Blood-drenched and gore-splattered, anchored by a hard-as-nails performance by Beetz, this is a thinly plotted but immensely fun horrorfest. Best watched with a strong stomach.

Meat and potatoes teen drama.

This is one of those movies that's "interesting" rather than ˜"good". Smith has so much solid material to deliver that it's a shame the package is so sloppily wrapped.

Bel Canto pushes a hard message about cultural misconceptions and boasts a promising and diverse cast, but only really makes an impact in the first and final minutes.

Strong subject matter and a superb cast are treated disappointingly with sledgehammer subtlety.

A beautiful, languid travelogue, although with some of the source novel's empowerment diluted.

An insanely effective no-brainer of a film, sparkling with a simple charm and energy rarely witnessed this side of illegal substances.

While lacking the richness of its source material, it remains an enjoyable, immoral and sometimes beautifully Gothic tale.

Danny DeVito's ambitious and violent biopic nonetheless paints an intriguing portrait of a complex and angry man while effectively exploring his uses and abuses of power.

It’s not doing much daring or different but this delivers a fun, well-made summer theme-park ride, with fast highs and slow lows. Pleasurable, though it doesn’t linger.

A political football that arrives punctured and sputtering, this toothless class satire — an equal-opportunity offender — shouldn’t have pre-enraged anyone. It’s hardly the Hollywood takedown the MAGA crowd feared.

It's overlong, but with its gorgeous cast, irreverent humour and beautifully drawn characters, this smart comedy-drama is the kind of movie Couples Retreat and Grown Ups should have been. Please, nobody let Adam Sandler anywhere near a remake.

A thinking person’s Bad Boys, this off-kilter indie crime comedy introduces two deliriously warped lawmen to the screen. Here’s to a Cuba-invading sequel.

The movie as a whole - an undeserved flop in the US - is energetic, pacey and funny with tons of great fights. What more could any six-year-old want?

It’s sufficiently well done to qualify as cute, quite the thing for a girlie outing with grub after, but it’s utterly phoney baloney.

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

Safe, sentimental, and loved by kids, Short Circuit never tries to dissect it's predecessor (E.T.) nor outdo it in any way. Would have been nice to see a human-robot love triangle.

Genuine fun for adults and children alike.

Fabulous fantasy from the godfather of modern puppetry Jim Henson.

This hard-edged action thriller may not match the original, but Washington’s McCall is a compelling character, the kind you’d quite happily like to hang out with whether he’s busting heads or painting walls.

We must surely now be getting close to some sort of zombie saturation point, with even the zomromcom becoming a distinct subsubgenre. On Beth’s evidence, however, there’s life in the undead yet.

Long-in-the-tooth characters detract from the usual high-spirited fun and frolics.

It’s at its best when it’s an old-fashioned song-and-dance princess story, with Zegler and Gadot broad but effective, and at its worst in any scene involving the digital dwarves.

Six Feet Under scribe Jill Soloway offers a wry perspective on married life as Temple's stripper-with-a-heart is lobbed into this domestic yarn like a firecracker in an arms cache.

With so-so performances and an immensely dumb conceit, this is snow Christmas classic. Still, it’s less naughty, more ice than we might have expected. 

Doesn't really cut it in the Western genre.

Certainly worth seeing for its care, authenticity and the central performances, but the suggestions of collective guilt and responsibility, and the pushing of humanity towards the brink are just too coy to ever be really effective.

Despite good performances from El-Masry and Brosnan, this fails to pack the heavyweight knockout punch it sorely needs. Judge’s decision: a narrow loss, on points. 

A gentle and prettily appointed romantic tragedy with likeable performances; but there’s a stultifying blandness to proceedings and an implausible final act.

The votes are in, and it’s official: this largely unfunny paean to Eurovision is a waste of some serious talent. At least some of the songs are decent.

Director DeVito doesn't make his characters' cold-blooded decisions anywhere near as credible as he did in territorial black comedy "The War Of The Roses." Someone's losing their touch, it seems.

Despite the all-star trio and the rare joke that lands, Going In Style never hits its stride as a warm-hearted crime caper.

Not only do the pair have to prepare for the upcoming race, but, hey, they also have to deal with a hysterical mother, a dying father, and the knowledge that one brother is destined for the same fate as pops. Not quite as sickly as it sounds, with a fair few hints of the onscreen magnetism to come.

