Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely the worst movie.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Ah 1985, as the song says "still preoccupied with 1985". That's got to be my favorite year. I was 19 turning 20 that year and surprisingly, I did not see this movie on the big screen, even though I caught just about every flick I could back in the day, I don't recall hearing about this one or any fervor or hoopla over it, at least not in my little circle. I saw this years later on cable and love it! I've not seen it in many years and once again caught it on cable and oh how wonderful it was/is. Before CGI, movie studios had to use more conventional special affects, molds, man made dolls, animation, animatronics, etc. For it's time this was a first rate effort. The special affects, while now a little dated, are still amazing to me when viewed in context. This movie is a horror scifi vampire movie. With all the English actors and accents it feels like an updated Hammer film and I've always loved hammer, although it's not. I highly recommend this as best in class for that error and Mathilda May, what more can be said there, nudity abounds, woohoo, still preoccupied with 1985.

A race of space vampires run amok in London, England and threaten to destroy the human race. It's up to hysterical astronaut Colonel Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback at his most manic and intense) to stop them before it's too late.Director Tobe Hooper, working from a positively loopy script by Dan O'Bannon and Dan Jacoby, treats the delightfully bent, batty, and berserk story with utmost (often unintentionally sidesplitting)seriousness, puts a fresh and wacky sci-fi spin on the standard vampire premise (these deadly beings suck energy instead of blood), cuts loose with all kinds of funky special effects, and pulls out all exciting stops for a truly insane apocalyptic grand finale with shriveled-up zombies rampaging through a burning London. The fact that such respectable thespians as Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Michael Gothard, Patrick Stewart, and Aubrey Morris play their silly parts with admirable straight faces further enhances this film's considerable kitschy appeal. Best of all, voluptuous brunette knockout Mathilda May as the dangerously seductive space girl spends the bulk of her screen time in her spectacularly sumptuous birthday suit. The hilariously clunky dialogue boasts a wealth of gut-busting tin-eared howlers (choice cruddy line: "Collect the pieces and watch them"). Alan Hume's handsome cinematography makes exquisite use of the widescreen format. Henry Mancini's rich'n'robust orchestral score hits the rousing spot. An astounding camp classic.

The blu-ray of Lifeforce wasn't some great revelation of a lost artifact from the 80's that should be held up high as any 'great art'. Hell, the studio it's from - Cannon films, that good old purveyor of quality like Superman 4 - gives an indication that it'll be a cheesy, no-frills sci-fi. But the film has (surprisingly) some classy sci-fi direction via Tobe Hooper, for titillation (and just weirdness at times, the two mix together) Mathilda May's constant nudity, a thrilling and dark Henry Mancini score, and some bizarre and fun writing from Dan OBannon (and some boring exposition from the other writer).Really, if only the acting, aside from Patrick Stewart, wasn't so bad, and it really is sometimes hard to take - who is this lead actor guy, why hadn't I seen him aside from this, oh, right, he sucks - then it could be possibly wonderful instead of simply a curious cult object. I may have neglected to mention the story, here it is: hot alien lady comes to Earth, stirs s*** up. There.But it was better than I expected, and to the filmmaker's credit and to the intentions of one of the writers I'd suspect, it's a B movie in the proudest sense of the word.

The fact that Lifeforce actually exists and not in some bizarre alternate reality is something of an achievement in itself, but that it was a big budget prestige pic for Cannon Films just speaks volumes on why they went bust. Clearly nobody was in their right mind when this was greenlit or filmed and the results are gloriously loopy. Line readings usually range from wooden to unhinged, sometimes within seconds of each other - and dialogue is not so much terrible, as it is head scratchingly insane. Mathilda May spends most of the running time with an aversion to clothing and may never be topped as the best naked space vampire girl. The last act of London going up in flames is off the charts ridiculous and amazingly entertaining. If there's anything you can fault Lifeforce for, it's not for being predictable.