A promising idea that never develops beyond that.

Iñárritu has made a modern classical tragedy and, in Javier Bardem, he has found his first authentic hero; a character caught up in an intricate web of events he cannot extricate himself from.

Formulaic, yet scrappy, and extremely funny in fits and starts, General Aladeen is the first of Cohen comic creations to get a better vehicle than it probably deserves.

As with "The Dark Knight," the only real caveat is that while it's exciting and imaginative, it's not exactly anyone's idea of fun. To keep in the game, perhaps the next movie could let the hero enjoy himself a bit more.

A worthy but wordy look at the inequities of the US legal system, saved by a handful of terrific scenes and a tour-de-force turn from Washington.

Eric Elmosnino is terrific as the louche French icon in Joann Sfar's vivid biopic. Shame about that second hour.

A Hugely, irresistibly enjoyable, with star chemistry to spare, genuine laughs and tears, and the bonus of apt Lennon songs on the soundtrack.

Its mix of coming-of-age and homecoming stories doesn’t fully gel, but Uncle Frank is a funny and entertaining road movie with likeable performances – just brace for a closing dollop of sentimentality.

It's gorgeously designed, deftly written and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. For child or adult, this is a fantasy to get lost in.

A classic, of sorts.

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’s the sort of picture you'll either queue all night in the rain to see twelve times or avoid like a Wayans Brothers Retrospective for the rest of life.

Political chicanery and psychological mystery entwine with some stunning underwater sequences but don’t gel entirely satisfactorily.

An unsatisfying conclusion, but an inspirational story deftly handled by Freeman.

Inoffensive fun, but unlike its paperback forbear, the cinematic Ferdinand is unlikely to stand the test of time.

Director John McTiernan rigorously avoids anything that might conceivably be exciting.

While its tone occasionally wavers and there are some wobbly performances, this has moments of true lightness, and a welcome sense of whimsy often missing in the costume genre.

Despite moody flashbacks to the Nazi takeover, Hirschbiegel draws a blank. Elser remains an enigma, a great what-if whose German torturers cannot comprehend acted alone.

Stunning, if occasionally meandering, River provides waves of staggering visuals and a thought provoking, invigorating, environmental message.

Taika Waititi’s most daring film isn’t his most successful. But among the tonal clashes there’s real hope, humanity, and no-bones-about-it Nazi-bashing at a time when that’s depressingly necessary.

A defiantly avant-garde take on commercial chart-toppers. It’s not for everyone, but it deserves to be: a gorgeous fusion of film, fashion, faith, and certified bangers.

While never as trailblazing as its subject, The Express is a worthy addition to the lengthy canon of sports biopics

By far the best Twilight film to date, Slade should satisfy the fan base while opening up the series to more sceptical viewers…

Despite a final, tacked-on helicopter denouement, it remains a gripping, relentless, supercharged slab of fun that knows no bounds - New York is its playground and the sky's the limit.

A lean, mean scare-machine, and a surprise contender for horror of the year. Seek it out. Then, for God’s sake, buy a bedside lamp.

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.

Neither a splendid phoenix from the ashes nor a complete failure, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is erratic, occasionally inspired, occasionally dull, but shot through with a grandiose sense of ambition. Plus, Driver and Pryce add some magic along the way.

Eastwood’s back with a look at manliness filtered through the wisdom of aging. It makes the odd stultifying stop and falls into several cliché potholes, yet Cry Macho ultimately finds its way.

Celebrating the triumphs of a brave female athlete, and boasting a strong central performance from a transformed Sydney Sweeney, Christy is a well-meaning but meandering feminist parable.

Repetitive insults do most of the heavy lifting for this comedy, but any time spent with actors as skilled as Colman and Buckley is time enjoyably spent.

If "Ichi The Killer" stressed the extreme natureof Takashi Miike's cinematic sensibility, Gozu hammers it home… with a blood-spattered mallet.

Offers plenty of easy nostalgia and Duris charm.

Despite some good moments, Agents J, O and K are missing an E.

In anchoring the whimsy to something more heartfelt, Burton is greatly aided by Billy Crudup, who underplays potentially cringeworthy bedside scenes with his dying dad.

