Writer/director Jim Kouf certainly knows his police procedures, packing the movie with sharp dialogue and authentic set pieces. Unfortunately, the final half-hour, with its told-you-so conclusion, takes the knife-edge away from what clearly could have been a masterly thriller. Then again, just watching Tupac ponder death on the big screen is probably all the knife-edge you need.

The sheer number of dick jokes will soon numb you to their impact, but this is a fun, if patchy, alternative to the glut of ‘the world is about to end unless we do something’ comic-book films.

There is a frustrating absence of personality which means, for all her physical presence, this Major’s just not very engaging. It’s more a problem with the film than Johansson herself. A case, if you will, of it being so preoccupied with the shell, it forgot to bring enough ghost.

A by-the-numbers biography, this sheds little new light on an icon but features a soaring performance from Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Broader than Bad Santa and less consistently funny, it's still gleefully rude, crude and often a lot of fun.

Despite the gritty subject matter, combined with some clichéd set pieces, interest is retained right through to the bleak end, largely due to the direction and Refn's handling of the excellent cast.

A family comedy lacking the double level of humour that make the modern ones so successful. The jokes are obvious but never very far away. Russell puts in a worthy performance as the irrepressible Ron and Martin Short is typically neurotic as the father.

A patchy follow-up to the searing ’71 from director Yann Demange, but one which tells a compelling true story and offers a treat of a supporting turn from Matthew McConaughey.

All gothicky, christmassy, romantic and Burtonesque. Worth a look.

Fans will be left on a high; other viewers will be confused but generally entertained by a saga whose romance is matched only by its weirdness.

The spirit of the drive-in is strong in this trashy mash-up, though it’s best appreciated as an unlikely romance, where love and poetry somehow blossom amid heavy gunfire and monster rampages.

A smart and incisive look at race, identity and dysfunction in modern French society.

An indecently entertaining trashfest.

Just don't walk in expecting to become a believer by the end.

An intriguing look at a lost voice.

If you’re not up for a film that’s nearly three hours of wall-to-wall fighting, this chapter might get on your wick. That fighting, though, is a bone-crunching, butt-clenching masterclass.

Tougher than a box of nails, this is a brassy revenge thriller that refuses to pull its punches.

As you'd expect, Meyers handles the material with assurance and charm, and there's fun to be had in the odd-couple dynamic at her film's heart.

A slyly subversive insight into the role of women in the Israeli military, this is a surprisingly compassionate satire that makes its political points without resorting to caricature.

This spoof vampire flick's sole joke is that the heroine (Kristy Swanson) is a blonde, L.A. airhead rather than a beefed-up stake-toter, mentored by Donald Sutherland's deadpan Watcher.

Not quite Four Weddings-funny but always entertaining and endearing in equal measure.

With a frustrating format and poor animation, it's still worth it for Franco and the chance to engage with a key work of poetry.

It’s not the kind of historical drama you might expect from Ridley Scott, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And if its threefold perspective tests the patience, it at least gives the right character the final word.

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

A pretty craven attempt by Disney to cash-in on Star Wars blockbusting success, this lightweight but well-written sci-fi adventure movie is well pitched at the very young. More discerning fans of the genre would do well to smother their indignation at the levels of general plagiarism floating around the deck of the supership Cygnus.

Appealing, emotional and with a strong enough performance by Rice-Edwards as the boy in his own little war-free world.

At moments hilarious and others touching, it's a sweet, slight affair, more pretty pageant than pithy biographical drama. Expect awards nominations to stack up for Williams and Branagh.

Its popularity continues to confound critics everywhere.

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.

It’s cool and brutal, but with such impressive action credentials you almost wish there were fewer plot devices to distract you as Charlize gets up and at ’em.

It's loud, at times unwatchably gross and sometimes lingers on the verge of hysteria. But it's also a warm-hearted and optimistic celebration of black womanhood. Maybe friendship can save us all.

Bogiephiles who know their Sahara from their Sirocco may not find much new here, but anyone interested in early-to-mid-20th-century Hollywood history will discover plenty to spark further investigation. 

A visually arresting new entry in the Dracula canon; if only the satire was as biting as its unlikely vampire star.

As horribly funny as it is depressing, it gets pretty hard to take after a while, especially for anyone who is a committed cat-lover. A melancholy edge of deliberate poetry mutes the ugly realism but also serves to make bearable what might otherwise be an hour-and-a-half of hell.

