Twists and betrayals add spice to a familiar cat-and-mouse tale, while director Kim Jee-woon handles spectacle and drama with equal aplomb.

A timely, inspiring parable of protest, directed with sinewy style and driven by Braga’s rock-solid lead performance.

Masterfully filmed in long takes, this slow-burner lays bare a world of systemic corruption.

André Øvredal (Troll Hunter) ruthlessly ratchets the tension – with no little assistance from Olwen Kelly, conveying menace without moving a muscle.

LaBeouf is committed, and it’s fun seeing him go toe-to-toe with Gary Oldman (as his boss). But amid Montiel’s jigsaw-like structure lurk some generic revelations. Disappointing.

Juggling heartbreaking frankness with uplifting scenes of love and solidarity, this is a sensitive exploration of family, faith and opposing cultures.

Inventive camerawork and a creepy (crawly) monster can’t save this messy supernatural horror.

“Prepare for Gar-mageddon!” Or worse: more Smurfs films.

Both smart political primer and tense cautionary tale.

Reducing promising material to movie-of-the-week status, Aftermath is well meaning, but anonymously made.

Blending The Thing, Prince of Darkness, Hellraiser and Lovecraftian cosmic horror, this falls flat in suspense and characterisation, but ace ’80s FX – all liquefying latex – will delight genre fans.

If the result is unlikely to leave audiences bawling, it’s still a well-observed study of life and loss.

No huge surprises but finely tuned and fun, like the love-child of Gravity and Alien, with added popcorn.

This moving docu-portrait of former NFL player Steve Gleason’s battle with motor neurone disease is as much heartrending home video as it is awareness-raiser.

Viewing the heightened emotion and drama of adolescence with an unjudgemental eye, it’s a reminder that schooldays are always the best.

Sparse and intricate, it’s a study of judgement, of ‘honour’, of Emad’s own fragile masculinity; one paralleled cleverly by his role in a production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

A genre-blender imbued with style and substance. Magnetic and elusive, Stewart matches her director.

Jones and Oldman are on autopilot, while Costner grizzles like a sore-headed bear. Only Gal Gadot, as Reynolds’ widow, has any cred in this utter pap.

Beautiful and bold, rebellious and riotous, its sexual frankness puts E.L. James in the shade.

Filled with cherry-blossom gorgeousness and sentimental homages to small-town Japanese life, it's a film of quiet, telling moments, even when big revelations surface.

Even the devout, surely, will warm to Dormael's alt-gospel: one of compassion, oddball fish gags and cheerier skylines.

Tense and thought-provoking in equal measure, this is first-rate – a modern-day Dr. Strangelove played out on video screens.

It’s the most staggeringly detailed and impressively realised sci-fi location since James Cameron welcomed audiences to Pandora, and one of the few recent blockbusters to benefit from the 3D treatment.

The 'dual roles' conceit doesn’t quite work, despite Ferguson's best efforts. But, while it struggles to find rhythm, you can't fault Sarif's ambitions.

A handful of sparky leads can’t help this superhero reboot find an appropriate tone. No no, Power Rangers.

Loud, ripe, violent, bloody and blackly funny, Free Fire cocks its gun right in your face. See it – and bring earplugs.

Avoiding the pitfalls of prurience and sensationalism, this dreamily photographed film reveals its young subjects to be vibrant and articulate individuals.

It lacks the subtlety of Night of the Living Dead, but deftly balances laughs and bloody thrills.

Subtexts about grief and revenge help anchor the plot, though the more decisive clincher is Lowe’s guiding imprint – a mix of scathing vernacular wit and genre savvy.

With lush visuals, intelligent performances and a lingering lyricism, this is an instant classic that cements Hunnam’s star power.

Skvortsov gives a scarily grim-faced performance, with biology teacher Elena (Viktoriya Isakova) increasingly beleaguered as the only one resisting him.

Fascinating story, flawed telling.

There’s Fassbender’s charisma, an unhinged Sean Harris and Tom Rowland music.

C+ gags and D- supporting characters sabotage the final grade, but a perma-livid Cube is the star pupil and the brutal playground punch-up doesn’t disappoint.

Kijak finds poignancy behind the pomp as he builds to a fist-pumping finale.

Certain Women won’t challenge Transformers 5 at the box office, but it’s a deeply affecting triumph.

A complex film that sidesteps every cliché. Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert are at the top of their game.

A delightful live-action recreation of a familiar fable. You’ve seen it before, but its spirit and pizzaz are pretty much irresistible.

Derivative and a little dumb but consistently fun: there’s personality and panache to spare in this monster blockbuster.

The Raid star remains an electrifying, inventive fighter, even fending off a machete-wielding foe while handcuffed to a table.

This is a fine, fitting finale for the movies’ greatest mutant.

A satire of capitalist can-do thinking lurks in The Wrestler/Turbo writer Robert D. Siegel’s script, yet Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks) lacks the stomach to do full justice to its vision of the American dream plummeting into a nightmare.

Taraji P. Henson excels in a heart-warming history lesson that proves not only rocket men had The Right Stuff.

A murky mishmash of a movie, with the lightest smattering of glorious moments.

True, John Wick: Chapter 2 doesn’t quite hit the heights of the original – partly because the element of surprise when it comes to the fight-work is gone, partly because it lacks the emotional pull of Wick avenging his wife’s memory. But as badass B-movies go, this really gets the blood pumping.

Sensitive, subtle and heartfelt, Jenkins’ genre-buster is a significant work that will knock you out.

This stiffly scripted film never quite stirs the emotions.

Strikingly original, brilliantly acted, this serio-comic masterpiece constantly swerves expectations.

