From Beyond (1986)

Hot off of Re-Animator (1985), Stuart Gordon and crew sought to make another Lovecraft hit with From Beyond. While the film has an interesting premise--a scientific device called the Pretorious Resonator allows interaction with a parallel dimension via stimulation of the pineal gland, causing the death of its creator and the suffering of other witnesses--the script had too many flimsy moments. At the center of the film is Jeffrey Combs, wonderfully playing his neurotic scientist character. The supporting cast is hit and miss: Ken Foree and Ted Sorel both give solid performances as Bubba the cop and Dr Pretorious, respectively. On the other hand, Barbara Crampton's psychiatrist character was irritating and inconsistent. She's unrealistically rash and irresponsible, even with the film's attempts to explain. The subplot involving her rivalry with the head psychiatrist at the Miskatonic Hospital was painfully unprofessional and a chore to witness. Additionally, I felt many of the elements of the film, especially those involving sex and bondage, were juvenile. What I did enjoy was the color aesthetic--saturated neon pinks and purples--harkening back to the Corman days of yore and the Thing-inspired special effects, with a generous supply of gibbering, shape-shifting masses and 80s lightning.

6/10

Hellraiser (1987)

From New World Pictures (second only to Cannon) and writer-director Clive Barker comes a gruesome, bloody, and fun horror picture. Larry Cotton (played by Andrew Robinson, the insane Scorpio from Dirty Harry) moves into an old house owned by his family with his second wife. Unbeknownst to him, his brother Frank has gotten into trouble with netherworld overseers, the Cenobites, and his wife Julia is helping him return to the material plane. The story, acting, and production values are a bit low in places, but the atmosphere and special effects make up for it. Slimy, bloody, disjointed prosthetic effects include: the iconic pinhead Cenobite; part of a re-materializing, coagulating body pushing itself through an attic floor before joining itself together; and a floating, wall climbing scorpion-like demon. Hellraiser has issues, but it's good, over-the-top fun.

7/10

Green Slime, The (1968)

The Green Slime is a hokey B-movie made by the Japanese with an all American cast in 1968. An asteroid headed to earth is destroyed by an experienced team of astronauts, only to have an unknown lifeform return to their base with them. The writing is incredibly bad causing a lot of unintentional humor, particularly when it comes to the macho posturing between characters Rankin and Eliot. Rankin is basically your run-of-the-mill no nonsense, prominent jawline, and dashing good looks all-American hero. The number of times he shows the ever-whining Eliot who's boss is incredible. The special effects are typical Japanese fare for the period--extensive yet shoddy miniature work and man-in-rubber-suit monsters. Aside from the fun theme song, the soundtrack sounds like they were sorely underbudget because a good majority of it consists of someone noodling one note at a time on an electric guitar. The Green Slime is entertaining but very silly.

4/10

Total Recall (1990)

Where do I even begin with this one? Total Recall is an action masterpiece. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, a blue collar worker with a desire to go to Mars. Because his wife won't let him, he gets a memory implant of a Mars vacation--with himself as a secret agent. Something goes wrong, and we spend the rest of the time chasing a secret agent Arnold around not knowing whether he really was a secret agent or just living out his memory implant. Total Recall is a perfect storm of 80s talent: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Verhoeven both in their prime, Sharon Stone in her hottest role (that pants suit!), Michael Ironside playing a deliciously mean henchman, Ronny Cox hot off of playing Dick Jones in Robocop, Rob Bottin doing makeup effects, a screenplay penned by Alien writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, and a percussive synthesizer-and-brass laden score composed by Jerry Goldsmith. The cinematography by Jost Vacano is dynamic and fluid, gracefully gliding through the scenes and accenting the action. On top of all this, Total Recall is a special effects powerhouse, a textbook film for 80s special effects, employing nearly every trick in the book: miniatures, matte paintings, prosthetics, makeup, puppetry, a generous handful of deliciously bloody bullet squibs, 80s lightning, and even a brief moment of CG. Clever, exciting, and brutally violent, Total Recall is the embodiment of the word "fun." Happy 22nd Birthday, Total Recall.

10/10 (but it's really an 11)

PS I forgot to mention the one-liners! The film is overflowing with great one-liners.

