The Lobot Mods: A Podcast about Sci-Fi Cinema

They're here!!! In this final episode of LOBOT MODS season 1, we take a look at Tim Burton's sci-fi feature film MARS ATTACKS! and compare that with the 2011 UK action/sci-fi/monster feature ATTACK THE BLOCK. Two alien invasions. One by the skeletal would-be Martian overlords, the other from a bunch of ink-black plushies with radioactive teeth. Is the human race doomed? Not if John Boyeg...

Humans would make great pets! We take a look at the classic 1968 sci-fi feature film PLANET OF THE APES starring Charlton Heston, and compare that with 1973 animated science fiction film FANTASTIC PLANET. Two alien scenarios where humans are subjugated by an oppressive bureaucracy that seems all too familiar. Wild psychedelic fantasy? Or are these films expressions of contemporary existential drea...

Mad men make mad mechanical people. Mad horny mechanical people.  We take a look at Stanley Donen and John Barry's 1980 feature SATURN 3 starring Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett, and compare that with Alex Garland's 2014 film EX MACHINA. Two wildly different takes on the Frankenstein archetype, both with wildly different takes on gender politics and libido. In a wide-ranging conversation...

Two Artificial Intelligences hold human life in the balance. One is a monstrous, untrustworthy abuser. The other is Kevin Spacey.  We take a look at the legendary Stanely Kubrick classic 1968 feature 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and compare that with Duncan Jones's low budget 2009 film MOON starring Sam Rockwell, Sam Rockwell and Sam Rockwell. Both have our desolate satellite and non-human caretake...

Two future sports that tease the prospect of freedom. One is a meat grinder on wheels, the other is barely a game at all. We take a look at the classic 1975 feature ROLLERBALL starring James Caan, and compare that with Robert Rodriguez's big budget cyberpunk-ish 2019 manga adaptation film ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. Do these films represent the future of death sports? Or the death of future sports.....

Two terrifying tesseracts piercing time and space, and the dumb humans that throw themselves into them. We take a look at the 1979 Disney sci-fi feature THE BLACK HOLE starring Robert Forster & Yvette Mimieux, and contrast that with Christopher Nolan's hard sci-fi art-house melodrama INTERSTELLAR. Which one takes a dive? Or do neither escape the pull of the cosmic drain? In a wide-ranging...

Two detectives surrounded by robots (possibly), trying to make sense of the noir world around them. We take a look at Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 feature ALPHAVILLE starring Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina, and compare that art house flick with the hypermodern, stylish and groundbreaking 1982 film BLADE RUNNER by Ridley Scott. When does style get in the way of substance? When is too much not eno...

Two men trapped in societies that rule the masses with an iron fist. Two men that defeat the odds and break on through. One of them does it for the betterment of all of humanity. The other one is a bit of a jerk.  We take a look at George Lucas' 1971 debut feature THX 1138 starring Robert Duvall, and compare that meditation on the automation of the human condition with the wild, unkempt and o...

Two spaceships from Earth on a mission to blow up celestial bodies - one mission to save mankind, the other to escape boredom.  We take a look at Danny Boyle's 2007 film SUNSHINE, starring Cillian Murphy, and compare that high-stakes deep space survival drama with John Carpenter's debut feature, the genre-defining 1974 sci-fi film DARK STAR. Has science fiction cinema advanced since Carp...

Two dystopian futures where the masses are controlled by taking away their emotions. A peaceful society at the cost of not appreciating poetry. It's monstrous. But the fighting looks cool.   We take a look at Kurt Wimmer's 2002 film EQUILIBRIUM, starring Christian Bale, and compare that totalitarian state with Stanley Kubrick's eye-popping, retina scratching 1971 film A CLOCKWORK OR...

The legendary weekly British anthology publication, 2000A.D., spawned one of the most iconic science fiction characters in comic book history - Mega City One lawman Judge Dredd.  Inspired by cinematic figures like Frankenstein from DEATH RACE 2000 and Dirty Harry Callahan, a feature film adaptation of Dredd always seemed inevitable. We take a look at Danny Cannon's 1995 film JUDGE DREDD, star...

What's up with those bande dessinée sci fi adaptations for the big screen, eh? Maybe Hollywood rips off French sci-fi because the French do it better?  We take a look at Roger Vadim's 1968 film BARBARELLA, adapted from the Jean-Claude Forest comic book of the same name, and explore what it does and doesn't have in common with Luc Besson's 2017 flick VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A T...