Favorite Sci Fi Movie
Quote: rxwineSpeaking of TV.
The miniseries "The Martian Chronicles (Starring Rock Hudson) The 3 parts are on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqkcYyUVe40
I just mentioned The Martian Chronicles, and the next day Ray Bradbury is dead.
Quote: RogerKintAny Donnie Darko fans?
I don't really think of it as Sci Fi, but I do love Donnie Darko. I guess in my head it goes into the "Mindfuck" category along with stuff like Fight Club and Memento.
Quote: NareedOverall, various SF series, even Voyager, have managed a few outstanding episodes now and then. Some are tied to the show's mythos more strongly than others. There's an epsidoe in Star Trek Deep Space Nine where one character lives a massive paranoid fantasy, with even his close friends and relatives becoming aprt of a conspiracy against him. In the end we find he was completely correct and not being paranoid or fantasising at all! it's called "Whispers," if you want to look it up. IMO you can get the point even if you never watched DS9 before.
Ah the venerable tradition of "O'Brien must suffer!" I also like "Hard Time" from that theme in DS9. I could go on about favorite DS9 episodes, but this is a movie thread I guess :)
Quote: AcesAndEightsI don't really think of it as Sci Fi, but I do love Donnie Darko. I guess in my head it goes into the "Mindfuck" category along with stuff like Fight Club and Memento.
Dang it. You're right. Donnie Darko is in a category of it's own. It's not "Mindfuck" it's "Gosuckafuck".
For a short time a small theatre here in LA decided to show it. I got goose bumps when he's coming up the stairs and "Love will tear us apart again" starts playing.
Quote: pacomartinNo one has mentioned the Fifth Element. Probably because 75% of the box office was from overseas.
One of my friends in junior high/high school was a huge Bruce Willis fan, and was a big fan of this movie when it came out. We all got kind of into it. I think it helped that we were 13 or 14 years old.
I bought the DVD a few years ago, and was rather disappointed. I mean it's an okay movie, but IMO the story doesn't really hold up to my "adult" viewing standards. My new policy is to make sure I re-watch anything that I haven't seen for a decade before I fork out for the DVD.
Quote: Ayecarumba"Independence Day", anyone? It was the first in the recent renaissance of big budget films featuring the CG destruction of world famous monuments.
Are you serious? That movie SUCKED. I mean, in my humble opinion :).
I was recently subjected to it on a long plane ride...
Quote: AcesAndEightsAh the venerable tradition of "O'Brien must suffer!"
There's that. O'Brien was like the token red-shirt guy sometimes. But the ending hits with real force.
Quote:I also like "Hard Time" from that theme in DS9.
Yes and no. It was very powerful, but they steered the boat to the wrong harbor. In the end, O'Brien was tormented by what he had "done." They could have worked that into any holodeck, mind-posession, fantasy, dream episode they wanted. On the other hand, suppose he were tormented for what he went through, even if it wasn't "real" and even if to everyone else he was absent only a few minutes.
It's close, I admit. But on the first example, O'Brien is a perpatrator and a victim. In the second he's just a victim.
Quote:I could go on about favorite DS9 episodes, but this is a movie thread I guess :)
I suppose. though some two-parters come close to almost-feature-length, about 90-95 minutes. Of course, Trek has a bad track record for muffing the second part. About the only ones I can recall offhand that dind't, was "The Best of Both Worlds" and Voyager's "The Year of Hell."
Quote: AcesAndEightsAre you serious? That movie SUCKED. I mean, in my humble opinion :).
Independence Day was the most popular movie of 1996. The theaters are making a 3-D version for release next year.
This 3-D remake business is pretty profitable. The 3-D Titanic conversion cost $18 million, and made $57 million in tickets sales. Which is the same as the box office for Battleship, which cost over $200 million to produce.
Certainly every PIXAR film is going to be converted.
Quote: AcesAndEightsI mean it's an okay movie, but IMO the story doesn't really hold up to my "adult" viewing standards.
An "ok" movie? "The Fifth Element"?
It has a great opening (ironically it ends with the irrevocable closing of a door!), but it proceeds to go straight downhill from there. It becomes a collection of cliches: the uber-intelligent and capable and stunning alien, the retired vet with issues, the bad guys who can kill everything in sight except their targets, the faceles, shapeless evil bent on destroyign the Earth for some reason, the obligatory "yes, humans are far from perfect, but that's no reason to let them all die" moment, the comic-relief guy... well, you get the idea.
But here's what really bugs me: the villain goes through a great deal of trouble, risk and expense to secure the destruction of Earth, I assume in exchange for something, and then goes back to Earth himself!