Though there are a few rather large nits to be picked from the sloppy plot - the action takes at least one unfathomable turn and, as a terrorist, Payne seems to have entirely forgotten to have a cause - if you enter into the spirit, this is thunderously good fun.

The big screen was where none of them had gone before, and you can tell.

Somehow less than the sum of its very impressive parts. Massy Tadjedin brings out the best of her strong cast but all the eyeball-melting beautyon display and the highly polished treatment of the story could have done with a touch of authentic grit.

It’s the tangle of workings-out not the easy answer that are the proof of a theorem, and that magnificent, sparkling, insightful chaos abounds here.

An energetic but erratic film that straddles about a dozen genres at once, none of them that successfully. One for those who like oodles of odd.

Crazy, Stupid, Love writer Dan Fogelman can't rebottle lightning with a humdrum comedy that doesn't play to its stars strengths.

Erotic at times, certainly, but that's down to the appeal of it's stars and not the minimal clean lines vs. heavenly bodies approach of director Adrian Lyne.

A preposterous, steroidal mess.

Credit goes only to its two stars that this is watchable, because the film is a derivative hodge-podge unworthy of their charisma. Just rewatch The Mummy and cut out the middle man.

The Boss Baby is hopped up on energy but never harnesses it effectively. There are laughs and heart buried in this idea somewhere. Shame the film is too hyperactive to find them.

Spooky, silly, and sub-90 minutes, Cobweb uses familiar elements to create an inviting, entertaining atmosphere — and when the horrors finally emerge in the final reel, it gives good splatter to boot.

The plot's a trippy, twisty mess, and it's far too long, but it looks fantastic and makes some bold choices in its execution. And once again Jack's back to save the day.

It’s another spin on the usual Statham actioner, solidly performed but with a ridiculous plot and – even by the standards of the genre – a predictable outcome. Less gimme shelter, more gimme a break.

Another winner from Daldry, this is an unexpectedly gritty crime drama set in the teeming favelas and grimy backstreets of Rio. A cracking script from Richard Curtis, with roughly 80 per cent of the dialogue in street patois, is brilliantly served by the three leads.

Fatima raises some intriguing questions about faith but sadly fails to make us believe in anything more comforting than the climate of fear, distrust and grief that flourishes during wartime.

Beautifully designed and voiced, this has a solid message at its heart. But it’s a well-told tale that’s suffers from being too well-trodden already.

Far-out touches and liberal application of metaphor are compensated for by intensity and two mesmerising performances.

Though it tries to be different, with hair's-breadth escapes that don't depend on implausible stunts or Bondian-scale explosions, Conspiracy Theory is an uneasy mix of laughs and thrills; suspense and soap.

The Campaign gets by on its stars' comic compatibility and a relentless stream of jokes, many of which are laugh-out-loud funny. The only real downer is the ending, which feels tacked on like a hanging chad.

Well-meaning but unfortunately misjudged, this clichéd melodrama is a minor stumble for Harry Styles’ continuing conquest of cinema.

With Clooney and Roberts cranking up the charm, even the creakier elements of Ticket To Paradise are watchable. A warm, witty, welcome escape from reality.

The humour, when it comes, is on a par with Reitman's Ghosbusters, but the film feels, rather than the solid comedy it is, like a massive missed opportunity.

More Oh Mama than Mamma Mia!

Like its slack-jawed clones, The Island is full of energy and incredibly pretty but burdened with only the minimum of smarts.

Some fresh ideas spruce up this horror, but it’s an ambitious debut which forgets that less is more. A lack of focus is the real killer.

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.

Highly likeable, pleasantly unpretentious and plenty amusing.

A shot in the arm for the classic disaster movie: awesome effects, nail-biting tension and a cast of characters we don’t want dead after half an hour - even, amazingly, the cute kid.

It is, in fact, far from funny, although at moments it does touch upon amusing.

A rather titillating take on a racy historical novel, this is perhaps too ambitious in intent. More time, or more pruning (perhaps they should just have focused on The Boleyn girl), would have produced a richer and more enjoyable film.

The true story of a revered general instigating one of the most daring ploys in military history might seem like the perfect vehicle for Liam Neeson to return to more serious fare, but even he cannot breathe life into some truly terrible dialogue. It’s left to the Korean actors to save the day.

