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USA: Clyde Geronimi/Wilfred Jackson/Hamilton Luske/Jack Kinney, 1948

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USA: John Sanford/Will Finn, 2004

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USA: Michael Bay, 1996

Despite being directed by the man who inflicted upon us Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, The Rock is a good solid action movie and one that benefits from excellent central performances by Sean Connery (having fun as a geriatric Bond of sorts) and Ed Harris as the antagonist. It helps that Harris' character is a multi-dimensional individual, and (a rarity in this sort of movie) one whose motives actually make sense. It's so unusual to see a villain that you can actually sympathize with in a Hollywood blockbuster that I actually found myself almost wanting the guy to win. Direction-wise, many of the characteristics that would later come to make Bay's films so detestable (shaky-vision, quick cutting, constantly moving camera, etc.) are present here, albeit in a more restrained form. For once, he actually slows things down for the character-driven moments, and as a result the fast-paced action scenes actually come as a treat rather than a constant pain in the neck. Okay, so the Ferrari chase through San Francisco is stupid, but it's brilliantly executed and very funny in places ("Hey, man, you just fucked up your Ferrari" - "It's not mine"). Highly entertaining fun, a good example of what a Hollywood popcorn blockbuster done right can be capable of.

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USA: Roger Allers/Rob Minkoff, 1994

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USA: Chris Sanders/Dean DeBlois, 2002

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USA: Brian Dannelly, 2004

For the first two acts of Saved!, I found myself laughing uproariously at this fairly obvious but extremely amusing satire of Christian fundamentalism. The film lays into its target with a surprising amount of force for a Hollywood product, so it was perhaps to be expected that they would chicken out at the end. The film ends on a decidedly sappy tone, taking a decidedly pro-Christian standpoint except preaching a rather more marketable "let's wear crosses round our necks and say we believe in God even though we don't actually do anything The Bible tell us to do" message. To be perfectly honest, I sometimes think that the Christians who push for a feel-good "everyone's special, let's interpret God's teachings as we see fit" Christians are actually crazier than the ones who take The Bible as literal word-for-word truth. Still, the first 65 minutes are on the whole outrageously funny, and feel almost as if they were written by different people. Do I smell the meddling of Hollywood?

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USA/UK/Ireland: Antoine Fuqua, 2004

Jerry Bruckheimer tries to cash in on the success of Gladiator with an interesting but inconsistently executed idea: to create a semi-realistic portrayal of the legend of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. Realistic in a manner of speaking, of course, for a number of decidedly anachronistic elements conspire to make it no more believable than the traditional airy-fairy spellcasting versions. Keira Knightley is miscast as Guinivere (although she does her best with the material), and it doesn't help that the character is written as a pouting action woman who embodies decidedly 20th century notions of feminism. Elsewhere Clive Owen is as wooden as a plank in the role of Arthur and the script, while well-intentioned, can't stop itself from providing the characters with some of the most spurious dialogue this side of Sunset Beach, as well as one of the silliest codas in movie history. Still, Slawomir Izdiak (of Three Colours: Blue and Black Hawk Down fame) provides exquisite photography, Stellan Skarsgård turns in a layered performance as the villanous but principled Saxon leader, and Hans Zimmer contributes one of his best action movie scores in years. King Arthur is an enjoyable distraction, and like virtually every Bruckheimer production you should simply switch off your mind and enjoy both the good and the bad.

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USA: Mike Gabriel/Eric Goldberg, 1995

Bland and badly executed, this "gimmee an Oscar" effort from Disney has the stains of Jeffrey Katzenberg's handprints all over it. An uncomfortable mixture of aping live action and attempting to provide enough cutesy animals to entertain the kiddies, the only truly inspired moment in this clumsy and forgettable affair is the "Colours of the Wind" sequence. By far Disney's worst film, at least of the ones I've seen. Yes, even The Black Cauldron was better than this.

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