A few good stunts, some tolerable brooding and one nice, if silly desert chase. But not essential.

Last-act let-down aside, this is a confident and creepy ghoul-in-the-pool horror that makes Bryce McGuire a filmmaker to watch. Wusses, bring armbands.

There is nothing reprehensible about Palmetto; it simply falls short of conviction because you're too aware you've seen it all a hundred times before.

It’s been done before, and better. With pigs.

A fun techno romp, mixing great bang for your buck with insights into the dangers of restricting civil liberties. Now, anyone for Shia killing blondes dressed as his dead mother?

While it’s a woefully incomplete middle chapter, at least it’s never boring.

Nowhere near as good as the first one but all the same ingredients.

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

It's no Paddington 2, but Peter Rabbit 2 works well thanks to a mocking sense of self and a strong second half. Once again, Beatrix Potter, it is not.

If you crave Emmerich-esque disaster-porn with a mega body count, there’s plenty here to OMG at. But when it comes to character depth or plotting, San Andreas is a sadly familiar wasteland.

Has cult status now but the plot is fiendishly complicated.

It’s hard to begrudge such an earnest endeavour, but this is missing the wit, nuance, and insight of a book thought by many – correctly, maybe – to be unadaptable.

A film with a fishing metaphor for a title should have come with sharper hooks.

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---".

Competently made, and enjoyably played. But you do really end up wondering what the point was. Cinematic déjà vu is the most likely response.

Sweet, formulaic entertainment, but occasionally clunky.

Slightly weird, occasionally funny thriller.

A very text-book example of two actors better than the material, Crystal and Williams do their best but can't elevate this far.

The few weaknesses in the plot can be overlooked as The Vow makes for a wonderful - if a bit teary - romance that is brilliantly acted.

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

It’s an audacious swing — but ultimately a miss from a pair of filmmakers who know exactly what they want to say, and haven’t yet mastered how best to say it.

An often effective reboot, this does everything you’d expect, but that’s a real shame.

More Pistachio Disguisey than Austin Powers, this cheapjack comedy is nowhere near as ingenious as the man it sends up.

An improvement on the first film, in the end, and an encouraging rallying cry against fear and intolerance, but it’s still far too busy and baroque to match its leading lady’s elegance.

Allen’s films have always had a feeling of melancholy to them, but this -- the first film Allen has written after the fall of the Twin Towers -- harbours a sense of dark unsettlement amid the neurotic romantic comedy.

There are first-time filmmaker flaws — at times, the characters feel like pawns in a pre-ordained plot — but Bettany has a real gift for finding grace in the grimness.

Most of the fun comes from the Davis/Jackson pairing and some frantic action scenes, though problems include too many "meanigful" close-ups of cigarettes being lit and booming (appropriately) sound.

An awkward mix of realist social drama and Statham actioner, this doesn’t quite convince as either.

Dire, B-movie cheese throughout, this gives no clue that Pitt - or anyone else involved - could ever have a career in Hollywood.

Entertaining in places, Medicine Man suffers from a predictable story and annoying supporting characters.

Not even Nicole Kidman playing off Kathy Bates — or Zac Efron singing Cher's Believe — are enough to save what should have been a surefire hit from Hallmark musings and tired clichés.

Unfocused and uninspired, Night School has its moments but is held back by a script that required more study.

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.

Perhaps no more absurd than the Verhoeven version, but certainly less amusing. Farrell and Beckinsale emerge unscathed, but the endless scrabbling for novelty and reinvention leaves this feeling unaccountably stale and familiar.

in the end, Paycheck never quite cashes out.

Hope may float, but this bore flounders beyond salvaging.

As a barrel of easy, unsophisticated laughs, Kingpin delivers in spades.

Trying to break expectations isn't always a wise idea and here Disney show how not to do it. With this supposed-family movie, they disappoint on nearly every level. The plot is weak, the action poor and it's got Bette Midler, simply dreadful.

Less melodramatic and earthier than the classic 1939 version with Olivier, Robert Fuest’s take still heaves with passion thanks to Dalton’s fiery chemistry with Anna Calder-Marshall’s Cathy. John Coquillon’s cinematography expertly captures the drabness of the Moors setting, while Michel Legrand offers a haunting score.

