2011
0
A high class prostitute gets involved with murderous drug dealers.
Unpleasant and depressing thriller with an awful lot of violence towards women; it fails to entertain and leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
Dir: Jon Hewitt
Stars: Viva Bianca, Hanna Mangan Lawrence, Peter Docker
X - THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES
1963
**
A scientist increases the power of his sight but goes too far.
Lively, imaginative and chilling sci-fi horror, surreal and enjoyable, well done on a low budget; it's surprising that it's never been remade, because it's ripe for it. The lean story is pleasingly developed and it ends on a memorable freeze frame image.
Dir: Roger Corman
Stars: Ray Milland, Diana Van Der Vlis, Harold J Stone
X THE UNKNOWN
1956
*
Mud is affected by radiation and becomes a crawling monster.
Largely pedestrian horror, with a fair dollop of science, in a similar vein to the Quatermass films; a little atmosphere is conjured up by the black and white photography of the threatened rural landscape.
Dir: Leslie Norman
Stars: Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, Anthony Newley, Michael Ripper
XANADU
1980
0
A struggling artist meets a beautiful girl who appears to have fallen from the skies.
A real golden turkey, an extremely bad film - gloriously bad - only suitable for young girls and addicts of cheesy flicks, with a wisp of a nonsensical plot and mugging performances. Still, the final rendition of the title track, performed amidst a small army of hard-trying male and female dancers, does get the leg jumping and nearly saves it.
Dir: Robert Greenwald
Stars: Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan
X312 - FLIGHT TO HELL
1971
0
A plane crashes in a jungle, and among the passengers is a diamond smuggler.
Not-too-bad adventure for Franco, its sweat and sleaze marking it out as one of his, along with much drunken camerawork; the cast's okay and the setting does its job.
Dir: Jess Franco
Stars: Thomas Hunter, Gila von Weitershausen, Hans Hass Jr, Howard Vernon
XX
2017
0
Four horror stories: The Box, The Birthday Party, Don't Fall, Her Only Living Son.
Underwhelming anthology unlikely to gain much traction outside feminist film festivals. The first story is the best but fizzles out; the second doesn't make the most out of its novelty; the third is routine; the fourth never really works. Why are the story's titles shown twice?
Dir: Roxanne Benjamin, Karyn Kusama, St Vincent, Jovanka Vuckovic
Stars: Natalie Brown, Melanie Lynskey, Breeda Wool, Christina Kirk
XXX
2002
*
An extreme sports specialist is recruited as a secret agent for the US government.
Beyond ridiculous actioner, which after a bright beginning reveals its absence of plot. Some spectacular stunts suffice.
Dir: Rob Cohen
Stars: Vin Diesel, Asia Argento, Samuel L Jackson, Tom Everett
X, Y AND ZEE
1971
0
Constantly at odds with his wife, a man takes a mistress.
Very trying slanging match which gets nowhere slowly and strangely.
Dir: Brian G Hutton
Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine, Susannah York, Margaret Leighton
X-MEN
2000
*
Two opposing groups of super-powered mutants battle it out for supremacy.
Glossy, tolerable action flick with a decent assortment of costumed characters.
Dir: Bryan Singer
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
X-MEN 2
2003
*
A fanatical military man attacks Professor Xavier’s band of mutants.
A superior sequel, for what it’s worth, which generally succeeds in reproducing a comic strip vibe. As franchises go, X-Men isn’t the easiest to warm to but it’s aided by the different superpower exhibitions and a starry cast.
Dir: Bryan Singer
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox
X-MEN: THE LAST STAND
2006
0
A new drug is developed to help mutants become ‘normal’.
The weakest X-Men movie is an over-egged pudding with too many characters who make little impression and not much of a story; it just doesn’t feel like a movie made with care and affection (it was actually rush-released).
Dir: Brett Ratner
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, Vinnie Jones, Ellen Page
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE
2009
**
How Wolverine gained his adamantium skeleton and lost his memory.
Fans were largely sniffy about this prequel but it’s good rollicking fun, a tale of revenge punctuated by top action sequences with the various super-powered freaks.
Dir: Gavin Hood
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
2011
***
Two groups of mutants clash at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Remarkably proficient prequel with a strong, compelling storyline, imaginative (and not hard to follow) action sequences, some rich performances and an awareness of wider issues. Were all superhero movies so successful.
Dir: Matthew Vaughn
Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
2014
*
Wolverine travels back in time to try and stop the rise of the Sentinels.
What's effectively a sequel to two different groups of films lands somewhere in the middle of the lot of them quality-wise; the concept isn't quite as high as might have been hoped for, and it gets bogged down halfway through by over-serious dialogue exchanges, but it's still a highly proficient sci-fi fantasy peopled by superheroes whose powers make for dazzling exhibitions of action and special effects (Quicksilver is maybe the pick of the bunch).
Dir: Bryan Singer
Stars: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Evan Peters
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE
2016
*
A powerful mutant, entombed for centuries, awakes and harnesses the power of certain X-Men to further his goals.
One of the lesser X movies, but there are some high points including, once again, Quicksilver, here saving his friends from destruction, and the climactic battle between Apocalypse and the goodies - seeing heroes go up against the 'unstoppable' foe is always jolly fun. Less welcome is a lengthy, choppy script that would probably be more if less.
Dir: Bryan Singer
Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac
X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX
2019
*
Jean Grey begins to develop powers that turn her into Dark Phoenix.
The last gasp of this iteration of the X-Men movie franchise feels a little tired, and fans of the original comic book were particularly damning of it, perhaps overly so - the action scene on the train certainly isn't at all bad. One problem is that the Phoenix character isn't fleshed out or relatable, with others just going through the motions, and there's no real sense of the 1992 setting; maybe it also suffers from being in the shadow of the same year's Avengers: Endgame mega-show, appearing trivial and weak in comparison. Even the now (weirdly obligatory) F-bomb feels desperate.
Dir: Simon Kinberg
Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner, Nicholas Hoult
X-RAY
1982
0
A beautiful woman is trapped in a murderous hospital.
Corny and confused slasher movie with a well-built heroine from the pages of Playboy magazine.
Dir: Boaz Davidson
Stars: Barbie Benton, Charles Lucia, Jon Van Ness
XTRO
1982
*
An alien births a man who was abducted three years previously; he returns to his family with malign intentions.
Bonkers horror that resolves into a series of bizarre and nightmarish set-pieces which would make an impression on a young viewer - it's less clear what the average adult would get out of it. There are icky bits galore; indeed, it seems like the director has chucked everything at the wall to see what sticks - perhaps it's his best film, but that's saying very little (there were two awful, unrelated sequels). The synth score helps place it in its time period, which happened to be a time of video nasties.
Dir: Harry Bromley Davenport
Stars: Bernice Stegers, Philip Sayer, Maryam D'Abo, Danny Brainin
