Movie Reviews (Page 101)

Alien (1979) Review

Experiencing it blind, in a dark theater, with an audience that had no idea what was coming, that was specific and unrepeatable. The 8 reflects both what the film achieved and what watching it now is like, which are different…

The Fifth Element (1997) Review

The Fifth Element is a perfect film. Not a perfect science fiction film, not a perfect action film, a perfect film, period.

Aliens (1986) Review

Aliens earns its 8 by doing the one thing sequel filmmaking almost never manages: it doesn't compete with the original. Ridley Scott's Alien is a horror film about isolation and violation, one creature, confined space, systematic elimination of everything between…

The Matrix (1999) Review

The Wachowskis accomplished something that almost never happens in blockbuster cinema: they made a philosophy lecture into one of the most viscerally entertaining action films ever made, and the philosophy and the action are the same thing. This review is…

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) Review

Blade Runner 2049 is visually extraordinary and narratively inert. Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins built some of the most stunning images in recent science fiction cinema, the orange desolation of post-collapse Las Vegas, the grey protein farms extending to the…

The Terminator (1984) Review

The original Terminator is a good film that time has treated unevenly. The effects that were groundbreaking in 1984 show their age in ways that occasional.

Murderbot Review

The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells' series adapted for Apple TV+, follows a SecUnit: a part-human, part-machine construct that has quietly hacked its own governor module and would prefer to watch serialized television than interact with the humans it's contracted to…

Blade Runner (1982) Review

The theatrical cut of Blade Runner, with Deckard's voiceover narration intact, is the correct version of this film. That position is unfashionable.

Dune Parts 1 & 2 Review

From inside the book, these are the right criticisms. The short version: Villeneuve made two visually extraordinary films that get many of the big things right and a handful of things badly wrong.

The Expanse Review

By the standards that matter, world building, political complexity, character depth, physical realism, sustained narrative tension, nothing else in the genre comes close. Then Amazon bought it, and the same show with largely the same cast and creative team produced…

Battlefield Earth (2000) Review

Battlefield Earth is the most comprehensively failed film in science fiction history. This isn't hyperbole or enthusiasm for the negative, it's an honest.

Waterworld (1995) Review

Waterworld had one genuine asset going in: a production design concept that was visually striking and physically coherent. A world covered in water would.

Want Your Book to Read This Well?

The craft notes in these reviews come from the same eye Richard Lowe brings to books. He has authored 113+ books and ghostwritten 54+ more across fiction, memoir, and nonfiction. If you want a book that respects the reader the way the best films do, start with a conversation.

Work With Me Explore Services

Also Available

All Podcasts Leaders and Their Stories Influencers Media Page Services