Aided by a dialled-down Gordon-Levitt, Stone skilfully demystifies one of the Obama era’s most compelling stories. It’s a welcome return to form for a cinematic sleeping giant.

An uneven mix of impressively executed, violent clichés about good ol' boys defending the American right to flout the law.

Croghan accurately illustrates the frustrations of a charismatic bunch of characters who are frank, funny and full of life.

Despite strong performances from the leads, when it comes to pacing and power, it’s the Danish original that edges it. Still, a sturdy and affecting remake that brings a powerful story to an even wider audience.

An adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel that struggles to make itself stand out, content instead to coast by on gentle comedy and Hanks’ charm. Pleasant but ultimately forgettable.

Tracee Ellis Ross kills it as a believable soul diva in a harmonious pairing with Dakota Johnson — a shame, then, that a distracting romcom plot ends up so high in the mix.

Highly amusing and well paced, an engaging fairy-tale with a slightly sinister underbelly.

That this is a patchwork quilt of a screenplay (written by five credited writers) is apparent in its use of little bits of this and little bits of that. Did none of them notice, looking at the big picture, that it's unbelievable?

Splendid landscapes and interesting faces - the usual virtues of the Western - keep the film burbling along, even as the actual plot is falling apart.

There’s trouble in this paradise: bleak without much of a point to make and bloody without any particular reason, this is an odd attempt at satire that takes a fascinating slice of real-life stranger-than-fiction history and somehow makes it less interesting.

Clearly not a |Disney classic as almost no-one has heard of it, this is vaguely enjoyable 70s hokum.

This has the raw material for a decent rom-com, but the aimless structure and ambiguous tone undermine both humour and romance.

It doesn’t have the surprise factor of the last film and sometimes feels rough around the edges, but The Next Level pushes its body-swap antics even further to deliver just as many laughs.

A touch less fresh than the original, but this is still bursting with energy, emotion, warmth and imagination. It knows the way.  

Sharp, funny and strongest when it stands on its own two perfectly manicured feet, this snappy musical successfully updates the original Mean Girls template for a fresh audience.

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

He may look the part, but Timothy Dalton fails the boots, the scuba gear, or the automobiles left him by Moore and Connery.

A solid conclusion to an unlikely trilogy and a fitting end to Robert McCall’s character arc — with Washington still entertaining as a deliverer of slick justice.

The Hobbit plays younger and lighter than Fellowship and its follow-ups, but does right by the faithful and has a strength in Martin Freeman's Bilbo that may yet see this trilogy measure up to the last one. There is treasure here.

Another summer threequel, another case of slipping standards – not so much in the visuals, which remain predictably impressive, but in the all-important gag rate. To waste both Donkey and Puss is a crime…

A strong cast and impressive action sequences can’t find subtleties or surprises to enliven a rote period disaster movie. It hits the right points, but mechanically.

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.

Reynolds was coasting at this point of his career, with zero risk-taking it ends up as a soulless, below-average movie.

Better than Ghost but not as good as When Harry Met Sally, here's a dating movie where the other woman really should have got her man.

Although sometimes it gets bogged down in the details of drilling, The Hummingbird Project extracts enough entertainment value from an unpromising premise, greatly helped by Jesse Eisenberg finding the humanity in his hustler.

An eerie and unsettling adaptation of Judy Pascoe's novel that impresses more for its atmospherics than its narrative.

Chekhov is notoriously difficult to film and this adaptation boldly taps into the play's mordant wit. But the fidgety and over-emphatic visuals detract from the themes and the stellar performances.

With Ember's hydro-electro-punk charms, Kenan's convinced us he's one of Hollywood's most exciting (and excited!) visualists. But on the evidence of this, his storytelling skills still need honing.

It doesn’t all land, but The Night Before is largely a salty, sweet jingle ball.

Stylishly realised against a backdrop of violence and faded Hollywood glamour, Drew Pearce’s vision of the near-future is laced with intrigue and dark humour.

Compared to its ultra-slick predecessor, it's a bit of a mess. But it maintains a breezy sense of fun and certainly looks as cool as its minus-one equivalent.

