It took a while for Marvel Comics' X-Men to make it onto the big screen, but in retrospect they were always an obvious target for kids TV. Theirs is the classic tale of teenage alienation, given a comic book twist: when puberty hits, as their peers grow hair in funny places and discover the joys of the opposite sex, certain young people begin to manifest strange super powers. Dubbed "mutants", they find themselves with any number of abilities that set them apart from their human peers. Some can fly, some can fire force-beams from their eyes, some can read minds, some are super-strong, some sprout wings; there are as many different powers as there are mutants. However, normal humans are jealous of mutants, and mutants find themselves hunted and/or ostracised by society. In order to fight this prejudice, the heroic X-Men were brought together as teenagers by the telepathic Professor X and trained to use their powers for the good of all humanity. The animated X-Men series, which first debuted in the early 1990s, remained fairly faithful to the classic comic book series, inheriting several of the more popular characters (Wolverine, Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, The Beast, etc) and, for the most part, leaving their personalities intact. Wolverine is still a surly little thug with a heart of gold, although his razor-sharp claws are now mainly used to slice up robots and other machines (less blood that way); Cyclops is their relatively square leader; The Beast is a bookworm, prone to literary quotations at random points in his conversation; and Gambit is the charming Cajun rogue. In Savage Land / Dark Phoenix Saga, Storm is kidnapped and taken to the Savage Land, a hidden region in Antarctica where dinosaurs survived extinction. Then, in a retelling of the now classic comic storyline, the X-Men go off into space to fight for their teammate, Jean Grey, who has been possessed by the destructive and powerful Dark Phoenix. [+]

In Malaysia, three young Americans with little else in common are united in a shared enthusiasm for beer, women, and righteous hashish. Eventually, "Sheriff" (Vince Vaughn) and Tony (David Conrad) head back to New York. Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix), a spacey but good-hearted sort, stays on with the notion of helping save the orangutans. Two years later, a brassy lawyer (Anne Heche) shows up in Manhattan with the news that her client, Lewis, has spent the interim in Penang prison. Arrested for a prankish misdemeanor they all shared in, he's taking the rap for something worse: the dope stash they left him holding was a fatal few grams over the limit. Unless his fellow Americans return voluntarily to (literally) share the weight, in eight days Lewis will be hanged as a drug trafficker. Eight days is about as long as Return to Paradise stayed on cinema screens-the victim, perhaps, of Anne Heche-Ellen DeGeneres burnout in the press, or just too damn many movies out there to keep track of. Whatever the reason, it's a pity, because this is one of the most compelling movie-movies in recent memory. The screenplay turns the ethical-psychological thumbscrews with insidious effectiveness, despite the probability that the two writers brought separate agendas to the project-Wesley (Cape Fear) Strick working the complicity of the two home boys (each represents the halving of the other's prison sentence if they both agree to go back), and Bruce (The Killing Fields) Robinson revving his engines for another face-off of implacable East and irresponsible West. And director Joseph Ruben, specialist in serving up B-movie excitement with class-A skill (Dreamscape, The Stepfather), does his sleekest work yet. [+]

the puppet masters deadly creations return.

Think of the Skulls as a collegiate Freemason's society-an ultrasecret organisation that opens the doors of power to a few lucky Ivy League students, including school rowing star Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson), a poor kid with a misspent youth. "If it's secret and it's elite, it can't be good," cautions his journalist roommate, but the lure of lavish gifts and cabal-like ceremonies in torch-lit stone chambers is too much to resist-until his roomie is murdered and his own Skull "soulmate" Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker) is the number one suspect. There's a campy kick to the initiation ceremonies, ancient rituals in dungeonlike alcoves filled with haze and shadow, performed by enthralled frat boys, but as Jackson flounders at the center of a Skull conspiracy it spins into ludicrous melodrama. See the college president become a thug for the Skull godfather! See street punks become high-tech criminal masterminds! See the conspiracy collapse under its own absurdity! Jackson is pretty much a dud as the well-meaning hero, but Walker, with flashing eyes under furrowed brow, is mesmerizing as a haunted rich kid torn between a ruthless, overbearing father (Craig T. Nelson) and his conscience. Director Rob Cohen drives the film at a galloping pace and fills it with foreboding images, but his humourless solemnity finally buries The Skulls in a heap of clichés. -Sean Axmaker.

