Baby … Secret of the Lost Legend Movie Review
A sportswriter and his paleontologist wife risk their lives to reunite a hatching brontosaurus with its mother in the African jungle.
Sci-Fi Movies - B
Back to the Future Movie Review
When neighborhood mad scientist Doc Brown constructs a time machine from a DeLorean, his youthful companion Marty accidentally transports himself to 1955. There, Marty inadvertently alters the events leading up to his own birth, and must do everything he can to bring his parents back together so he can be born on schedule. At the same time, he has to elude the local bully, and he's still go…
Part 2 Back to the Future Movie Review
Taking up exactly where Part 1 left off, Doc Brown and Marty time-hop into the future (2015 to be exact) to save Marty's kids, then find themselves returning to 1955 to retrieve a sports almanac that causes havoc for the McFly family. Clever editing allows for Marty Part 2 to see Marty Part 1 at the school dance. Most of the cast returns, although Crispin Glover appears only i…
Part 3 Back to the Future Movie Review
This third and final chapter of Robert Zemeckis’ time-travel series picks up where Part 2 climaxed. Stuck once again in 1955, time-traveling hero Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) frantically searches for Doc Brown so he can return to 1985. Instead, he finds himself in the Wild West circa 1885, trying to save Doc's life and shepherd him through a love-affair with Mary Steenb…
Backlash: Oblivion 2 Movie Review
All of the raucous elements from the original outer-space Western comedy monster flick are back, with the addition of Maxwell Caulfield as a W.C.
Bad Channels Movie Review
As the frenzied DJ at nationwide radio station KDUL spins the hits, an alien interloper (accurately described as looking “like a turd in a portable window”) shrinks down pretty female listeners to put into specimen jars for transport back to his planet.
Bad Girls from Mars Movie Review
A Z-grade sleaze-o-rama in which everyone is murdered either before, after, or during sex.
Bad Taste Movie Review
Before Peter Jackson made the critically acclaimed gem Heavenly Creatures, before he took muppetry out of the kids’ room (Meet the Feebles), and before he got the government of New Zealand to fund his crowd-pleasing gore-comedy Dead Alive, he wrote, directed, and starred in this sick little tale of alien fast-food manufacturers, here on Earth harvesting and processing human mu…
The Bamboo Saucer Movie Review
Roswell mania has given this relic added interest, but only slightly.
Barbarella Movie Review
People change. Before Jane Fonda was a political activist or a serious actress or a workout queen, she was, in the parlance of the times, a sex-kitten starlet. And what was once a boundary-challenging sf romp now carries a tame PG rating. Actually, the film has never been anything more than a tongue-in-cheek comedy, and it has become more than a little dated. It's based on the popular Frenc…
Baron Munchausen Movie Review
The German film studio UFA celebrated its 25th anniversary with this lavish version of the Baron Munchausen legend, and until 1981's Das Boot this was the most expensive film ever made in Germany (and it was made during the height of World War II).
Batman Movie Review
Tim Burton's dark comic-book epic marked the return of the caped crusader to the big screen and became one of the highest-grossing films ever. Mr. Mom himself, Michael Keaton, dons the cape in this incarnation, and is surprisingly good as the crime fighter and his millionaire alter ego Bruce Wayne. Jack Nicholson as the deranged Joker steals the movie. The story revolves around the Joker&#x…
Chicks Love the Car Movie Review
– Batman (Val Kilmer) and Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) in Batman Forever.
Batman Forever Movie Review
This second sequel considerably lightens up Tim Burton's dark vision. Joel Schumacher steps into the directing boots and delivers a kinder, gentler Caped Crusader. Val Kilmer takes over the cape and cowl, delivering an appropriately deadpan performance. Once again the villains overshadow the hero. An array of bad guys threaten Gotham City in this installment. Tommy Lee Jones shows up as the…
Batman Returns Movie Review
More (actually lots more) of the same from director Tim Burton, with Michael Keaton's Batman remaining the least interesting character. He is again overshadowed by provocative villains. Danny DeVito is the sadly misshapen Penguin who seeks to rule over the city that has tormented him; Michelle Pfeiffer is the exotic and dangerous Catwoman – who has more than a passing p…
*batteries not included Movie Review
As an evil real estate developer schemes to demolish a New York tenement, the few remaining residents are aided in their struggle by friendly flying saucers that are only the size of, well, saucers, and these miniature machine-creatures have a talent for home improvement and helping out old folks.
