i love sci fi and i reckon there might be a few fans on here... what are your favourites?
its a broad genre, but my top few would be:
blade runner 2001 space odyssey star wars (episode v - empire strikes back is the best) alien terminator (probably 2 is the best) brazil planet of the apes (original and best) the fly (croneberg's version) donnie darko
Gattaca - Genuine Sci-Fi, which is rare these days Solaris - Both versions, for different reasons Akira - I will forever be discovering new stuff in this film Twelve Monkeys - Arguably the best time travel movie ever made Abre Los Ojos - Original version of "Vanilla Sky" Dune - Love it or hate it, you have to applaud the vision Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Actually quite a good film on it's own merit Aliens - Deserves it's own entry seperate to Alien
------ "The lack of flying kangaroos patently proves that Darwinism is false." - blast99
Dune - Love it or hate it, you have to applaud the vision
I'd agree since it was pretty faithful to the original book pity the series went downhill after that. And of course it also spawned Dune 2, the first true RTS game.
I'll add the classic:
Dark Star - How can you knock a film that has a beach ball as the "monster"?.
The Matrix - I just keep watching it Dark Star - have the DVD, its very grainy which is a shame Babylon-5 - ok not a film as such, more like a novel. Terminator - 1 & 2 Star Wars - well you have to include that. Alien - I liked the first one best 2001 - must get the DVD some time (much prefer the book though)
Dune - Love it or hate it, you have to applaud the vision
I'd agree since it was pretty faithful to the original book pity the series went downhill after that. And of course it also spawned Dune 2, the first true RTS game.
I'll add the classic:
Dark Star - How can you knock a film that has a beach ball as the "monster"?.
Never saw DarkStar, but probably will at some point.
Blackhole - scared me when I was a kid...sheeesh Voltes 5 - Great Manga.
Dune the movie was enjoyable. Although the miniseries was more faithful to the book with the wierding way. I still preferred the movie for the stillsuit.
Shall we add fantasy as well? Lord of the Rings - annoying they didn't include the Shire. Ladyhawke. Princess Bride. After all who couldn't forget the immortal words.
"Hello,my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die."
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” Friedrich Nietzsche
Originally posted by Joobs: Dark Star - How can you knock a film that has a beach ball as the "monster"?.
And, of course, was the prototype for Alien.
There were actually loads of really good Sci-Fi movies like this in the 70s. Back when the genre was less rigidly defined. Silent Running is another good one.
I read an interesting essay recently about how there isn't much "true" sci-fi about anymore; most modern sci-fi films are just "cops & robbers" films set in space with laser guns.
For something to be true sci-fi you have to be exploring some kind of concept which is an imaginary artefact of scientific progress. Gattaca is a good example.
------ "The lack of flying kangaroos patently proves that Darwinism is false." - blast99
Princess Bride. After all who couldn't forget the immortal words.
"Hello,my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die."
Inconceivable!
(Best film ever)
"You keep saying that word. I do not think it means, what you think it means."
I do agree about "Gattaca". I read critics stating it was boring and that the character became a conformist to the society. I saw the guy as the closet rebel. He beat them at their own game.
As a premise, how would we as a society feel if we are barcoded? OOoops, we already are coded to one degree and another.
1984 - is scary since it seems to be happening to us right now. In 1948, it can be termed as sci-fi. The new version seems to be "V for Vendetta"
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” Friedrich Nietzsche
Flash Gordon - Great soundtrack,great performances,brilliant colourful retro designs and costumes,witty dialogue and ladlefulls of syrupy schmaltz,more a space pantomime than a space opera but its just an excellent family adventure sci-fi comic book movie
Tron - Primitive CGI perhaps but this movies got style,heart and a sense of humour that makes it a classic for me.
Brother From Another Planet - I love the soundtrack to this movie and the idea of an alien runaway slave plus its a black Sci-Fi movie which isn't at all exploitative.
Time After Time - Excellent performances from Malcom McDowell,David Warner and Mary Steenburgen plus humour and social insight make this one of my favourite movies of all.
The Day The Earth Stood Still - Klaatu Barada Nikto! A rare thing, a Sci-Fi movie that is heartwarming like a Frank Capra movie. I love the idea of the peaceful Klaatu coming to earth to try and bring about world peace. I love the menacing cyclopean robot policeman Gort. I wish Osama Bin Laden and George Bush would watch this movie,it might change them for the better.
The Last StarFighter/The Black Hole/Battle Beyond The Stars/Star Wars episodes IV,V and VI/Starchaser: The Legend of Orin - Swashbuckling and magical space operas,if well done,are just cool and fun and make you feel like a kid again.