An uneven tone and the feeling of too many cooks mars the finished product, but there are moments of beauty and real terror.

A touching melodrama illuminated by a solid turn from Tatum.

Not quite a complete write-off, but basically a folly.

Though there's an obvious, admirable effort to supply character development and plot twists, the set-work and special effects - both stylish and stunning - tend to dominate.

A great disappointment by the "City Of God" man's high standards.

A prime example of what works in a book not working in a film.

Sequelcraft 101 – if you liked the others, this is more of the same. Extra points for using a nailgun on pigeons.

Though solidly made and bolstered by the always-engaging Daisy Edgar-Jones and Harris Dickinson, Where The Crawdads Sing struggles to live up to the promising popularity of its source material. A flat, flair-free and uninspiring adaptation.

This is yet another one of those mindlessly enjoyable outings which eschews such unimportant details as plot or characterisation in favour of the biggest, flashiest special effects money can buy. Twister with lava, if you will.

Much slimmed down in a canny script by W. D. Richter, it has become a value-for-money horror movie with a streak of welcome black comedy.

Whilst this takes itself a little too lightly it has a lot going for it.

Poor remake of the Korean thriller.

Though Cage and Armstrong’s father-daughter dynamic merits praise, The Old Way tries so hard to emulate Westerns past that it squanders a gilt-edged opportunity to do something new.

The bones of the story have been played a million times, but a talented and committed cast make this swoonsome rather than samey.

Great performances from the young cast just can't make up for the overly familiar plot and pre-teen excesses of the action.

Though occasionally inventive and affecting, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a tonal mess. Romantic and other emotional struggles depicted may ring true, but that and strong lead performances can’t save the uneven whole.

Spader and Cusack go through the motions as political sparring partners in this coming of age drama.

Another of the film's positive aspects is its narrative style, reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon.

It's nothing more than an enjoyable, ridiculously macho B-movie romp, but it's derson' best movie since the underrated Event Horizon. Perhaps, at long last, he' starting to find his - yep - top gear.

It's gratifying to see Butler giving a proper acting role the old college try. Despite his best efforts, Forster's film, while pulling no punches, still somehow manages to miss the mark.

A premise neutered by daft supernatural shenanigans, which raise as many questions as they answer.

An inoffensive but inessential addition to Neeson’s latter-years thriller canon. Less the bus that couldn’t slow down than the car that couldn’t get started.

A solid performance let down by a script that cherry-picks the facts and ultimately tells us less than we already know. Watch Asif Kapadia’s Amy instead.

It's easy to criticise Conan. Cheesy. Dated. And ever-so-slightly fascist (Conan is the ultimate Aryan: punishing the weak and defending the strong, while looking great in thigh-high boots). But while all that's true, for Arnie fans, the film still rocks.

Freundlich's intelligent, very funny take on male-female relationships manages the not inconsiderable feat of being both jaded and appealingly fresh.

Often funny, outrageously vulgar in places and very, very French.

Better than Last Stand or Apocalypse but never hitting the heights of X2, Dark Phoenix thrives when its heroes are front and centre. If this is the end, it’s a solid rather than spectacular goodbye.

Innately sweet, due to the high number of fluffy animals, but it has the gloopy emotion and silly plotting of a Nicholas Sparks novel. Nicholas Barks, if you will.

Despite a game cast, The New Mutants’ horror elements aren’t very scary and as a superhero movie it fails to truly excite. A disappointing finale to Fox’s X-Men franchise.

The end result, while not entirely unrewarding, is another step away from the singular vision Cronenberg once expressed even in his marginal works.

Snake Eyes finally speaks, but with frustrating action scenes, a middling story and unearned sequel-baiting, there’s not much here that’s worth listening to, or watching.

Essentially a Split sequel with an Unbreakable topping, this is weaker than either of those films but still has a decent amount of entertaining and creepy sequences, most of them due to McAvoy’s high-commitment performance.

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

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

An opulent and accurate portrayal of the period that drags too much to stay interesting.

This hastily-produced sequel ignores the dreamstalking premise that had made A Nightmare on Elm Street successful and reverts to the overfamiliar possession story.