I'd watch the opening again, then dream of the movie that could have been...
Quote: AcesAndEightsAre you serious? That movie SUCKED. I mean, in my humble opinion :).
I was recently subjected to it on a long plane ride...
Yes, serious. The story was cheesy, but the special effects were top notch for the time. It was the beginning of a renaissance for big budget, end of the world movies. Like the 70's Towering Inferno on 'roids.
Phantasm
Quote: NareedAn "ok" movie? "The Fifth Element"?
It has a great opening (ironically it ends with the irrevocable closing of a door!), but it proceeds to go straight downhill from there. It becomes a collection of cliches: the uber-intelligent and capable and stunning alien, the retired vet with issues, the bad guys who can kill everything in sight except their targets, the faceles, shapeless evil bent on destroyign the Earth for some reason, the obligatory "yes, humans are far from perfect, but that's no reason to let them all die" moment, the comic-relief guy... well, you get the idea.
But here's what really bugs me: the villain goes through a great deal of trouble, risk and expense to secure the destruction of Earth, I assume in exchange for something, and then goes back to Earth himself!
I'd watch the opening again, then dream of the movie that could have been...
Haha, okay, I'll defer to your more advanced film analysis. I didn't think about it that much, other than "oh this looks kind of cool, but it breaks down at some point."
Quote: NareedI suppose. though some two-parters come close to almost-feature-length, about 90-95 minutes. Of course, Trek has a bad track record for muffing the second part. About the only ones I can recall offhand that dind't, was "The Best of Both Worlds" and Voyager's "The Year of Hell."
You know I just re-watched Best of Both Worlds (both parts), and I have to say that after seeing it probably dozens of times, I don't enjoy the second part nearly as much as the first. Part 1 is one of the best hours of Trek ever, but I never bought the ending of part 2. Way too much techno-babble I guess...sure, I can buy the part where Data puts the Borg to sleep prematurely. But how exactly does that cause their ship to just magically explode? I guess in my theoretical outcome, they would sleep for a few hours, wake up, realize their network had been compromised, blow up the Enterprise and proceed to assimilate Earth. Ah, what a lovely ending!
Quote: AcesAndEightsI guess...sure, I can buy the part where Data puts the Borg to sleep prematurely. But how exactly does that cause their ship to just magically explode?
Well, yes. Deanna acting out of character and ditzy was a low point, too. But the way Picard comes barely through and with effort says "Sleep. Sleep, Data," and the tone of voice that comes out, that's priceless. Also the scene where Locutus says to Riker "Picard would be disappointed in you, Number One." Imagine the horror Riker must feel at that moment.
You also have a good point. In typical Trek fashion, the buildup was too good. Therefore they nearly need to restore to "magic" in order to win out in the end. But they way to get there was done well. The desperate gambit, the feeling that they were on the edge of utter defeat throughout, Data keeping calm (innevitably, but still). All that was well hadnled.
And of the many times Starfleet defeated the Borg, that was possibly the second best after the one in the movie. Voyager got by too easily. And by the time the "first" Enterprise tangled with them, it was ridiculous.
Quote: pacomartinI watched two movies because of this thread. "Moon" and "Donnie Darko". I loved them both. Thank you for the suggestions.
You're welcome, I came to see both of them the same way, and feel the same way.
in anything, even if its only his voice. I don't like movies
that fool the audience, its just cheap theatrical tricks.
I knew something was wrong with the scenerio they were
presenting and when I found out, I groaned.
It was the same in Fight Club. If you watch it a second
time, there's no way its believable. They gained a
following for the club initially because they were fighting
each other and a crowd gathered. But it would have really
been the dude hitting himself in the face, like a lunatic
would. A truly stupid movie, before I even knew what the
secret was, I was rooting for them both to die.
And Sixth Sense, gimee a break. Halfway thru the thing
I kept asking my wife how come nobody but the kid
ever talks to Bruce Willis. It was just not believable.
Quote: ahiromuI don't have a lot of childhood memories, but the one that sticks in my mind is hiding around the corner while watching Terminator 2 (my first rated R movie, on laser disc if anyone can remember those). I don't remember my exact age except I wasn't in kindergarten yet.
I may be announcing my age a bit, but the movie I remember
crouching behind the naugahyde green chair to watch was the
Wizard of Oz in the scenes where the witch threw fireballs
at the Scarecrow, and also when the flying monkeys appeared.
Who isn't afraid of Flying Monkeys !
