Lacking Snyder’s directorial dab hand, Army of Thieves is still a fun heist movie that makes an already likeable character even better.

Never sure if it wants to be a hard-edged character drama or pacy action-thriller, Son Of A Gun has plenty to admire between the tonal wobbles.

A rigorous and handsome drama, finely hewn by Costner and his cast, this is an absorbing ride into the Old West.

The predictable plot gets an enjoyably venomous boost from Jemaine Clement’s revenge-obsessed cockatoo Nigel.

A playful, punchy tale that spills the beans about those Babies. Zach Galafianakis’ tantrum-prone tycoon transfixes.

To its credit, Spike Lee’s remake isn’t a slavish imitation. On the other hand, its grit is a grey substitute for the original’s vision and verve. Disappointing.

Sometimes bad, never boring and, at the last, completely bonkers, it’s proof at least that you can freeze cheese.

The drugs don’t work – but thankfully Aniston does – in this slight but sly portrait of pain-meds hell, which wallows in self-pity when it should be grabbing our sympathy.

Sharply observed with a top-notch cast and a pleasing old-school vibe, The Instigators is tremendously entertaining.

Earnest intentions may be behind this bawdy yet heartfelt sport-quel, but it’s a largely unnecessary rematch.

What Black’s movie really has going for it is pace. It starts with a crash, followed swiftly by a bang and vast swathes of wallop. The relentlessness doesn’t allow you any time to catch a yawn, but it’s also not too conducive to tension or suspense.

A serviceable blockbuster falls short of being truly fun by swapping the Grid for a real-world setting. Despite a good lead performance from Greta Lee and a great score, Ares lacks the charm and silliness of its Tron predecessors after one upgrade too many.

Short, sweet and hilariously unpleasant, Bride Of Chucky packs in the blood and jokes tighter than Jennifer Tilly in a black rubber dress. Both are well worth watching. Don't bother to see the first three Chucky films - this comic horror stands alone.

Loyal to the novel, but welcoming enough for newbies, Divergent does a decent if not jawdropping job of bringing its dystopian world to life.

An absorbing thriller that favours vivid characters, profound ideas and Old Testament morals over propulsive plotting and set-pieces. With lots of blood.

A brutal fusion of angst and action, this mini-epic gives the sword-and-sorcery genre a bleak, brusque new life. Watch it for some terrific limbchopping and a mighty turn by James Purefoy.

The ever-watchable Idris Elba and a handful of muscular action sequences are scuppered by a flaky-pastry plot which badly misjudges subject matter warranting more considered exploration.

Fun when Jones is around, dull when he's not, it's all just a little bit of history repeating.

Vikander packs a punch but this Tomb Raider is a long way off the Holy Grail of the first three Indy movies.

If your humour skews towards the sick and twisted, then this box-fresh Child’s Play will give you one almighty kick.

Fast, furious and based on fact, this pleasingly lateral adaptation embellishes a console-jockey favourite with familiar sports-movie archetypes.

Just as bloody yet much more conventional, 300 #2 offers splashy thrills aplenty but fails to make a watertight case for its own existence. Green, however, ensures it stays afloat.

Luc Besson's clunky, space-bound actioner apes '80s B-flick excess but skimps on all the good parts. Fans of really bad science and pixelated CGI won't be disappointed, though.

Stallone's shtick keeps it from collapsing into farce but, overall, Bullet To The Head is too derivative and disposable to warrant serious attention.

Guilty of being slavishly loyal, Taylor’s film never quite translates into the cinematic equivalent of Hawkins’ page-turner. Blunt, though, is excellent.

The film flirts with near-offensive gags and attitudes, but there’s inventive use of forced perspective, even if the focus should be more on Diane changing hers.

These truly are dark and terrible times if we are forced to accept the elitist problems of an Ivy League college admissions officer as shameless fodder for a romcom.

CGI/saga-building issues aside, the MCU’s fun sci-fi getaway stretches Ant-Man and answers any Multiverse niggles. Majors’ menace focuses the attention fiercely.

The excessive CGI can be distracting, some performances veer towards caricature, but this is still a big-hearted take on London’s classic.

As glossy as any of the surfaces that Alice polishes so diligently each day, it’s a feminist film that asks viewers to evaluate their own social complicity in oppression, while not skimping on really great costumes, gorgeous cars or horny sex scenes.

The well-worn platitudes and pained moralising are a bit much, but the music is tremendous.

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters improves on its predecessor in terms of the kaiju carnage, but still can’t quite make you care about the humans underfoot.

Family-friendly, spooky fun with surprising emotional heft and an ensemble cast clearly having a ball.

Luchini’s excellent, but this is guilty of gross tonal uncertainty.