There is the odd funny moment, but The Art Of Racing In The Rain relies too heavily on the charms of its golden retriever. It might be built on the notion that dogs are the wisest of us all, but the end result winds up stupid.

For fans of the Big Bug movies in the 60's this will come as a pleasant surprise with not only the first to made in a while but also the first good one for a long time. Ticks is enjoyably fluff which contains unexpectedly convincing effects and enough of the required screaming of innocent victims.

Boasting more star power than all the Anacondas put together, but noticeably fewer laughs, what could have been a fresh take on familiar material ends up a regurgitated mess.

Zoinks! The Great Dane’s big-screen return has murderous robot bowling pins, escapades in abandoned amusement parks and exciting airborne chase sequences — but nowhere near the joke-rate an enduring character like Scoob demands.

Even by the less-than-stressful standards of filmmaking for kids, this is disappointingly by-the-numbers effort.

In a year of Bad Moms, Bad Santas and Bad Neighbours, this is, essentially, Bad Employees: another irresponsible-adults comedy, another great cast, and another erratic script. Catch it for McKinnon.

In Tobe Hooper’s sequel, the toolkit cannibals are living under a theme park. The mood follows suit, pitched as Evil Deady black comedy. The first third is terrible; the rest judders with abrasive, ultra-demented splatter.

The kids and Caine are good, but this lacks the magic of its source novel(s). Younger children may enjoy it, but its attempts to entertain older viewers mostly fall flat.

If Pop-Tarts are barely a breakfast, Unfrosted is barely a movie — but it’s sprinkled with solid gags, stuffed with super-silly guest appearances, and lovingly glazed in sweet ’60s trappings.

Like “The Lord Of The Rings,” The Lovely Bones does a fantastic job with revered, complex source material. As terrific on terra firma as it is audacious in its astral plane, it is doubtful we’ll see a more imaginative, courageous film in 2010.

Depardieu is his usual charismatic self but the script fails to translate well with the generic traits suddenly appearing so much obvious in English.

It’s sexy, offbeat fun for the most part, but it’s way too laid-back for its own good and, in the end, obstinately refuses to be anything more than the sum of its highly promising parts.

It’s uneven and doesn’t quite hit the right balance between yuks and yuck, but the charisma of the two stars – particularly Nanjiani – carries it along. A shame to waste Uwais on such a limited role, though.

Once you swallow the giant pill that is the premise, it just about makes sense, and Woodley sells it with all her conviction.

Workmanlike suspenser, with plenty of cold water but sparse chills. When it comes to James Cameron scuba thrillers, "The Abyss" still has the edge.

“Nostalgia’s overrated,” warns this vacuous slasher with a wink. Trouble is, other than obnoxious new characters meeting immemorable ends, that’s all it has to offer.

As the body count mounts, De Palma blurs the line between fantasy and reality with gleeful affrontery, creating a dazzling tapestry of visual cheats and narrative trickery which propels his scarcely credible characters and ludicrous plot - involving multiple personalities, babynapping and homicidal maniacs - through to its nervy conclusion.

A forced, over-ripe satire on the hunger for social media, bolstered by an engaging performance by Joe Keery. But if you really want to feel the real-life impact of the ’Gram on a young psyche, stick with Eighth Grade.

Lacks the ‘ick’ factor of the earlier Bay-directed efforts, and Fishback and Ramos do a great job as the token humans, but this is still just silly and derivative.

Like all sieges, this offers moments of choppy terror and excitement followed by dull sit-it-out-and-starve spots. Straddled between uproarious schoolboy tosh and serious historical movie, this still offers enough dismemberments, royal tantrums and portcullis-rammings to make for a lively Saturday night out.

Hardly likely to convince anyone that remakes are worthwhile, Overboard ekes out laughs but fails to add the romance to the comedy. We’d leave this one in the water.

Despite a charismatic turn from Momoa and some fun frenemy banter, this is a disappointing send-off that sees the DCEU go out with a squelch rather than a splash. Fin.

Though well directed, Thewlis and Di Caprio simply do not gel (John Malkovich and River Phoenix were the original cast choices), the latter is too hyperactive in delivery, the former too static in expression.