Event Horizon (1997)

With Event Horizon, Paul WS Anderson proved he was able to direct a great film. Starring Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne, Event Horizon is a violent, gory, and absolutely frightening film about a crew sent to investigate the reappearance of the ship that went missing mysteriously seven years before. The film reminded me of many sci-fi flicks that have gone before it, but somehow it managed to combine these elements quite well for a very rewarding experience. While marred by a few poor CG moments, the special effects are ultimately pretty good, with many of the elements looking like they were models (I'm not sure if they were, but I sure hope so). I was very impressed. Despite his poor reputation, my respect for Paul WS Anderson just keeps on growing.

8/10

Masters of the Universe (1987)

From my favorite low-budget production company, Cannon Film, comes the live-action motion picture event of the century! Rejoice, for He-Man, starring Swedish ubermensch Dolph Lundgren, has come to the big screen! Unfortunately, Dolph doesn't get enough screen time to develop as He-Man (and he needed more screen time just to prove that he can emote), but this is alleviated by the awesome screen presence of Frank Langella as Skeletor, the amazing visual effects by Richard Edlund, and a rousing (but highly derivative) score by Rocky-composer Bill Conti. The story is idiotic to the max and some of the makeup and sound effects are really embarrassing, but it's got enough lightning bolts, laser blasts, sword battles, and explosions to keep even the shortest attention span watching. The Masters of the Universe do a lot of killing in this movie, but the thing they kill best is time!

7/10

My Science Project (1985)

High school teens get into trouble when they find an extra-terrestrial engine with time-space warping properties. From a T-Rex (presumably a puppet, no CGI or stop-motion) walking in-frame across the screen (possibly the best pre-Jurassic Park T-Rex?) to tons and tons of 80s lightning, this film is a special effects feast for the eyes. While the film takes its time trying to develop the characters (even though they are all pretty much one-dimensional), the final third of the film is the meat, containing the majority of the (great!) special effects. I swear, the film is worth it on the effects alone. Fisher Stevens plays a hit-or-miss Brooklynese-talking sidekick with a few good zingers and a lot of bad ones. Dennis Hopper plays their half-baked science teacher. As a nice treat, the closing credits song is deliciously 80s.

7/10

7 Faces of Dr Lao (1964)

Tony Randall hits a grand slam in this surprisingly charming George Pal fantasy film. Dr Lao is a crafty old Chinese doctor who sets up a circus in the Old West town of Abalone. Through his circus he helps many of the town's citizens to see life from a different perspective. The film is sometimes heavy-handed, but often touching. It's worth watching for Randall's performance(s) alone. George Pal manages to reign in his self-indulgence for special effects somewhat and lets the characters take the stage. The makeup effects are wonderful, including Tony Randall's Asian makeup. One of the most distinct things about this movie, though, is the musical score which perfectly combines Asian-sounding styles with the sounds of the Old West. Great fantasy film for the whole family.

9/10

Power, The (1968)

George Pal produced this ambitious science fiction thriller starring George Hamilton and Michael Rennie. The film starts off strong, but unfortunately it becomes very muddy. The film is a sci-fi who-dunnit as the scientists are gradually murdered off by one of their own who happens to be telekinetically-endowed, but the film bites off more than it can chew. The mid-section sags horribly, with many scenes being confusing or redundant. The ending is both confusing and dissatisfying. Conceptually, the film is excellent, and the acting is good. The musical score is oddly invasive with use of a zither throughout. What starts as a distinct musical decision soon becomes annoying as the same theme is repeated often. For 1968, the special effects are well-done but sometimes out of place or random. George Pal tends to err on the side of self-indulgence, and The Power is no exception.

5/10

Leviathan (1989)

Peter Weller gives a great performance in this deep-sea incarnation of The Thing (with hints of Alien). With a great supporting cast and very polished direction, the film is suspenseful and interesting until the very end when the surviving crew members escape the undersea mining facility... and that's where everything goes to shit! Luckily, the embarrassing footnote of an ending (after the climax, mind you) is not enough to destroy the complete integrity of the film and is more humorous/idiotic than anything else. Slick, atmospheric, and exciting with fantastic special effects, Leviathan is worth at least a peek.