The Hound Salutes: The Science Fiction of John Sayles Movie Review
Like many filmmakers, John Sayles got his start in fiction. His first books were Pride of the Bimbos (about cross-dressing baseball players) and the well-received Union Dues. Then he decided to try his hand at Hollywood, working primarily as a writer but also as a director and actor. And like many a young filmmaker, he hired on with Roger Corman, and made a name for himself as a writ…
Battle Beneath the Earth Movie Review
The commies try to undermine democracy once again when American scientists discover a Chinese plot to invade the U.S. via a series of underground tunnels.
Battle Beyond the Stars Movie Review
The sf comic book version of The Magnificent Seven appeals to the 10-year-old in all of us.
Battle Beyond the Sun Movie Review
Francis Ford Coppola was just out of UCLA film school when he was hired as an assistant for $90 a week by Roger Corman.
Battle for Moon Station Dallos Movie Review
Confusing but well rendered cartoon feature from Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii about a rebellion waged by slave-like colonists’ on the moon against their heartless Earth masters. Dallos is a mysterious (alien?) lunar city the freedom fighters worship as a god. Surprisingly sober-minded (no comic-relief robots, cowboy sidekicks, or talking animals) and …
Battle for the Planet of the Apes Movie Review
A tribe of human (well, semi-human) mutants and warlike gorillas make life miserable for the peaceful ape tribe. The story (actually a “prequel” to the series proper) is told primarily in flashback with the opening and closing sequences taking place in the year 2670 A.D, where an old orangutan is telling young chimps the story of ape history, beginning wit…
Battle of the Worlds Movie Review
Typical low-budget science fiction.
The Beast from Fathoms (20,000) Movie Review
One of the first prehistoric-monster-loosed-by-radiation movie of the ‘50s is still one of the best.
The Beast of Yucca Flats Movie Review
Expecting a giant radioactive dinosaur? Try a radioactive Tor Johnson! In this unbelievably cheap, quasi-nuclear protest film, Tor plays a Russian scientist who's chased by communist agents into a nuclear testing area and is caught in an atomic blast. As a result, he turns into a club-wielding caveman – very like all the “monsters” Tor played in other movies. Droning vo…
Beastmaster Movie Review
Standard sword-and-sorcery adventure set in a wild and primitive world of magic. The young hero Dar is able to communicate telepathically with animals. He soon becomes involved in an epic battle against the evil priest Maax, who enjoys turning people into murderous zombies by sticking worms in their ears and dressing them in ugly leather costumes. Luckily Dar has his trusty ferrets at his side &#x…
Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time Movie Review
This time the laughs are intentional as Dar the Beastmaster (Marc Singer) follows an evil monarch through a dimensional gateway to modern-day L.A.
Beastmaster 3: The Eye of Braxus Movie Review
You wouldn't think it possible or financially feasible, but heroic hunk Dar the Beastmaster (Marc Singer) has returned once again to battle evil. Lord Agon (David Warner) needs to obtain a jeweled eye that will bring the demon Braxus back to life, and he'll stop at nothing to reach his terrifying goal, including kidnapping Dar's brother King Tal &#x…
The Bees Movie Review
Terrible movie.
Before Hang I Movie Review
When a doctor invents a youth serum from the blood of a murderer, he'll stop at nothing to keep his secret.