Multi-hyphenate Justin Chon has crafted an impressive melodrama, rich in Louisiana atmosphere and with a timely message, but Blue Bayou is marred by its reliance on symbolism and sentiment.

The most disappointing of the original three episodes but still charming and thrilling.

While cynics may find it twee, Mendes fans should greatly enjoy this (gently) surprising change of direction. Go in with the right frame of mind and you’ll leave with a big, goofy grin on your face.

Effective jump-shocks and a strong turn from Eddie Marsan mask an over-complicated last act.

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

While beautiful, early scenes of shocking violence give way to philosophising and gauche symbolism.

If you can take the assault on your senses it’s worth sticking with for a core of genuine, affecting drama and dollops of sly, quotable humour.

Though somewhat flawed and less artistically daring than it could be, Charlotte still makes for an emotional, humane viewing experience.

While the Norman vistas are glorious, the storytelling lacks wit and charm.

This campy extravaganza has it all - heroes, villains, beautiful women and high stakes. Laughably bad and fantastically good all at once, this is a guilty pleasure that everyone can enjoy.

Zoo is the antithesis of edgy, an overlong, all encompassing experience that despite Crowe's integrity and lightness of touch doesn't deliver the emotional experience of, say, "Jerry Maguire" or "Almost Famous." Still, it is good to have the righteous dude back.

One of the greatest behind-bars movies ever, the result finds director Franklin J. Schaffner making the most of both his sun-drenched locations and his leading man, who squintily acts even co-star Dustin Hoffman well off the screen.

This has grit coming out of its ears but not the greatest Eastwood feature by a long shot.

A cheerful comedy-drama with charm to spare.

Oz's movie is well intentioned if a touch too heavy on the PC side of things, but ultimately proves just too uninspired.

Impressive visual invention by Nimoy and the reliability of his cast mean that Trek III does more good than harm to a franchise still competing with it's younger, more tehnologically advanced adversaries.

A thoughtful approach to a much-covered topic, mixing prickly issues of roots and genocide with an eye for the surreal and an ear for the earthy.

Indy’s final date with destiny has a barmy finale that might divide audiences — but if you join him for the ride, it feels like a fitting goodbye to cinema’s favourite grave-robber.

Wicked: For Good, sure — but not quite Wicked: For Great.

Proof that when you aim for the stars, sometimes you find a black hole. Hopefully just an anomaly for the usually wonderful Gervais.

Pixar’s first out-and-out love story, Elemental is overstuffed and inconsistent — but packed with enough moving sentiment, gorgeous design and punchy voice performances to mean it still burns bright.

A distinctively crass, hugely enjoyable sick satire from director Paul Bartel, working for uber-producer Roger Corman – allegedly, Bartel kept thinking up more and wilder jokes, while Corman insisted more and more people got run over.

Way Of The Dragon is memorable purely for its final Coliseum-set showdown between Lee and Chuck Norris (at the time the holder of countless US and World Karate championships). This is the film that provides just about the best combat sequence ever shot.

It’s a potentially mid-’90s B-movie premise, but director Patrick Vollrath and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt keep it taut, tense and classy. Just a shame it doesn’t stick the landing.

It would be easy to slam this flimsy romantic charmer for its cloying whimsicality, but at the core of its misfits-need-love-too storyline lies a warmhearted charm so captivating that only the most hardened cynic will fail to be enchanted.

However, thanks to engaging performances and a sharp script, this movie - essentially a series of three-minute sketches filling 101 minutes could be just the right choice for that Saturday night date, while Wayne-speak will no doubt be quoted and become part of the English language.

A Saw for the action crowd, this is an intense, stripped-down ride that goes places you’d never expect. Edgy and outrageous, it should get the fearless Statham some deserved attention.

A really good, dumb comedy can be a joyous thing, and this is a really good, dumb comedy.

Lots of interesting concepts competing for limited running time make for more of a TV pilot than a feature film.

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.

With a cast this talented there will always be decent moments, but they never cohere. Credit for its casting and design, but it’s not the movie messiah, just a very disappointing mess.

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.

Suspenseful and thought-provoking, The Cured is a serious, engaged horror movie. More upsetting than scary, it ratchets up the tension unsettlingly. There’s life in zombies yet.