A Little Bit of Soul (1997)
Jan 25, 2003Longevity Drug and Satanism Black Comedy
Australian black comedy about research into longevity and Satanism. The film has a great cast but hits a shrilly hysteric pitch without ever being funny
Geoffrey Rush
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Oct 31, 1999Haunted House
The announcement of the remake of The Haunting was followed by this remake of the 1959 William Castle film, which turns out far more unpretentious and altogether more fun than the bloated flop of The Haunting
Mystery Men (1999)
Aug 7, 1999Bumbling Superheroes Comedy
A superhero parody about a group of reject superheroes with useless powers. Despite moments of amusement, this fails to quite come off
Quills (2000)
Nov 24, 2000The Marquis de Sade Story
Philip Kaufman conducts a biopic of the Marquis de Sade (played by a manic Geoffrey Rush) and how he continued to publish despite being confined to an asylum. This then becomes a debate about modern censorship
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Nov 21, 2003Pirate Fantasy Swashbuckler
Enjoyably tongue-in-cheek pirate swashbuckler based on the Disney theme park that proved an enormous hit and spun off a series of sequels, as well as giving Johnny Depp one of his iconic roles
Finding Nemo (2003)
Sep 11, 2003Pixar Animation/Talking Fish
An unabashed delight among the Pixar films about a fish parent on a quest to find his missing son. This comes with an extraordinarily vibrant palette of colours and a line-up of winningly eccentric characters
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
Jul 25, 2007Pirate Fantasy Swashbuckler
Third of the Pirates of the Caribbean films and purportedly made without a completed script, this becomes bloated and sprawling
The Warrior’s Way (2010)
Feb 27, 2013South Korean Wu Xia/Western
Korean-made Wu Xia/Western crossover that imports Hollywood names and is shot in New Zealand, resulting in a bizarre oddity cross-cultural fusion. The plot elements are paper thin but the film comes to life during the stylised action scenes
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010)
Sep 21, 2010Animation/Talking Owls
Zack Snyder makes an exquisite animated film for adults about talking owls that comes with a sweeping mythic arc
Green Lantern (2011)
Jun 17, 2011Comic-Book Superhero
This received a lot of bad flak, including from star Ryan Reynolds, but I'm not one of the haters. There is the terrible CGI suit and a miscast Reynolds but it does get a good deal of the comic-book mythos right
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
May 20, 2011Pirate Fantasy Swashbuckler
The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is revived for a fifth outing. There is a new director in Rob Marshall but bar an energetic comic opening, he never does much that hits the zany heights of the previous entries
The Book Thief (2013)
May 16, 2014Growing Up in Nazi Germany/Death Personified
Narrated by Death, this story of a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany comes with the self-importance of awards consideration bait. One of the great crimes of modern history (The Holocaust) is reduced to picture postcard sentiments
Minions (2015)
Jul 12, 2015Animation/Cute Mischievous Creatures
The incomprehensibly manic antics of the Minions have a cuteness appeal that has overspilled the Despicable Me films and seemed like it is in danger of taking over pop culture in the last couple of years; here they get a film all to themselves with amiably lightweight results
Gods of Egypt (2016)
Mar 5, 2016Ancient Egyptian Mythology
This could be considered the Michael Bay version of Ancient Egyptian mythology, a film buried under numbing CGI overkill. For all that, Alex Proyas gives it a loopy grandeur that you can't entirely dislike
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
Sep 16, 2017Pirate Fantasy Swashbuckler
After the two last lacklustre entries, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise starts to recover where the two new directors pull off some spectacular comedy-action sequences that go a long way towards recapturing what the series used to be
The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024)
Mar 1, 2026Psycho in a Retirement Home
Rather good New Zealand made horror film set in a geriatric home with Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow engaged in a series of psychological games as a stroke-impaired Rush tries to stop a murderous Lithgow