Sicario (2015)

A taut and efficient thriller from director Dennis Villeneuve (Arrival, Prisoners), Sicario is embroiled in the US-Mexican drug war, as Emily Blunt’s DEA agent struggles to stay on the moral high ground as part of a covert intelligence task-force. It’s a dirty war with moral and physical hazard at every turn; violence is sudden and brutal.

Sicario (“hit man” in Spanish), shows it’s cards even from it’s very title and is obliged to switch focus from Blunt to Benicio Del Toro’s driven avenger. It’s a messy and distracting switch, and while Del Toro is at his best in years, there’s a bigger question over Blunt’s casting.

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Wonder Woman (2017)

Patty Jenkins steers DC to it’s first decent movie hit but can’t avoid the cliches of a bash-smash-and-crash ending against a laughably unlikely villain.

One question remains, though; if Wonder Woman is such a feminist icon, why is she still dressed in a leather-bondage-showgirl outfit?

Ghost in the Shell (2017)

A workmanlike, if white-washed, live-action version of the classic animé fails to ignite, despite a lavish cyberpunk setting. Scarlett Johanssen copes admirably with future-shock existential moodling as The Major, but you can’t help but think the time for this came and went before either Robocops or Total Recalls. Or Dredds. Or… well, you get the picture.

The Mummy (2017)

With the big studios in search of franchise cash-cows, Universal launches its ‘Dark Universe’ series with a ho-hum reboot of The Mummy. With Tom Cruise rehashing his Edge of Tomorrow action-hero ass-hat, magnetic Sofia Boutella’s (Star Trek) Mummy gets little to do, while Oh-dear-Russell Crowe diverts with a pointless and dire Jekyl and Hyde. Its not a good start, chaps.

The Accountant (2016)

We know from the poster that the titular accountant is a bit more than that; but even the alternative title The Autistic Assassin could have been more interesting than yet another middle-aged-guy-with-guns thriller we get by Act Three.

What begins as a promising drama of an autistic man with a troubled upbringing, Christian Wolff (double-f, presumably in sheep’s clothing, ha-ha) has Ben Affleck (BvS:DoJ, Gone Girl), pitching for Rain Man accolades. But his fledgeling romance with Anna Kendrick’s office worker soon descends into ho-hum action cliché. At least it’s not Taken or Costner’s Criminal enterprise.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

It’s a bit late to tell you to see this on a big screen, but don’t let that stop you with the DVD, Blu-Ray or subscription; the latest from the J.K. Rowling Potter-verse is beautiful, thrilling, charming and delightfully eccentric; a knowingly commercial New York outing soaked in magical Britishness. And yes, the beasts are fantastic. So is Eddie Redmayne.

An aside from Potter, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, authored by the brilliantly named Newt Scamander (Redmayne), launches into a new Potter-verse trilogy. It’s graduate-level Potter for the growing fan generation that’s also garnering new young fans with further wizarding adventures.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

I know; but the original is my young lady’s favourite animation as a kid, so we went to see it. Which begs the question: when there’s so much CGI on screen, including Dan Stevens’ beastly face, can you really consider this remake ‘live action’?

When it’s all just an excuse for uber-cynical Disney to wring more money from old properties, it’s even harder to give a fig for singing household utensils, however well Emma Watson flags her feminist credentials.

And as for the alleged ‘gay moment’, I barely noticed. But then I used to live in Brighton… get over it, people. Josh Gadd is camp as Christmas as LeFou, but no worse than C3PO or any number of other comedy sidekicks.