Rick Overton Archives

Willow (1988)

Rating: ★★

Nov 9, 2003Epic Fantasy

Outside of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, not much else that George Lucas has made has been a success. This Ron Howard-directed epic fantasy proved to be a big flop where Howard's lightweight touch fails to make a one-dimensional plot fly

Director: Ron Howard

Actors: Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, …

Category: Fantasy

9 November 200323 January 2025 by Roog

The High Crusade (1994)

Rating: ★

Nov 17, 2000Bumbling Crusaders in Space

Roland Emmerich produced comedy about a group of crusaders abducted by aliens where their bumbling ends up accidentally winning a space war. A promising idea rendered as idiotic knockabout farce.

Director: Holger Neuhauser, Klaus Knoesel

Actors: John Rhys-Davies, Rick Overton, Michael Des Barres, Debbie Lee Carrington

Category: Science Fiction

17 November 200020 July 2021 by Roog

Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

Rating: ★★

Oct 19, 2002Giant Spiders

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin turn their attentions to revamping the 1950s giant insect film. They bring top-drawer effects to bear but everything else plays to standard formula

Director: Ellory Elkayem

Actors: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scarlett Johansson, Scott Terra, …

Category: Science Fiction

19 October 200220 December 2025 by Roog

Northfork (2003)

Rating: ★★

May 29, 2014Strange Film About Angels

The Polish Brothers, two of the most underrated creative teams in the US today, make a rather puzzling film about angels that feels like muted Coen Brothers. The film is cool, measured, has often striking imagery but leaves you scratching your head trying to figure out what it is about

Director: Michael Polish

Actors: James Woods, Nick Nolte, Robin Sachs, Anthony Edwards, …

Category: Fantasy

29 May 20148 March 2025 by Roog

The Astronaut Farmer (2006)

Rating: ★★★★

Mar 20, 2009Man Builds His Own Rocket

The Polish Brothers are a greatly underrated force in US filmmaking. Here they make a fine film with Billy Bob Thornton as an everyday farmer who decides to build and launch his own space rocket

Director: Michael Polish

Actors: Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen, Max Thieriot, Bruce Dern, …

Category: Science Fiction

20 March 200924 November 2025 by Roog

A Haunted House 2 (2014)

Rating: ★★

Jun 1, 2015Genre Spoof

Sequel to A Haunted House where writer/star Marlon Wayans conducted a riff on the Scary Movie films. This is marginally more amusing than its predecessor

Director: Michael Tiddes

Actors: Marlon Wayans, Jaime Pressly, Essence Atkins, Gabriel Iglesias, …

Category: Horror

1 June 201530 July 2026 by Roog

Dave Made a Maze (2017)

Rating: ★★★

Aug 27, 2017Lost in a Cardboard Labyrinth

A man builds a cardboard maze in his living room only for he and others to become lost in it. This has a wonderfully inventive scrappy handmade eccentricity. Imagine Cube remade as one of Michel Gondry's sweded films

Director: Bill Watterson

Actors: Meera Rohit Kumbhani, Nick Thune, Adam Busch, James Urbaniak, …

Category: Fantasy

27 August 201715 January 2026 by Roog