Monkey Shines (1988)
Mar 11, 2003Psychic Link with a Monkey
Disappointing George Romero film about a paraplegic man's psychic link with his monkey that then comes to enact his suppressed anger. A fine idea drowns in shrill moral characterisations.
Stephen Root
RoboCop 3 (1993)
Jul 1, 2000Cyborg Cop
The third Robocop film killed the series off with a disastrous decision to go for a PG rating and pair Robocop with a cute kid
Night of the Scarecrow (1995)
Sep 8, 2016Warlock Resurrects as a Scarecrow
Film concerning a warlock resurrected in the body of a scarecrow seeking revenge. This is conceived around a series of novelty makeup effects but director Jeff Burr treats the material seriously and with reasonable results
Bicentennial Man (1999)
Dec 21, 1999Robot Gains Self-Awareness/Isaac Asimov Adaptation
Isaac Asimov may not have been the best science-fiction writer ever but his stories buzzed with challenging ideas. In the hands of Chris Columbus, one of Asimov's robot stories is reduced to mawkish sentimentalism
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Feb 2, 2001Depression-Era Version of The Odyssey
The Coen Brothers hilariously adapt The Odyssey into the Depression Era with George Clooney leading a trio of escaped convicts as he tries to return to his wife
The Country Bears (2002)
Jan 11, 2003Talking Bear Country-and-Western Band
Another film spun off from a Disneyland attraction, this hardly inspiring effort features a Country and Western band made up of talking bears and follows them as they set out on a reunion tour.
Ice Age (2002)
Mar 22, 2002Animation/Prehistoric Talking Animals
This begat an interminable number of sequels but the original is a likeable and appealing prehistoric animated film.
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
Over Her Dead Body (2008)
Nov 30, 2009Ghostly Ex Comedy
Unfunny comedy in which Eva Longoria dies and returns as a ghost to make life miserable for fiance Paul Rudd as he becomes involved with another woman
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
Nov 14, 2009US Army's Psychic Warfare Division Comedy
Film based on the supposed Psychic Warfare Division of the US Army. Based on a non-fiction book, this is played by director Grant Heslov as a broad farce and sits on an uncertain line as to whether the powers are real
Imagine That (2009)
Mar 3, 2010Stock Predictions from a Child's Invisible Companions
Eddie Murphy in a script from the Bill and Ted writers should have been a riot but what we get is another of the lame flops that marked Muprhy's career in the 2000s in which he is a broker who gets stock tips from his daughter's security blanket
Rango (2011)
Mar 13, 2011Animation/Talking Animal Western Homage
Gore Verbinski makes an eccentrically different animated homage to the Western, all cast with talking animals. The animation comes from Industrial Light and Magic and is quite unlike any other animated film.
Red State (2011)
Sep 25, 2011Religious Cult
Kevin Smith discovers a newfound maturity in this work about a religious cult. Smith subdues his adolescent humour in a series of darkly laced dramatic twists, while the show is capped by some great performances
Batman: Year One (2011)
Jan 20, 2012Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
Animated adaptation of the classic Frank Miller graphic novel, this is dark, psychologically brooding, far more adult than the children's niche it is sold to, and with producer Bruce Timm and his team at the top of their game
Superman Unbound (2013)
May 6, 2014Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
One of the best among the incredibly underrated animated DC Comics films. A beautifully character-driven venture into the Superman mythos where Brainiac gets a magnificently theatric airing, while Supergirl undergoes some astonishing revisions
Bad Milo! (2013)
Dec 13, 2013Demon Inhabits a Man's Ass Comedy
A comedy about a demon that appears out of a man's ass!!! This has the dementia to be a potential midnight cult hit but misses the mark by a wide mile and stumbles around obvious targets in predictable ways
Spectral (2016)
Jul 29, 2017Soldiers vs Spirit Beings
Highly original piece that works as a supernatural version of Black Hawk Down with a unit of soldiers cut off in rebel territory and surrounded by spirit beings. Grippingly effective both in terms of the tension and a script that treats the phenomenon with scrupulous rationalism
Get Out (2017)
May 6, 2017Sinister Small Town/Racial Mind Control
A rehash of The Stepford Wives recast along racial lines. It is a surprise to see a mainstream horror hit that comes with a strong message about racism, not that Jordan Peele neglects the horror element either