Cyborg2: Glass Shadow (1993)
Sequel that abandons that mindless chop suey of Albert Pyun’s Cyborg and reconstructs it into a halfway reasonable Cyberpunk film. A then unknown Angelina Jolie plays the cyborg
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)
Another of Guy Maddin’s surreal kitsch films all delivered in deadpan prose, this boasts more of a name cast than usual for Maddin
Live Wire (1992)
Thriller with Pierce Brosnan as a bomb disposal expert who comes up against terrorists who have invented an explosive that can be drunken in a glass of water
TerrorVision (1986)
One of the films from Charles Band’s Empire productions about a family facing an alien manifested out of their tv set
Longing For Eternity (1988)
A Quebec-made about the attempts to create an artificial womb to breed embryos
Lady in White (1988)
Beautifully made Coming of Age ghost story from the greatly underrated Frank LaLoggia
Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (1985)
Slight but colourful animated film for the very young based on the popular series of Hallmark cards and Mattel toys about a magical horse
Fun & Fancy Free (1947)
One of the Disney animated portmanteaus of the 1940s featuring stories about a circus bear and a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk starring Donald, Mickey and Goofy
The Bride With White Hair 2 (1993)
Sequel to the earlier Wu Xia film, which brings back the leads in an enjoyable adventure that places much more emphasis on flying swordplay
Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe (1991)
Incredibly bad and frequently laughable variation on The Hidden and in turn The Terminator with Jesse Ventura as an intergalactic law enforcement officer hunting a criminal on Earth
Bloodmoon (1990)
Belated Australian entry in the slasher genre about killings at a Catholic girls’ school, this is shabby on all counts
Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
A film about the outbreak of nuclear war directed by actor Ray Milland. What takes you aback is the naked liberatarian fantasy that Milland engages in, arguing in favour of a brutal ruthlessness in the name of survival
The Butcher’s Wife (1991)
Amiable romantic comedy with Demi Moore as a clairvoyant who dispenses prophetic advice to everybody while caught in her own romantic entanglements
Funny Games (1997)
Brutal and hard to watch Michael Haneke film where a family’s weekend getaway becomes a nightmare when two boys enter the house and proceed to torture and kill them. Haneke adds a level of meta-fiction that taunts the viewer’s participation
Zone Troopers (1986)
One of the best films from Charles Band’s Empire Productions, a splendid homage to the GI film with a group of soldiers investigating a crashed UFO behind enemy lines
Redline (1997)
Standard action film made interesting by the choice of its setting in a post-Soviet Russia Cyberpunk future
Last Lives (1997)
B-budget action film in which C. Thomas Howell is caught up in a chase when an escaped criminal from an alternate timeline abducts his wife.
Crossworlds (1996)
Modest and clever venture on the alternate worlds theme where an average student is dragged into a war for the multiverse after meeting a strange woman at a party
The Truman Show (1998)
Ingenious film that predicted reality tv shows where Jim Carrey’s life has been a tv show since birth with him unaware of everything is staged
Baby Geniuses (1999)
Film set around the premise that babies are secretly geniuses and talk in their own language. This makes a beeline for pee and poop jokes and seems to think we should applaud it for the cutsieness of seeing babies doing adult things
The Addams Family (1991)
The big screen version of the 1960s tv series and Charles Addams’ cartoons is a highly enjoyable Hollywood Halloween Party, a chance for name actors to put on costume and ape life with a ghoulish, mildly perverse, moderately subversive spin
Cult of the Cobra (1955)
A copy of Cat People in which a group of G.I.s violate a Malaysian temple and are subsequently haunted by a mysterious snake woman. This achieves some modest atmosphere
April Fool’s Day (1986)
This is one slasher film that chooses a title date where the date in question requires it taking a more comedic approach. Despite which this is a standard effort in all ways
Kazaam (1996)
Children’s film starring NBA star Shaquille O’Neil as a genie, this has a wide reputation as a bad movie
Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
