J’Accuse (1919)
Extraordinary filmmaking from Abel Gance made at the height of the silent era, an epic anti-war parable that stuns you with its cinematic craft
J.D.’s Revenge (1976)
A Blaxploitation film where Glynn Turman is possessed by the spirit of petty hood J.D.
Jabberwocky (1977)
The first solo directorial outing from Terry Gilliam, a dark and frenetic skewering of the cinematic portrayal of the Middle Ages
Jack & Diane (2012)
An LGBT romance featuring fantastic performances from two actors before they became better known, this also acts as an ambiguous monster movie
Jack and the Beanstalk (1952)
Abbott and Costello take on the fairytale as a vehicle for their usual inanities. This is the only film the two made in colour and they financed it themselves but is not one of their more inspired offerings.
Jack and the Beanstalk (1997)
An adaptation of the fairytale from British animator Martin Gates, which embellishes the traditional story considerably
Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story (2001)
TV mini-series co-produced between Hallmark Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company that offers an intriguing deconstruction of the fairytale although eventually proves to be a modernised replaying that reverses the sympathies
Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (2013)
A French animated film where a boy with a cuckoo-clock for a heart goes on a quest for love through a surreal quasi-Steampunk Victorian world, which includes cameos from Georges Melies and Jack the Ripper
Jack Be Nimble (1993)
An over-the-top New Zealand Gothic with Alexis Arquette and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy as psychically connected brother and sister
Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer (2007)
The way this film promotes itself, you go in expecting to see a horror comedy. Instead, we get a film that seems to spend half its running time in build-up with no comedy or monster slaying, although it does at least deliver on its initial promise with an entertainingly low-budget Evil Dead-styled climax
Jack Frost (1997)
A film about a killer snowman. Conceived as a one-liner spouting villain like Freddy Krueger and outfitted with a series of novelty Christmas-themed deaths, this does not take itself too seriously with rather appealing results
Jack Frost (1998)
Bizarre family family in which Michael Keaton returns from the dead as a snowman to be near his family
Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (2000)
Jack Frost, not to be confused with the Michael Keaton film of the same name, was an amusing horror comedy about a killer mutant snowman. This is a sequel that takes Jack to a beach resort in Hawaii
Jack Goes Home (2016)
Actor Thomas Dekker directs a film in which Rory Culkin travels home for a funeral and finds disturbing revelations about his past. This feels like one of Richard Bates (Excision, Trash Fire) Jr’s black comedies of middle-class disaffection but circles weird happenings without going anywhere
Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
Blatant attempt to copy Ray Harryhausen’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, night down to employing the same lead actors and director, but this fails through shoddy stop-motion animated creature effects
Jack the Giant Killer (2013)
Another of The Asylum’s mockbusters intended to capitalise on the release of Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Slayer. Despite setting out to adapt Jack and the Beanstalk, it should be noted that there are no giants in the film; the rest is only a cut-price fantasy adventure
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
A decade ago Bryan Singer was the great white hope of fanboy cinema but then seemed to lose his touch. This attempt to turn Jack and the Beanstalk into an epic fantasy does nothing to reverse that – the result feels exactly like a piece of formula studio product that could have been made by any hired director
Jack the Reaper (2011)
Film with a class of teenagers a class of teenagers on a field trip is pursued through a haunted carnival by a mythical boogeyman
Jack the Ripper (1959)
Dramatisation of the Jack the Ripper murders that is shot like a cheap British quota quickie but musters some okay gaslit atmosphere. Alas, the film has done little research on the details of Ripper casefile and entirely whitewashes its portrait of the social conditions of the era
Jack the Ripper (1976)
A version of the Jack the Ripper killings from cult exploitation director Jess Franco starring Klaus Kinski. But neither Franco nor Kinski are up to much, while the film’s resemblance to the facts of the Ripper case is close to zero
Jack the Ripper (1988)
TV mini-series made to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Jack the Ripper killings. The publicity claimed to uncover new evidence and, while the show adheres more to the facts of the case of any filmed work up to that point, the script only makes a beeline for the sensationalistic aspects and should more properly be considered fiction
Jack the Ripper (2016)
A girl sets out to solve the Jack the Ripper killings to free her innocently convicted brother. Very few Ripper films adhere to the facts of the case and this is no more, no less factual than any other version but does a fine period recreation of Victorian England
Jack’s Back (1988)
