Entertainment
6 Worst R-Rated Sci-Fi Movies of the 1990s
Every science fiction story asks a question about tomorrow and talks about the unforeseen future. But the six R-rated films on this list all share the exact same dark premise. They look at a future where our own advancements turn against us. Not to mention their stories are great, and driven by cybernetic implants, advanced artificial intelligence, genetic cloning, and automated warfare.
Sounds interesting to hear but the problem is not the premise. The problem is what these filmmakers did with it. Instead of exploring these fascinating sci-fi ideas with intelligence, these movies traded deep concepts for mindless action, cheap thrills, unnecessary scenes and heavy violence. They took genuinely great science fiction premises and flattened them into forgettable box office disasters.
6
‘Johnny Mnemonic’ (1995)
The most surprising thing about Johnny Mnemonic is that it somehow manages to make very exciting concepts, boring. For instance, look at a premise involving cybernetic implants, digital storage in the human brain, and a futuristic conspiracy. All these things are perfect ingredients for a high-quality script, but this film fails to produce that. Johnny Mnemonic (Keanu Reeves) works as a courier who literally stores confidential data inside his own brain, though after accepting one dangerous job, he discovers that he is carrying more information than his mind can safely handle.
What I kept waiting for, however, was the movie to actually do something interesting with that idea. Instead, the film spends most of its runtime throwing Johnny into one noisy, confusing encounter after another. Keanu Reeves looks as if he understands that none of this makes sense, which honestly became part of the entertainment for me. After every few scenes, somebody introduces a new piece of futuristic technology or another complicated plot point, yet none of it ever feels connected to anything emotionally real. The strangest part is that the film constantly behaves as though it is blowing your mind when, in reality, you are mostly trying to stay awake.
5
‘Alien Resurrection’ (1997)
I think the biggest mistake Alien Resurrection makes happens before the movie even begins. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) died at the end of Alien 3 in a tragic way. Then Alien Resurrection simply brings her back through cloning and expects the audience to move on as if nothing happened. From that moment onward, the film never fully recovers.
It is hands down frustrating because there are moments where you can see a genuinely weird and interesting movie going to waste. Clone Ripley is unsettling in ways that the previous versions of the character never were, and some of the ideas involving identity and genetic experimentation could have led somewhere fascinating. I was less disturbed by the Xenomorphs than I was by the realization that the franchise had somehow made one of cinema’s greatest heroines feel like a side character in her own story.
4
‘Judge Dredd’ (1995)
The first thing I remember about Judge Dredd are the fashion choices of the characters. Before Sylvester Stallone even says a word as Judge Joseph Dredd (Sylvester Stallone), the movie has already committed so aggressively to its ridiculous visual style that it becomes difficult to take anything seriously afterwards. Dredd is supposed to be an intimidating symbol of absolute law and authority but he often looks like somebody trying very hard to convince us that he is intimidating.
The worst part is that the film wasted a good script. A futuristic city governed by judges who act as police officers, juries, and executioners is actually a compelling idea. Yet the movie quickly abandons any interest in exploring that world and turns into a series of explosions, chases, and arguments delivered at maximum volume. Every time you think the film might finally settle down and develop an idea, somebody would crash through a wall or fire another oversized weapon; it feels like you are watching being shouted at for two hours.
3
‘Hardware’ (1990)
For almost thirty minutes, everyone genuinely believed Hardware might turn into a cult classic. The film follows Mo Baxter (Dylan McDermott), who unknowingly brings home the remains of a military robot that eventually reconstructs itself and begins hunting artist Jill (Stacey Travis) inside her apartment. The story is simple, claustrophobic, and honestly pretty effective.
Then the movie slowly becomes trapped inside its own atmosphere. Every scene is so obsessed with looking grimy, futuristic, and disturbing that the story itself eventually disappears. I reached a point where I realized I was no longer following the characters or the plot. I was simply staring at smoke, flashing lights, metal walls, and increasingly loud sound effects. There is a good science-fiction horror movie buried somewhere inside Hardware that just failed to reach its full potential.
2
‘Split Second’ (1992)
Rutger Hauer plays detective Harley Stone, a man hunting a mysterious killer in a flooded futuristic London while consuming enough caffeine to endanger his own health. Honestly, that premise alone almost convinced me that Split Second deserved to become a cult favorite. For a while, I was willing to forgive nearly everything because Hauer commits so completely to playing a man who appears to have slept for about three hours over the previous decade.
The problem is that the movie never figures out what it wants its monster to be. Is this a detective story? A horror movie? A science-fiction action film? The answer changes every twenty minutes. There is something admirable about the film’s commitment to excess, though eventually that excess becomes exhausting. It just leaves you simply waiting to explain what exactly you had been watching all along.
1
‘Virus’ (1999)
One of the worst things a science-fiction horror movie can do is make its central threat uninteresting because that’s the only thing that keeps the film going. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happens in Virus. After a mysterious alien intelligence takes control of a Russian research vessel, Captain Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland) and Kelly Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis) find themselves fighting machines that have begun rebuilding human bodies into grotesque mechanical hybrids.
This should have been terrifying. Instead, I spent most of the movie admiring the practical effects while feeling absolutely nothing about the story itself. The film introduces horrifying concepts and then presents them with all the emotional impact of an instruction manual. Jamie Lee Curtis does everything she can to make her character believable, though even she eventually seems overwhelmed by the endless machinery, explosions, and shouting.
Virus
- Release Date
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January 15, 1999
- Runtime
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99 Minutes
- Director
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John Bruno
- Writers
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Chuck Pfarrer, Dennis Feldman
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