The Omen (1976)

The Omen (1976)
Rating: ★★★
Jan 8, 2001The Biblical End of the World/The Anti-Christ
This is where all the cliches of Devil Children began. A big hit among the 1970s occult boom, this is essentially Sunday tabloid Christianity – a lurid, doom-filled take on Book of Revelation End Times prophecies that moves with a slick polish and a series of schlocky deaths every few minutes

Time After Time (1979)

Time After Time (1979)
Rating: ★★★½
Aug 31, 2000Time Travelling H.G. Wells vs Jack the Ripper
A clever and ingenious film from Nicholas Meyer in which H.G. Wells builds his own time machine and pursues Jack the Ripper through time to present-day San Francisco. Lots of witty play around Wells's cultural bewilderment and some great performances

The Island (1980)

The Island (1980)
Rating: ★★
Aug 20, 2003Lost Society of Pirate Descendants
Novelist Peter Benchley's name was massive as a result of Jaws. This is one of the less successful Benchley adaptations that came out concerning the discovery of a lost society of pirate descendants who survive by preying on shipping in the Bermuda Triangle

Tron (1982)

Tron (1982)
Rating: ★★★★
Dec 18, 2002Journey into Cyberspace
A flop in its day, nobody at the time saw how revolutionary this was in that it predicted the idea of cyberspace and the internet. The design of the world inside the computer all in candy apple colours and geometric shapes is extraordinary

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Rating:
Aug 31, 2002Intergalactic Adventures
William Shatner tries to emulate the success had by Leonard Nimoy in directing a Star Trek film but falls on his face, badly overstressing the comedy elements and delivering the worst of the Classic Trek films

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
Rating: ★★
Apr 18, 2014Comic-Book Superheroes
The second live-action Turtles film is a disappointment. The Turtles are infectiously enjoyable characters but the script has an indifferent laziness, while parental concerns over violence have mandated that the fight scenes be watered down to an absurd level

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Rating: ★★★
Jul 20, 2000Intergalactic Adventures
The last of the classic Star Trek films. Nicholas Meyer, who made the last good Trek film The Wrath of Khan, returns to give the characters a moving send off, while the plot that reenacts the fall of the Berlin Wall with the Klingons gives the films a political immediacy that was missing since the tv series

Necronomicon (1993)

Necronomicon (1993)
Rating: ★★
Feb 13, 2009H.P. Lovecraft Anthology
Anthology of three H.P. Lovecraft tales from directors Christophe Gans, Brian Yuzna and Shusuke Kaneko. For claiming such a quintessentially Lovecraftian title as this, you feel that it should have been more than it is

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Planet of the Apes (2001)
Rating: ★★½
Jun 27, 2001Planet of Talking Apes
Tim Burton's much disliked remake. Certainly, the ape makeups are superb. While Burton touches many points with the original, he has dropped the biting satire in favour of adventure, while the ending left everyone scratching their heads

Black Death (2010)

Black Death (2010)
Rating: ★★★★
Feb 20, 2011Mediaeval Journey to a Village of Witches
Powerful film from Christopher Smith set during the Middle Ages about a group on a journey to a village where a priestess can purportedly raise the dead. The film's skewering of faith in an unforgettable ending is stunning

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
Rating: ★★
Mar 22, 2019Flying Nanny Frolics
Mary Poppins was one of the greatest of all Disney live-action films, made with nonsensical charm and has become a much loved favourite. As part of the ongoing firesale that involves resurrecting almost all of their properties, this is a sequel. Its an exacting replication/homage to the original but that is the problem - it is a recapturing rather than seems to create its own sparkle