Radioactive Dreams Movie Review
Surreal, practically senseless fantasy wherein two men, trapped in a bomb shelter for 15 years with nothing to read but mystery novels, emerge as detectives into a post-holocaust world looking for adventure.
Sci-Fi Movies - R
Raiders of Atlantis Movie Review
The domed continent of Atlantis surfaces in the Caribbean and discharges hordes of armored punk warriors on motorcycles (!!!).
Raiders of the Lost Ark Movie Review
Classic '30s-style adventure reminiscent of early serials spawned two sequels and numerous rip-offs. Made Harrison Ford a household name as dashing hero and intrepid archeologist Indiana Jones. He battles mean Nazis, decodes hieroglyphics, fights his fear of snakes, and even has time for a little romance in his quest for the biblical Ark of the Covenant. Karen Allen is perfectly cast as his…
Rats Movie Review
In 2225, the beleaguered survivors of a nuclear holocaust struggle with a mutant rodent problem.
Re-Animator Movie Review
Based on H.P. Lovecraft's serial novella, this grisly Gothic deals with a medical student (Jeffrey Combs) who re-animates the dead and finds that his problems are only beginning. It has become a black-humor cult classic for its numerous excesses and terrific acting. The famous “head” scene is horror/sf's equivalent to the campfire scene in Blazing S…
Reactor Movie Review
A low-budget sci-fi film about kidnapped scientists, alien ships, and an activated nuclear reactor.
Rebel Storm Movie Review
A group of freedom fighters team up to rescue America from the totalitarian rulers that are in charge in 2099 A.D.
Red Planet Mars Movie Review
“The Sermon on the Mount…on Mars!” The ads promised “out of this world excitement and suspense,” but this adaptation of the play Red Planet, by John L.
Remote Control Movie Review
A circulating videotape of a 1950's sci-fi flick is turning people into murderous zombies, thanks to some entrepreneurial aliens.
Replikator: Cloned to Kill Movie Review
In the 21st century, a ruthless criminal gets hold of replication techology that can duplicate anything, including people.
Reptilicus Movie Review
Laughable attempt to get Denmark into the Godzilla business.
TV on Tape: Red Dwarf Movie Review
As TV sci-fi sitcoms go, Red Dwarf is the one to beat. On the BBC since 1988, this British spoof started off with a premiere episode called “The End,” in which a ne'er-do-well crewman aboard the miles-long interstellar mining craft Red Dwarf awoke from cryogenic detention to learn that his shipmates succumbed to a radiation leak and three million years have gone by. Mankind is…
Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler Movie Review
Interesting curio in which a presidential candidate, severely injured in a car crash, is deemed worthy for lifesaving organ transplants at a mysterious clinic in New Mexico.
The Return Movie Review
Jan-Michael Vincent and Cybill Shepherd meet as adults and discover that they had both, as children, been visited by aliens who had given technology to a cattle-mutilating prospector.
Return of Captain Invincible Movie Review
Beloved wartime superguy Captain Invincible was subpoenaed before a McCarthyite panel and blacklisted for wearing a red-colored cape and flying without a license.
Return of Chandu Movie Review
This film, which combines the 12-chapter serial, features Bela Lugosi as Chandu, a heroic sorcerer who uses his occult powers to conquer a religious sect of cat worshipers on the island of Lemuria.
The Return of Swamp Thing Movie Review
The DC Comics creature rises again out of the muck to fight mutants and evil scientists.
Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn Movie Review
Organisms from a meteorite multiply and spread through a small town in the form of toothy tadpoles who grow…and grow.
Return of the Fly Movie Review
Slightly lame sequel to the 1958 classic The Fly finds Vincent Price reprising his role as the brother of the doomed inventor in the first film.
