Science Fiction

‘RoboCop 2’ (1990) bursts with ideas, almost to the breaking point

Thanks to bad timing with a writers’ strike, “RoboCop’s” Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner didn’t return for the sequel (their work would be sort of

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Pitch-dark satirical humor powers ‘RoboCop’ (1987)

“RoboCop” (1987) is a marvel of satirical balance. Normally, I do not get my laughs from violence, but somehow the ingenious (and unfortunately timeless) screenplay

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‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015) like a heavy metal ballet

George Miller returns to his most famous saga after a 30-year break and immediately shows he accumulated no rust in the interim. In some ways,

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‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ (2024) a bildungsroman of vengeance

Sometimes George Miller feels like unleashing two hours of action; sometimes he feels like telling a character story (albeit still with more and better action

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‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’ (1985) expands the dystopia

“Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” (1985) presents that classic conundrum: It’s a good movie, but is it a good “Mad Max” movie? The first two entries

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Mad Max goes mainstream with ‘The Road Warrior’ (1981)

“Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” (1981) does what sequels do: It repeats the original’s structure but is bigger and better. The high-speed battle between

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Saga starts with gritty, DIY action in ‘Mad Max’ (1979)

“Mad Max” (1979) kicks off a now-grand sci-fi saga in rare fashion: It starts in a recognizable more-or-less present day, and thus we are treated

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‘DeepStar Six’ (1989) doesn’t sink all the way to the bottom

Whether by coincidence or because something was in the water, 1989 featured one of those wonderfully weird instances in Hollywood history where multiple films with

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John’s top 10 movies of 2024

Looking at my top 10, the surprisingly (but maybe it shouldn’t be) prevailing theme is metaphysics. We live in a decade when time seems to

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John’s top 10 TV shows of 2024

Prestige miniseries and streaming franchise “content” ruled the roost, but traditional network TV surprisingly hung on to life this year – even if the format

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