Inspired by Chris Marker's acclaimed short film La Jetée, 12 Monkeys combines intricate, intelligent storytelling with the uniquely imaginative vision of director Terry Gilliam. The story opens in the wintry wasteland of the year 2035, where a virulent plague has forced humans to live in a squalid, oppressively regimented underground. Bruce Willis plays a societal outcast who is given the opportunity to erase his criminal record by "volunteering" to time-travel into the past to obtain a pure sample of the deadly virus that will help future scientists to develop a cure. But in bouncing from 1918 to the early and mid-1990s, he undergoes an ordeal that forces him to question his own perceptions of reality. Caught between the dangers of the past and the devastation of the future, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) who is initially convinced he's insane, and a wacky mental patient (Brad Pitt in a twitchy Oscar-nominated role) with links to a radical group that may have unleashed the deadly virus. Equal parts mystery, tragedy, psychological thriller, and apocalyptic drama, 12 Monkeys ranks as one of the best science fiction films of the 1990s, boosted by Gilliam's visual ingenuity and one of the finest performances of Willis's career. -Jeff Shannon.

Richard Donner's 1978 epic about the Man of Steel showed how a film about a superhero could be a moving and romantic experience even for people who long ago gave up comic books. Beginning on the icy planet Krypton, the story follows the baby Kal-El, whose rocket ship lands in Smallville, Kansas. He is found there by a childless couple and raised as the shy Clark Kent (the young Kent is played by Jeff East). The film is perhaps most touching in these sequences, with expanses of wheat fields blowing in the wind and with a young man who can't figure out what part in destiny his great powers are meant to play. The second half, with Reeve taking over as Clark/Superman, is bustling, enchanting (the scene in which Superman flies girlfriend Lois Lane-played by Margot Kidder-through the night sky is great date material), and funny, thanks largely to Gene Hackman's sardonic portrayal of nemesis Lex Luthor. -Tom Keogh.

In the third season of Angel the titular vampire with a soul was forced to stand alone thanks to the (temporary) death of his beloved Buffy and her show's move to a new network, with no crossover between the two allowed. He returns from seeking peace in a demon-haunted monastery to find the LA Angel Investigations team fighting supernatural crime in his absence. Fred is still haunted by the nightmare dimension from which they rescued her; Cordelia's visions get ever more painful and debilitating. The schemes of the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart become every more imaginative and dragon lady Lilah Morgan becomes even more of an enemy when lusting after Angel. Gunn's old gang becomes a menace; the 18th-century vampire hunter Holtz arrives in 21st-century LA; Wesley finds himself possessed by a primal misogyny that exploits his own dark side. Unbelievably Darla, Angel's vampire sire and lover, turns up, pregnant with his child and is tortured by inexplicable motherly feelings as well as a raging thirst for human blood. Angel's second season took us a long way into LA's supernatural heart of darkness and Angel's own bleak core; Season 3 demonstrates how much further things can go. All this, and glimpse into a world in which Cordelia is not a seer and sleuth, but a star with her own sitcom. -Roz Kaveney.

In the tradition of Die! Die! My Darling comes this tale of a young heroine made miserable by a lover's eccentric relations. Gwyneth Paltrow plays a New Yorker who marries a handsome boyfriend (Jonathon Schaech) and-following a confidence-shattering encounter with Manhattan crime-moves to his family's thoroughbred ranch. There, the young man's dominating mother (a hammy, Blanche DuBois-like role for Jessica Lange) goes to war with new bride's claim on mama's Oedipal turf. A stock thriller ensues and while one has a sense of déjà vu about the whole thing, the film is fun for its audacity, its underpinnings of dime-store psychology and some gothic stereotypes. (Hal Holbrook is perfect as one's fantasy of a country doctor. ) -Tom Keogh.