Its restraint might put off thrill-seekers, but if you can endure the wooden dialogue and sloppy exposition, it musters the entertainment quotient of a middle-order Harry Potter.

Despite a valiant effort from Justice Smith, the satire in The American Society of Magical Negroes feels aimless, scattered across a story that struggles to pick a meaningful direction.

We’re all for true, inspirational stories of courage in defiance of evil. But sheesh, this World War II drama is at least as irritating as it is uplifting.

Though it could do with being weirder and wilder, this high-concept mash-up — what if crooks robbed a haunted bank? — features fine work from a brace of rising stars.

Guest star Dan O'Herlihy steals the film as a Celtic joke tycoon (‘the man who invented sticky toilet paper and the dead dwarf gag’) who hates the way American kids are despoiling the religious spirit of Samhain and decides to teach them a nasty lesson.

It’s instilled with the bite and bark of Bilko’s capitalist fervour, and has a fun line in cool, snappy dialogue, although never intending to be quite so broadly a comedy.

Never magical, this hotchpotch of colourful, unrelated snippets is certainly a mystery.

Way ahead of its time, this is a balls-out satire on the disgraceful layers that can lurk just beneath the Avon surface. This is anti-Ferris Bueller and fiendishly funny.

Sugar Hill wants to be very different to the other Boyz in the Hood style films by using a second rate Spike Lee approach but sadly it doesn't make the film any better, only highlighting its failures. With the market heavily saturated with these 'hood' gangster films, this fails to stand out.

Another bravura performance from Juliette Binoche glosses over the flaws in a soft-focused glimpse at the seamier side of student life.

A simple entertainment in a summer of overcomplicated disappointments. Also much harder-edged than you may have expected.

There’s a fine line between depicting the way Marilyn Monroe was underestimated, and joining in with that assessment. Blonde doesn’t always wind up the right side of that line, but has spectacular visual fireworks to spare.

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.

This was sweet and charming at the time but now it just lacks either the comedy or sophistication of kids' fantasy film that we've all become accustomed to.

Arguably the most imaginative of the horror franchise, with a fair number of truly resonant scenes.

A feminist horror flick that lacks nuance in its feminism and thrills in its horror. But it should be applauded for reinterpreting rather than just retreading the original.

Strong turns from its female leads and Amanda Seyfried elicits more sexual tension from proceedings than "Jennifer's Body" ever managed.

On paper, Don’t Let Go’s premise — a supernaturally flecked crime story with a hint of time travel — should be exciting but it is let down down by workaday writing and routine filmmaking.

For a long stretch of the second act the film feels like doing a long stretch, but Schwarzenegger’s having a ball as Stallone goes through the motions.

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

Mildly amusing.

Okay, it doesn’t have an original bone in its body, but forgetting the awful title, Sex Drive has its share of snappy lines and decent gags. It’s also got Seth Green and James Marsden on cracking form, which should never be underestimated.

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.

A French comedy that pitches for wit over broad comedy, it's successful in salting what could be a over-sugary confection with healthy dose of wryness. The result is always entertaining and rarely mawkish.

More solid Prime Video Sports Doc than Subject-Transcending Asif Kapadia Investigation, Twelve Final Days is nonetheless an entertaining, occasionally illuminating and at times surprisingly moving look at the final bow of a genuine tennis legend.

A 'realistic' Vegas movie that will set no-one's soul on fire, but is further proof that Hanson can lend his talents to any style of movie.

Bland, but wholesome.

This should have been Soderbergh gold. Instead it is mostly unengaging and dull, proof positive that they don't make them like they used to.

It's aimed squarely at the tinies, but there is charm enough here to make it bearable for adults too.

An offbeat comedy/drama elevated by another terrific Varmiga turn.

A fascinating life is reduced to a series of skittishly edited and visually stylised vignettes that do scant justice to Marie Curie's scientific achievements and Karolina Gruszka's laudably intense performance.

Vallée’s post-traumatic stress comedy is more scientific than genuinely moving. Nevertheless, Gyllenhaal continues his post-Nightcrawler upgrade with another vivid performance in the key of strange.

A loud, careering thunderbolt of a bipoic, that leaves behind an imprint of the myth, if not enough of the man.

There’s no questioning the high-octane energy of Garth Jennings’ star-studded ensemble, but the cacophony grows a little tiresome. The show can go on, but that doesn’t mean it must.