Richard Schiff Archives

Skinner (1993)

Rating: ★★★

Dec 9, 2025Psycho Film

A serial killer film that is fairly strong stuff, starring Ted Raimi as a killer who skins his victims and wears their bodies. This pushed the censorship envelope considerably back in its day. With Ricki Lake as an innocent housewife who befriends Raimi

Director: Ivan Nagy

Actors: Ted Raimi, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, Richard Schiff, …

Category: Horror

9 December 20259 December 2025 by Roog

The Trigger Effect (1996)

Rating: ★★★★

Dec 12, 2004The Downfall of Civilisation

Excellent and understated directorial debut from screenwriter David Koepp where a mysterious citywide power cut suddenly brings out tensions and prejudices among people

Director: David Koepp

Actors: Kyle MacLachlan, Elisabeth Shue, Dermot Mulroney, Michael Rooker, …

Category: Science Fiction

12 December 20046 August 2026 by Roog

The Arrival (1996)

Rating: ★★★½

Sep 20, 2003Alien Infiltration and Takeover

An alien invasion and takeover film that was clearly inspired by the success of tv's The X Files. This is a smart effort that emerges as something unworldly in David Twohy's hands

Director: David Twohy

Actors: Charlie Sheen, Teri Polo, Ron Silver, Lindsey Crouse, …

Category: Science Fiction

20 September 200324 November 2025 by Roog

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Rating: ★½

Aug 14, 2001Genetically Engineered Dinosaurs Amok

The first sequel to the massive success of Jurassic Park where Steven Spielberg returns to direct with a script that seems a mishmash of loose ends that only weakly rehashes the original

Director: Steven Spielberg

Actors: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Vince Vaughn, …

Category: Science Fiction

14 August 200128 July 2026 by Roog

Deep Impact (1998)

Rating: ★★

May 31, 1999Asteroid Collision/Disaster Movie

Big serious attempt at creating an asteroid collides with Earth film, this came out the same year as Armageddon. Despite arraying much acting talent and effects artistry, this disappears into a melodramatic blandness

Director: Mimi Leder

Actors: Téa Leoni, Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman, …

Category: Science Fiction

31 May 199910 October 2025 by Roog

Dr Dolittle (1998)

Rating: ★

Apr 16, 1999Doctor That Can Speak to Animals

Complete and utter bastardisation of Hugh Lofting's charming Doctor Dolittle stories, which are turned into a modern comedy with Eddie Murphy and talking animals doing lots of pee and poop jokes

Director: Betty Thomas

Actors: Eddie Murphy, Oliver Platt, Kristen Wilson, Kyla Pratt, …

Category: Fantasy

16 April 199918 January 2025 by Roog

Heaven (1998)

Rating: ★★★

Nov 24, 2002Precognition

New Zealand-made film about criminal dealings also involving clairvoyance in a series of daring editing schemes that recall something of Don't Look Now

Director: Scott Reynolds

Actors: Martin Donovan, Joanna Going, Patrick Malahide, Karl Urban, …

Category: Fantasy

24 November 200230 October 2025 by Roog

Martian Child (2007)

Rating: ★★½

Oct 9, 2008Adopting a Possibly Alien Child

Adapted from a David Gerrold book, this is essentially the Adam Sandler adopts a kid film Big Daddy by way of K-PAX and its ambiguous alien visitor

Director: Menno Meyjes

Actors: John Cusack, Bobby Coleman, Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack, …

Category: Science Fiction

9 October 200811 August 2026 by Roog

Imagine That (2009)

Rating: ★★

Mar 3, 2010Stock Predictions from a Child's Invisible Companions

Eddie Murphy in another of the lame flops that marked his career in the 2000s where he plays a stockbroker who gets stock tips from his daughter's imaginary companion

Director: Karey Kirkpatrick

Actors: Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church, Ronny Cox, Nicole Ari Parker, …

Category: Fantasy

3 March 201015 April 2026 by Roog

Johnny English Reborn (2011)

Rating: ★½

Nov 3, 2011Incompetent Spy Comedy

Rowan Atkinson is a very funny man but try as I might I cannot get into these Johnny English films - they seem at best lame Austin Powers castoffs with gags designed for the single digit age range

Director: Oliver Parker

Actors: Rowan Atkinson, Dominic West, Rosamund Pike, Gillian Anderson, …

Category: Science Fiction

3 November 201122 October 2020 by Roog

Man of Steel (2013)

Rating: ★★

Jun 14, 2013Comic-Book Superhero

Zack Snyder's reboot of Superman leaves you irritated in the first half of the film at its throwing chunks of comic-book canon out the window and the second half bored with the mass destruction orgy that drags on

Director: Zack Snyder

Actors: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, …

Category: Science Fiction

14 June 20136 August 2026 by Roog

Geostorm (2017)

Rating: ★½

Dec 3, 2017Weather Control/Disaster Movie

Directorial debut of Roland Emmerich's regular screenwriter Dean Devlin who has clearly been given orders to make another Emmerich film. Thus we get all the same effects-driven mass destruction spectacle, absurd science and pro-environmental messages

Director: Dean Devlin

Actors: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara, …

Category: Science Fiction

3 December 201725 October 2025 by Roog

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Rating: ★★

Feb 11, 2023Marvel Comics Superhero

The MCU’s sequel to Black Panther. This offers the peculiarity of a work in which the superhero of the title never actually appears and is instead set around his absence following the death of Chadwick Boseman

Director: Ryan Coogler

Actors: Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Lupita Nyong'o, …

Category: Science Fiction

11 February 20234 December 2025 by Roog