Beginning of the End Movie Review
From the opening shot of a couple necking in a convertible on lovers’ lane to the tinny over-wrought musical score to the stock footage of soldiers and tanks, this is the archetypal 1950s big-bug B-movie. Huge, radiation-spawned locusts attack Chicago. Peter Graves springs into action and saves the day. Easily the best giant grasshopper film ever made, it's good for giggles but littl…
Beneath the Planet of the Apes Movie Review
In this first sequel to the science-fiction classic, another twentieth-century astronaut, Brent (James Franciscus) arrives in the year 3995 attempting to find his lost colleague Taylor (Charlton Heston). He passes through the same time warp and follows the same path as Taylor did in the original Planet of the Apes film. Brent discovers Ape City and travels through the r…
Beyond the Bermuda Triangle Movie Review
Don't expect much from this downbeat TV movie in the way of f/x or answers, just a few oblique references to time/space warps as a retired businessman (old pro Fred MacMurray in a nice performance that dignifies the material) suffers friends and family members vanishing in the alleged hoodoo waters off the coast of Florida.
Beyond the Stars Movie Review
Christian Slater is a problem kid bent on an aerospace career, who befriends reclusive Apollo 11 astronaut Martin Sheen, still bitter over the NASA cover-up of a deadly accident on the moon.
Beyond the Time Barrier Movie Review
Air Force test pilot gets more than he bargained for when his high speed plane carries him into the future.
Biggles Movie Review
Generations of English boys thrilled to W.E.
Bill Ted's Bogus Journey Movie Review
While this big-budget sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure has better special effects, it doesn't quite capture the charm of the original. It's still fun, though, and to its credit it doesn't simply duplicate the time-travel theme of the first movie. Slain by look-alike robot duplicates from the future, the airhead heroes pass through an impressively visual…
Bill Ted's Excellent Adventure Movie Review
Many film-goers expected this flick to be nothing more than another brainless teen-comedy, but found themselves pleasantly surprised. When two amiable but intellectually challenged Valley Boys find themselves in danger of failing their history final, they're rescued by Rufus (George Carlin), and his time-traveling telephone booth. It seems that Bill and Ted are destined to bec…
Bio Hazard Movie Review
A government experiment in psychic teleportation somehow beams to Earth a familiarly toothsome monster who goes on a deadly rampage.
Biohazard: The Alien Force Movie Review
Like the original, a 1985 alternative classic, this is a silly little thing about a monster played by a guy in the least-scary rubber suit you ever saw.
The Birds Movie Review
Hitchcock's borderline sf chiller is one of the best and most creative Man-versus-Nature shockers. Still wildly original in the way the plot slowly turns from a romantic soap opera – whole first hour details sophisticate Tippi Hedren venturing to a California island community to snare lawyer Rod Taylor despite his disapproving mother – into an environmental nightmare, with blo…
The Birds 2: Land's End Movie Review
Unfortunate ripoff of the Hitchcock fright classic.
The Black Hole Movie Review
What is mad scientist Maximilian Schell up to as his starship sits at the edge of a black hole? Lots of nasty robots and abominable dialogue provide the answers in this Disney space adventure.
The Black Scorpion Movie Review
King Kong’s Willis O'Brien co-designed the effects in this above-average giant insector.
Blade Runner Movie Review
Moody, beautifully photographed thriller has become better with age. 21st century L.A. is violent, rainy, smoky, and dark; a multi-ethnic, multi-racial place where the wealthy live in cool luxury and everyone else fights for a little space and quiet away from the crowd and the constant barrage of advertising. That world is so believable that it gives the action an unusual amount of emotional power…
Blake of Scotland Yard Movie Review
Blake, the former Scotland Yard inspector, battles against a villain who has constructed a murderous death ray.