Quote: JohnnyQWizard of Oz in the scenes where the witch threw fireballs
at the Scarecrow, and also when the flying monkeys appeared.
!
WofOz should never be shown to kids under 8. I saw it when
I was 5 and was scared of the dark for years because of the witch.
I had nightmares about her for many years. I have a friend
who saw it in a theatre in the early 40's and it tramautized him
till he was well into his teens. He had trouble sleeping. She
really was frightening.
Didn't see Zardoz mentioned- or even Death Race 2000 - two more classics, IMHO... :)
Quote: EvenBobIt was the same in Fight Club. If you watch it a second
time, there's no way its believable. They gained a
following for the club initially because they were fighting
each other and a crowd gathered. But it would have really
been the dude hitting himself in the face, like a lunatic
would. A truly stupid movie, before I even knew what the
secret was, I was rooting for them both to die.
I retract my previous statement, EvenBob should be banned for life!
Jokes, jokes...Fight Club is my all-time favorite movie and I've watched it probably 20 times.
Surprised no one said T2: Judgement Day. Waaaaay ahead of its time. That liquid metal effect inspired so many copycats, even in commercials, like for Listerine.
I'm seeing Prometheus tomorrow. Maybe it'll have the staying power that Alien did.
Perhaps someone can help me identify a late 1950s early 1960s TV movie which I think was a CBS Playhouse 90: it was about a family living in Southern California, perhaps San Diego, when the US was attacked in a nuclear war.
I remember watching the beginning of the movie, it starts with shots of a debris field and the opening narration... "I'm dead now..." And I recall a panic scene in a supermarket after the first A bomb exploded and the father of the family trying to get some medicine for his daughter blinded by the blast.
That's about all I remember.
I never watched the end. I was maybe 10 years old and was too scared and turned off the TV. Now, I'd like to see it. I tried YouTube, and I tried IMBD but just can't seem to find a title.
On, On The Beach was a damn good movie too.
Quote: AlanMendelsonPerhaps someone can help me identify a late 1950s early 1960s TV movie which I think was a CBS Playhouse 90:
it was about a family living in Southern California, perhaps San Diego, when the US was attacked in a nuclear war.
I remember watching the beginning of the movie, it starts with shots of a debris field and the opening narration...
"I'm dead now..."
And I recall a panic scene in a supermarket after the first A bomb exploded
and the father of the family trying to get some medicine for his daughter blinded by the blast.
alas, babylon
season 4, episode 14 (1959-60)
broadcast: 3 april, 1960
starring don murray, burt reynolds, rita moreno
Quote: zippyboyI'm seeing Prometheus tomorrow. Maybe it'll have the staying power that Alien did.
I'll bet you the ticket price evens that it won't.
(or, since we don't want to bother with cash transfer, 1 verbal recognition of a bet won).
Quote: AcesAndEightsFight Club is my all-time favorite movie and I've watched it probably 20 times.
You don't talk about the fight club.
IDK, somehow it seems that sci-fi doesn't work its best in movie form. Books, series, even games, they all work, but sci-fi movies somehow seem to fail to establish enough context till it's all over, while spending enough time on said context to take away from the story. I still remember watching the Hitchhiker's Guide, both versions (most people don't know about the British one), and it's hard to believe how much smaller and even pettier it felt in comparison the the books.
Only talking about proper "high fiction" sci-fi here, i.e. future,space, all that. Not post-apocalypse, that's a distinct genre. And small changes to the current world aren't sci-fi at all. Come to think of it, Le Dernier Combat I remember, but it was more the presentation than the story.
- Solaris (Tarkovsky's version, not Soderbergh's awful remake)
- Alien
- The Man Who Fell to Earth
Quote: zippyboyClockwork Orange is kinda sci-fi, so that gets a vote from me (especially for its soundtrack)...
I agree, that's also one of my favorites. I guess I classify anything that's post-apocalyptic, or really just in "the future" as Sci Fi. So I guess I disagree with P90 on this one:
Quote: P90
Only talking about proper "high fiction" sci-fi here, i.e. future,space, all that. Not post-apocalypse, that's a distinct genre.
IMO post-apocalypse is a sub-genre of sci-fi, but whatevs. Let's not get tied down in nomenclature.
Quote: AcesAndEightsIMO post-apocalypse is a sub-genre of sci-fi, but whatevs. Let's not get tied down in nomenclature.
No, but we can look at some cases. The late John W. Campbell was best known as an editor, but he was also an author. His short fiction is loaded with post-apocalyptic stories of one kind or another, usually involving causes such as emotional and intellectual decay (this was before nuclear weapons existed). I'd go so far as to say the man was fascinated with such things.