This comes with a fantastic pitch – it was released on the centenary of the Jack the Ripper killings and features a Ripper copycat operating in the present. Alas it becomes a massive wasted opportunity and soon abandons connection to the Ripper to become a wronged man on the run thriller
Jack’s Wife (1972)
One of the least known of George Romero’s films. Made not long after Rosemary’s Baby, this concerns itself with bored suburban housewives dabbling in witchcraft. Romero’s most fascinating spin is to suggest the actuality of the occult only exists in people’s heads
Jackals (2017)
I had no high expectations of a film from one of the directors of the Saw sequels but was pleasantly surprised by this where a family’s attempts to conduct a cult deprogramming go awry as masked cult members surround the house prepared to do anything to get their recruit back
Jackboots on Whitehall (2010)
A puppet film about a satiric Nazi invasion of England in World War II. Imagine It Happened Here by way of Team America. This has its amusements but is uneven to the point you are not sure at times whether it is taking the patriotic jingoism seriously or satirically
Jackpot! (2024)
This comes out like a comedy version of The Purge almost, where a future California lottery awards the winner millions if they can avoid every other person trying to kill them
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Adrian Lyne became one of the most visually exciting directors of the 1980s. Here he makes an afterlife film that swings between moments of greatness and a script that seems very confused about what is happening
Jacob’s Ladder (2019)
Another remake that nobody asked for. The 1990 deathdream film is reworked in a script that ditches almost all of the afterlife themes and instead seems to want to make a drama about veterans addicted to reality-blurring drugs
Jade Dynasty (2019)
Ching Siu-Tung, director of classic Wu Xia films like A Chinese Ghost Story, returns to wow us all again after an eight years absence
James and the Giant Peach (1996)
Henry Selick’s follow-up to The Nightmare Before Christmas, a Roald Dahl adaptation filled with enormous visual creativity
James vs. His Future Self (2019)
Enjoyable comedy where a scientist is visited by his older self travelled back in time to beg him not to invent the time machine he is about to create
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Stop-motion animator Ray Harruhausen takes on Greek Myth and creates one of his finest works. Harryhausen’s effects are at the absolute peak of their game and he delivers some astonishing creations
Jason and the Argonauts (2000)
TV mini-series remake of the Greek myths that fails to stand up to the classic 1963 version. Here Ray Harryhausen’s amazing stop-motion animated effects have been replaced by cut-price CGI
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
The ninth Friday the 13th film and the most variant and fun. This cheerfully turns expectations on their head and readily punctures the series cliches
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
The sixth and one of the better Friday the 13th films where the usual formula is conducted with an undeniable sense of humour
Jason X (2001)
The tenth Friday the 13th film. This tries to add novelty as Jason is thawed out in the future aboard a space station to slaughter anew. Featuring David Cronenberg as a victim
Jauja (2014)
This starts out seeming like a non-fantastic costume drama about explorers in 19th Century Argentina. However, the film seems to disregard any plot possibilities and heads towards a bafflingly surreal and undeniably fascinating ending
Jaws (1975)
The killer shark film that became the No 1 box-office hit of all time and put Steven Spielberg’s name on the map, not to mention led to an entire genre of imitators. A powerhouse of seat-edge tension, filled with great performances, this shows the young Spielberg with an incredible grasp of his craft
Jaws 2 (1978)
The best of the mostly worthless Jaws sequels. With a bigger budget, the shark attacks are more spectacular but there is nothing akin to the sustained suspense of the first film’s climax. At its most inventive, this suggests for a time it is all in Roy Scheider’s imagination
Jaws 3-D (1983)
The second sequel to the hit killer shark film. This is shot with gimmick of the early 80s 3D revival fad but this has the effect of reducing Steven Spielberg’s masterful suspense to a series of novelty pop-up shocks
Jaws of Satan (1981)
The title seems to have been slung together as a mash-up of competing 70s fads – trying to jump aboard the success of Jaws and the fad for occult films after The Exorcist. Ridiculous and badly made on all levels, none more so than the climax with a giant snake conducting a devil worship ceremony
Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
The widely ridiculed fourth Jaws film is at least better than the third, having one of two okay shark attack scenes but the melodramatics are tedious
Je T’aime, Je T’aime (1968)
French New Wave SF film. although one where the time machine is more a device to allow director Alain Resnais to engage in his familiar preoccupations with memory. The idea of a protagonist travelling at random through his own memory is uncannily predictive of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Creepy film about a brother and sister being pursued on a road journey by a supernatural creature driving a truck. Several sequels followed.
Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017)
Having been promised for a long time, this is the third of Victor Salva’s Jeepers Creepers films. Filled with the same unworldly jumps and some interesting twists on what has gone before; that said, this is probably also the slightest of the Jeepers Creepers films
Jeepers Creepers II (2003)
Victor Salva’s first sequel to Jeepers Creepers and an intensely uncanny, much superior work that heads into outlandish places
Jeepers Creepers Reborn (2022)
The Jeepers Creepers films created a highly original boogeyman with some creepy effect. Mired in controversy, the fourth entry in franchise emerges on screen under Finnish director Timo Vuorensola
Jekyll (2007)
Doctor Who writer/producer Steven Moffat’s modernised revamping of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the best versions of the story to date. Moffat reworks the story in fascinatingly radical ways, the writing has a blackly funny brilliance, while James Nesbitt gives a gleeful rafter-rattling performance
Jekyll + Hyde (2006)
A modermised retelling of the Jekyll/Hyde story as a teen horror film where Jekyll (Bryan Fisher) is experimenting with Ecstasy to try and have success with girls
Jekyll and Hyde … Together Again (1982)
Extremely silly and at times undeniably funny spoof on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – here Dr Jekyll becomes a coke addict who snorts his formula and turns into a swinger with a giant afro
Jem and the Holograms (2015)
The original animated series was one of the pop oddities of the 80s – part teen pop fantasy, part superheroics and secret identities. This live-action remake is an object lesson of how to strip all the fun elements out a series, becoming no more than a blur of video selfies for the attention addled social media generation
Jennifer (1978)
A blatant ripoff of Carrie about a tormented girl who takes psychic revenge using snakes. Without Brian De Palma in the director’s chair, this only looks like a cheap tv movie
Jennifer Eight (1992)
Thriller with detective Andy Garcia trying to protect/romance blind Uma Thurman from a serial killer who targets blind women
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Karyn Kusama directs a black comedy from a wryly funny Diablo Cody script in which Megan Fox is a possessed cheerleader
Jersey Shore Shark Attack (2012)
Rather funny parody of tv’s Jersey Shore by way of a shark attack film. A film that one watches with zero expectations but proves hilarious by planting tongue entirely in cheek and offering up some wittily deadpan jabs at caricatures
Jeruzalem (2015)
A unique variant on the Found Footage film shot from the perspective of a pair of internet-enabled glasses. Made in Israel, this reasonably effectively conveys the story of two US tourists visiting Jerusalem as it is overrun by possessed demon figures
Jessabelle (2014)
Ghost story from one of the directors of the Saw sequels that settles in with halfway reasonable build-up. On the other hand, the few spooky scenes never go anywhere, before the film is killed off by an improbable left field twist ending
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966)
Infamous Z movie made as companion piece to Billy the Kid Versus Dracula in which the famous outlaw encounters Frankenstein’s granddaughter and her creations
Jesus and Her Gospel of Yes (2004)
Mind-boggling surrealist retelling of the life of Jesus (cast with a woman)
Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter (2001)
One of the great wacky titles of all time. The film has its absurdist amusements but soon runs out of steam and fails to provide an interesting enough show to live up to its title
Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway (2019)
Full marks for an attention-grabbing title, this is otherwise a very strange and surrealistic film about spy shenanigans in Virtual Reality
Jet Stream (2013)
A Syfy Channel disaster movie. Between the formula dramatics and the extremely cheap special effects, this is better than expected, having an undeniable sense of humour and a decidedly more original hero than most of its kind
Jetsons: The Movie (1990)
A film version spun off from the popular Hanna-Barbera animated tv series
Jexi (2019)
Amiable comedy about an annoyingly intrusive artificially intelligent mobile assistant that wreaks havoc on its owner’s life
Jigoku (1960)
A fascinating Japanese film that imagines a man having to descend into Hell, designed along the lines of Dante’s Inferno, to save the soul of his loved one. The depiction of Hell is filled with luridly surreal scenes
Jigsaw (2017)
The Saw series went from a brilliantly torturous original to an emphasis on increasingly unpleasant torture excesses. Whether we asked for it or not, this is a revival – the upside is that unlike the other sequels it comes from a duo of directors who have made some quite good films elsewhere
Jill the Ripper (2000)
Quite good thriller with Dolph Lundgren as a detective drawn into a BDSM underworld in the hunt for a female serial killer
Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius (2001)
Amiable animated film about a juvenile inventor that only serves to show how more polished Pixar’s films are by comparison
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1998)
Conceptually ambitious anime that builds a complex metaphor out of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf in a story centred aroundthe self-doubting member of an anti-terrorist squad
Jiu Jitsu (2020)
The action film has largely died off in the 2010s. This is very much a throwback with a set-up reminiscent of Predator about an action team fighting an alien in the jungle
Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013)
Fascinating documentary about one of the most amazing films never made – director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s planned adaptation of Dune in the mid-1970s. The creative team and cast assembled for the production boggle the mind, the glimpses we get of the designs and shots are out of this world
Joe’s Apartment (1996)
Bizarrely off-the-wall film where Jerry O’Connell gets an apartment in New York City and finds he is sharing it with singing cockroaches
John Carter (2012)
While the film bombed at the box-office, it emerges as a fairly good and faithful adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ swashbuckling planetary adventure that is lavishly produced and written on an epic canvas
John Dies at the End (2012)
Phantasm series director Don Coscarelli returns with this mind-expanding effort that seems a conceptual collision between Donnie Darko, Limitless, a slacker version of Supernatural and Marvel Comics’ Dr Strange. Maybe the best mind-tripping fun it is possible to have without the use of illegal substances
Johnny English (2003)
Spy movie parody with Rowan Atkinson as an inept agent who is constantly tripping over his own feet. It is Austin Powers reconceived as a Mr Bean film but offering little that is funny.