Return of the Jedi Movie Review
The third volume in George Lucas’ trilogy does everything right. Two memorable villains – Jabba the Hut and the Emperor – are introduced, and the almost-too-cute Ewoks join our heroes as they fight against the forces of the Empire on three fronts. The effects somehow manage to outdo the first two, and the whole story builds to a completely satisfying conclusion. But the scene …
Revenge of the Creature Movie Review
In this follow up to The Creature From the Black Lagoon, the monstrous Gillman is captured in his Amazon habitat and taken to a Florida marine park. There he is put on display for visitors and cheerfully subjected by John Agar to experiments involving an electric prod. Growing restless in his captive surroundings, the creature breaks free and makes for the ocean. His escape is only a cover for his…
Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space Movie Review
A low-budget film about three sex-starved females from another planet who come to Earth to find men.
Riders of the Storm Movie Review
A motley crew of Vietnam vets runs a covert television broadcasting station from an inflight B-29, jamming America's legitimate airwaves.
Riding with Death Movie Review
A man who can become invisible, thanks to a military experiment, uses his power to uncover a dastardly plot by a mad scientist.
The Road Warrior Movie Review
Incredible photography, terrific stunts, and full-tilt pace make this futuristic sf western one of the most influential movies of the early ‘80s.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars Movie Review
When the orbital ship Mars Gravity Probe 1 is forced to make an emergency landing on the planet's surface, Com. Draper (Paul Mantee) faces the immediate problems of limited supplies of air, water, and food. “Hard” science purists may not approve of the solutions he finds but that's not a problem. This adaptation of Daniel Defoe's novel is more about…
Robo-C.H.I.C. Movie Review
Producers of RoboCop sued over this vulgar spoof – ostensibly for plagiarism (prompting the change of title to Cyber-Chic), but the Hound hopes it was more of class action on behalf of the poor souls tricked into watching.
RoboCop Movie Review
Detroit cop killed in action is used as donor for the face and brain of a crime-fighting cyborg. Trouble begins when RoboCop starts remembering his life as a human and discovers corruption within the giant company that created’ him in more ways than one. Not just superhero action; there's a bleak, cynical view of the future (with catastrophes sprightly described by happy-talk …
RoboCop 2 Movie Review
More cynical, even more violent – is that possible? – sequel to the 1987 pic. ‘Nuke,’ a new addictive drug, has made streets of future Detroit worse than ever. RoboCop's corporate owners, dissatisfied with his performance and vulnerabilities during a police strike, eventually replace him with a stronger cyborg powered by the brain of a psycho pusher/addict…
RoboCop 3 Movie Review
The third RoboCop flick sat on the studio shelf before belated release in 1993. In a break in continuity, RoboCop's new Japanese owners plan to build an ultra-modern city in place of the decrepit 21st-century Detroit, but first must evict thousands of residents. The rebel cyborg (now played by Robert Burke) joins with common citizen to protect their homes, befriending a tiny w…
Roboman Movie Review
American scientist gets in car crash in Soviet Union.
Robot Carnival Movie Review
A collection of eight short films from Japan's top animators, each revolving around the theme of artificial life. Many of the films are without dialogue, and most are lyrical evocations of emotion, like “Presence,” the tale of an aging inventor haunted by the android girl he created. In the improbable but beautifully animated “Cloud,” a little robot-boy trudges t…
Robot Holocaust Movie Review
Somewhere in the future, the weird-looking robots have rebelled and reduced humanity to barbarian warriors.
Robot Jox Movie Review
In the future, wars between East and West are eliminated, but Cold War competition thrives thanks to officiated gladiator duels between titanic robots, each one piloted by a single human operator. Will brotherhood and goodness prevail? Semi-meaningful, semi-ludicrous sci fi (with uneven quality f/x by David Allen), this hijacked hardware concepts from the role-playing game Bat…
Robot Monster Movie Review
This legendary golden turkey gives Plan 9 from Outer Space a run for its low budget as the worst movie of all time. The last six people on Earth – a professor, his wife and daughter, assistant, and two children – make their stand against Ro-Man, a ridiculous alien outfitted in a gorilla suit, topped by a deep sea diver's helmet. Ro-Man is instructed by his ruler, the Great One…
The Robot Vs. the Aztec Mummy Movie Review
Grade-Z Mexican horror film pits a jealous mummy who guards a tomb against tomb robbers and the robot they invent.
