Bovie Movie

It was dismissed by many critics as a noisy, scary and utterly worthless excuse for some ingenious computer effects, but as empty experiences go this fantasy adventure is absolutely exhilarating. Toddlers, as well as pre-teens, will be held spellbound by the marauding wildlife that is unleashed when Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce rescue Robin Williams from the sinister board game in which he’s been trapped for 26 years. Any film where the action is determined by a roll of the dice is bound to be episodic, but this hardly detracts from the enjoyment as one spectacular set piece follows another. The result is wonderful, escapist family entertainment. 

Fans of shows such as Rolf Harris’s Animal Hospital will be in seventh heaven watching this cute family comedy about an adorable St Bernard dog named Beethoven and the effect he has on an American family. Charles Grodin, best known for his performance opposite Robert De Niro in Midnight Run, is the father who ends up with a puppy he doesn’t want, which turns into a huge eating and slobbering machine. The Flintstones director Brian Levant keeps the comedy coming fast and furious, and Beethoven is gorgeous enough to soften even the hardest dog-hater’s heart. Watch out for The X-Files’s David Duchovny as the sleazy yuppie who reckons he’s a coffee connoisseur. 

It is one of the unwritten rules of making a family film that it should not condescend to its target audience, especially the younger members. Cheaper by the Dozen does it in spades — with an impunity guaranteed by featuring a big star (Steve Martin). It’s basically an over-extended sitcom that owes little allegiance to the original book or the delightful 1950 comedy starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy. Here the weight of the humour is dumped on Martin, who plays father of 12 children, Tom Baker. When his author wife, Kate (Bonnie Hunt), is called away for a book launch, he has to cope with a dozen unruly offspring as well as the pressures of a demanding new job in an unfamiliar neighbourhood. It’s all very amiable, but the jokes are pretty thin and, let’s face it, contraception could have remedied all the Bakers’ problems. 

Computer animation pioneers Pixar (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life) continue their exploration of magical worlds that keep themselves hidden from human eyes with this frantic, funny and very furry animated feature. This time the focus is on the creatures that lurk inside the bedroom closets of children and who venture out to terrify their human prey when the lights are off. Creatures such as towering fluffball Sulley (voiced by John Goodman) and malevolent chameleon Randall (Steve Buscemi) are employees of Monsters Inc, a power provider for the city of Monstropolis, which is fuelled by the screams of human children. But Monstropolis is facing an energy crisis. Youngsters are getting harder to scare and, to make matters worse, Sulley accidentally lets a little girl into a realm where kids are believed to be highly toxic. Packed with the sort of artistry and storytelling panache we’ve come to expect from Pixar, the film creates a believable monsters’ universe full of colour, energy and amusing creatures — especially the two horned, one-eyed joker known as Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal at his wisecracking best). The attention to detail is as staggering as ever, right down to the subtle movements of Sulley’s rippling blue fur. A genuine monster smash. 

This limp sequel to the hit 2003 comedy sees Steve Martin reprising his role as the daddy of the 12-strong Baker brood, who revives an old rivalry with ultra-competitive neighbour Eugene Levy — also the father of a sizeable horde of kids — during a summer camping vacation. Though the children get on, that doesn’t stop the two posturing dads from a spot of macho one-upmanship when a “friendly” competition is arranged between the respective families. Cue lots of tired and obvious slapstick scenes. Youngsters may find one or two moments worth a titter, while Bonnie Hunt as Martin’s stoical wife delivers all the best dialogue, what little there is. However, grown-ups may be surprised at the under-use of Martin and the misuse of American Pie stalwart Levy, who’s great at playing quirky characters but not so hot at being downright obnoxious, which he is here. 

After a near unprecedented string of critical and box-office smash hits, beginning with Toy Story in 1995, animation studio Pixar produced its first disappointment with Cars. In a bizarre and slightly creepy world where all the characters are motor vehicles, red racer Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is a preening, hot-shot track star who, on the way to a big meet in LA, becomes stranded in the small town of Radiator Springs off Route 66. There, the residents, including a cute female Porsche (Bonnie Hunt) and a wise old-timer with a secret past (Paul Newman), teach McQueen a few lessons about the value of taking things slow and enjoying life. The middle act is too sedate and the jokes are below par. But, on the plus side, the racing sequences are mini-masterpieces of editing and the animation is consistently impressive. And if you’re watching the UK release version of the film, you’ll recognise Harv’s dulcet tones — yes, it’s Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson. 

While everyone remembers this film about an autistic man as Dustin Hoffman’s Oscar-winning triumph, it is equally Tom Cruise’s. As a fast-talking wheeler-dealer living out the 1980s dream, he learns that not only is he out of his father’s will (save for a 1949 Buick), he also has an institutionalised elder brother (Hoffman). This is a classic road movie, with the two siblings crossing country to California in the Buick. Hoffman’s savant — a mass of baseball and airline disaster statistics, prone to hysterics if his routine is broken — is one of modern cinema’s great triumphs: believable, unsentimental, often hilarious. But without Cruise, whose emotional journey runs from confused and impatient to understanding, protective and eventually loving, there is no film. Director Barry Levinson handles the whole thing beautifully, and also won an Oscar, and the film took the best picture award. 

Writer/director Cameron Crowe — who made the moving teenage romance Say Anything — here successfully balances the one of the best performances of Tom Cruise’s career with a clutch of superb supporting turns. Add a witty and tear-jerking script and the result is an unusual romantic comedy drama. Cruise plays Jerry Maguire, a sports agent who, guilt-ridden one night about how he and his colleagues treat sport stars as commodities, produces a mission statement that costs him his job. Cruise’s relationships with his sole remaining client (a marvellous, Oscar-winning turn by Cuba Gooding Jr), the woman who stands by him (Renee Zellweger) and her adorable son (Jonathan Lipnicki) bring an infectious warmth to the film, which introduced the world to the catchphrase: “Show me the money!”.