A relic of the ’90s in more ways than one, Sonic offers frenetic fun for younger viewers, and in Jim Carrey’s preposterous Robotnik an enjoyable shot of nostalgia for adults.

It doesn’t exactly soar and the lack of levity grates, yet the Spooks movie still delivers some appealingly old-school mayhem.

Despite the well-honed wizarding credentials of Yates and co-scripters Steve Kloves and Rowling, the series still can’t seem to settle on a hero. Let’s hope that the prospective next two helpings can unravel whether it’s Newt’s beast-fuelled journey or Dumbledore’s quest with which we’re hitching a ride.

Returning screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber have penned a surplus of minor melees and major set-pieces.

The most inventive sequence has Larry and Teddy plunge into an MC Escher painting, an interlude so dazzling you can almost overlook the weeing monkey.

Given the weighty themes of Moby Dick, In The Heart Of The Sea doesn't have a lot going on behind the outward action. The composite parts are in fine working order; it's the sum that's slightly lacking.

Meddle with sobriety and project it on a nightclub wall and maybe it works. As a film, not so much.

With few words and the odd squint, Cruise hard boils all of his charisma into a clenched fist, but is more than happy to let a dynamic Smulders take the lead in many scenes.

A neat mash-up of high-school comedy and horror tropes. Pity it flounders in the final third, though.

Fans, naturally, might simply want what they came for, and leave licking wounds. But they should be partially sated by some grisly kills and nods to Carpenter classics Christine and The Thing. And besides, let’s not fool ourselves that it really ends here. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was followed a year later by Friday the 13th: A New Beginning.

Ravishingly pretty but low-powered, this cute and earnest fairy tale has a whole lot of homage, but not enough heart.

Slasher smarts with guts and heart. Town is no Scream but it’s still one of the most entertaining, enterprising remakes in recent memory.

Don’t be put off by the long wait. This is a little slimline but a lot of fun.

In later scenes, Guadagnino blurs the boundaries of the various levels of reality on show, which becomes alienating. He may have been inspired by Fellini’s 8½, but this comes across more like sub-David Lynch weirdness.

When Abraham leaves the camera on Hiddleston and Olsen long enough to let them chew on their characters, the film offers flashes of something much more interesting: a handful of domestic scenes prove that the actors, not to mention Hank, would’ve been much better served by a ballsier script and braver direction.

Packing two terrific turns and an offbeat spirit, this coming-of-middle-age comedy is an unexpected treat.

Two characters, who you won’t like, insulting each other for two hours. Give it a miss and rewatch Midnight Run instead.

Very tame, but saved from the remake scrapheap by Sam Rockwell's surprisingly touching performance and a final reel that – briefly – takes the material somewhere new.

By the beard of Zeus! Brett Ratner delivers fast, fun thrills to score a sound victory over Renny Harlin’s laborious The Legend Of Hercules.

Directed by John McTiernan, it’s an ’80s classic full of still-thrilling action, quotable one-liners (“Get to the chopper!” “Stick around!”) and sly digs at Uncle Sam’s penchant for unwinnable jungle wars.

Lawrence’s mechanised menagerie and the directors’ stereoscopic smarts entertain most.

Overlords has its share of clunky moments yet nonetheless proves, like Monsters before it, what can be achieved when you’re short of cash but rich in imagination.

Despite some missteps, SEGA’s videogame mascot proves his previous movie was no flash in the pan.

Shooting in dull, wintry colours, the mood is set for a story that can only end badly.

The Nun 2 feels like an unnecessary sequel to a hoary offshoot that was hardly essential in the first place.

Frankly, if you’re buying a ticket purely for the behemoth battles then you’ll get your money’s worth: take your pick from a trippy rumpus that defies gravity, a Copacabana beach-off, some Planet of the Apes-esque monkey business, and a literal dust-up at the Egyptian pyramids.

The scuzz-chic visuals, sleaze-synth score and deep-cutting gore are effective, and shooting from the killer’s POV proves a valid USP. But Wood, despite giving his all, cannot match Joe Spinell’s unhinged turn in the original: nightmares in a damaged brain indeed.

It’s best to sit back and luxuriate in the film’s unhurried pleasures: crisp Mediterranean settings, Alexandre Desplat’s mournful score and a clutch of likeable performances.

A vibrantly choreographed, credibly acted Brit-musical propelled by a stream of Take That bangers.

Wingard and Barrett’s surprise – and surprisingly strong – sequel earns its scares. An effective follow-up to a film that can’t be matched.

Despite the all-star talent, an overload of sight gags and an always-amiable vibe, Genndy Tartakovsky's monster house is a bit too loony for its own good.

