An on-form Jim Carrey can’t stop Sonic’s live-action debut from feeling like a missed opportunity. If the teased sequels do materialise, here’s hoping the storytelling levels up.

A decent, mid-list spy thriller, suspended somewhere between le Carré and Bond but with a budgetary austerity in keeping with UK government spending cuts that keeps it out of the real high-stakes game.

The Secrets Of Dumbledore doesn’t quite cast a Potter-like spell — but with solid action and moments of genuine heart, it delivers a little light in the Wizarding World’s darkest hour.

Regarding Henry is ultimately just about bearable thanks to Ford's sheer presence and the occasional reminder, the first 20 minutes in particular, of what might and should have been.

The Merlot to "Sideways" Pinot, this is one of those middling movies that, while never terrible, also never really impresses.

Movie Marmite. Many will be perplexed. Donnie Darko fans should lap it up.

A fun, frothy return for Frank and his creaky commandos.

Burton's first feature revels in the weird, the unpredictable, the infantile and the absurd. A dazzling debut.

It has managed, admirably, to strike a balance between the wholesome 'school nerd blossoms' fairy tale and the gross-out comedy that is now a teen movie standard.

The set pieces make this well worth watching while director Goro Miyazaki shows he's truly his father's son.

Against the odds, perhaps, but part three injects a tiring franchise with new life and some surprisingly dark jokes. Some fun cameos and another winning Dan Stevens turn also add much needed unpredictability to the miniature goings-on.

The Year Of The Matrix will be remembered as an indulgence for fans, while the original movie will be affectionately held as a separate entity by a bigger crowd, much as the original "Star Wars" trilogy hasn't really been tainted by divisions over Episodes I and II.

For all the special effects and half-starved A-listers, this is a sodden beast. Perhaps there’s a reason that Melville only told half the story.

Fox is fun as a demonic harpy, but sadly the meeting of Hollywood’s two rock’n’roll queens is closer to safe studio product than slash-and-burn envelope-pusher.

A noisy but enjoyable destruction derby of a film, sadly with none of the subtlety, invention or skill of Spielberg's Duel.

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

A smart, accessible, surprisingly balanced look at our dysfunctional world. Compelling stuff.

Dull.

Intentionally or not, it might be the comedy of the year. The music and dance are thrilling and the costumes saucy enough to satisfy, but the whole is so camp and clichéd that it must be deliberate. Right?

A high-altitude horror – think a Bram Stoker reworking of *The Shining* or Shutter Highland – of real craft. Ultimately, though, the plot turns out to be thinner than the air.

Compared to its direct inspiration - Hal Ashby's blackly brilliant "Harold And Maude" - Restless comes off like an anemic facsimile. After the excellent "Milk," this is more like curdled cheese.

Overall, a superior sequel. Some people will never get over the height discrepancy but character-wise, Never Goes Back brings Reacher closer to the books for the type of thriller that rarely gets made these days.

It’s still a giggle, largely thanks to Tilly’s cantankerous mother (Judy Davis) and the camp local cop (Hugo Weaving).

Despite a muddled final act, Monster Hunter is satisfyingly efficient, a quick-fire thrill-ride of creepy thrills, nasty kills, and of course, monster-hunting.

This light satire is unlikely to influence the forthcoming election, but Costner's in fine fettle.

An uneven take on Palahniuk’s fourth novel, Rockwell and Huston shining brightly enough to eclipse a patchy directorial debut.

These teens may be a bit messy (who isn’t?) but it’s a joy to have Diablo Cody back to telegraph a new kind of adolescent horror, with a smile full of teeth.

The Michael versus Laurie showdown delivers — but for the most part, Halloween Ends is an unsatisfying closing chapter for this continuity. In trying to grapple with the horror beneath Michael Myers’ mask, it gets lost up its own abyss.