Robot Wars Movie Review
Not exactly a sequel to Robot Jox, not even an incredible simulation.
Rock Roll Cowboys Movie Review
A humble roadie wants to become a rock and roll star.
Rock Rule Movie Review
An ambitious animated film that manages to rise above a rather hackneyed storyline. After a nuclear war has wiped out humanity, a new race of beings descended from rats and dogs takes over. Mok, a rock star who bears more than a passing resemblance to Mick Jagger, wants to conjure up a demon that will grant him control of this brave new world. However, Mok finds he needs a perfect voice to complet…
Rocket Attack U.S.A. Movie Review
Antiquated and ridiculous tale of nuclear warfare about the time of Sputnik, with Russia's first strike blowing up New York City and environs.
The Rocketeer Movie Review
Lightheaded fun. Bill Campbell plays a 1930s stunt pilot who stumbles upon a prototype jet-backpack sought after by the nasty Nazis. Donning the secret weapon and a custom-made mask, he becomes a flying superhero, in the spirit of the ‘30s’ matinee serials. Breezy, family entertainment with stupendous special effects and tons of Hollywood references, like a great villain (Timo…
Rocketship Movie Review
Based on the popular comic strip of the ‘30s, Flash Gordon battles sea monsters, ray guns, and robots in this sci-fi adventure, which is an edited version of the first Flash serial.
Rocketship X-M Movie Review
Cheaply produced and rushed into theatres to beat out George Pal's much-touted Destination Moon, this vintage tale depicts a pioneering lunar mission that goes awry thanks to a pencil-and-paper (!) navigational error and lands instead on Mars, where the Earth explorers discover the portentous remnants of human-like society destroyed by atomic war. Static and melodramatic, but …
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Movie Review
Campy, vampy, and anything but subtle, the mother of all cult hits arrived on home video after 15 years of midnight screenings. On tape, of course, the audience participation element is lost. (Or at least lessened; what you and your friends want to do and wear in the privacy of your own place is none of the Hound's business.) So, what about the movie itself? It's not ba…
Rodan Movie Review
Rodan, a gigantic pterodactyl, is awakened from his slumbers in a mineshaft by ill-considered H-bomb tests.
Roller Blade Movie Review
Are you sitting down for this? In a post-holocaust world where the slogan “skate or die” is taken quite literally, a sexy sect of Amazonian nuns on in-line rollerskates worship a “have a nice day” happy face and battle forces of evil (a masked-wrestler type with a gnomelike puppet pal fixed to his hand) using martial arts, mysticism, communal bathing, and hockey sticks.
Roller Blade Warriors: Taken By Force Movie Review
Roller babes battle evil mutant while balancing on big boots with small wheels.
Rollerball Movie Review
James Caan is utterly convincing as a troubled jock in the near-future who can't escape the game.
Roswell: The U.F.O. Cover-Up Movie Review
Fact-based drama finds intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcel (Kyle McLachlan) investigating the wreckage of a craft near his Roswell, New Mexico, air base in the summer of 1947.
R.O.T.O.R. Movie Review
R.O.T.O.R. (Robotic Officer of Tactical Operations Research) is a beefy, humanoid law enforcement ‘droid meant to stop criminals.
Runaway Movie Review
Rogue robots on the loose! Who ya gonna call? ‘Bot-busters! But this isn't supposed to be a comedy.
Running Against Time Movie Review
A teacher tries to change history (and erase his brother's Vietnam death) by time-warping back to 1963 and preventing JFK's murder.
Running Delilah Movie Review
Delilah (Kim Cattrall) is a secret agent who is apparently killed by a vicious arms dealer.
The Running Man Movie Review
A special effects-laden adaptation of the Stephen King novel (originally published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym) about a futuristic television game show.