John Landis and Dan Aykroyd minus the late John Belushi revisit their cult classic but the reunion exercise smacks of poor judgement and emerges as a haphazard arrangement made only to exploit the appeal of the original
Anastasia (1997)
Considerable return to form for animator Don Bluth even if the story of the Russian Royals he is telling is based on a hoax and manages to entirely excise any mention of the Communist Revolution
Almost Dead (1994)
This a dull ghost story in which Shannen Doherty plays a parapsychological researcher who believes she is seeing the ghost of her mother everywhere
Pale Blood (1990)
A vacant and stylistically empty modern vampire film that is all posed mood
The Nurse (1997)
Psycho-thriller with Lisa Zane as a nurse seeking vengeance for the death of her father
The X Files (1998)
Film spinoff from tv’s hit ultra-paranoid alien conspiracy drama. The film is caught in the unenviable position of trying to give fans what they want and reiterate the basics of the series for new audiences, while giving away no plot details in advance, and as a result ended up pleasing nobody
Pete’s Dragon (1977)
Disney live-action film about a boy and his dragon where the dragon is represented by animation
Stalked (1994)
Pierre David produced psycho-thriller where Maryam d’Abo is befriended by Jay Underwood who proves to be a stalker in a creepily effective performance
Ravenous (1999)
Film about the soldiers at a fort on the American frontier who have descended to cannibalism. A good set-up falls apart due to a comedy treatment
The January Man (1989)
Completely ridiculous thriller with fireman-detective Kevin Kline tracking a killer. It is hard to tell if it was intended as a comedy.
Downdraft (1996)
Modest and conceptually packed B-budget action film with a motley team are sent to break into a bunker that has been hijacked by a scientist who is threatening to fire nuclear missiles
How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
An hilarious black comedy written with a biting savagery where advertising executive Richard E. Grant has his life taken over by a ruthless boil on his shoulder
Magic in the Mirror (1996)
One of the best children’s films from Charles Band, an utterly bizarre effort about a world through a magic mirror ruled by talking ducks
The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
Old-fashioned weepie melodrama about a magical cottage that allows a disfigured soldier and a plain woman to find love and see each other as perfect
Nemesis 3: Time Lapse (1995)
The third of Albert Pyun’s Nemesis films about time-travelling cyborgs – not much plot just action scenes and some moments of undeniable strangeness
Magic in the Mirror: Fowl Play (1996)
Sequel to the delightfully madcap Magic in the Mirror set in a world of talking ducks
Proteus (1995)
Shabby copy of Alien with shipwreck survivors facing a genetically engineered monster on an oil rig
The Prophecy (1995)
Standout film about angels warring on Earth that dispenses with any cutsie depiction of angels. Several sequels followed.
The Hanging Garden (1997)
A Canadian film about a gay man returning home and revisiting his childhood that ends up in a weird series of parallel realities
Kissed (1996)
Controversially charged Canadian film where mortuary assistant Molly Parker develops an obsession with having sex with corpses
Doin’ Time on Planet Earth (1988)
A peculiarity from Cannon Films, a comedy in which a weird teenager believes he is an alien and becomes wound up with UFO cultists
The Eighteenth Angel (1998)
David Seltzer, the screenwriter of The Omen, recycles himself here where Rachael Leigh Cook is caught up in the coming Biblical End of the World
Prehysteria! 3 (1995)
The third and probably the best of the children’s dinosaur films from Charles Band where the pitiful effects are at least compensated for by an eccentric sense of humour
Matador (1986)
Cheerfully outrageous early Pedro Almodovar black comedy where virginal Antonio Banderas confesses to a series of murders conducted by his death obsessed lawyer
The Monkey’s Uncle (1965)
One of the wacky inventor live-action comedies Disney made in the 1960s, a sequel to The Misadventures of Merlin Jones where Tommy Kirk variously adopts a chimpanzee and tries to sleep-coach football jocks
Saludos Amigos (1942)
The novelty of an animated Disney travelogue. Pitched to the South American market, the four stories see Donald Duck and Goofy visiting various locations
Molom, A Legend of Mongolia (1995)
