Age of Dinosaurs (2013)
Genetically-Engineered Dinosaurs Amok
A ,odestly effective Jurassic Park copy from The Asylum with genetically-revived dinosaurs loose in L.A. and featuring better than usual effects
Sinister Corporations
Alien (1979)
Alien Nasty on a Spaceship
One of the most influential films on this site, producing a host of sequels and making the careers of all involved. At heart, a simple monster on a spaceship film, it is made into a classic through Ridley Scott’s relentless suspense and H.R. Giger’s design work
Aliens (1986)
Alien Sequel
James Cameron’s follow-up to Alien is one of the few sequels that matches its predecessor (surpasses it in the eyes of many). Adding a troupe of Marines, Cameron creates a powerhouse of a film that sustains itself with seat-edge tension throughout
Andron (2015)
Mysterious Labyrinth/Future Televised Games
A group of people whose memories have been blanked wake up in a mysterious labyrinth and have to survive death traps and each other. A promising mix of Cube and The Hunger Games killed by clumsy storytelling
Another WolfCop (2017)
Werewolf Cop/Horror Comedy
WolfCop found an appeal with its amusing title premise. Here the principal talents involved have reunited for a sequel, although the feeling is more that they have done so solely because the first film was a success
Archive (2020)
Mind Upload Into an Android Body
One of the better in the fad for Artificial Intelligence films we have had since the 2010s with Theo James trying to place his late wife’s consciousness into an android body
ARQ (2016)
Timeloop
Another variant on the Groundhog Day theme with characters trapped in a timeloop. This come with an SF rationale and contains the plot in a single location while spinning each repeat through some smart twists
Astro (2018)
Alien Visitor
A film about alien visitors, transcendental states of mind and sinister government agencies. This boggles the mind in terms of laughable writing and all-round bad filmmaking
Barbie (2023)
Doll Enters the Real World
Less a film than a phenomenon, there is something ironic about a doll that is accused of promoting negative body standards ending up leading a women’s movement. Moria has just one or two issues with this.
The Belko Experiment (2016)
Office Employees Trapped in a Deadly Elimination Game
Greg (Wolf Creek) McLean directs from a script by James Gunn. Essentially The Office by way of Battle Royale in which eighty employees are locked in an office building and given orders to eliminate one another with their bare hands
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Cyberpunk Future/Androids
Blade Runner is a landmark classic but this is well worthwhile sequel from Denis Villeneuve that recreates the fascinating Cyberpunk world in more detail and expands out on the themes laid down in the original. Made with impeccably beautiful detail
Blue Beetle (2023)
Comic-Book Superhero
The DC Comics superhero Blue Beetle, one of the Teen Titans, is given his own film. One of the more quickly forgettable entries among DC Comics’ attempts to compete with the MCU
Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021)
Cute Giant Dog
The best-selling children’s book series come to the screen with a big red CGI dog, which proves more enjoyable than the low-expectation film you initially expect going in
Dark Island (2010)
Mysterious Island/Toxic Cloud Amok
This feels like a mockbuster thrown together to exploit the popularity of the tv series Lost concerning an island haunted by a sinister cloud of smoke. The scenario quickly collapses into absurdity.
Darkside Blues (1994)
Anime/Dark Future/Mysterious Stranger
Anime where a mysterious other-dimensional stranger aids future rebels. This has a wonderfully ornate Gothic feel but an entirely confusing plot
Death Race 2050 (2017)
Future Road Race/Satire
Death Race 2000 with its premise of a road race where drivers collect points by running down pedestrians, was a hit for producer Roger Corman. It was remade minus the satire as a straight action film with Death Race; here Corman remakes the original (albeit very cheaply) and restores the satire
Edge of Darkness (1985)
Nuclear Power/Environmental Thriller
One of the great tv series of the 1980s, a powerful and incisive snapshot of Thatcherite England, the backroom politics of the nuclear power industry and the environmentalist movement. A brilliantly written show featuring great performances
Edge of Darkness (2010)
Nuclear Conspiracy Thriller/TV Series Remake
A film remake of one of the great tv series of the 1980s. A complete betrayal by the original’s director Martin Campbell that strips all the politics and simply makes it into a Mel Gibson revenge film
The Facility (2012)
Drug Trial Gone Wrong
Modestly creepy film about a group of subjects locked in a hospital as part of a drug trial that proceeds to go wrong
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation
Mike Flanagan mini-series that expands on the story to incorporate a host of other Poe stories. More like another of Mike Flanagan’s cross-generational ghost stories by way of tv’s Succession with a lot of Poe-esque margin notes
The Formula (1980)
International Thriller/Hunt for a Nazi Fuel Substitute
