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.

The filmmaking is a tad formulaic, but On Swift Horses is a beautifully shot piece of period escapism with a mesmerising central performance from Daisy Edgar-Jones.

This collection of tired jokes is enough to prompt the question, “What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and couldn’t he have rested on that day too?”

Fellowes’ dewy-eyed swansong isn’t likely to make many Film Of The Year lists, but it still does Downton proud, closing the book on his Faragian utopia of stiff upper lips and British brio in a way that would do Cousin Violet proud.

There are colourful characters and cool moments to keep you entertained on the road to nowhere, but they can’t disguise the fact that this is a shaggy-dog story with no real point.

The first of two King-as-Bachman 2025 thrillers featuring a deadly reality show in a dystopian future. Edgar Wright’s The Running Man will need to bust a lung to keep up.

A fun blend of scares and sentiment, this largely justifies a lengthy run time with effective frights and a valedictory feel. Just don’t watch it before trying to clear out the attic.

An animated film showing you “how it’s done, done, done” — as HUNTR/X would put it — this is a stunning musical treat, a joy for all ages. Now warm up the vocal cords and bring on the sequel.

An entertaining, frivolous ride through a wacky, well-realised world, The Toxic Avenger is a charming underdog story offering plenty of laughs. The very opposite of toxic.

It’s not the toothless remake we feared, and is often very funny, but there’s a slight imbalance between the Roses that blunts some of its effect.

For the most part, Caught Stealing is a riotous, rollicking ride studded with New York’s concrete grit — but its sharper edges prove more difficult to endure.

Maybe this would hit the spot for a Sunday-night sofa slump but it’s more patronising than perceptive when it comes to portraying ageing. As disappointing as a stale scone.

A heck of a debut from first-timer Shawn Simmons, and another powerful argument for A-list status for Samara Weaving. Bring on the sequel, which is obliged to be titled Miny Moe. 

Denzel Washington’s unshakeable gravitas anchors a dazzling, jazzy riff on the crime drama that somehow feels wildly uplifting for all its grit.

Part end-of-the-world drama, part musical, part coming-of-age ghost story, The Life Of Chuck won’t please everyone. But, if you open yourself to its brazen sincerity, you might just shed a life-affirming tear or two.

An audacious, farcically funny digest of where we are now, and how we got here: the cinematic equivalent of pandemic primal therapy, a mad scream into the void.

Less a black comedy than an indispensable reinvention of the so-called trauma plot, this grounded post-MeToo story is navigated with a light sprinkling of humour and the utmost grace.

Even when supercharged by Kirby’s unwavering star power, this distractingly muddled stab at social commentary baked into a hardboiled thriller lacks the momentum to make it to the morning.

Odenkirk as an ageing action hero is still a violent delight, but the storytelling in this sequel leaves much to be desired.

A modern love story with a dash of Cronenberg for good measure — a brutal portrait of messy, intense long-term love. Warts, blood, bones and all.

A weak shadow of Eddie Murphy’s action-comedy yesteryear, The Pickup would be better off being left unpicked.

A hugely accomplished horror achievement, and a significant step up from Barbarian: tense, sad, hilarious, unsettling, ridiculously entertaining, and ultimately oddly uplifting.

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

A risible attempt to modernise classic science-fiction by adding WhatsApp and political chicanery. This thin, frenetic, soulless adaptation is misguided moviemaking cubed.

The first feature from music-video director Isaiah Saxon boasts wondrous old-school creature effects, but they’ve been applied to a rather derivative fable, an eccentric but skimpy Amblin wannabe.

The result is a film that has a better chance of producing a belly laugh than any in recent memory: one that deserves, as Drebin would say, “20 years for man’s laughter”.

Adam Sandler goes back to his Happy place for this unashamedly stupid sequel. What it lacks in precision or panache, it makes up for in sheer goofy, golf-y geniality.

Though it can be predictable and a little simple, The Bad Guys 2 smooths over some of the frustrations of the first — bringing a sharper and (slightly) more mature sense of humour to its compellingly cartoonish animation.