Emma Cochrane

Dog-lovers, in particular, will go ga-ga for this, but this remarkably fresh and funny period tale (set in England, fact fans) has all the ebullience and lovability of its titular characters.

This is a timeless thriller, a reminder of how stars who have been so average elsewhere can produce excellent — some career-best — work when given a decent script and a confident director.

It's hard to believe that a bunch of scrappy kids would really be scared of a big dog, which leaves the premise of this film floundering. However the kids prove to be plucky enough to give the film some kind of motivation but the direction lacks in humour or excitement.

Romantic images are subverted, the sex scenes are graphic and desperate. It's less grim than Susanna Moore's original novella, but the foreshadowing that all is not right is in everything, from the music to the dialogue.

The entire cast is superb and it so perfectly paced, that the story unfolds with wit, pathos and sensitivity and completely free of emotional shortcuts.

With its strong characters and lively storytelling, animated or not, this deserves its place alongside the cinema greats.

This was understandably inspiring to wartime audiences and actually still holds up as a heartwarming story with a very decent cast.

It has great performances, snappy one-liners and a likeably tricksy structure, all wrapped up in an affirmative antidote to life’s daunting complexities. Welcome back, Woody.

Lewd, funny and immensely quotable, this is one of the very best high school dramas ever made.

This spoof vampire flick's sole joke is that the heroine (Kristy Swanson) is a blonde, L.A. airhead rather than a beefed-up stake-toter, mentored by Donald Sutherland's deadpan Watcher.

Elvis not only rocks the city of lights but also showed he could act.

Interesting for it's historical notoriety, but overlong and dull in places.

Great songs, great set pieces and solid performances in this colourful and infectiously enjoyable musical.

Less than crowd-pleasing chick flick livened up by John Cusack’s self-penned one-liners.

Good intentions, but dull and predictable.

A serious misfire.

One too many jokes about Dick Van Dyke's dire Cawk-nee accent can drag a movie down.

Audrey Hepburn is delicious as Holly and the Henry Mancini score is in the class of elite soundtracks. [Review of re-release]

Certainly one of Hitchcock’s most satisfying thrillers, mostly thanks to Wright and Cotten’s believable relationship.

Almodóvar lets rip with a story of great emotional intensity, while retaining his signature stunning visual style and a central performance quite unlike anything previously seen in his work. A potent and strikingly well-delivered combination.

Definitely of the so-bad-it's-almost-good genre, this kinda stands the test of time in a camp way, mainly because of the charm of Pfeiffer and Carrington.

Louis Sachar's compelling children's classic is about as Disney as Freddy Krueger. It's got murder, racism, facial disfigurement and killer lizards.

Most unforgivably, the period detail is all over the place and the punk/disco soundtrack a real hotch potch, leaving this a story with no real sense of time or place.

A relatively enjoyable kids' movie that will entertain the kids, but unsurprisingly may leave the adults cold. From the director of The Wonder Years, it doesn't break any new boundaries, but rather sticks with what he knows best, that is sentimental childhood comedies.

Michael Lehmann’s feature debut introduced the world to Christian Slater at his Jack Nicholson, subversive best and gave Winona Ryder a career-high role.

Keaton handles her appealing ensemble, the early 60s period and child's perspective of tragedy, love and reconciliation with a sure, gentle hand.