It’s as mad as a box of frogs, but a strain of melancholy romance adds emotional backbone to the gags, gore and kung fu.

Denzel Washington and Viola Davis excel in a well-crafted drama that’s sure to bring the late August Wilson’s words to a much wider audience.

An entertaining, if frenetic, vehicle for Arnett’s Bale-inspired Bats that packs plenty of laughs.

Skarsgård and Peña relish their roles, but this pitch-black action-com feels like 100 gags in search of a storyline.

Wiser, sadder but very much alive and kicking, T2 is a film that knows you can’t compete with the ghosts of the past. But at least you can dance with them.

Gibson returns to film’s frontline with a ferociously felt anti-war movie, while Garfield invests his Doss with tremendous conviction.

Amalric jigsaws the pieces, conjuring a taut, tense air of Chabrol as he does.

Lang makes an intimidating antagonist, but a silly final act ends things on a sour note

Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov stresses spectacle over subtext – and, effectively, leaves the cast floundering fast.

Mackenzie goes western in satisfying style, while Bridges, Pine and Foster bring true grit to Sheridan’s tight script.

Visually astonishing and touchingly told, Kubo is utterly wonderful.

Ellis has a real flair for action – the assassination scene is heart-stopping – but patchy accents, strange pacing and an overstretched budget nearly scupper proceedings.

Somewhat impressively, it’s even stupider than this outlandish synopsis sounds, with action that makes the F&F movies look grounded, “hip” dialogue that induces spasms of embarrassment and a shockingly casual disregard for human life.

Playing out in real time, Theo and Hugo offers a warm, frank, unexpectedly romantic view of relationships today.

Director Garth Davis’ debut is a touch over-stretched but impossible to resist – a classy crowd-pleaser with an especially magical first half.

Portman’s Oscar-worthy work crowns an unconventional study of an icon, while Mica Levi’s score is sublime.

This is a Shyamalan movie through and through. And it’s his best in some time, thanks to a magnetic McAvoy.

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.

Entertaining in its own way, though probably not in the way intended.

A-list sad-faces abound in a film where absurd concept is rivalled only by banal execution.

It’s a smart gen-gap tale with loveable characters.

Director Amber Fares finds a frankly astounding subject for her first feature-length doc, using the story of a few brave sportswomen to shine a bright headlamp on lives lived under occupation.

Think Luis Buñuel spliced with Hieronymus Bosch.

Eugène Green’s (The Portuguese Nun) direction favours symmetry over emotion, while the impassive performance style recalls French auteur Robert Bresson. It lacks the profundity to fully merit that comparison, but earns its uplifting ending.

Could have been a grand folly but instead it’s just grand. Will make audiences break into grins like its characters break into song.

If ever there was a film that epitomised the saying ‘no pain, no gain’, this is it. Packs a real wallop.

For dance fans this is a fascinating study of the time, effort and logistics that go into a big production.

If this isn’t the biggest tearjerker of 2017 we’re in for a distressing year. A truly, ahem, tree-mendous fantasy.

Rob Lowe provides colour as a Southern-accented sleazeball, while the Free Willy finale has enough vehicular mayhem to excuse its dodgy FX.

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

The Pass is narratively simplistic but psychologically complex.

Best of all...is the mini-animation fashioned out of Suskind’s Walt-inspired scribblings.

The drama gets overwrought but Shults stages the fallout artfully, stressing choppy montages and a nerve-rattling sound mix as tensions erupt.

Intelligent, original and committed, it’s also a little meandering. But Records cuts a strikingly amoral figure, and the sight of Christopher Lloyd intoning poetry over dying embers reminds us what a wonderful actor he is.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is credible as the former NSA contractor, but Stone gets side-tracked by his relationship with Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley) and Rhys Ifans’ leering CIA suit.

An impressive directorial debut – and acting turn – from Parker that deserves to be seen, despite the PR firestorm.

With robotic depictions of Iran's 'morality police', the political subtext is strictly one-dimensional. But with ace choreographer Akram Khan on board, the dancing is powerful.

Interviewing key figures in his life, they build an anecdote-rich bio.

Punctuated by a handful of well-observed scenes that belong in a better film...it's ultimately a flat, ineffectual affair that goes off with a whimper rather than a bang.

The arid landscapes are handsomely shot, the set-pieces punchy and intimate, and the performances robust, with Portman reminding us just how good an actress she is as her no-nonsense Jane gets on with the business of survival.

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.

The great thing about Arabian Nights is that if one story isn't to your liking, another pops up, so the decision to give this tale a feature-length running time is perplexing. But quibbles aside, this is daring, magical filmmaking.

Volumes one and two are especially captivating, as Gomes himself appears onscreen to tell of how he charged a team of researchers with scouring Portugal in search of tales.

One of the princes of arthouse cinema, Miguel Gomes here uses his status to push form and stretch boundaries. Very long but very much worth it.

Meandering like a jazz riff, Miles Ahead is a curio that doesn't quite come off. But credit Cheadle, both in front and behind camera, for refusing to play the easy notes.

Celia Imrie and Emily Watson are a breath of fresh air and lead Raffey Cassidy fares better than most of the kids, but it’s not enough to save this dreary caper.

Clearly no stranger to John Hughes movies, writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig brings a spiky wit and a warm-hearted, nerd-friendly finale to a comedy that wants for nothing but a little substance.

Bleed for This is made with palpable commitment by all involved and there are scenes to jolt viewers out of their déjà vu.

Right from the first frame the urgency rarely wanes as Lee juggles fireworks, firearms and feminism.