| Title |
Rating |
|
| 20/01 |
| Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011) |
½ |
It may say how doomed the Western world is that people have paid to watch three films so far all centred around these annoyingly cutsie helium-voiced chipmunks ... marginally less annoying that the preceding two |
| Bag of Bones (2011) |
|
The perpetually terrible Mick Garris is allowed loose on another Stephen King book where he promptly reduces a subtle, ambiguous ghost story to a series of lunging pop-up scares without any concept of atmosphere or character nuance |
| Batman: Year One (2011) |
½
|
Animated adaptation of the classic Frank Miller graphic novel ... 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 |
| Dante 01 (2008) |
|
Finally, the answer to what happened to Marc Caro after parting ways with Jean-Pierre Jeunet ... where Caro directs what would appear to be a darkly lit and confusing variation on The Green Mile set on a space station |
| The Darkest Hour (2011) |
|
Alien invasion film set in Moscow, which offers little of novelty ... what we have is nothing more than a special effects vehicle about how the culturally self-absorbed twentysomething computer geeks and party girls save the world |
| The Devil Inside (2012) |
|
Another Found Footage variant on an exorcism film ... the mockumentary form should be about searching for a greater truth but this only repeats tired cliches of the possession genre |
| Don’t Look Up (2009) |
|
Another clunker English-language remake of an Asian horror film ... A confused and hoky effort that is centred around nothing more than the provision of schlock effects |
| The Exterminator (1980) |
|
Vigilante film with a cult reputation because of its ultra-violence ... a mix of Taxi Driver and Death Wish, mostly centred around its gory despatches but fails to get inside and animate the central character’s burning vengeance |
| Hostel Part III (2011) |
|
Third in the Hostel series, an indifferently made piece of formula hackwork where one’s suspension of disbelief is constantly being disrupted by absurdly contrived scenes designed to tweak with audience expectation |
| Ligeia (2009) |
|
Modernised adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story ... Poe might be turning in his grave with visits to fetish clubs added to the mix but mostly the film befalls a low-budget and incredibly tepid delivery |
| Mark of the Devil (1970) |
½
|
Another depiction of the Middle Ages witch persecutions that becomes a catalogue of the cruelties enacted – Torture Porn way back before anybody ever invented the term |
| Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) |
|
The fourth and best of the Mission: Impossible films ... Tom Cruise shares the screen more and he and Brad Bird create a series of improbably contrived gadgets, stunts and set-pieces that manage to add up to more fun than one expects |
| Mr. Sardonicus (1961) |
|
Another of the films from gimmick master William Castle ... a classic work of Grand Guignol in its story of a man with a Joker-like permanently frozen grin, which Castle fills with memorable shock effects |
| Neverland (2011) |
|
Following Tin Man and Alice, another of Nick Willing’s ingenious rewritings and rationalisations of classic children’s tales in science-fiction terms where here the essentials of Peter Pan are transported to another planet |
| Underworld: Awakening (2012) |
½
|
Yet another entry that nobody asked for in a conceptually threadbare series that nobody seems to like ... passably better than the last two sequels due to some ok action moves but still empty-headed in terms of ideas |
| Best of 2011 Nominees and Winners |
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—Terrible