Science Fiction Rating System

Weird Science was re-released on blu-ray last month and the good folk at Arrow Films asked us to take a look. Chris has woken up from last week's soporific showing and is here to weigh in on just how much 'weird' and how much 'science' is here. Also we learn a lot about his personal life, Alex has a quiz and Sam had to censor himself several times. Next week get your bone guns at the ready, it's E...

This week Chris is so excited for Soylent Green that we struggle to contain him. Listen as Alex and Sam try to keep him in line and talk through the '70s sci-fi classic with a twist as twisty as a bag of Twisters twisted around a twisty flagpole. In Twisttown. Also, we discuss our favourite movie deaths! Next week, it really is Weird Science , which you may have been expecting this week. Honest. G...

This week it's Battlefield Earth . You've probably heard of it. Travolta. Scientology. White men with dreadlocks. A long tongue. I honestly thought After Earth was the worst film we'd watch this year...but maybe not? Listen in as we try and make sense of a spectacular failure. Next week we return to safer ground with some '80s nonsense, it's Weird Science and here's a trailer! GIVE US 5 STARS ON I...

Last year, way back on episode 82 we watched The Matrix and were all pleasantly surprised how much we still enjoyed it. Who knew it would age so well? Who could have thought we could have so much fun with a film that seemed so firmly stuck in our pasts? Well, this week we get to the middle chapter of the Wachowski's trilogy with The Matrix Reloaded . Will lightning strike twice? Are we unfairly re...

Continuing our series of extremely loose tie ins with real world events this week we watch Small Soldiers because Toy Story 4 is out and, er, that has toys in it. Join us as we watch a film that in many ways feels older than its 21 years, wonder why anyone ever expected a large toy shop to survive in a small town, and reveal how an old man delivering toys foresaw the craft beer revolution of the '...

As often happens on SFRS we follow a truly terrible film with possibly a worse one. This week we marvel at the train wreck that is After Earth , surely a career low point for everyone involved. In a film with a main actor who can't act and a script that doesn't make much sense, perhaps the biggest crime is that the film is just, well, forgettable? Still, we also discuss scientology, who should be...

What happens when you watch a film only good through the misty lens of nostalgia, but nobody actually has any nostalgia for said film? What happens is we all suffer through Krull , no. 1 fan Colin's questionable choice for nostalgia sci-fi. Poor acting, poor plot, poor everything, and then even the Poppins Clause rears it's ugly head. Is this the worst week ever? Is The Lawnmower Man finally going...

The Men in Black franchise is back and currently stinking up cinemas across the globe with it's apparently dreadful fourth entry. Happily, we return to the 1997 original, a happier time when Will Smith still wore the baggiest clothes he could find, Barry Sonnenfield still made good films, and Rip Torn wasn't dead. Next week it's Krull. For real, this time. GIVE US 5 STARS ON ITUNES! Get in touch!...

We return to the realm of '80s nostalgia for a reader's pick, It's Flight of the Navigator ! You may remember being traumatised by the idea of losing 8 years of a childhood, but do you remember an illicit love story? A subplot revolving around Twisted Sister? How dull the second half of this film is? Probably not, and our advice is probably don't start a podcast where you ruin all your childhood m...

We're back! Sorry about that, real life intervened and we took our annual unschedule break from podding. We return with Tron Legacy our look back at Disney's attempt to resurrect a long dead franchise. Listen to find out why you shoudn't put an arcade game in a swimming baths, how much we wish Michael Sheen wasn't in this film, and what this picture is all about: GIVE US 5 STARS ON ITUNES! Get in...

The conclusion of our Godzilla double bill takes us back to 2014 and Hollywood's last attempt to make Japan's greatest export work in America. Chris hosts as we find out what went wrong and went right with Gareth Edward's very expensive monster movie, and end up losing our way in plotholes and inexplicable character choices. Oh well. Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters is in cinemas next week! Also A...

To celebrate the arrival in cinema's of Godzilla: King of the Monsters we start a double bill of Godzilla films. This week we go all the way back to 1954 with the original film that started the longest running film franchise of all-time. Next week we jump 60 years into the future and watch Gareth Edward's 2014 remake, watch a trailer here! GIVE US 5 STARS ON ITUNES! Get in touch! Visit the Website...

It's the 2nd annual re-ranking! Every birthday we each get to pick a film we think has been treated unfairly by the list and re-watch and re-rank it! This year Sam chose Predator , Chris chose Independence Day and Alex chose Tron . You can probably guess which film is the most contentious. Hint: This is the THIRD time we've have to watch it and it's not happening again, no matter what Chris says....

