Less a remake of the 1933 original than a rebuke. Ballooning to gigantic proportions what was already a bulky metaphor – the gorilla as tragic, unrequited lover – this King Kong is for those who always found the saga silly rather than mythic. Any movie with Jessica Lange’s aspiring starlet Dwan orgasmically enjoying the heat

A remake of Japanese master Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, this plays like a Reader’s Digest version of that great epic, in which a small farming village terrorized by a pack of bandits seeks out seven hired killers for protection. The pleasure of the remake lies in the casting. Yul Brynner may make for a strange

Zorro has had many screen incarnations since his debut in this silent, but few of them have veered far from that first film’s insouciant tone. Zorro’s legacy has been one of carefree prankishness rather than grim heroism. Watching Douglas Fairbanks Sr. prance around as the Spanish Californian nobleman by day and masked crusader for the

Matt Damon and director Doug Liman (Swingers, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) bring plenty of verve to Robert Ludlum’s classic spy novel, about an amnesiac with literal killer instincts. Even someone with memory loss would recognize the action-thriller tactics on display here, but at least they’re skillfully employed.

Narrative has never been a strong suit of director Terry Gilliam, which may explain why he chose Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem Jabberwocky, the slightest of source material. Peppered with magical, made-up words, Carroll’s Jabberwocky centers around a terrible monster and the young boy who slays it. Gilliam uses that framework to exercise the sort of

Stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen’s special-effects work in the 1950s and ’60s has had a far greater influence than any of the films it was featured in, including this ponderous and hokey take on the ancient Greek myth. Harryhausen’s visuals arrive like blessings from the gods; they’re heavenly creatures in a drama that is laboriously earthbound.

The critical lambasting Charlie’s Angels took is a classic case of reviewers not being able to appreciate mindless, harmless fun. Those who called it the worst movie adaptation of a television series must have been on vacation when The Mod Squad came out. This is a wild and witty celebration of all things sleek and

Have you ever tried to recreate a party that was perfect the first time? You can invite the same people, play the same music, even mix the same drinks, but sometimes the mood just isn’t there. Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle is the party sequel that shouldn’t have been planned. The same aura of feisty, Maxim-style

This is Bond by the numbers, but after a summer of tired spoofs (Austin Powers in Goldmember) and lame imitations (XXX), its familiarity ironically felt refreshing. Pierce Brosnan was still donning Bond’s tuxedo, and it still made for a nice fit. Adding to the fun is everything we’ve come to expect from the series: babes