Signs has some nail-bitingly tense moments, but inbetween them the film is slow-moving, dull, and annoyingly preachy. The twist at the end reveals the film’s entire premiss to be rather silly. Shyamalan clearly has some chops as a director, but he needs to stop wasting his time on vanity pieces like this.

Shrek used modern-day tropes and imagery to satirise fairytales. Shrek 2 does the opposite: it uses fairytale motifs to create a satire of modern life. It’s a very funny sequel. But with a more complex story line and a more diffuse band of characters, it’s not as focussed and essential as the original.

Ed Norton doesn’t have the same edgy, fearful presence that William Petersen did in the 1986 version (Manhunter), nor does Ralph Fiennes have the same slightly vacant chill that Tom Noonan displayed. As for Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter… Well, he’s been there and done that already. The best performance here was from the ever reliable Philip Seymour Hoffman as the seedy reporter Freddy Lounds. Taken on its own, it’s a decent thriller, but I want more from a remake. I already know the story, so show me something new. Red Dragon doesn’t.

Simultaneously tense and funny “pre-heist” gangster movie. (There is a heist in there, but the bulk of the story plays out before the job, and the actual break-in is irrelevant to the plot.) Ray Winstone is fantastic as the soft-hearted mobster who wants nothing other than to live out his retirement in peace, but Ben Kingsley blows everyone else on screen away as the psycho hard case Don Logan who comes to get him for one more job. Lots of intense dialogue, thorough characterisation, dark humour, and the occasional surreal moment with an uzi-wielding rabbit. Wicked good.

Without a doubt the best film I’ve seen so far this year. Sweet, sad, touching, clever, romantic, and funny. Jim Carrey harnesses all his comic talents to give a performance that is all the more powerful for its restraint. Kate Winslet is dippy, off-beat, and real. The script is quirky, insightful, and overwhelmingly postive in a melancholy kind of way. It is also the best science fiction film I’ve seen in…well, a long time. Not in the spaceships-and-aliens sense–it is set in the here and now–but simply in the way it explores themes of a scientific and philosophical nature through their impact on the everyday lives of ordinary people. A definite must-see.

The pace of this film is more relaxed compared to its predecessors, and more even throughout. This contributed to the performances and settings feeling more natural and convincing, without sacrificing any of the sense of wonder that surrounds Hogwarts. However, it also left the film without the same kind of soaring climax the the first two had. It had been so long since I read the book that I was actually waiting for something else to happen when the credits rolled. Having said that, I was surprised to find that two hours and twenty minutes had passed so quickly. Fun stuff.

Silly sci-fi comedy about a bunch of geeks who save the Earth from super-fast evolving aliens. Passably funny in a few places, wooden and flat everywhere else. Duchovny is not a comedic leading man.