Disposable, overly long fun best enjoyed with BFFs and a bevvie.

An outdated oddity.

It’s ‘Hello Dahl-y’, as Anne Hathaway’s Grand High Witch brings camp not creepiness to Zemeckis’ entertaining fairytale.

With the story lacking real jeopardy, the feeling this leaves isn’t quite fury, but it’s certainly apathy.

A fun romp with a great comic performance from Oyelowo. Doesn’t linger, but you’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

Less about the thousands who died in the Nanking massacre than about how stunning it all looked, Zhang Yimou's epic puts Bale in the midst of a lavish nightmare.

Fake plastic trees, fake plastic entertainment? The Lorax is immensely colourful, catchy and cheery. Then again, it's also gaudy, bland and recycled. You can do better.

While it could use a few banana peels to slow its relentless pace, this adaptation is a faithful introduction to the Mushroom Kingdom.

To borrow a line Roberts spits at Collins, there's something about Mirror that's incredibly irritating. Fingers crossed Huntsman has more edge.

Handsome, risk-taking Netflix remake sacrifices suspense for sweeping sadness.

The rocky relationship between Lee and her father feels convincing enough, and it's great to see a queer storyline take shape as Lee develops feelings for her father's co-star (Chloe Bailey, one of several strong supporting actors). But the horror story leans too heavily into what has now become cliché, with Crowe's outbursts seeming increasingly ridiculous rather than terrifying.

Too many characters and callbacks plus a formulaic plot means Frozen Empire doesn’t touch the original movies, but it’s a likeable-enough brand extension.

The film falters mostly with its disappointingly one-note female characters ... It’s a shame, for Reminiscence has some impressive ingredients floating around in its murky mix.

Not as groundbreaking as the original, nor as expansive as all the best sequels are. But with some excellent cast additions, and Miller on murky form, this still sizzles to the touch.

Too rackety and hackneyed to scare, The Nun groans next to the likes of Hereditary. Only the moody, menacing abbey inspires the right levels of belief.

The car-nage that ensues is confined to a maze of underground tunnels, too dark and claustrophobic a setting to appreciate stunt scenes already made hard to follow by the epileptic editing.

Brown and the beast strike sparks as Fresnadillo’s initially lukewarm adventure gradually heats up.

Dakota Johnson is a revelation in an adaptation that’s better than it should have been. But with the sex scenes and the drama lacking the required heat, it’s ultimately unsatisfying.

A bloody fun second round, Mortal Kombat 2 creatively resets the series for the better. Karl Urban adds irreverent energy as a post-Deadpool Johnny Cage, while the all-important fights mostly deliver the goods. A step up from 2021’s bizarrely tournament-less Mortal Kombat that lands some killer blows, but it’s far from a flawless victory.

Just as daft as it sounds but not half as bad, this Alpine splatter-fest works surprisingly well thanks to the old-school FX, the creative death scenes, and a vein of self-awareness that never gets too smug.

An old-fashioned romp through the eccentricities of the upper classes, it’s a fun mystery with a nicely filthy mind.

Living up to its billing as the most ridiculous film of the summer, The Meg is one to laugh at rather than with. Instantly forgettable, but undeniably fun.

Part courtroom movie, part behind-bars romance, Folie à Deux is an unconventional musical sequel that fails to hit the high notes.

Katharine Isabelle is phenomenal in one of the most original and politically engaged horrors of recent years, even if the second half isn’t a patch on the first.

A taut, tense yet hugely indebted debut, Ruairí Robinson’s survival horror manages to break free from its low-budget limitations but is hamstrung by its own love of the genre.

IF is obviously aiming to be an E.T.-style family classic about kids and creatures on a healing journey. But its sticky sentimentality keeps it mawkish rather than magical.

Entwining Irish folklore, dead-parent issues, eco-anxiety, and reality-show commentary, The Watched is an acceptable mid-tier horror. It'll be far more interesting to see what Shyamalan does next.

Taking a weird swerve into rom-zom-com, the third [REC] shaky-horror ends up pulled apart by its own genre mutations.

Like all of Bay’s work, it’s over-the-top, brash and exhausting to watch. But like the lifestyle its characters aspire to, there’s an allure too.

There’s a lack of genuine emotional heft, not helped by some clunky dialogue (lines like "we are literally living on borrowed time"). But what the film really misses, amid several ear-splitting, CG-heavy alien-attack set-pieces, is humour.

From the generic title to the formulaic plot (stolen plutonium, highest bidder etc.), you can imagine the rest. But director Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger) injects vitality where it’s needed.

Classy but curiously empty, The Son may be a spiritual sequel to The Father, but it’s not its equal.

[A] highly idiosyncratic semi-musical.