Screamers (1995)

 

A military commander stationed off planet during an interplanetary war travels through the devastated landscape to negotiate a peace treaty, but discovers that the primitive robots they built to kill enemy combatants have gained sentience. 

Superior sci-fi action drama successfully translates Philip K. Dick's dark imagination into a suspenseful and atmospheric thriller.

Halliwell*: "Paranoid science fiction, bleak in tone but interesting in its speculations about intelligent machines and violent people; judging by the soundtrack song, rock music will regress in the future."

Maltin**1/2: "Intelligent sci-fi action thriller is undermined by a bad ending." 

New acquisition: Screamers (1995)

The Art of War (2000)

When a shipping container full of dead Vietnamese refugees turns up on the docks and China's ambassador is gunned down at a dinner celebrating a new trade agreement with China and the US, an operative for the United Nations' covert dirty-tricks squad is framed for the murder and must evade the FBI and Triad gangsters to find out what is really going on.

Cliché-ridden action thriller with lots of action, but with a sloppy plot trying to make sense to a convoluted conspiracy; the stars are wasted in the mess.

Halliwell (no star): "Luridly ridiculous thriller that juggles all the usual stereotypes and situations to little effect."

Maltin**1/2: "Unexceptional action thriller...Hong Kong-style fights and good cinematography...help, but you've seen it all before."