Some of his favorite authors in the 30s and 40s, the Golden Age of pulp magazine SF in the US, would do apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories as well. Offhand there's Asimov's "Nightfall," Cyrill Kornbluth's "Shark Ship," and possibly even Clarke's "Against the Fall of Night."
2010
Aliens (1986)
Westworld
Ken
Quote: progrockerOh yeah, forgot about Dark City.
Shut it down!
several other movies that have been mentioned with high frequency
Idiocracy
In that order
Won't give too much away here, but suffice it to say that there were too many scenes that I felt like I had seen before in other movies by same director.
Quote: marksam40Back to the Future (1&2)
Oh, those were good! You gotta love a time travel movie that doens't take the subject matter seriously :)
Quote:Idiocracy
I saw most of that one, I caught it late one night on cable. Pretty good, with some shades of Kornbluth's "The Marching Morons."
Quote: WongBoalas, babylon
season 4, episode 14 (1959-60)
broadcast: 3 april, 1960
starring don murray, burt reynolds, rita moreno
YES!!! I was able to check that. Now, where can I see that??
There are lots of sites that claim they show it online, but they don't. Just a come on to give them your credit card info. Netflix doesnt have. Not on YouTube. Are there Playhouse 90 anthologies sold on DVD??
Quote: ParadigmSaw Prometheus this weekend......have to say not very impressed. It was my first movie in IMAX 3D which is very cool....but you pay for it as the tixs were $19 each...ouch!!
Won't give too much away here, but suffice it to say that there were too many scenes that I felt like I had seen before in other movies by same director.
I thought it was decent.
Ken
Quote: ParadigmSaw Prometheus this weekend......have to say not very impressed.
I saw it too. The writing was so bad, people in my audience were openly laughing at the character's lines, and how characters were flip-flopping on their views of the situation in the movie. There were some good scenes though towards the end. And it's nice to tie up unanswered questions in the original Alien, like where did the aliens come from? and who were the people in that horseshoe-shaped ship we saw crashed on the planet?, and how did we know to send the Nostromo back to the planet to bring back an alien?
Having a robot (Ash) onboard was a surprise in Alien, Bishop in Aliens was a bit less so, and by the time we got to Winona Ryder's character, it's old news, so Fassbender being a robot was yawnsville, even revealed in the trailers. The mapping system was cool, like the Phantasm flying ball, or a SGU kino, with lasers.
Lunopolis - Don't take it seriously, but if you've ever seen the TV series "Ancient Aliens" on the History channel (or anything like it), you'll die laughing at this one. Has a pretty good ending, though.
Troll Hunter - Norwegian, based on folklore - subtitled. Another good ending.
Both of these are worth watching if you have Netflix, but don't pay to rent them or anything. Of course, I love the classics, too, but these are just fun ones to watch when you are looking for something different. I'll throw out Star Wars as my all time favorite, though.
Troll Hunter was a lot of fun.
For excellent reviews of sci-fi movies on dvd and Bluray from a guy in the business, check out the DVD Savant
Book of Eli
Quote: zippyboyI saw it too. The writing was so bad, people in my audience were openly laughing at the character's lines, and how characters were flip-flopping on their views of the situation in the movie. There were some good scenes though towards the end.
It's funny how the original designs have become so much a part of the culture that you can buy them as shoes.
The dumb lines in the script, and the large number of loose ends (presumably to be tied up in the sequel) are offset by the stunning visual style of the movie. I think it is worth seeing in the theater as you won't get any effect on TV.
Although it bugs me a little to feel like I've seen half a movie, I remain a fan. I assume that he is hoping to make a trilogy out of this film. In todo, it should be a good project.
That was prior to Spielberg turning ET beings into Disneyfied cuddly teddy-bear character for kids with his later movie.
Quote: rxwineI think I might add "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", because at the time it was made, it kind of merged common folklore of UFO encounters into a modern action/mystery movie.
I first saw it at a very young age. At the time, it felt like the whole movie was waiting for something to happen. When something finally did, near the end, it was incredibly underwhelming.
In my teens I saw the "extended" version, or something like that, with some minutes added. I felt throughout the entire movie as though we were eaiting for something to happen. When something finally did, well, see the paragraph above ;)
Quote:That was prior to Spielberg turning ET beings into Disneyfied cuddly teddy-bear character for kids with his later movie.
Oh, yes. Those are even worse. I think Spielberg built his rep with one horror movie (Jaws) and one action movie (Raiders of the Lost Ark).
