Of Unknown Origin (1983)
May 20, 2011Man vs an Intelligent Rat
Underrated film with Peter Weller as a Wall Street banker who has his life overturned in trying to deal with a tenacious, seemingly hyper-intelligent rat that invades his home
Peter Weller
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension (1984)
Apr 16, 1999Funky Inventor Hero vs Alien Invaders
An object lesson in how to create an instant cult film – exceedingly eccentric, a commercial failure at the box-office, it instantly receiving a fan clique – all without it ever being a particularly great film
RoboCop (1987)
Jan 16, 2005Cyborg 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 2 (1990)
Jan 6, 2011Cyborg 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
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Jul 15, 2002Comedy/Greek Tragedy Spoof
One of Woody Allen's most warmly funny films of the 90s with a side-splitting and award-winning performance from Mira Sorvino. Throughout, Allen gently spoofs Greek tragedy.
Screamers (1995)
Jan 11, 2003Evolved Androids/Planetary Journey/Philip K. Dick Adaptation
Modest and underrated Philip K. Dick adaptation that builds reasonable atmosphere during its journey across a planet and doubt as to who among the party might be one of a breed of evolving androids
Diplomatic Siege (1999)
Mar 24, 2016Action Film/Nuclear Threat
One of the numerous action films to use a variant on the Die Hard scenario (with an added nuclear threat). For once, this has an okay script and a sense of humour but is killed by a fatal miscasting of its two leads
Shadow Hours (2000)
Jul 14, 2000Possibly Diabolic Temptation
Film where recovering addict Balthazar Getty is dragged into an underworld of vice by mysterious stranger Peter Weller
Vlad the Impaler (2000)
Dec 6, 2002The Historical Dracula
A film based on the historic tyrant that gave the world the name Dracula. This ends up being too sympathetic and loses all credibility when it tries to tie in vampire mythology
Contaminated Man (2000)
Nov 1, 2001Biowarfare Outbreak
Thriller with Peter Weller as an aging man who is infected with a bio-agent that causes anyone he comes in contact with to bodily melt down within a matter of seconds
The Sin Eater (2003)
Dec 24, 2012Catholic Horror Film
Catholic horror film with Heath Ledger miscast as a priest that was a flopped. This is a fascinating piece of theological horror that plays out with an unusually strong and original script
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part I (2012)
Dec 22, 2012Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
The first of a two-part animated adaptation of the classic graphic novel ever written. The film lacks the same impact because, firstly, it is an incomplete story, and secondly, Frank Miller's ideas have now become so much part of the modern Batman
Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)
May 17, 2013Intergalactic Adventures
I had mixed feelings about J.J. Abrams' reboot of Star Trek This time around the actors seem more at home in the characters and the plot works a good deal better (for the most part), while Abrams creates a hurtling effects spectacle that is the most action-oriented of the Trek films
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part II (2013)
May 6, 2013Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
The second of the two-part animated adaptation of Frank Miller's classic graphic novel. The film is staged as a series of epic confrontations between iconic DC characters and written with a dark bite to emerge much more satisfying than the first part
In Search of Tomorrow: A Journey Through ’80s Sci-Fi Cinema (2022)
Sep 25, 2022Documentary About 1980s SF Films
A documentary that comes with great affection for the SF films of the 1980s and covers these, along with interviews with key people, although leaves quite a number of blank spots in works it does not cover