[4] There’s really no way to make a good sequel to Poltergeist and retain any sense of dignity in the doing. But even if you go into Poltergeist II: The Other Side knowing it’s one of the most unnecessary sequels ever made, you’ll probably still find yourself disappointed. The Freeling family (JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O’Rourke, and Oliver Robins) are back, living with …
[6] Deepsea miners dig for silver and find a genetically mutated monster that picks them off one by one — you know, Alien under the sea. Even though the script is a hack job, Leviathan should still satisfy anyone in need of a creature feature fix. Production values are high, with Stan Winston Studios providing the special effects, renowned Hollywood conceptual designer Ron Cobb on …
[6] Elisabeth Shue (Adventures in Babysitting) stars as a scientist working on an invisibility experiment for the U.S. military in this thriller from director Paul Verhoeven (Spetters, RoboCop). Things are looking good until her brilliant cohort and ex-boyfriend, played by Kevin Bacon, decides to be the first human subject. He successfully becomes invisible, but the transformation also weakens his state of mind and moral grounding. …
[5] Modern-day pirates try to rob a cruise ship at sea only to discover that tentacles creatures from the ocean depths have already claimed the ship’s crew. Deep Rising is a shake-and-bake assembly of Alien and The Poseidon Adventure that pales in comparison to either of those greater movies, but if you’re hard up for some genre thrills, it might do the trick for you. …
[6] Harrison Ford stars as the American president in this ‘Die Hard on a plane’ riff directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Outbreak). When a team of old Soviet Union terrorists led by Gary Oldman take over Air Force One, Ford makes them think he escaped, when he’s actually still on board and planning a surprise attack. Back at the White House, Glenn Close plays …
[5] George C. Scott’s charisma is the best thing Patton has going for it. The film is a pastiche of the famous (and infamous) army general’s career through World War II, including his successful invasion of Sicily, media blunders resulting in military reprimand, and his eventual aid in the fall of the Third Reich. The film initially paints Patton as a hard-ass who gets the …
[6] When it was William Shatner’s turn to spearhead a Star Trek movie, he wanted it to be about a search for God in which God turned out to be the Devil. The studio let him have his way, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ended up under-performing during the crowded summer of 1989 (when Batman and Indiana Jones slayed at the box office). …
[5] First Blood is a terrific action movie because, as absurd as it gets toward its conclusion, it’s rooted in solid drama and with great verisimilitude. This sequel, cowritten by Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar), and directed by George Cosmotos (Tombstone, Leviathan), lacks that sincerity or realism. It’s much more of a comic-book superhero movie, complete with a leading hero who looks more …
[7] Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, and Harold Perrineau survive a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness where they have to rely on each other for survival against the elements and a bloodthirsty kodiak bear who follows them everywhere they go. So we’ve got ‘man against nature’ and ‘man against beast’ going on. Writer David Mamet and director Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) go one step …
[7] After the success of Star Wars two years earlier, Paramount was quick to launch their own cinematic foray into outer space with the first Star Trek feature film. Star Trek: The Motion Picture reunites the crew from the TV show, which by then had developed a cult following. But when audiences showed up for the film’s big opening weekend, the film wasn’t quite what …
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