The Mummy (12A)

This sees the start of a new movie series, made under the banner Dark Universe and featuring the classic monsters of the 1930s – The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and, first, The Mummy. It's an ambitious project, with serious star power: this one has Tom Cruise as the adventurer who inadvertently frees the evil Egyptian princess from her long sleep, with Russell Crowe guesting as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

However, it doesn't bode well. It looks great, and there are some spectacular set pieces. But the scripting is dire, Crowe looks uncomfortable in this kind of popcorn movie and, most of all, the headline star just gets in the way. It’s not that Cruise doesn’t give his all. And he’s quite amusing as a self-centred cad out of his depth. But the director seems unsure whether he’s making a Mission Impossible-style Cruise vehicle or a scary movie, with the result that The Mummy fails to deliver as either.