Reviews by Tony Sullivan

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Adam (2009)

  Review preview for Adam

  Rose Byrne just gets better and better.

  A man with Asperger's syndrome falls in love and has to face his girlfriend's disapproving family.
• 
  Adventures Of Power (2008)

  Review preview for Adventures Of Power

  Good-natured goofiness.

  A small-town dreamer tries to realise his ambition of becoming the world's greatest air drummer.
• 
  Across The Universe (2007)

  Review preview for Across The Universe

  Overall a mixed bag. Good bits. Great bits. Bits in which you want the ground underneath your reclining cinema chair to open and swallow you up.

  A look at the Flower Power era in America through the eyes of an outsider.
• 
  Aliens Vs Predator - Requiem (2007)

  Review preview for Aliens Vs Predator - Requiem

  Rattles from one incoherent action scene to the next.

  Another monster mash up.
• 
  Alvin And The Chipmunks (2007)

  Review preview for Alvin And The Chipmunks

  My token seven-year-old sat entranced through the agreeable 90-minute runtime and opined that 'it was really cool'.

  Alvin and the gang try to make it big in the pop industry.
• 
  Avida (2006)

  Review preview for Avida

  An enjoyably anarchic festival treat.

  Life in the surreal world.
• 
  Bolt (2008)

  Review preview for Bolt

  Bolt has a maturity over its predecessors in that the film doesn't obsess over its need to stick something in your face every few minutes.

  A TV superdog genuinely believes he has superpowers... until he finds himself caught up in an all-too-real life adventure.
• 
  Bronson (2008)

  Review preview for Bronson

  Tom Hardy makes other movie hardmen look like they belong on the Muppet Show.

  Examination of the life of Britain's self-titled "most dangerous criminal". Out on re-release.
• 
  Bruce Almighty (2003)

  Jim Carrey becomes the Almighty, pray it isn't so.
• 
  Bugmaster (2006)

  A Japanese spirit exorcist and his disciple.
• 
  Captain Abu Raed (2007)

  Review preview for Captain Abu Raed

  Sawalha excels as the mouse who at least contemplates a roar as he tries to make a difference in the lives of his young audience.

  Uplifting tale about an airport janitor who spins stories for street kids after being mistaken by them for a pilot.
• 
  Caligula (1979)

  Review preview for Caligula

  This is not an erotic movie, true there are copious scenes of copulation... but Brass doesn't linger on them long enough for them to become titillating, he has to show something gross and/or bloody in the same scene.

  Graphic retelling of the story of the Roman emperor.
• 
  Cat Daddies (2022)

  Review preview for Cat Daddies

  In a way the film is as intangible as cat dander but it’s nice to see that nice people still inhabit this crazy world of ours

  A portrait of men whose lives have been changed by the love of their cats.
• 
  Chapter 27 (2007)

  Review preview for Chapter 27

  The film is more documentary-drama than exploitation fare.

  The days leading up to the assassination of John Lennon.
• 
  Chicago 10 (2006)

  Dramatised reconstruction and archival footage concerning the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago the subsequent “civil unrest” and trials that followed.
• 
  The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

  Review preview for The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian

  One can't help but be swept up in the magnificence of it all.

  The Pevensie kids return to Narnia to thwart an evil king.
• 
  City Of Ember (2008)

  Review preview for City Of Ember

  Good as Caroline Thompson's script is this is a City Of Ember that could do with a little stoking.

  Can a pair of teens save their world by finding a time capsule?
• 
  The Clone Returns Home (2008)

  Review preview for The Clone Returns Home

  I find Tarkovsky’s mindset literal and linear by comparison to that of Nakajima.

  A Japanese astronaut who dies during a mission is subsequently resurrected as a clone and returns to his childhood home.
• 
  Clubland (2007)

  Review preview for Clubland

  A touching and honest look at awkward teenage romance under the disapproving eye of mum.

  Comedy performer finds growing old is a funny business.
• 
  Dark Corners (2006)

  Review preview for Dark Corners

  A refreshing change from all the hacked and mangled body parts that seem to be the only requirement for a horror film these days.

  She was part of my dream, of course - but then I was part of her dream, too!
• 
  The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)

  Review preview for The Day The Earth Stood Still

  Save the planet, buy Citizen Quartz watches and eat at McDonalds!

  Klaatu barada nikto, anyone? Remake of the seminal 50s sci-fi thriller.
• 
  Dogs Don't Wear Pants (2019)

  Review preview for Dogs Don't Wear Pants

  Dogs Don’t Wear Pants ultimately relishes its uncomfortable themes buoyed by a little humour and hopes of a life happy ever after for our two damaged human beings

  A widower is struggling years after his wife drowned... meeting Mona, a dominatrix, changes everything.
• 
  Dead Snow (2009)

  Review preview for Dead Snow

  Goofy, blood splattered fun for not all of the whole family.

  Teens on vacation fall foul of a Nazi-zombie battalion.
• 
  Diary Of The Dead (2007)

  Review preview for Diary Of The Dead

  Romero has started all over again as though his other films exist in some parallel universe. Just to prove anything a younger director can do, he can do better, the whole thing is shot cinema-vérité style.

  Film students try to record the end of civilisation as they know it when the dead begin to walk. Plus read our exclusive interview with George A Romero.
• 
  District 9 (2009)

  Review preview for District 9

  District 9 actually has some intelligence behind it and expects some in front of it, too.

  A government agent joins the cause of ghettoised aliens he has come to evict.
• 
  Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

  Review preview for Elizabeth: The Golden Age

  When Liz dons her breast plate and rallies the troops at Tilbury, you'll want to put down your paella and rush out and sink a few Spanish ships yourself.

