Michael Welch Archives

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Rating: ★★½

Nov 16, 1999Intergalactic Adventures

Third of the Star Trek: The Next Generation films has Jonathan Frakes back in the director's seat where he again plays to his strengths with great visual effects scenes but the story feels like a filler episode

Director: Jonathan Frakes

Actors: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Donna Murphy, F. Murray Abraham, …

Category: Science Fiction

16 November 19998 February 2025 by Roog

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)

Rating: ★★

Oct 20, 2013Slasher Film

Quite why this received a theatrical release is a major scratch of the head. A slasher film that is slickly put together but beneath that a work of thorough ordinariness

Director: Jonathan Levine

Actors: Amber Heard, Anson Mount, Luke Grimes, Whitney Able, …

Category: Horror

20 October 20138 November 2025 by Roog

Day of the Dead (2008)

Rating: ★

Oct 19, 2008Zombies

A remake of George Romero's third and most underrated zombie film, This came out as part of the 2000s revival of the genre but majorly miscalculates the original and emerges as wrong in just about every way

Director: Steve Miner

Actors: Mena Suvari, Ving Rhames, Annalynne McCord, Nick Cannon, …

Category: Horror

19 October 200815 January 2026 by Roog

Twilight (2008)

Rating: ★★★

Jan 1, 2009Vampire Romance

Before the teen idol phenomenon took over, the original in the massively popular Young Adult series works as an earnest romance where all involved are clearly making an effort to play with a conviction

Director: Catherine Hardwicke

Actors: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, …

Category: Horror

1 January 200921 December 2025 by Roog

New Moon (2009)

Rating: ★

Nov 30, 2009Twilight Sequel/Vampire Romance

The second of the Twilight films where the moderately grounded original is blown up into the near laughable with the ridiculously over-the-top hyper-sexualised posturing of its male leads

Director: Chris Weitz

Actors: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, …

Category: Horror

30 November 200915 August 2025 by Roog

Eclipse (2010)

Rating: ★★

Jul 4, 2010Twilight Sequel/Vampire Romance

The third of the Twilight films. This extrudes the dramatic irresolution of the last film’s cliffhanger – should Bella marry Edward or does she really love Jacob? – with over-padded momentousness

Director: David Slade

Actors: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, …

Category: Horror

4 July 201028 October 2025 by Roog

The Demented (2013)

Rating: ★½

Jul 7, 2022Zombie Outbreak

Another in the vast horde of zombie films of the 2010s concerning a group of friends gathered for a party as a terrorist biowarfare attack turns the locals into zombies

Director: Christopher Roosevelt

Actors: Kayla Noelle Ewell, Sarah Butler, Richard Kohnke, Ashlee Brian, …

Category: Horror

7 July 202211 June 2026 by Roog

The Well (2014)

Rating: ★★½

Oct 14, 2014Drought-Ridden Post-Holocaust Future

Modest variant on the post-holocaust film with the novel variant being that this is set in a drought-ridden future. The usual action movie emphasis of the genre has been toned down and an emphasis placed on the fight for survival in this world

Director: Thomas Hammock

Actors: Haley Lu Richardson, BooBoo Stewart, Jonathan Gries, Nicole Fox, …

Category: Science Fiction

14 October 20148 March 2025 by Roog