The Blob Movie Review
In his first starring role, Steve McQueen is a rebel with a cause: to save his small Pennsylvania town from a gelatinous invader from outer space. Naturally, the adults don't believe him, but they change their tune when this purple people eater engulfs a supermarket, a diner, and most memorably, a movie theatre (where Daughter of Horror is playing). McQueen's girlfriend…
TV on Tape: Blake's Seven Movie Review
Key writers behind Doctor Who concocted this leaner, meaner sci-fi adventure which might accurately be called the anti-Star Trek. Instead of a touchy-feely crew of super-competent comrades, this has future freedom-fighter Blake in an alliance of convenience with a band of cutthroats and rogues (who threaten to murder one another at least once per episode), piloting the advanced space…
The Blob Movie Review
We will leave it to sociologists to explain why the ‘80s were a fertile breeding ground for remakes of such beloved ‘50s sci-fi cult classics as The Fly, The Thing, Invaders from Mars, and The Blob, which is perhaps best remembered as the film that launched the career of Steve McQueen. But thanks to the advanced art of special effects, the massive glutinous monster is at last, the st…
The Blood of Heroes Movie Review
A post-apocalyptic action flick detailing the adventures of a battered team of “juggers,” warriors who challenge small village teams to a brutal sport (involving dogs’ heads on sticks) that's a cross between jousting and football.
Blue Flame Movie Review
Vigilante cop is hired to track down two humanoid aliens who have escaped captivity in futuristic L.A.
Blue Monkey Movie Review
Definitely a cause for blues, this notoriously mistitled mess of creature-feature cliches has a mysterious tropical plant impregnating a man (!), who upchucks a vile insect larva that spreads disease, initiating lockdown quarantine in a huge metro hospital.
Blue Thunder Movie Review
Maverick helicopter pilots Roy Scheider and Daniel Stern test an experimental high-tech chopper that can see through walls, record a whisper, and destroy a city block. Supposedly the supercopter will ensure security during 1984 Olympics, but the same right-wing ogres who engineered the Vietnam War actually intend to use it to massacre Los Angeles minorities before the assembled worldwide media…
Blue Tornado Movie Review
Mysterious bright light, emitted from a mountain, makes supersonic NATO jets disappear into thin air.
Bob Lazar: Excerpts from the Government Bible Movie Review
The government says that Bob Lazar was never a scientist of any sort for them, much less the chief physicist in charge of “back engineering” alien disc technology at the ultra-secret area known as S4 of area 51 in the Nevada Air Force Range.
Body Melt Movie Review
Crazed doctor unleashes a new drug on the unsuspecting citizens of a small New Zealand town, causing both violent insanity, graphic internal blood mutations, and, ultimately, equally graphic total meltdown.
Body Snatchers Movie Review
“They're out there. They're everywhere. They get you when you sleep, you hear?” The pod people are at it again and who better than Bad Lieutenant director Abel Ferrara, who one critic has described as “the poet of the soulless,” to bring them to the screen for the third time? This version is set on an army base, a brilliant maneuver as the military'…
Bog Movie Review
Some leftover stars from sci-fi's Golden Age reunited for this lost cause, filmed in Wisconsin, about a humanoid lake monster who drinks type-A blood and has a more-than-platonic relationship with a rural witch woman (thankfully, we're spared the details).
Boom in the Moon Movie Review
Buster Keaton fares poorly in this sci-fi comedy.
The Borrower Movie Review
An exiled unstable mutant insect alien serial killer (you know the type) must switch heads with human beings regularly to survive.
Bounty Hunter (2002) Movie Review
An incurable virus kills 98% of the world's population.
A Boy and His Dog Movie Review
Fetch this cult classic, a “kinky tale of survival,” based on Harlan Ellison's novella. In the post-holocaust world of 2014, the essence of humans and animals has been reversed. Don Johnson stars as a dim-witted youth who treks across the barren wilderness foraging for food and women. It is his canine companion, Blood, with whom he communicates telepathically, that is the more…
The Boys from Brazil Movie Review
With Gregory Peck as an obsessed Nazi hellbent on cloning a batch of little Adolphs, Laurence Olivier (in an Academy Award-nominated performance) as a Jewish Nazi-hunter, and just a slightly ridiculous plot, Ira Levin's novel is brought to the screen. With numerous “on-location” segments filmed around the world, the movie plays more like a big adventure flick, la…
The Brain Eaters Movie Review
A strange ship from inside the Earth invades a small town, and hairy monsters promptly attach themselves to people's necks in a daring bid to control the planet.
