Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the absolute pinnacle of what can be done with special effects in cinema. You take for granted how photoreal the film looks and are totally absorbed into the post-apocalyptic landscape. I'm a sucker for an 'end of the world' apocalypse movie and Apes delivers big time on that front. The story moves on nicely from the first film and develops the relationships between the apes to the point where they are the heroes of the piece and you're rooti

Locke is a brave experiment. One character in a car for an hour and a half isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but, trust me, it's worth going along for the ride. Tom Hardy (with a Welsh accent!) is incredible as a construction worker and husband whose life unravels over this journey thanks to one mistake that he feels he needs to right. A series of phone calls propel the plot and give the film a gripping sense of urgency. My only complaints are with the slightly underwhe

Transformers: Age of Extinction is certainly the best of the long-running series with Michael Bay deciding a semi-reboot was needed. He's pushed the series five years on from the events of the last movie and replaced Shia La Beouf's screaming comedy relief Sam with Mark Wahlberg's more traditional action hero father character. This is a good move (although Sam not having a single mention is a bit of a shame) and you believe a lot more in the motives of the character. In fact

22 Jump Street could be the only film in history to be praised for being exactly the same as its predecessor. The self-reverential humour and film industry critiquing throughout is nigh-on genius and often provides the biggest laughs. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum just have an incredible chemistry and even Ice Cube, once again, is perfectly cast. Sure, a lot of the funniest lines are in the trailer (try not to watch this before going) although one marvellous dining table sequ

A Million Ways To Die In The West is proof positive that Seth MacFarlane can now do whatever he wants. Whatever concept, whatever script and he is given absolutely full license here. Unfortunately, what that means is this script has clearly not been checked for actual jokes and it's certainly about 20 minutes too long. Yes, Ted was a triumph and Family Guy is brilliantly written but MacFarlane seems to have lost his way a tad here. He clearly relishes the screen time (he's ac

Edge Of Tomorrow might just be the best videogame movie ever made. Sure, it's not based on any existing console franchise but neither were Wreck-It Ralph or Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and this sits alongside those heavyweights with the actual game-based films like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider languishing behind. Sure, the 'Groundhog Day' premise isn't original and neither is the alien invasion/mech'-suit war but this has a sense of joy and fun rarely seen in big blockbuster

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a masterclass in cinema. Wes Anderson's idiosyncratic style reaches its zenith with an arty but perfectly poised and articulated movie that anyone can enjoy despite the rigorous adherence to its own defined cinematic rules. The camera is always directly facing, or directly side on, to its characters, almost like a stage show, and this style is kept up throughout. Not only is it meticulously planned and beautiful to view but it's perfectly in keepin

X-Men: Days Of Future Past is not one of those sequels you can just turn up to with no prior knowledge. With every character from both generations of X-Men movies coming together this is the franchise's Avengers. It also almost hits the heights that Marvel set with that superhero team up. Forsaking everything that happens in the original series in order to better represent the prequels, the ending to this one will leave you scratching your head all the way home from the cinem

Godzilla isn't quite as epic as the trailer would have you believe. Rather than the Cloverfield-esque creepy horror B-Movie it appears, this instead delivers the first traditional (i.e. non-superhero) summer blockbuster. It's all very Jurassic Park to begin with: exotic locations, scientists, marvellous scenery shots and the like but it just takes too much time to get going. Also, when it does, the movie is much less about the titular lizard and more about some other prehisto

Bad Neighbours will make you feel old. Casting Seth Rogen in a role where he's a father and angry at the partying, drug taking students next door really hits home how fast time goes. Thankfully, it makes no difference to his acting persona and he's still his incredible self and steals every scene in the film. Credit must therefore go to one time High School Musical floppy haired heartthrob Zac Efron who more than stands up to Rogen and plays his part superbly. Unfortunately,

Pompeii has to be a contender for the most frustrating film of the year. What is a great concept and incredible location gets lost searching for what type of film it wants to be. Part love story, part political drama, part gladiator action and part disaster movie it's too short to play all these parts successfully and so a lot is left unanswered and unfulfilled. The romance blossoms way too quickly and there is a lot of meaty historical context that is skimmed over. The other

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a difficult one to review. Building on the first film in every conceivable way, it's the classic 'more is more' approach from Sony and Marvel. The new tracking cameras for Spidey's web slinging is Gravity-esque and remarkably stunning (especially in IMAX) and really gives you a feeling of being in his shoes. The villains are better, as to be expected, and pose more of a threat although Jamie Foxx's Electro does go from Spidey-obsessive to supervill