As "gigantic monster reptile attacks New York" movies go, you've got to admit that Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. There's really no other way to approach it-you just have to accept the fact that Independence Day creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are unapologetic plagiarists, incapable of anything more than mindless spectacle that can play in any cinema in the world without dubbing or subtitles. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s; it's little more than a rehash of the Jurassic Park movies. The derivative script is so trivial that it's unworthy of comment, apart from a few choice laughs and the casting of Michael Lerner as New York's mayor, whose name is Ebert and who closely resembles a certain well-known movie critic. Perhaps that's a clever hint that this movie's essentially critic-proof. It's stupid but it's fun, and for most audiences that's a fitting definition of mainstream Hollywood entertainment. -Jeff Shannon Zorro, a pop-fiction creation invented by Johnston McCulley in 1918, is given new blood in this fast-moving and engaging version. Director Martin Campbell wisely instils a measure of frivolity into the deftly choreographed action sequences, while letting a serious tone creep in when appropriate. This covers much ground under the banner of romantic-action-adventure and it does so most excellently. [+]

This imaginative comedy from director Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty) is a lot of fun, largely on the strength of Will Smith's engaging performance as the rookie partner of a secret agent (Tommy Lee Jones) assigned to keep tabs on Earth-dwelling extra-terrestrials. There's lots of comedy to spare in this bright film, some of the funniest stuff found in the margins of the major action (a scene with Smith's character being trounced in the distance by a huge alien while Jones questions a witness is a riot. ) The inventiveness never lets up, and the cast-including Vincent D'Onofrio doing frighteningly convincing work as an alien occupying a decaying human-hold up their end splendidly. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com On the DVD: This Collector's Edition disc contains a "Visual Commentary" that features director Barry Sonenfeld and actor Tommy Lee Jones in an anecdotal conversation, but with the unique twist that they are displayed as silhouettes on your TV screen (imagine you're sitting in the back row of the cinema and they are up front) using a pointer to highlight particular events on screen. If you have a widescreen TV, the menu prompts you to switch to 4:3 mode to see this. There is also a "Visual Effects Scene Deconstruction" in which the tunnel scene and the Edgar Bug fight scene are dissected into their constituent parts; an in-depth documentary, "Metamorphosis of MIB", which charts the progress of the concept from comic book to screen; five "Extended and Alternate" scenes; trailers, including a teaser for MIB II; and Will Smith's "Men in Black" music video. -Mark Walker.

From yet another derivative science fiction novel by Michael Crichton comes this equally derivative and flaccid movie, in which three top Hollywood stars struggle to squeeze tension and excitement out of material that doesn't match their talents. You're supposed to find awe and mystery in Crichton's story about a team of scientists and scholars who discover a 300-year-old alien spacecraft deep on the ocean floor, but mostly you feel that this is all much ado about nothing. The exploration team consists of a psychologist (Dustin Hoffman), mathematician (Samuel L. Jackson), biochemist (Sharon Stone), and an astrophysicist (Liev Schreiber), and when they enter the alien ship they discover a mysterious sphere inside. What they don't know is that the sphere has the power to manipulate their thoughts and perceptions, and before long the scientists' undersea habitat is a veritable haunted house of frightening visions and creeping paranoia. Who can be trusted? What is the sphere's purpose, and why is it on the ocean floor? Sphere makes some attempt to answer these questions, but the film is a mess, and it leads to one of the most anticlimactic endings of any science fiction film ever made. There are moments of high intensity and psychological suspense, and the stellar cast works hard to boost the talky screenplay. But it's clear that this was a hurried production (Hoffman and director Barry Levinson made Wag the Dog during an extended production delay), and as a result Sphere looks and feels like a film that wasn't quite ready for the cameras. Though it's by no means a waste of time, it's undeniably disappointing. -Jeff Shannon From yet another derivative science fiction novel by Michael Crichton comes Sphere, an equally derivative and flaccid movie, in which three top Hollywood stars struggle to squeeze tension and excitement out of material that doesn't match their talents. [+]

Although the superhero comic book has been a duopoly since the early 1960s, only DC's flagship characters, Superman and Batman (who originated in the late 1930s) have established themselves as big-screen franchises. Until now-this is the first runaway hit film version of the alternative superhero X-Men universe created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and others. It's a rare comic-book movie that doesn't fall over its cape introducing all the characters, and this is the exception. X-Men drops us into a world that is closer to our own than Batman's Gotham City, but it's still home to super-powered goodies and baddies. Opening in high seriousness with paranormal activity in a WW2 concentration camp and a senatorial inquiry into the growing "mutant problem", Bryan Singer's film sets up a complex background with economy and establishes vivid, strange characters well before we get to the fun. There's Halle Berry flying and summoning snowstorms, James Marsden zapping people with his "optic beams", Rebecca Romijn-Stamos shape-shifting her blue naked form, and Ray Park lashing out with his Toad-tongue. The big conflict is between Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto, super-powerful mutants who disagree about their relationship with ordinary humans, but the characters we're meant to identify with are Hugh Jackman's Wolverine (who has retractable claws and amnesia), and Anna Paquin's Rogue (who sucks the life and superpowers out of anyone she touches). The plot has to do with a big gizmo that will wreak havoc at a gathering of world leaders, but the film is more interested in setting up a tangle of bizarre relationships between even more bizarre people, with solid pros such as Stewart and McKellen relishing their sly dialogue and the newcomers strutting their stuff in cool leather outfits. There are in-jokes enough to keep comics' fans engaged, but it feels more like a science fiction movie than a superhero picture. -Kim Newman.

This 1986 fantasy/action thriller has since spawned two sequels, a TV series, numerous comic-book spin-offs, and a loyal (if somewhat oddly obsessive) following of fans. Directed by music-video veteran Russell Mulcahy (which explains the dizzying camera work and soundtrack contributions from Queen), the original theatrical release made a hash of an intriguing story about an "Immortal" from 16th-century Scotland (Christopher Lambert) who time-leaps to modern-day America with his arch-enemy (Clancy Brown) in hot pursuit. It becomes a battle to the death (yes, Immortals can die) and Lambert seeks survival training from an Immortal mentor played by Sean Connery. Highlander is dazzling, energetic and altogether confusing. -Jeff Shannon.