Sidestep the somewhat over-egged stylistic touches and you’ll find a fun coming-of-age tale boasting three irresistible performances from Bella Ramsey, Billie Piper and Andrew Scott.

Gregg Araki's sci-fi is a weird and, just occasionally, wonderful skew on the college comedy. Slight but fun.

A fascinating topic is attenuated by conservative storytelling and sketchy characterisation. Nevertheless, the sense of place is as assured as the vigilant performances, while the defusing sequences are genuinely suspenseful.

Despite being an entirely formulaic heartstring-tugger with some finger-gag­ging moments, the performances are appealing, particularly the endearing Chlumsky.

Graced with great performances from Garfield and Stone, The Amazing Spider-Man is a rare comic-book flick that is better at examining relationships than superheroism. If it doesn't approach the current benchmark of Avengers Assemble, it still delivers a different enough, enjoyable origin story to live comfortably alongside the Raimi era.

This is a movie for the boys who like watching men being real men - cursing, shooting and fighting - and anyone who likes this kind of wham-bam entertainment will certainly get more than their money's worth.

Less of a riot than Wright’s previous Grabbers, Robot Overlords displays the same knowing intelligence, sense of fun and deep-rooted love for post-’70s genre film. Unlike its titular villains, it’s sleek and it never malfunctions.

Sadly, despite its various attributes and overall funky MTV sensibilities, this never gets quite brutal or blockbusterish enough and the result is a movie both likely to offend the family and infuriate the aficionados in roughly equal amounts.

If it fails to mine the deeper themes in this story about a working-class writer fighting to find her footing in the music industry, How To Build A Girl is a resounding success as a showcase of Feldstein’s capabilities in a leading role.

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

Connery has a ball with great stunts, snappy dialogue and a bevy of typically Bondish beauties.

Uneven, occasionally unsavoury and at times frustratingly muddled, but there’s enough bloody, ’80s-style fun in The Predator to give it a pass from long-term fans.

An improvement on Murder On The Orient Express, with the increased focus on Branagh’s Poirot (even with its strange moustache obsession) welcome enough to distract from the problems with some of its ensemble and its too-obvious reliance on VFX.

It wants to be a modern "Taxi Driver"; it manages to be the new Falling Down, with Foster as fierce as ever.

The look, created by Hooper’s cinematographer Daniel Pearl, and expert art direction is persuasively nasty… but somehow that buzzing saw doesn’t sound as scary as it used to.

This is brutal, gory, at times downright sickening stuff, and somewhat twisted types are likely to laugh like a drain.

Law's slick, pretty-boy reincarnation is less icy and insensitive than Caine's wide-boy original, so we still have all the painfully confused "What's it all about?" soul-searching.

It demands patience and an open mind, but Lowery’s return to his indie roots after Pete’s Dragon is a highly unusual and, at times, emotionally shattering fable.

A certain percentage of the audience will instantly sieze on this as their favorite movie of all time, and a small, but not insignificant demographic will have nightmares. Verbinski and Depp probably like it that way.

A moving drama set against beautiful Latin American backdrops - just don't expect fireworks.

A solid action-comedy that proves just how much we’ve missed Cameron Diaz in the last ten years. Next time don’t leave it so long, eh?

Often beautiful but wildly inconsistent, Australia is none more Baz Luhrmann, which perhaps says it all. Worth a look on the big screen, though.

While it meanders on its way to the requisite happy ending, the lush, stylised animation and courtly flourishes would win over anyone.

Perhaps the best film ever aimed at eight year-old girls to be directed by a 69 year-old man.

Slow and foreboding with a memorably creepy Christopher Walken. If you're looking for fun, this ain't it.

The real surprise is that it's a lot of fun, with Sandler becoming more personable as the film progresses, and a couple of truly side-splitting scenes.

It's scatty, scrappy and thoroughly OTT, but then that's like the characters themselves.

For all its flaws, it's thrilling viewing whenever LaChapelle opts to show rather than tell.

Taymor's winningly cast, imaginative take on Shakespeare passes the test of bringing the Bard to film. It may also be the only PG Disney film to contain the word "F---".

Aussie migrant Rowe has an acute eye for the emotional badlands travelled by Lopez's struggling journo. A tough but humane and affecting watch.

Unfortunately, left alone on the big screen, distinctly thin characterisation and a plot that looks like a distended television episode, let the new crew down slightly but there are still enough classic moments to keep fans happy.