Johnny English Reborn (2011)
Rowan Atkinson is a very funny man but try as I might I cannot get into these Johnny English films – they seem at best lame Austin Powers castoffs with gags designed for the single digit age range
Johnny English Strikes Again (2018)
Rowan Atkinson is back in his third outing as the inept spy. Atkinson is a talented comic but everyone agrees that these Johnny English films, which are like less sophisticated versions of Peter Sellers’ Inspector Closeau, are the least of his comedy incarnations
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (2016)
From the acclaimed Simon Rumley comes this true crime drama about the execution of an innocent man and the supposed curse he placed on all who condemned him. This straddles an odd line between true story and a full blooded supernatural horror film but satisfies neither
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
The first attempt to film the works of cult Cyberpunk author William Gibson met with very mixed success, nevertheless is a modest effort that does mainline the essence of Gibson’s world
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
The story of a young Nazi boy who has Adolf Hitler as an imaginary companion gained much deal of awards acclaim. My mind struggled to deal with the film’s swing between slapstick Hogan’s Heroes caricatures and its wanting to be a tender story about overcoming racial prejudice
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable – Chapter 1 (2017)
Cinematic madman Takashi Miike takes on a live-action adaptation of one of Japan’s longest running mangas
Joker (2012)
In their few attempts to touch SF material, Bollywood has always had bizarre results. Imagine (sort of) a version of Shyamalan’s crop circle/alien visitors film Signs , a few dashes of The Mouse That Roared , all played as a comic farce and with much singing and dancing
Joker (2019)
This origin story of Batman’s The Joker is less epic superheroics than it is a mundanely grounded work about one individual’s rage against modern life. Less capes and costumes than something rooted in disturbed psychology and alienation that comes closest to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver
Joker’s Wild (2016)
Completely ridiculous killer clown film that has a theatre haunted by clowns but erases the line between reality and illusion so much that nothing makes any sense. Even more absurdly, it becomes a preachy diatribe in favour of Second Amendment rights to gun ownership
Joker: Folie a Deux (2024)
Joker was a huge hit with Joaquin Phoenix winning an Academy Award for his role. This sequel emerged to very mixed reception
Jonah Hex (2010)
This adaptation of the DC comic-book about a supernatural avenging Western gunslinger fails to burn with the grim mood it should have
Jonathan (2018)
A smart and intelligent SF film with Ansel Elgort as two brothers who inhabit the same body
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015)
Susanna Clarke kicks J.K. Rowling completely out of the ring. This BBC adaptation of her book concerning rival 19th century magicians is an epic plot and a beautifully staged costume drama, all written with a superb Austen-esque dryness of wit
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Eggs from 70 Million B.C. (1996)
Fourth of the Josh Kirby juveniles and the point the series started to become quite well made
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Journey to the Magic Cavern (1996)
The fifth of the Josh Kirby juvenile adventures where the young hero sets out on a quest to find the Shroom People
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Last Battle for the Universe (1996)
Sixth and last of the Josh Kirby juvenile adventures and the best of the series
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995)
The first and one of the weaker of the generally quite likeable films about the time-travelling adventures of a juvenile hero
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! The Human Pets (1995)
The second and weakest of the Josh Kirby juvenile adventures that travels to a future where they are enslaved by giants
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Trapped on Toyworld (1996)
The third of the Josh Kirby juvenile adventures that takes Josh and companions to a planet of living toys
Joshua (2007)
Another variant on the evil child theme that suffers from far too mannered an approach where you keep waiting for it to pull back and sink its teeth into something shocking
Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
Live-action film based on the animated tv series about a girl rock band, this gets buried under its own efforts to be cutely ironic
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
Supposed adaptation of Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island that gives the impression that none of the screenwriters have read the book … a consistently silly and nonsensical film that operates at the level of a children’s cartoon
Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955)
I have raved elsewhere about the extraordinary live-action/animated films of Karel Zeman. This is one of his earlier efforts wherein four boys journey through prehistory. Not the equal of Zeman’s later work, it feels more like an illustrated museum tour than a dramatic film
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
The success of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea created a spate of Jules Verne’s adaptation. Here Verne’s tale of explorers in an underground realm has been turned into an absurdly colourful adventure