Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang (2010)
Sep 16, 2010Magical Nanny
I never much cared for Nanny McPhee. This is a sequel that replicates the original in fairly much the same amount mix of plot elements, slapstick sequences and nonsensical absurdism
Asa Butterfield
Hugo (2011)
Dec 15, 2011Children's Film/Georges Melies Tribute
Martin Scorsese’s venture into making a children’s film is a beautiful production but must have been a studio nightmare – while they try to sell it as a magical fantasy film, Scorsese wants to pay tribute to silent filmmaker Georges Melies
Ender’s Game (2013)
Nov 2, 2013Space Military Recruits in Training
I will defend Orson Scott Card as an exceptional science-fiction writer, his controversies aside. While this is an extremely faithful adaptation of his book, it works unevenly as a film and never soars dramatically
All Fun & Games (2023)
May 19, 2025Cursed Knife/Deadly Games
Teenagers in Salem are forced to play a game where their lives are forfeit and they become possessed by a cursed knife dating from the witch trials
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Oct 29, 2016Secret Home for "Gifted" Youths
Tim Burton used to be the great hope of fantastic cinema but his efforts since 2000 have been greeted with general disappointment. This Young Adult adaptation plays out like a fantasy version of the X-Men
The Space Between Us (2017)
Apr 1, 2017First Kid Born on Mars Comes to Earth
Following the huge success of films like Gravity and The Martian that portray space travel with scrupulous realism, this can be considered the Young Adult version. It pays surprising attention to getting its science right; on the other hand, that doesn't excuse the gaping implausibilities elsewhere
Time Freak (2018)
Sep 14, 2020Time Travel
Time travel film in which Asa Butterfield invents a time machine to go back and stop Sophie Turner breaking up with him. On the lightweight side but eventually not unworthwhile
Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018)
Mar 9, 2021British Boarding School Comedy With Monsters
Simon Pegg produces/stars in a comedy spoofing the British boarding school tradition – but with the addition of monsters running around
Choose or Die (2022)
Dec 11, 2023Cursed Videogame
A British horror film in which people open an old 1980s videogame that is cursed and forces them to make horrible choices concerning the deaths of people around them