  The ongoing saga of the Virgin Queen - this time tackling her relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh and Spain.
• 
  Elysium (2013)

  Review preview for Elysium

  It's DoA meets The Wizard Of Oz with Matt Damon as an irradiated Dorothy.

  In a futuristic world, a man who is confined to the slums of earth, finds the space station retreat of the rich offers his only hope of survival.
• 
  The End Of The Line (2008)

  Review preview for The End Of The Line

  One cannot come away from this film without thinking twice about that next order for Sashimi.

  The devastating effect global overfishing is having on fish stocks and the health of our oceans.
• 
  Feast (2005)

  Review preview for Feast

  An exuberant gore-fest continually winking at the audience and doing its level best to offend and gross out.

  Two Pints of Lager and a Bucket of Blood!
• 
  Funny Games (2007)

  Review preview for Funny Games

  If you've not been through this particular emotional wringer before then the English language version Funny Games comes guaranteed to scare, shock and annoy the hell out of you.

  English language remake of the ice-cold horror about a family held hostage by a pair of preppy youngsters. Plus read our exclusive interview with producer Chris Coen.
• 
  Get Smart (2008)

  Review preview for Get Smart

  Alan Arkin makes the most of his scenes including the best use of the War Room since Dr Strangelove.

  That would be the old resurect- the-nostalgic- 60s-TV Show trick.
• 
  Grace (2009)

  Review preview for Grace

  Grace marks the arrival of a thoughtful and reverent new talent to the genre.

  A baby presumed dead in the womb is miraculously born alive. Maybe.
• 
  The Grand (2007)

  Review preview for The Grand

  Penn has come up trumps.

  Poker movie comes up trumps.
• 
  Happy Feet (2006)

  Review preview for Happy Feet

  A canny penguin, with the right agent, could be running United Artists in a few short years.

  Adventures of a toe-tapping penguin.
• 
  Identity (2003)

  Review preview for Identity

  Goes out of its way to make you jump and provides many novel twists into the bargain.

  A bunch of strangers who seek refuge in a run-down motel find themselves the target of a killer.
• 
  In Bruges (2008)

  Review preview for In Bruges

  This comedic and profane tale of not-so-cold-blooded killers seems to be the fusion of two movies, a very funny buddy comedy and a ruthless gangster thriller.

  No country for hitmen.
• 
  The Informers (2008)

  Review preview for The Informers

  Looks for insight where there clearly isn’t any to be found.

  Wealthy Angelinos are consumed by a decadent Eighties lifestyle.
• 
  It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine! (2007)

  Review preview for It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine!

  It would be easy to dismiss the film but for the wraparound that packs an emotional wallop hard to forget and justifies the excess that preceded it.

  Film noir fantasy for the unlikeliest of heroes.
• 
  Kung Fu Panda (2008)

  Review preview for Kung Fu Panda

  A thoroughly enjoyable confection that will amuse the kids and provide some decent laughs for those of us for whom attempting a roundhouse kick would require pain medication and physical therapy (I know, I tried).

  Po the pudgy panda becomes an unlikely hero in this kids' adventure.
• 
  The Last Word (2008)

  Review preview for The Last Word

  Familiar situations are the order of the day. Chalk and cheese personalities are thrown together and must overcome some ordeal, which is normally an old flame.

  The love life of a man with a morbid calling.
• 
  A Legacy Of Whining (2016)

  Review preview for A Legacy Of Whining

  This is a small niche film, not broad enough or funny enough for the mainstream, carried off on a tiny budget, but it means well.

  Two former friends reunite for a night out.
• 
  Love Comes Lately (2007)

  Review preview for Love Comes Lately

  This tale of elderly amour, centering on a Jewish New York author, is sweet enough.

  An old man dreams of sex.
• 
  Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)

  Review preview for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

  Those anarchic avians, the penguins, steal every scene they are in making them, to my way of thinking, the best additions to animated film since that coyote fancied roadrunner for dinner.

  Trouble brews when the New York Zoo animals try to head back to the Big Apple.
• 
  Man On Wire (2008)

  Review preview for Man On Wire

  This little gem has a narrative structure that Hollywood movies seem to have forgotten how to employ - all the ingredients for a classic thriller are here.

  Documentary about tightrope walker Phillippe Petit's attempt to cross between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
• 
  The Mist (2007)

  Review preview for The Mist

  The Mist has to introduce its beasties very early – and herein lurks the problem.

  People are trapped in a supermarket after a sinister mist envelopes the town.
• 
  Moon (2009)

  Review preview for Moon

  Moon represents a return to a more sedate and thoughtful science fiction of the Seventies and Eighties.

  An astronaut starts to lose the plot at the end of a mission to the moon - but is there something else going on? Plus read our exclusive interview with Duncan Jones
• 
  Máncora (2008)

  Review preview for Máncora

  Problems that only seem like problems to folk under the age of 25 and the hint of forbidden sexual fruit are not enough to hold the interest.

  Grief and desire on a road trip.
• 
  Monsters Vs Aliens (2009)

  Review preview for Monsters Vs Aliens

  The best gags, at least for the over 20s, subvert 50s sci-fi movie convention.

  A woman's brush with a meteor supersizes her and soon, she finds herself and a team of other monsters taking on a bad guy from outer space.
• 
  Old Partner (2008)

  Review preview for Old Partner

  A thoroughly disarming horse-fly-on-the-wall documentary.

  Documentary about an elderly farmer, his wife and their loyal ox.
• 
  On A Clear Day (2005)

  Review preview for On A Clear Day

  Mullan brings a gruff, no-nonsense persona to his role, making Frank's emotional journey well worth taking.

  A redundant shipworker from Glasgow dreams of swimming the English Channel.