Films: Best and Worst of 2006

It was the year we welcomed back a host of fond favourites. Superman, James Bond, Inspector Clouseau and even Omen child Damien returned to Shropshire's cinema screens, writes movie blogger

. With vastly differing levels of success.

Brandon Routh and Daniel Craig have breathed fresh life into their respective franchises, but Steve Martin's appearance in The Pink Panther merely hammered home the point that no-one can ever do Clouseau like Peter Sellers.

Seldom can there have been a year of so many remakes and sequels. An utterly pointless frame-for-frame rehash of horror classic The Omen - released as a marketing gimmick on 6/6/06 - was possibly the most memorable exercise in timewasting.

It was a masterpiece, however, next to the 2006 version of The Wicker Man. It's difficult to know whether Nicolas Cage's uptight policeman was troubled more by what he found in a twisted remote community or the ill-advised decision to make the film in the first place.

Considering the length of time we'd waited for a sequel to Sharon Stone's leg-crossing turn in Basic Instinct, the follow-up lacked taste and style. Stone looked superb on screen, but ended up prostituting herself in little more than a soft porn flick.

Then there was The Da Vinci Code, one of the most hyped films of the year. Having since re-watched it on DVD, I still maintain it wasn't the complete disaster many critics claimed, but on the back of such a weight of anticipation and mega-popular Dan Brown novel, was it ever going to live up to our hopes?

Pick of the low-budget offerings has possibly been Hard Candy, the fabulously edgy, twisting tale of a teenager who tries to turn the tables on an internet paedophile. It won an award at the Sundance Film Festival, and heartily deserved it. Blink, however, and you'd have missed it at the cinemas.

And what of the big blockbusters? Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was a welcome return for crazy Captain Jack Sparrow, and while not as lively as the first adventure and a tad over-long, it still whetted our appetite for episode three.

Stormbreaker marked a stylish screen debut for Anthony Horowitz's teen spy Alex Rider, and Tom Cruise's stunt-laden Mission Impossible 3 was far better than the second, but less edgy than the first.

Poseidon, a "re-imagining" of the Oscar-winning classic Poseidon Adventure, was an overblown, effects-laden and soulless exercise, while Snakes On A Plane, the superbly titled B-Movie starring Samuel L Jackson which was spurred on by legions of online fans, made for a passable night of ridiculous eye candy.

Undoubtedly the best two big-budget offerings this year, though, have been Superman Returns and Casino Royale. Brandon Routh is perfectly cast as the man of steel, and director Bryan Singer treats the hero with due reverence.

And Daniel Craig – the man dubbed too blond and too bland to be 007 – has silenced his critics with a rugged, rough, no-nonsense turn which has injected fresh life into the James Bond franchise.

In one of my personal favourite movies this year, Bruce Willis proved he still has what it takes to be an action leading man in the excellent 16 Blocks, playing a jaded cop who runs into revenge killers while escorting a motormouth witness (Mos Def) to the local courthouse.

Merit stars must also go to Steven Spielberg's Munich, which charts the secret revenge killings after the 1972 Olympics, Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line which is transformed by a fabulous Reese Witherspoon turn, Martin Scorsese's latest multi-layered thriller The Departed, prickly fashion spoof The Devil Wears Prada, and British drama The Queen, which must surely earn Helen Mirren an Oscar nomination.

Russell Crowe's annual bid for Oscar recognition rather fizzled out in A Good Year. The French vineyard scenery is superb, but the odd mix of slapstick and romance in Ridley Scott's film it hit-and-miss at best.

And so to the unofficial Shropshire Star movie awards for 2006.

Best Drama has to be United 93 – Paul Greengrass' gripping and at times uncomfortable real-time account of what happened aboard United Airlines Flight 93 which crashed in the fields of Pennsylvania on 9/11.

Best tearjerker is Eight Below, Disney's tale of the explorers who are forced to leave their loyal husky sled dogs behind in Antarctica as winter closes in.

Best comedy – I'm almost ashamed to admit – has to be Borat. It a world where political correctness is running riot, there's something liberating about Sacha Baron Cohen's outrageously offensive Kazakhstani TV reporter who is at crude, rude and downright insulting.

For Best Blockbuster, I'm sitting on the fence. Let's call it a dead heat between the two hero heavyweights, Superman and 007.

And 2007 looks set to get off to a fascinating start, with Mel Gibson's latest oddball effort Apocalypto, and Sylvester Stallone giving hope to OAPs the world over by stepping back into the ring at 60 years old in Rocky Balboa. It's so ridiculous that it has the potential to be absolutely magniicent!!!