Realistically, it was never going to match the instant cult appeal of the original, but it has a lot of fun trying.

Fortunately, the twin charisma assault of the two leads adds considerably to the film’s appeal. It turns out that watching two impossibly beautiful boys making cow eyes at each other might be just the escapist pulp we need right now.

There is no questioning the angular complexity of the central character study, with all its unexpected harmonics and discords.

Much of the film’s appeal comes from its star, newcomer Max Harwood, who, despite a chiffon-wisp of a singing voice claims every frame with his knife-sharp cheekbones and charisma to match.

A highly competent, conventional Second World War movie. [07 May 2006, p.10]

LaKeith Stanfield and Issa Rae light up a beautiful-looking movie that weaves together love stories from the past and present.

Unfortunately, it all rather stumbles with an overwrought final act that disintegrates under scrutiny and hinges on a key character’s unlikely ability to remember, verbatim, every word he has ever read.

While the pace falters a little – there are only so many ways you can almost fall off a tower, after all – the tension is unrelenting.

For all the real-estate machinations and nefarious scheming, there are too many inert scenes that drain the energy from this already plodding story.

There are thematic parallels with everything from The Lego Movie to The Matrix, but key to its appeal is an unabashed sweetness and goofy enthusiasm that proves irresistible.

It’s a thorough, measured, often illuminating portrait, aided by readings from Highsmith’s unpublished diaries and interviews with her ex-lovers.

It may be big, brawling and somewhat inelegant in approach, but this Gerard Butler vehicle is an aviation fuel-powered good time.

Peter Sellers, whose multiple role-playing sustained the earlier picture, is sadly missing here as the citizens of Grand Fenwick enter the space race. But a dull script is considerably enlivened by some inventive touches from Richard Lester, directing his first big-budget film, and he went straight on to A Hard Day's Night and The Knack. [15 Jul 2007, p.18]

Attractive comedy-thriller in the Topkapi vein starring Michael Caine, shortly after his international success in Alfie, as an over-ambitious cockney crook in Hong Kong. [30 Apr 2006, p.14]

The career of the man who directed The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington could only go up, and it rocketed with this very funny comedy starring George Hamilton as Count Dracula, who's driven out of modern Transylvania by zealous Communist Party officials and heads for corrupt Manhattan, hoping to meet a trendy model he's seen in a fashion magazine. [13 Mar 2005, p.83]

It’s a messy, mind-blowing collision of philosophy, technology, religion and fruit-loop paranoia which, while it doesn’t exactly make a watertight case, does provide a fascinating, and in one case deeply disturbing, insight into the thought processes of those who believe it.

Stevens is one of several reasons to watch this extravagantly gory botched kidnap horror.

At the centre of it all is Kidman, bringing an impressive physicality to her performance that says more about Erin than words ever could. We learn so much from simply watching her walk, her gait combining an air of stroppiness with an overriding sense of being weighed down or crushed, like a packhorse hobbled by years of abuse. It’s a terrific turn that (like the rest of the movie) reminds us that awards often offer little indication of what’s really worth watching in cinemas.

Such intricate genre mechanisms are fundamental to The Monkey’s construction, but the film also has a heart that beats with authentic human emotion.

It works on the assumption that a story about grumpy old gits united against a common foe has a universal appeal. True, to an extent, but what the makers of this film fail to realise is that it was the specificity of the Icelandic original that made it such a glumly hilarious delight.

An exciting tale with a cast that includes Christopher Walken and Martin Balsam, but its real concern is with a dehumanised, paranoid society dominated by electronic surveillance. [09 Oct 2011, p.46]

Alexis Louder holds her own as the heroine of (and sole woman in) Joe Carnahan’s lean, mean, 70s-inspired action thriller.

Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage are pleasant enough as the father and son who swap roles, but the result is less funny and less stylish than Peter Ustinov's period version of 1947 which starred Roger Livesey and Anthony Newley. [14 Dec 2003, p.8]

A haunting allegorical tale, Aniara warns of humanity hurtling in the wrong direction and realising too late that there is no turning back.

The film is fascinating on cult capitalism and the power of personality as a marketing tool for an otherwise unremarkable business plan.

Wright is sympathetic and believable, but we never truly get a sense of Edee or her desires outside the bounds of her loss.

While the film is largely content to tread a safe path, it does at least feel full-hearted in its appreciation of the way music can connect lost souls and enrich lives.

An impenetrable plot doesn’t entirely hold together, but the film is worth a look for fans of wigged-out sci-fi, gorgeous framing and lush, orchestral, Bernard Herrmann-inspired soundtracks.