Science Fiction

[5] Titan A.E. is an awkward mix of 2D and 3D animation from director Don Bluth (Secret of NIMH, Anastasia). It’s not as attractive as Bluth’s other films, and it also suffers from a weak script. There are kernels of dramatic potential, especially with humanity being on the brink of extinction, but the film is more concerned with conjuring arcade-like action and music video moments. …

[4] Peter Hyams (Capricorn One, The Relic) tackles Arthur C. Clarke’s sequel novel. It is, of course, a fool’s errand to follow so closely in the footsteps of Stanley Kubrick and his revolutionary and revered 2001: A Space Odyssey, but for whatever reason, that errand was run. And for a while, 2010‘s not so bad. 2001 leaves a lot of mystery in its wake, so …

[8] After tackling fantasy in The Neverending Story, director Wolfgang Petersen turned to science-fiction in this intimate tale of opposing fighter pilots who crash-land on a dangerous planet together. Dennis Quaid plays the human, and Louis Gossett Jr plays the alien, unrecognizable under Chris Walas’ incredible prosthetic makeup. The screenplay wisely spends the first two-thirds of the movie building a bond between the characters, taking …

[7] It’s rare, but here we have a remake that is better than the original. Kevin Dillon stars as a high school boy trying to warn his community that a blobular alien is devouring everyone in its sight. There are a few corny moments I could have done without (the motorcycle jump, for one), but Chuck Russell’s (Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriros) …

[6] A meteorite crashes to Earth, carrying a blob of jelly that grows exponentially by devouring everyone in its path. The original Blob movie is charming in a retro-gitchy way, even if you never buy then 28-year old Steve McQueen as a high schooler. I like the first half of the movie, while the Blob is still mysterious and no one believes what our teen-aged …

[6] Jupiter Ascending is probably the last big-budget studio picture from Andy & Lana Wachowski, the creators of The Matrix trilogy and some other movies that failed to live up to expectation. I admire the Wachowski’s ambition and I appreciate how they always try to push the envelope with content and execution. It’s not always a success, unfortunately. Jupiter Ascending is a huge, epic story …

[6] Pete Travis directs from a script by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Sunshine) this second attempt to bring the comic book character Judge Dredd to the big screen. This is a smaller-scale production than the 1995 Sylvester Stallone version, but it’s a tighter story with more tonal consistency (no Rob Schneider here, kids). Travis and Garland’s version starts off strong, introducing us to Judge Dredd …

[7] A horny teenager and his dog communicate telepathically while wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of food and women in this adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s novella. The heart of the movie is the antagonistic but loving relationship between its title characters, the human half of which is played by future Miami Vice star Don Johnson. The narrative is loose, ultimately leading to Johnson’s capture …

[2] A cheesy-looking bug alien goes on a rape rampage in New York City. Any actress inclined to go full-frontal will wind up the mother of its space spawn! Breeders is a thinly veiled attempt by a porn director (Tim Kincaid) to go ‘legit’. The result is a perfect mash-up of a B-monster movie and soft core porn, with copious female nudity, a handful of …

[6] A passenger plane crashes after a close encounter with a UFO. The survivors are left in a remote desert to defend themselves against a blob-like alien that creates a vaginal slit in its victims’ foreheads before crawling inside their brains, commandeering their bodies, and turning them into blood-sucking vampires. Needless to say, this film is Japanese. Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell is gitchy-cool for …

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