Dull big-budget international thriller about Nazi secret formulas and Big Oil conspiracies. This seems intended as a copy of The Boys from Brazil centred around George C. Scott and Marlon Brando trying to out over-act one another
Free Guy (2021)
Man Discovers He is a Videogame Character
Ryan Reynolds discovers he is a character inside a videogame. This has a conceptual ingenuity and originality and is the most fun and outrightly enjoyable mainstream film seen of recent
Future Kick (1991)
Cyberpunk Future Action
Cheap Cyberpunk action film that borrows the basics of Cyborg with Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson as android bounty hunter engaged in stopping corporate skulduggery
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
Giant Monster Bash
One of fantastic cinema’s great titles bouts is a spectacular effects show. At the same time, it also has one of the single most ridiculous script I have ever come across in the entire time I have been running this site
The Guest (2014)
Sinister Stranger
Adam Wingard thriller about a sinister stranger who inveigles his way into a household. This does well playing off the handsomely polished charms of Dan Stevens, less well when it turns into an a left field action film
The Guyver (1991)
Power-Suit Superhero
US-made live-action adaptation of a popular manga/anime about a power-suit superhero. Directed by two makeup effects artists mostly as a vehicle for their creature creations
Hardwired (2009)
Satiric Corporate Future/Advertising Brain Implants
This has the promising idea of a corporate-ruled future where people receive advertising implants but soon dissolves into no more than the equivalent of a B-budget hacker thriller
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
Immortal Combat/Dark Future
Probably THE worst sequel ever made. The script’s treatment of continuity to the first film is utterly incoherent, while director Russell Mulcahy and most of the cast go at it with unrestrained OTT excess
Hover (2018)
Near Future Conspiracy
From the title and poster, you get the impression this is a future-set film about hoverboards or drones. Instead we have a near-future film where euthanasia is dispatched by corporate lackeys and involving agri-business conspiracy
Jekyll (2007)
Modernised Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde/TV Mini-Series
Doctor Who writer/producer Steven Moffat’s modernised revamping of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the best versions of the story to date. Moffat reworks the story in fascinatingly radical ways, the writing has a blackly funny brilliance, while James Nesbitt gives a gleeful rafter-rattling performance
Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)
Genetically Engineered Dinosaurs
The seventh of the Jurassic Park/World films receives a creative shot in the arm from Gareth Edwards, director of Monsters and The Creator
Jurassic World (2015)
Genetically-Engineered Dinosaurs Amok
After two ho-hum sequels, this finally delivers a solid follow-up to Jurassic Park. Rather than just more scenes with dinosaurs chasing people, this comes with a bevy of fascinating ideas about seeing the park in operation and even some snide biting at corporate merchandising
Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Genetically-Engineered Dinosaurs Amok
The sixth film in the Jurassic Park/World franchise offers very much a return to the familiar but also shakes several things up
Lapsis (2020)
Kafka-esque Internet Company
Wonderfully Kafka-esque film about a man who takes a job laying cable for a new internet company only to find himself in a system of nightmare rules and regulations
Larva (2005)
Genetically-Engineered Larva Amok
Monster movie about larvae emerging from genetically engineered cattle feed and becoming giant bat-like creatures that attack humans. When a film casts Rachel Hunter as a corporate lawyer, it is not exactly aiming for high credibility stakes but this is passable formula fare
Legend of the White Horse (1986)
Magical Horse/Dragon
Christopher Lloyd and Dee Wallace star in one of the tattiest of 1980s fantasy films about a magic horse that is really a dragon
The Lorax (2012)
Dr Seuss Adaptation/Animation
Another Dr. Seuss adaptation that emerges as occasionally cute but little that rises above formula. Like the original story, this holds a pro-environmentalist message that is laid on with a trowel in the film
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Brainwashed Assassin/Political Thriller
Remake of the classic Cold War thriller from Jonathan Demme that has been updated for the era of George W. Bush
Mars Express (2023)
Animation/Mars Action/Cyberpunk
A French animated film, SF noir set on a future Mars with hard-boiled detectives fighting against someone who is jailbreaking robots. This deploys a strong and confident use of Cyberpunk tropes
Mayhem (2017)
Mass Insanity Outbreak in an Offce Building
A cross between The Belko Experiment with its murderous elimination game in an office and George Romero’s The Crazies as workers in an office is infected by a virus that causes them to lose their inhibitions. Made with dark relish
Monster Trucks (2016)
Creatures Inhabit Vehicles
You can almost see the process that went off in the scriptwriters head “What if we had Monster Truck rallies where the trucks were actual monsters?”. You are surprised that the film is not based on a toy line. The result proves to be way more entertaining than you ever expect it to be