7/10

Screamers (1995)

Screamers is a pretty entertaining take on Philip K Dick's short story "Second Variety" that falls short. Like Sphere (1998), Screamers is a decent sci-fi flick that is destroyed by its lame ending. The first three-quarters of the film are a solid 7, but the last 10-15 minutes were so horrible (think Hollow Man) that I detracted it a point. The visual effects are quite good most of the time, and there are some great stop-motion effects. Watch the film if you're into Peter Weller, stop-motion, or you're just out of great sci-fi films to watch. Otherwise, I suggest you skip it.

6/10

Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, The (1984)

The film follows the adventures of Peter Weller as the multi-talented captain of a crew of kooky characters. With a great supporting cast consisting of Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Clancy Brown, one would think nothing could go wrong, but the film makes so many off-the-wall decisions with its plot and characters that you end up with one big mess. It has everything going for it, colorful characters, great actors, great 80s special effects, a unique concept, and a good soundtrack, but unfortunately it's missing a cohesiveness and focus that left me more confused than entertained.

6/10

Hollow Man (2000)

Paul Verhoeven's modern take on the invisible man story. The writing is terrible, the acting questionable about half the time, and the last act is an atrocity of Hollywood cliches that consists entirely of forced action scenes, explosions, and other assorted unbelievable events. But it was highly entertaining! Verhoeven delivers a very polished film that has great editing (Mark Goldblatt) and special effects. For being a CG-heavy film from 2000, the effects don't look all that bad. About a third of the effects have dated poorly (most of the 3D body models), but the smoke and water effects are highly creative and still look pretty good.

6/10. Had the film not devolved into the silly ending that it did, it might have turned out to be a sci-fi classic. Okay, maybe not.

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

An interesting film with a strong lead performance by Sam Neill. John Carpenter steeps the film in atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife. Taking great influence from Lovecraft, the film succeeds in being crazy, moody, and altogether fascinating. It was really nice seeing David Warner. The special effects are fantastic but seem almost sparingly used compared to the number of abstract shock sequences Carpenter throws in.

7/10

Resurrected, The (1992)

Also known as Shatterbrain. A bit slow, a bit strange. The acting is borderline painful to watch from a couple of the actors. Based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, this film is one of the better Lovecraft efforts ever released. Although released direct to video, the film is very polished. (I suspect it failed to find a distributor.) The second of two films Dan O'Bannon directed (the first being the excellent Return of the Living Dead), the film is solid but not nearly as strong as his previous effort. The atmosphere, mood, and pace of the film successfully evokes Lovecraft (something very hard to do and still make a good movie), but something is still not quite right. Maybe I'll just have to chalk it up to its shifty Lovecraftian nature. For a low-budget effort, the special effects during the climax of the film are especially noteworthy.

6/10

Warlock (1989)

Solidly entertaining witchcraft thriller. Julian Sands gives an excellent performance as a warlock who escapes 17th century Boston to 1988 California where he begins a quest to find the three pieces of the Satanic Bible. Richard E Grant gives an equally charming performance as the witch hunter sent after him. Effects were great most of the time. There is nothing like 80s animated effects. The thing about sorcery films is that they normally fail to satisfy, but Warlock manages to provide pretty much everything you need: creative spells, potions, unorthodox methods, graveyards, play between holy and unholy, and Satanic magic. Yum.

7/10

Altered States (1980)

William Hurt carries this sci-fi film as a driven, brilliant scientist who experiments with hallucination into dangerous territory. Much of the script is taken directly from the Chayefsky-penned novel it is based on, and while it is smart, it is way too dense for it's own good. It worked for Network, but it doesn't work here. The story is highly creative and unique, but I found the ending to be a big let down. The ending was partly saved by the brilliant special effects-work. While obviously all practical or visual effects, I felt like some of the special effects were as good as (if not better than) modern CG-aided efforts.

7/10

Flash Gordon (1980)

Delightfully campy with a score by Queen. The art direction is probably the best aspect of the film and the special effects are commendable (the sheer amount of effects shots for 1980 is impressive). A thin plot, some terrible dialogue (apparently mostly improvised), and questionable acting makes this ripe cult film fodder, but ultimately, it probably isn't worth your time. That's unfortunate because I thought Max Von Sydow as Emperor Ming was casting gold.

5/10