As The Avengers: Endgame hits cinemas across the world we hop onto some super-heroic coattails and watch the first Marvel team up from way back in 2012. In a bumper episode we thoroughly pull apart a film that feels older than it is. Alex is in his element dishing out facts like confetti, Sam is hard to impress and Chris is maybe coming around to this sort of thing? Maybe. And don't worry, there a...

We made it! This week we celebrate 100 episodes of the podcast with a new website and a new look. Still the same old hosts but don't despair, this week we tackle a proper big film, Ridley Scott's classic Alien . Following Chris' recent short for the film's 40th anniversary (watch it here! ) we watch the original that inspired countless films Next week we get to our 2nd annual re-ranking episode. T...

Things go from strange to stranger in part 2 of World on a Wire. As Stiller's mental state unravels so does our understanding of the plot. What is the real world? Which character is called Holm? And why are we on in a cabaret club anyway? Next week it's our 100th episode, join us as we tackle another film celebrating an anniversary, the original 1979 Alien! GIVE US 5 STARS ON ITUNES! Get in touch!...

In a list first we tackle a film so long we had to cut in two. Also it was originally a TV show that was in two parts anyway, so everything worked out OK. Join us as we watch the film that was The Matrix before The Matrix, a captivating and strange world of cryptic dialogue, brilliant synths and a protagonist who isn’t a bit phased by someone being crushed by bricks in front of him. Next week we w...

Our final film of Nostalgia Season is Chris’ pick, Short Circuit, a film we all thought we remembered a lot more than we did. Listen as we discover that a white actor pretending to be an Indian is far from the only thing wrong this film, and start to wonder whether looking back was a good idea after all. Next week it’s our first ever two part episode, with the first half of Rainer Werner Fassbinde...

Week 2 of nostalgia season and it’s Sam’s choice, the 1986 animated classic The Transformers: The Movie , a film Sam has been pitching repeatedly since episode 2 of the podcast, and finally we get around to watching it. Join us as Alex is overwhelmed by the film’s refusal to take a breather, Chris actually manages to say a couple of nice things and Sam falls over himself with excitement and occasi...

It’s the start of nostalgia season! This week Alex plucks a film from his childhood to see if it still holds up, and predictably Arnold Schwarzenegger is involved. In 1987’s The Running Man 2019 is a totalitarian hellscape where TV controls the world and the masses are oppressed by a minority, getting their kicks watching innocents throw themselves into a violent nightmare for a chance at redempti...

It took half a year for us to expunge the taste of Star Trek V but finally we are ready for more Trek. And it’s even numbered Trek so its good Trek. Nicholas Meyer returns to direct one last hurrah for the original cast, facing off against their old enemies the Klingons! Next week we start NOSTALGIA SEASON. We re-watch three films from our childhood we haven’t seen in a long time and see if they h...

Many moons ago Chris chose Yor over the Matrix sequels. After putting off watching it for months Alex, Chris and Sam are all pleasantly surprised by Yor’s brand of terrible. Cavemen, dinosaurs, Gimp Vader, the grandpa from Troll 2 and the greatest theme tune we’ve rated yet this week we watch the film that has it all! (But is still pretty awful.) We’ve gone long enough without any Trek and so next...

This week Alex hosts and possibly stars in Attack the Block, Joe Cornish’s hoodies vs. aliens sci-fi romp. It doesn’t take us long to decide we have serious issues with the film and then spend a long time trying to come to terms with it. Its the sort of borderline deep conversation you don’t really expect from us to be honest. Next week is a film about a time travelling dinosaur hunter so business...

This week Sam becomes ever more familiar with editing podcasts as we discuss Kevin Spacey’s K-PAX and definitely not anything else related to Kevin Spacey that may be in the news right now. Chris is unwilling to jeopardise any future Hollywood link-ups whilst Sam and Alex are determined to write a better version of this terrible film. And if that’s not enough the debate over whether this is actual...

Dr. Who is a big deal, a bigger deal than makes any sense to any of us here at SFRS. But let it not be said we aren’t willing to learn so this week we watch a Dr. Who film and partake in a wide ranging Dr. Who quiz to brush up on our knowledge of sonic screwdrivers and aliens that look like a group of 8 year olds designed them in design & tech class. If you are a big fan of this film, maybe lo...