Morgan (2016)
Artificially Intelligent Android
A.I. film directed by Ridley Scott’s son. The set-up seems awfully similar to Ex Machina – unfortunately, this sidesteps any of that fascinating questions about A.I. that film dealt in, while the latter half just becomes The Terminator before reaching a frankly unbelievable twist ending that sinks the film
Mr. Accident (2000)
Gonzo Comedy
The third and final film to date directed, written by and starring Yahoo Serious where he plays an accident prone man obsessed with alien life
Mutant Ghost Wargirl (2022)
Chinese Cyberpunk/Mutant Superpowers
A very different to the current SF boom in Chinese cinema at the moment, this is a Cyberpunk film about the construction of mutant fighters
Okja (2017)
Genetically-Engineered Super-Pigs
Boon Jong Ho’s version of E.T., albeit one where E.T. is a genetically-engineered pig the size of an SUV, not to mention one with an oddball sense of humour that it is hard to imagine being enjoyed by young age groups
The Old Guard (2020)
Immortal Mercenaries
Huge Netflix hit adapted from a comic-book about a team of immortal mercenaries
Parasite (1982)
Chestbursting Nasty
The second directorial outing of a young Charles Band, this is essentially an earthbound version of Alien. Not a very good film, the principal reasons to watch are some cheap effects and a young Demi Moore
Passengers (2008)
Haunted Plane Crash Survivors/Deathdream
Well-cast, nicely made film that seems to be setting out as a supernatural variant on Fearless, which had Jeff Bridges as a reinvigorated plane crash survivor, only to fall apart in a groan-worthy twist ending that has become tediously overused in recent years
The Phantom (2009)
Comic-Book Superhero
A mini-series based on the classic comic-book masked hero but the attempts to modernise The Phantom for the post-Dark Knight era seem bizarrely awkward
The President’s Analyst (1967)
Spy Comedy/Political Satire
Amid the mostly silly output of James Bond copies in the 1960s, this is one that comes with a sharp satiric bite in which president’s analyst James Coburn finds himself caught in the midst of a series of conspiracies
Psychokinesis (2018)
Psychic Powers/South Korean Superhero Film
From the director of Train to Busan, this starts out as a psychic powers film before becoming a South Korean superhero film. Made with a nicely grounded realism that makes refreshing contrast to the bombast of the MCU et al.
Rampage (2018)
Videogame Adaptation/Giant Animals Amok
The idea of Dwayne Johnson facing a giant gorilla in an adaptation of a 1980s arcade game doesn’t exactly shout out Academy Award material; on the other hand, appreciated as a zero expectation cartoon of a film and the mindless mass destruction spectacle it is, this works in a goofily entertaining way
Ready Player One (2018)
Virtual Treasure Hunt Through 1980s Pop Trivia
I hugely enjoyed Ernest Cline’s book about a massive virtual treasure hunt through 1980s pop culture trivia. In the film version, Steven Spielberg winds up the pop culture references by a factor of ten, which are fun to watch, but the film misses the book’s compulsive readability
The Reconstruction of William Zero (2014)
Cloning Film
A low key but modestly effective film where an amnesiac man comes to the gradual realisation that he is a clone
Replicas (2018)
Scientist Clones His Dead Family
Whatever you want to say about his acting ability, Keanu Reeves represents a cool and has smarts in the projects he takes on. So when he takes a producing role as here, you feel it is a project you should pay attention to. Instead, the cloning film that he makes is absolutely laughable and should contend for an award for the SF film with the least plausible science in it
Repo: The Genetic Opera (2008)
Future Organ Repossession/Rock Musical
Saw series director Darren Lynn Bousman conducts a futuristic Gothic rock opera. A film of constant posturings where Bousman demonstrates remarkably little affinity for either music or sf … a musical that feels made by people who are tone deaf
Resident Evil (2002)
Videogame Adaptation/Lab Complex of Zombies
Based on the survival horror videogame, this was the first in a surprisingly popular series of films. It also presaged a major return of the zombie film during the 2000s/10s, even if this only treads where George Romero went better before
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Videogame Adaptation/Post-Holocaust Zombies
Four films in and clear evidence that the Resident Evil series needs to be retired. This consists of tediously borrowed action moves now presented in 3D and a plot of random dead ends that make little sense
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
Videogame Adaptation/City of Zombies
The first of the Resident Evil sequels and a better film than its predecessor, getting in a series of spectacular, if at times ridiculously silly, action sequences
Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)
Anime/Videogame Adaptation
The first in a series of anime films that were produced by Capcom, the creators of the Resident Evil videogames, and intended to run parallel to the live-action films. I was never a big fan of the live-action films. The question is – does Resident Evil work better in the anime format?
