In Ridley Scott’s Alien there was one monster. In James Cameron’s Aliens there was hundreds. That calls for a heavily armed team of marines. But who is the best of the best?

Guillermo Del Toro’s Mimic arrives on Blu-ray on the 31st October with an all-new director’s cut. But does it improve on his first Hollywood film?

The Spice Girls might have coined the phrase but the ladies in the following ten films exhibit far more Girl Power than Sporty, Scary, Baby, Ginger and Posh. From recent films such as Hard Candy, Erin Brockovich and Million Dollar Baby to classics like Carrie and Aliens, this top 10 features great female characters performed by the very best actresses at the top of their games.

What if there was a magic ticket that transported you into your favourite movie? It is something I’ve been thinking about since watching Last Action Hero for the umpteenth time…

As the site reaches its first birthday, I thought I’d look back at some of my cinema firsts. I’ve picked ten things that stick in my memory as a kid growing up with a love of cinema. From my first film and first visit to the cinema, to the first sex scene I saw, the first horror film, and the first film I considered my personal favourite. Take a look and let us know some of your cinema firsts…

Steven Spielberg returns to the film that made him a star and a billionnaire. Bringing back key character Matt Hooper with Richard Dreyfuss on board to act in the film, Jaws 5 is going to be the biggest hit of summer 2012.

The year is 2020. It is 45 years since ichthyologist Matt Hooper went out onto the ocean with police chief Martin Brody and fisherman Quint to kill the terrifying great white shark terrorising the beach community of Amity Island. He has become the leading figure in marine biology and the study of sharks. He has also become a minor celebrity after his exploits in 1975.

Aliens is one of my favourite films. It arrived at a time – during the middle 1980s – when science-fiction was a huge box office attraction. Lucas had kicked it all off with “Star Wars”, with Ridley Scott’s “Alien” and Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.” continuing the trend. “Aliens” was the perfect follow-up to “Alien” – bigger, more expansive, and equally as scary, it also benefitted from a fast-moving action-movie aesthetic that wryly mocked the war credentials of America’s military in Vietnam. Here was a crowd-pleaser and blockbusting spectacle that had depth, character, and intelligence.

Do you recall that scene in “Scream 2”, where Jamie Kennedy’s character imparts his words of wisdom to a class of students (and so, to us) as to the rule of film sequels? About what must be done to achieve a perfect sequel? Admittedly, the “Scream” formula itself began to run out of puff after the first film, but it laid the groundwork for this Top 10 list, namely the 10 best sequels ever made. Thankfully, this list automatically excludes the “Police Academy” and “Look Who’s Talking” films, so you can rest easy.