Gentle affecting film about a boy learning Buddhist life lessons as he journeys across Mongolia with an old man
Judge and Jury (1996)
Ridiculous supernatural action film with a madly overacting David Keith as an executed killer returned from the dead
Sometimes They Come Back … Again (1996)
Sequel to the Stephen King adapted film about hoodlums resurrected from the dead, this descends into an incredible silliness. Featuring a teenage Hillary Swank
Michael (1996)
Nora Ephron romantic comedy with John Travolta cast as angel who is a slob. A rather aimless shapeless comedy that thinks it is funnier than it is
Prettykill (1987)
A shabby Canadian police procedural with David Birney as a detective hunting a killer who is targeting prostitutes
The Rapture (1991)
Remarkable film with Mimi Rogers as a grieving widow who is drawn into the certainty that the Biblical Rapture is about to occur
Never Talk to Strangers (1995)
Tawdry erotic thriller copy of Basic Instinct Rebecca De Mornay is drawn in by possible stalker Antonio Banderas
Magic in the Water (1995)
Likeable Canadian-made children’s film where Mark Harmon and kids come to rescue of a lake monster
Three Wishes (1995)
This is a 1950s Coming of Age story with Patrick Swayze as a mysterious stranger dispensing wisdom, before the film arrives at a very peculiar fantastic ending
Saving Grace (1998)
Uneven New Zealand-made film where a girl meets a mystery man who claims that he is Jesus Christ
Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Sequel to Disney’s Escape to Witch Mountain with the psi-powered alien kids up against a villainous Christopher Lee and Bette Davis
Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972)
The second of Disney’s Dexter Reilly films with Kurt Russell as a teen genius who invents an invisibility formula
Peter Pan (1953)
One of the animated Disney classics, if probably an overrated film. It throws slapstick and derring-do together in a likeable package
The Mouse That Roared (1959)
Peter Sellers comedy where the smallest country in the world invades the USA and ends up accidentally winning
October 32nd (1992)
Cheap and tatty variant on the Arthurian legends with people trying to prevent a reincarnated sorcerer obtaining Excalibur
The Return of Dr X (1939)
Not a sequel to Doctor X despite the title, The main footnote this has is that it stars Humphrey Bogart as a vampire lab assistant. Halfway reasonable despite a bad reputation.
The Magic Flying Mouse
China. ????) Plot China during the Song Dynasty. The Emperor Kang is kidnapped by Jin bandits. The martial arts warrior Li Ma and two swordmaster sisters head to the Jin stronghold on Lying Mountain to rescue him. Captured, they learn of the Jin scheme to substitute a double for Kang. They try to make an […]
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998)
One of the better among the cheap video-released sequels to their animated films Disney released during the 1990s/2000s, this actually works better than the original
Marabunta (1998)
Routine made-for-tv movie about a legion of marabunta ants overrunning a small town
Leapin’ Leprechauns! 2 (1996)
Sequel to the Charles Band produced children’s film Leapin’ Leprechauns!, this is a much superior film that gets quite darker
Mindbender (1996)
Ken Russell’s worst film, a ridiculously bad biopic of the psychic Uri Geller
Marquis de Sade (1996)
A biopic of the Marquis de Sade that is not uninteresting but suffers from being produced by Roger Corman on one of his usual B-budgets
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Last Battle for the Universe (1996)
Sixth and last of the Josh Kirby juvenile adventures and the best of the series
Cat Swallows Parakeet and Speaks (1996)
Baffling and pretentious Canadian-made surrealist film with Scheherazade (from Arabian Nights) in a psychiatric asylum making up stories all derived from tabloid headlines
Leapin’ Leprechauns! (1995)
Likeable film for children from Charles Band about an American family who inherit a property in Ireland inhabited by leprechauns
Richie Rich (1994)
From the producers of The Matrix, an adaptation of the classic comic-book about a lonely rich kid now made as a vehicle for Macaulay Culkin
Project Shadowchaser II (1994)
Sequel to the ridiculous Project Shadowchaser, which has another android terrorist this time take over a nuclear power plant
Making Waves (1994)
Ridiculous erotic film with pretensions to being a relationship drama with angels and talking seagulls