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
Videogame Adaptation/Post-Holocaust Zombies
Third of the Resident Evil films. This expands the scale of action to show the entire world destroyed by the virus but for all that and a decent budget, director Russell Mulcahy fails to push the elements to a suitable head of steam
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Videogame Adaptation/Complex of Zombies and Mutants
Another unnecessary entry in a creativity-handicapped series, the continuing popularity of which is baffles. This shuffles through the familiar moves, brings back several familiar characters but only leaves me asking why I have invested some nine hours of time following this series
The Rift (1990)
Submarine Encounters Monsters Underwater
A cheap submarine adventure/underwater monster encounter from Spanish director Juan Pique Simon that was intended as a copy of James Cameron’s The Abyss
The Rise of the Beast (2022)
Giant Ape Amok
Low-budget British film about environmental protestors pursued by a genetically engineered giant ape
RoboCop (1987)
Cyborg Cop
A popular hit that spins the cyborg cop theme through a Cyberpunk future, while director Paul Verhoeven piles on excesses of violence and black humour. A darkly funny satire of Reaganite America, this is an entertainingly slick comic-book of a movie
RoboCop (2014)
Cyborg Cop
I have to admit despite all the bad feeling for this, I liked it. While what went on in terms of the man inside the machine was cut and dried in the original, this has been shifted to give us a “the soul of Robocop” story . Moreover, the original’s biting satire of 1980s corporations and politics has been smartly updated to tackle some big 2010s issues
RoboCop 2 (1990)
Cyborg Cop
With a script co-written by Frank Miller, this sequel comes in as a leaner work that abandons the campier excesses of its predecessor while expanding on its ideas with considerable ingenuity
RoboCop 3 (1993)
Cyborg Cop
The third Robocop film killed the series off with a disastrous decision to go for a PG rating and pair Robocop with a cute kid
Robot Wars (2016)
Found Footage Cyberpunk Film
The title is a massive cheat as there is only a single robot that turns up in a single fight scene. The film has the distinction of being the world’s first Found Footage Cyberpunk film about a mystery box that creates mass insanity when opened
Rollerball (1975)
Future Ultra-Violent Sport
Classic work of dystopian SF set in a future where an ultra-violent sport has been created to pacify the masses
Rollerball (2002)
Ultra-Violent Sport
Remade, the 1975 dystopian film is stripped of its big message (even of its future setting) and turned into no more than a formulaic action film
Rubikon (2022)
Space Station Crew Survive the End of the World
Austrian film where three people aboard a space station survive a toxic cloud that obliterates all life on Earth below
Seobok (2021)
Psychic Powers
Quite good Korean film about a clone with vast psychic powers, this mounts to a climax that captures something of Akira
The 6th Day (2000)
Cloned Man/Action
Arnold Schwarzenegger revisits something of Total Recall in this modest and clever action film in which he discovers that a clone has stolen his life
The Son of Bigfoot (2017)
Animation/Family with Bigfoot Genetics
The title is misleading as this features no Bigfeet but is an animated film about a family that sprouts all-over body hair and big feet. This quickly falls into the usual formulaic inanities of the modern animated film
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Gonzo Workplace Satire
This directorial debut for rapper Boots Riley is a very funny satire on telemarketing that becomes increasingly more surreal as it goes on. Imagine something like Spike Lee around the point of Do the Right Thing mixed with the absurdist humour of Kurt Vonnegut
Space Sweepers (2021)
Space Junk Collectors/Korean Space Opera
South Korean space opera about a crew of space junk collectors. If the Star Wars series wanted to find a director to create fresh and exhilarating effects scenes, they need look no further than here
Tamala 2010 (2002)
Demented Anime/Girl Cat's Space Adventures
Grungy low tech anime that comes out like a sarcastic version of Hello Kitty
Time Toys (2016)
Super-Powered Toys from the Future
Children’s film with the promising idea of kids finding a bunch of toys from the future that grant them amazing abilities unaware they have world-destroying potential.; The idea is alas watered down to the blandness of family formula and the limited conceptual horizons of a low budget
Triassic Hunt (2021)
Dinosaurs Amok
Film from The Asylum about dinosaurs hunting mercenaries. Essentially Jurassic Park that takes place in a warehouse
Tron Ares (2025)
Adventures in Cyberspace
Tron was a genuinely groundbreaking work that predicted the idea of cyberspace. It is hard to describe how badly conceived this sequel is where we have gone to predicting the future to a fight over a glorified 3D printer
The Zero Theorem (2013)
Dystopian Future/The Meaning of It All
This is Terry Gilliam largely going back to revisit Brazil>, albeit having been updated to the 2010s and the era of the internet. A renaissance of many Gilliam themes nevertheless the end result feels like one of his slighter works