Mad Scientists Movie Review
Both madness and genius are defined somewhat by the fact that both involve a radically different viewpoint than that of the vast majority. Madmen were probably running about declaring that the Earth orbits the Sun for thousands of years before anybody developed the tools necessary to prove them right. After all, Einstein was once laughed at. Of course, he may have had toilet paper stuck on his sho…
The Brain from Planet Arous Movie Review
Nuclear scientist John Agar is possessed by an evil alien brain named Gor.
The Brain that Wouldn't Die Movie Review
Love is a many-splattered thing when a brilliant surgeon keeps the decapitated head of his fiancee alive after an auto accident while he searches for a suitably stacked body onto which to transplant the head.
Brainstorm Movie Review
Natalie Wood's last film is far from her best but the good special effects and interesting camera work (not to mention one of the better James Horner scores), make this a well spent couple of hours. Michael and Karen Brace (Christopher Walken and Wood) invent a device that can record dreams, thoughts, and fantasies, like your home VCR, and allow other people to p…
Brainwaves Movie Review
A young woman has disturbing flashbacks after her brain is electrically revived following a car accident.
Brazil Movie Review
Relentlessly nightmarish black comedy about an Everyman trying to survive in a paper-choked bureaucratic future society, while at the same time clinging to his hopes and dreams, particularly his dream girl. There are copious references to 1984, The Trial, and even A Clockwork Orange, as well as inspired mergings of glorious fantasy and stark reality intertwined with an astounding visual design. Ou…
The Bride of Frankenstein Movie Review
The classic sequel to the classic original. When his wife is kidnapped by his old associate Dr. Pretorious (Ernest Thesiger, in a highly amusing role), Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is forced to help build a mate for his monster. More humor than the first, but also more pathos, including the monster's famous but short-lived friendship with a blind hermit, who te…
Bride of the Monster Movie Review
This bargain-basement epic is a pretty good example of director Ed Wood's ability to cobble together a practically nonexistent budget and skimpy props into a memorable, if not exactly good film. Bela Lugosi stars as the mad Dr. Vornoff, a scientist trying to create a race of “atomic supermen” in his laboratory. Bald muscle-man Tor Johnson is “Lobo,” one of his fa…
The Brides of Fu Manchu Movie Review
Christopher Lee returns in this sequel to The Face of Fu Manchu.
The Bronx Executioner Movie Review
Android, robot, and human interests clash in futuristic Manhattan and all martial arts hell breaks loose.
The Brood Movie Review
An emotionally disturbed woman (Samantha Eggar) falls under the influence of a mad doctor (Oliver Reed).
The Brother from Another Planet Movie Review
Written and directed by John Sayles, and characteristic of his work, it is thoughtful, intelligent, and offbeat. But it's not nearly as fun as the genre films (The Howling, Alligator) he wrote for Roger Corman. Joe Morton stars as a mute and enigmatic black extraterrestrial recently arrived in Harlem. By all outward appearances he looks human, but he has hidden supernatural po…
Bubblegum Crisis Movie Review
One of the earliest of the many Japanese anime series set against the backdrop of a future Tokyo, inspired by actual plans for citywide renovation set to take place over the next 50 years. The nefarious, ever-expanding GENOM corporation unleashes bio-mechanical soldiers called Boomers – originally designed for outer-space projects and foreign wars, but now causing havoc within the city as p…
Buck Rogers Conquers the Universe Movie Review
The character of Buck Rogers originated in the 1928 Philip Francis Nowlan novel Armageddon 2419 A.D.; Nowlan helped adapt it into the first sf newspaper comic strip.
Buck Rogers in the h Century (25t) Movie Review
An American astronaut (Gil Gerard), preserved in space for 500 years, is brought back to life by a passing Draconian flagship.
Bug Movie Review
The city of Riverside is threatened with destruction after a massive Earth tremor unleashes a mob of prehistoric cockroaches that set fires with their butts, attack cats and housewives, and are virtually impervious to Raid. A local biology teacher, not content to leave well enough alone, crosses the critters with the common kitchen-variety roach. The new and improved (and hungry) sup…