Peckinpah is never quite as comfortable with the high-rise terrain (including sloppy kung fu) as he is with the dusty rawhide of the West, but it still shows up the slick trigger-edits of new action cinema for the gutless vacuum it has become.

Much better appreciated as an unlikely friendship story than the raunchy comedy it’s billed as, No Hard Feelings is formulaic but fun, fuelled by the lead pair’s engaging chemistry.

Bemused out of the ring and brutal in it, Rocky has always been an uncomfortable hero, and it says something for Stallone's skill as a writer that he's been able to keep him going this long. Given the restrictions of the formula, Rocky V is a fitting — even graceful — way to finally hang up the gloves.

Weird to the Gilliamth degree, Munchausen just might making being an 'uneven' movie a compliment.

A gritty, brutal chase movie that's more about swords (and spears, and axes) than sandals - although it could have done with a lot more character-meat on those bones.

Not as smart or as satirical as you might hope, but an enjoyable and often funny look at a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Handicapped by pretensions to making big statements, Blindness is still gripping, disturbing and intermittently powerful.

Dated of course, being typically 80s, but maintains a certain charm.

A stylish portrayal of a literal power struggle based on truly interesting historical figures and events. But it tries to take in too much in too little time, when all it needed was to centre on Edison and Westinghouse.

Whatever the moral perspective, it keeps you gripped right to the end.

In the filmography of liberal-skewing, Bush-era true stories, this is a measured, persuasive item.

While not quite offering the emotional gut-punch it promises, its many ideas never completely cohering, Soul is nevertheless a gorgeous and tender existential trip. It’s full of surprises.

Scruffy and overstuffed, but contagiously good-natured. And frankly more films need to feature showdowns at abandoned alligator-themed amusement parks.

A loose, hurried ending can’t quite live up to the effective sense of dread created in the first two acts, but Amulet is still a fascinating, nightmarish debut from Garai.

After the global success of Ghost, Demi Moore consolidates here with a diametrically-opposed follow-up, not only proving her willingness to eschew the many Ghost-alikes that have inevitably come her way, but also allowing her to show genuine versatility in the thespian-prowess department.

Cute, cute, cute. No bouquets for originality, but it pushes all the buttons of this mini-genre, and Heigl and Marsden ring dem bells.

The ingredients are absolutely familiar, but what makes the whole recipe satisfying is the sheer amount of gruesome fun Roth manages to have with the concept. Don’t go in expecting characters you’ll care about — just enjoy the stalk/slash/slice/bake terror on offer.

Jazzily scored and cut, The Uninvited hangs in the Hollywood hills and vibes like a ’90s indie. It’s no Swingers but it’s well-acted and makes entertainment of its earnest themes.

The tennis itself is ridiculously far-fetched, and yet this may still be the best tennis movie ever made.

Although patched together from loose ends, this works surprisingly well, with interesting and well-integrated visual effects, some nice humour and a few genuinely visionary touches.

The ever-versatile Winterbottom's loose and limber adaptation doesn't entirely mesh with Hardy's more formal narrative, leaving this feeling disjointed and underpowered. Nevertheless, there's still plenty to enjoy in the director's customary flourishes.

The second half falls into familiar action tropes, but Honest Thief has some twists and turns, sly humour and a refreshing feel for its characters that raises them beyond genre types.

Carrey tries hard but the success of his excessiveness has always been down to pegging it to good plots and good partners.

Surprisingly watchable for the third sequel and despite its general predictability it's entertainingly inventive.

There’s a pleasure to seeing such a starry cast in a slick cinematic thriller. But beyond that, Crime 101 offers little to remember after the closing credits.

Derrickson bounces back from his insipid redo of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" with an effective chiller that's got a skeleton or two in its closet.

Since the adorable, simple Garden State, Braff’s ambitions as a filmmaker have grown. He’s reaching for answers to really big questions, but they are, just slightly, beyond his grasp.

A franchise rebooted with efficiency, energy and sporadic invention, although Hulk 2.0 hardly smashes it out of the park.

One man’s near-emotionless trip through an event that was the high watermark for US counterculture moves along without any real sense of purpose or pace.

A very unfocused, sporadically funny film, lifted by its (predictable) visual splendour.

The third Despicable Me film chronologically is also the third-best in terms of quality. But it has just enough energy and flashes of inspiration to suggest it’s a franchise that could run and run.

The plot may play second fiddle to the visuals, but there’s no denying that these visuals are to die for.

Connery was perhaps wise to call it quits the first time round.