going down this much-travelled road once more.

Somewhere between the pop-culture deconstruction of "Zombieland" and the skewed romance of "(500) Days Of Summer," this manages to make the apocalypse seem charming. Warm is the right word.

As a mindless summer horror diversion, Crawl is watchable if rarely all that thrilling. The movie’s far from toothless, yet often substitutes easy scares for any real substance, and suffers for that.

The story is programmatic and the indie stylings feel tired but Handsome Devil is a winning, enjoyable call for individuality. And Nicholas Galitzine and Fionn O’Shea show promise for the future.

Despite the hint of a stiff-upper-lip kind of reserve, this is astonishingly brutal. And Firth’s performance makes this dark, dark story land.

A relatively subtle yet moving entry into the Dolanverse, where explosive love is sublimated beneath the ebb and flow of friendship rhythms, and characters are revealed in tender observational details.

A Mex-set spaghetti Western featuring toilet humour, organ transplants and the closest Mel Gibson’s come to playing Martin Riggs since the last Lethal Weapon.

Painstakingly shot, but emotionally fallow.

Stillwater mashes up quest-for-justice, father-daughter dramatics, fortysomething romance and mid-life introspection for a refreshingly adult drama. It doesn’t coalesce completely, but Damon and Cottin keep it engaging.

A script with a streak of clever cynicism and poignancy, a soundtrack of tunes you thought had long since departed to the vinyl graveyard and one of the most adorable screen pairings in ages in Sandler and Barrymore and the result is a film which, while hardly high art, is simply irresistible.

Cheesy? Certainly. But strong performances and a heart-warming storyline make this a winner.

A solid, often entertaining life-of-crimer which benefits from some stylistic touches and a faithful, convincing central performance.

Everyone’s trying hard, but they can’t quite live up to the particularly gentle, warm tone of Pooh himself. Unlike the bear of very little brain, this is a film pulled in different directions with entirely too many thoughts in its head.

It's an intelligent, well-written, excellently played movie, with top flight gore/horror effects, perverse humour and a provocatively bleak vision. Also, it has the world's first true zombie hero in Bub, who listens to Beethoven and eats people.

A frothy fantasy about a boy and his bear that makes up for in style what it lacks in substance.

Top-flight muscleman entertainment that is not afraid to have a brain or two in its head.

More sentimental, less spiky than Mihaileanu's stock-in-trade, Le Concert is an enjoyable take on the underdogs genre. And Laurent and the music are sublime.

A vibrant and virtuous adventure packed with all the heart and heroism we’ve come to expect from DC’s shining light. Wonder Woman 1984 really is the hero 2020 needed all along.

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.

A beautifully staged film with everything in its place, this is both an affectionate homage and a timely commentary, falling only slightly short of its own ambition. Classy pulp fiction.

Despite the stars best efforts this is neither funny or original.

While on the surface very much a girls' film, this ruefully honest picture has something to say to everyone.

It's worth watching, though, for Minnie Driver, whose luminous performance as the governess in question struggles to save writer/director Goldbacher's film from the doldrums.

Bird and Lindelof have thrown everything they have at this film and, aside from a pause for breath at the end, they’ve made something funny, surprising and packed full of wonder.

Every motion, from the clamour of the racetrack to the sparring of teacher and pupil, has been worked out for audience satisfaction and grants none. This is not a real film, it is an automaton, a pod-movie, and, thankfully, proved the death nail for such high-concept filmmaking.

Elba’s performance as a lonely Djinn with a bottomless reserve of charm, paired with Miller’s unbridled energy, make this a modern fairy tale worth seeking out.

A worthy — if chilly and difficult — addition to the sadly extensive filmography of American mass murder. The soundtrack from Canadian singer-songwriter Maica Armata adds some much-needed heart.

It’s a short-film premise at a feature-film length, but few films take as many chances or go for broke as much as Jumbo. Wittock is an exciting new talent to watch, and Merlant spins something potentially laughable into a rollercoaster — or at least, waltzer — ride of emotions.

Netflix wants to prove it can do what Disney does – and it more or less succeeds. Vibrant and heartfelt with tunes to boot, there’s plenty of love in Over The Moon.

It’s vivid, substantial and works hard to be worthy, but as it ticks off the milestones of a monumental life it flickers more often than it really catches fire.

The blood and gore is all present and correct, but the focus on Kramer's vulnerability and human side sits at odds with his awful judgmentalism. Let monsters be monsters.

Good fun, and though it breathes hard in the second half, the ensemble has charisma to spare.

Plenty of pungent ideas and a nice line in urban terror. The final product falls short of the best in Brit horror, though.

This modern riff on Monster Squad is a very pleasant surprise, and so ’80s in spirit that it’s a shock one of the villains isn’t a giant Rubik’s Cube.

It won’t win points for originality or sophistication, but this is another muscular, well-pitched heist thriller with strong character work from Butler and Jackson Jr. We wait with bated breath for The Further Adventures Of Big Nick.

Being a Mamet, we expect superb dialogue and twists, but we also get refreshingly compact action scenes, even if the climactic airport skirmish is on the pat side. A lesser Mamet, then, but still compelling.

However, writer-director Mark Herman never really achieves the correct balance between the serious and the feelgood, allowing an uneasy tone to prevail, while the small screen style and supporting cast of familiar TV faces suggests this would play more comfortably on the box.

Nothing is taken seriously, and there’s a nice mix of old groaner jokes delivered with a visible wince and genuine, sneakily erudite wit.

And then, of course, there was the music, better music than any film had had for many years.

Wise (and Crichton) concoct the most absorbing, riveting take on science fiction tempered with science fact.

Great performances and an innovative approach to a tired old story make this one to watch out for.

What a peculiar but effective children’s adventure movie this is.

Despite the nobility of its intentions and commitment of its cast, this would-be treatise on gig economical iniquity winds up patronising the very ‘invisible people' it's supposed to be championing.

Smart special effects, atmospheric visuals and an impressive physical performance from Williams enhance this timely ghost story but the horror doesn’t hit as hard as the rages against misogyny.

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.

Isn’t It Romantic had us at hello but loses its spell when it has to develop its plot. Not as smart or sharp as you’d hope, it still delivers a lot of fun for those who can’t resist a bad Katherine Heigl flick.

Don't expect the puppet to wisecrack - there's more pain here than in "The Passion Of The Christ." It never quite comes together in a satisfying way, but it's still a brave, strange, brain-stirring piece of filmmaking.

This solemn, blood-soaked thriller lacks the dynamism of its star, but is an impressive showcase for him nonetheless: it’s as hard to look away from Shannon’s performance as it is to look directly at it.

The title might sound like something from Marvel Phase Six, but The Aeronauts is an exhilarating period flight of fancy, occasionally weighed down by backstory, but buoyed by Redmayne and especially Jones.

By eschewing fast-paced suspense Hausner takes the sting out of her story, instead showcasing a bold aesthetic sense that feels like an exciting taste of what’s to come.