(Image credit: TV3/Central Partnership Sales House) Written by Ilya Kulikov and directed by Egor Baranov, "The Blackout" is an action-packed sci-fi thriller that's worth a watch.
It launched the career of James Cameron, who was working in the art department and this is where he met his future production partner and wife Gale Anne Hurd, which resulted in "The Terminator" and "Aliens." Producer and director and B-movie maestro, Roger Corman, sadly had to use much of his budget just to pay overpriced stars George Peppard and Robert Vaughn, but the end result is still good fun, plus the James Horner soundtrack is great (this was his first major motion picture score). Why you should watch: This B-movie with a bigger budget than most has an important part to play in the history of sci-fi cinema. Sador possesses a deadly "stellar converter" beam weapon on his formidable warship and threatens to use if the people of Akira don't surrender to his rule. Synopsis: In what is to all intents and purposes "Seven Samurai" set in space, a young farmer, Shad (Richard Thomas) sets out to recruit a band of mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet, which is under threat of invasion by the evil tyrant Sador (John Saxon) and his army of Malmori mutants.
This big-budget B-movie from 1980 plays an important part in the history of science fiction cinema.
The soundtrack to this movie is another delight and features the angelic vocals of Annie Lennox.įree with ads via IMDB TV 6) Battle Beyond the Stars Why you should watch: Despite being forced to include some Hollywood-style over-dramatization (Apollo astronauts were super composed and that just wouldn't make for a thrilling movie), this Ron Howard-directed movie starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon is extremely enjoyable and the culture and atmosphere of 1970s NASA is faithfully reproduced, not to mention how accurate the production design is, including the environment suits and spacecraft interiors. Everyone at Mission Control and the astronauts themselves worked tirelessly to improvise a solution that could return them safely back to Earth. But that all changed when the crew of Apollo 13 suffered a near-catastrophic oxygen tank explosion that crippled their spacecraft while en route to the Moon. However, now that the Russians had been beaten to the Moon, public interest in the Apollo program began to fade. Synopsis: The world watched in wonder as Apollo 11 landed on the lunar surface. Some additional astronautical tension has been added to heighten the drama, but otherwise this is a great movie. The cast isn't exactly A-list, but solid performances from the likes of Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova and Ewen Bremner help make the movie an enjoyable experience. And this is really rather watchable as a popcorn flick. Why you should watch: This is the first crossover movie of the two popular sci-fi franchises, although it had been happening in the comics for a while. Before long, the team is caught in the crossfire and it quickly becomes a battle just to survive. Once there, they come across signs that indicate it's inhabited by an unknown alien species being deliberately bred as so they can be hunted. Synopsis: When a private satellite encounters an unidentified source of heat in Antarctica and it's found to be a pyramid buried deep underground, a team of archaeologists and engineers is sent to find out more. The first entry into the combative creature crossover is undoubtedly the best they get progressively worse after this (Image credit: 20th Century Fox) There are however, some nice set pieces and the production design is of the high standard we've come to expect from "Alien" movies.įree with Amazon Prime 4) Alien Vs. A great cast - including, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Michael Wincott, Winona Ryder and Sigourney Weaver - sadly can't stop this from also being the weakest entry into the anthology (we're not including the disappointing prequels in that assessment). The third act climax is pretty… out there. Why you should watch: This foray into the "Alien" franchise is by far the weirdest.
Needless to say, the aliens get loose and the military ship begins its automated return back to Earth. Since this grand experiment hasn't exactly been authorized, a band of smugglers provides the hapless crew of a hijacked commercial transport in stasis as fodder for the facehuggers. Synopsis: Two hundred years after the events of Alien 3 and Ripley's death, she is cloned onboard a military vessel, outside of any borders or jurisdiction, from blood samples taken from Fiorina 161, specifically to grow a Ripley that has the alien queen inside her. Despite going off the rails a bit at the end, this movie is worth watching at least once if you haven't already seen it (Image credit: 20th Century Fox)