Welcome to Area 51's Film Rating page



This page was last updated on 01/04/99
Created 22/07/98



Welcome to Area 51's film rating page. This is where films I have seen recently will be given a rating out of 5 stars. Here is the rating system explained in more detail:

* = Really terrible
** = Waste of time
*** = Okay
**** = Really good, worth seeing twice
***** = Brilliance incarnated as a film

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ALIEN RESURRECTION

Criminally under-rated classic. Possibly the best film out of the Alien series. Basically Ripley has been cloned, and then the Alien they took out of her has bred and then the offspring escape causing all manner of toruble as Ripley and a group of smugglers try to escape alive. Very good, and veryy cool.
RATING: ****

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION

A really good film. Solid plot, good special effects and superb acting. Not, at least in my opinion, as good as First Contact, but still really good. Revolves around a planet where eternal youth is possible ad then the Federation ans the Son'a try to take the life-lengthening radiation away.
RATING: *****

ENEMY OF THE STATE

A cool, if paranoia inducing, film. Based around a lawyer who is on the run from the governement, this film really makes you think...... Won't say anymore, as it might ruin it for you. Check your shoes everyone!
RATING: *****

DIE HARD WITH A VENGENCE

Really really cool! A good action film, with a good plot. A guy named Simon is blowing up buildings in heavily populated areas and John MacLane (aka Bruce Willis) has to do tasks to stop this. In his first task he is saved by a guy called Zeus (played by Samuel L Jackson) who then has to help John. Samuel L Jackson's performance is superb (as usual) and he has several brilliant lines (such as "Get of the god-damn phone lady! Police business!"). Bruce Willis has a cool one too (in response to "Are you aiming for these people!?" he says "No, well.... maybe the mime.").
RATING: ****

FACE/OFF

Pash....... complete pash. No real story, increasingly unbelievable action scenes (the bad guy killed about 100 cops, but couldn't kill the good guy!) and a really cheesy line top top it all ("Dad, I'm sorry I shot you!"). Easily the on par with the terrible Godzilla (reviewed below).
RATING: **

THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! The BEST film of the year! I won't tell you much about the plot except that the black cancer and the bees plot threads come to a head in it...... See it NOW!
RATING: *****

LOST IN SPACE

Not a bad film, based on the sixties TV series of the same name. A nice mix between special FX and a plot, but ultimately rather dissapointing. The plot revolves around the Robinsons who are going to Alpha Prime the new homeworld for humanity,m as good old Earth has given (or very nearly) up the ghost. They are sabotaged, become lost. They then travel through some subspace distortion wave, which brings them into the future where they encounter the ship sent to rescue them. They then have a running fire fight with the extremely cool space spider things and become stranded on the planet below. They then encounter a bubble which they venture into and discover the future where the bad guy (yes, I can't remember his name!) has transformed into a human/spider hybrid. They find the son of the family, Will, who has constructed a time machine to send him back to Earth before the launch and stop it. The bad guy turns out to really want to go back with the time machine himself and take over Earth for the "master race". They watch the ship attempting to escape its blown up and then Will sends his father back into the time vortex to before the ship is blown up and they escape into space and set sail for Alpha Prime, or so they hope......... The real let down was the dubious ending how they go through the planet and escape that way.
RATING: ***

GODZILLA

A special effects filled pash-stravaganza that WASTES an hour and a half of your life. Basically a re-hash of an old concept, made into a TERRIBLE summer "blockbuster". For any one not aware of the plot of Godzilla, here goes, French Nuclear tests on a remote Pacific island, mutates an egg, which hatches to produce Godzilla, s/he then travels to America taking 2 fishing boats and a small town with him/her. When s/he arrives in , guess where, yep, New York s/he ramages about and lays eggs in someplace which then hatch, but the place is bombed so the baby Godzillas die and then Godzilla is killed. The End. Thankfully
RATING: **

BLADE RUNNER

A classic Sci-Fi film. Based on the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick, it revolves around Deckard, a former cop, former Blade Runner, former killer. Deckard is re-enlisted to "retire" (kill) 5 replicants, genetically engineered slaves who are faster, stronger and more agile than humans and are also banned from earth. The replicants have one built in fail safe, a 4 year life span. Deckard meets a replicant called Rachel who has been given memories to make her think she is human. He falls in love with Rachel and after killing the other replicants, except for Roy, the leader, who dies of natural causes while fighting with Deckard, he leaves for the country with Rachel to live out the rest of there lives together.
RATING: *****

DUNE

A brilliant film, based on an even more brilliant book. It revolves around Paul Atreidies and the Atreidies house which takes over Arrakis, also known as Dune, which is the only known source of the spice, Melange, the most precious substance in the universe. The Atreidies' are then betrayed by the trusted servant, Doctor Yueh, to their enemies house Harkonnen. Paul and his mother, Jessica, escape into the desert and are taken in by a Fremen sietch led by Stilgar, where Paul adopts the name Muad'Dib (thats where I got my IRC nick from). There Paul takes an overdose of the unrefined Water of Life, which brings about a permant change in him and he is recognised as a god that the Fremen have been waiting for, and he leads the Fremen against the Harkonnens and takes control of Dune.
RATING: *****

STARSHIP TROOPERS

A really good film, but not because of the plot or the character development but because of the mindless violence! The bugs are superbly done and are, at least in my opinion, the one of the best enemies in a film ever!
RATING: ****


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All text (unless otherwise stated) © Michael Graham 1999.