Cocoon

The sci-fi elements take a back seat to an optimistic and rather pleasant story about rediscovering youth...and that's it. Cocoon offers little more than science fiction clichés, formulaic feel good/weepy sections and elements from a million other films. Despite my parents advice that I should watch it when it was released, I refused, because I could spot the naff-ness a mile away...children are much more perceptive than adults it would seem.

Gremlins

Although many of the scenes featuring Gizmo are thick with the cute factor, and some of the creature effects seem unwieldy when compared to today's efforts, Gremlins has stood the test of time, still providing laughter of the very blackest kind. Truly obnoxious characters get their comeuppance, hapless heroes try to save the day and the diminutive green stars stand in the middle, picking their noses.

Lilo and Stitch

As a Disney film with an original storyline, this looked promising and didn't completely disappoint. Sadly, Stitch's more than passing resemblance to a Gremlin stands out in a swollen red thumb of plagiarism, and it typically descends into Disney by numbers. There are, however some well sketched characters, the masterstroke being that many of them are believably dysfunctional. That it attempts to step away from the tried and tested Disney formula does this film credit, but it doesn't go far enough to be anything other than average.