Logans Run - Just a fun movie with lots of 60's chic,cool guns and good performances from Michael York,pretty Jenny Agutter and Peter Ustinov.
2001:A Space Odyssey - Mind blowing epic experience that is breath-takingly beautiful, poetic and also has a great villain in the evil computer HAL
Slipstream - Just like the character of Byron, the android manservant who is ordered by his owner to assist his death and is then hunted down by bounty hunters - also the slipstream and the gliders that fly on it are cool too.
Enemy Mine/Alien Nation - Sci-fi buddy movies that are well acted enough to draw you in and make you care about the character behind the awful rubber mask.
Time Bandits - More a fantasy than a Sci-fi but just an incredible,surreal,comic roller-coaster ride with good performances from the dwarf actors,the Pythons and David Warner(one of my favourite actors)as the devil- every young boys dreams of adventure are in this movie although the ending may be a bit much for young minds to take in.
The Omega Man - Just incredibly cool because Charlton Heston gets to ride around in sports cars,shoot mutants and raid shops also I like the funky organ music in the background.
Planet Of The Apes (The Original) - Roddy McDowall is one of my favourite actors and its acting,plot and dialogue that make this a great movie for me and its these three things that Tim Burtons remake lacked.
Westworld - The Great Yul Brynner beats the pants off of Arnie when it comes to playing evil killer robots plus the whole idea of an adult male fantasy land come to life.
Predators 1 and 2- Better than Terminator in my opinion -brilliant monster with a brain (and in number 2 they have some kind of principles) and Arnies struggle for survival where he becomes like a primitive in order to battle a super hi-tech enemy is great.
Alien - I liked all the Alien movies except Aliens which I thought was a bit dumb and didn't really say much about war or vietnam to me. My favourite character in the Alien movies is Ripley rather than the Alien and I think that its her character and her personal journey that makes Alien compelling.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - I'm always gripped by the struggle of the human characters for survival against the fascistic alien invaders and the film always makes me feel happy to be human.Although it was originally a parody of McCarthyist,cold war paranoia I think that it has become a classic sci-fi fable that is timeless.
Originally posted by Lorenzo De La Cruz: Never saw DarkStar, but probably will at some point.
Doubt you'll be disappointed. It was originally made as a student project but later on general release became a cult classic. Quite a simple storyline about a spaceship and its crew who go around destroying stars which are unstable. But then they encounter a slight problem with one of their nukes...
quote:
Dune.
But let's forget about Stings acting!
quote:
Shall we add fantasy as well? Lord of the Rings - annoying they didn't include the Shire.
Yeah that was one of the things which annoyed me a bit about the films. The whole episode with Wormtongue, Pippin and Merry on their return to the shire should have been included. Similarly I was none too sure about their treatment of Gimli who (to me) seems to be portrayed more as a comic figure than he ever was in the book.
But then having seen the LotR cartoon film made beforehand one cannot complain too much. Even though it only covered events up to Helms Deep one could plainly see where the money for the film began running out in the poorer animation towards the end.
I Robot - decent enough film but nothing to do with book apart from the title.
Shall we add fantasy as well? Lord of the Rings - annoying they didn't include the Shire.
Yeah that was one of the things which annoyed me a bit about the films. The whole episode with Wormtongue, Pippin and Merry on their return to the shire should have been included. Similarly I was none too sure about their treatment of Gimli who (to me) seems to be portrayed more as a comic figure than he ever was in the book.
To be honest, it already runs at going on 9 hours. There's only so much you can put in. Loads got left out. (Tom Bombadill, anyone?)
I watched this back last week, and I have to say I think Peter Jackson did an absolutely amazing job. Will stand the test of time, no doubt.
------ "The lack of flying kangaroos patently proves that Darwinism is false." - blast99
Originally posted by Doc Holiday: Logans Run - Just a fun movie with lots of 60's chic,cool guns and good performances from Michael York,pretty Jenny Agutter and Peter Ustinov.
Hmmm, I'd put this one on a par with Zardoz. Yuk. C'mon Jenny Agutter, the only reason she got parts in movies (less the Railway children) was that she was guarantied to get them out.
quote:
2001:A Space Odyssey - Mind blowing epic experience that is breath-takingly beautiful, poetic and also has a great villain in the evil computer HAL
Ah, but HAL was not evil. He was merely a machine which had computed humans were detrimental to the mission therefore he took the logical path.
I watched this back last week, and I have to say I think Peter Jackson did an absolutely amazing job. Will stand the test of time, no doubt.
Quite agree, I think he did an amazing job and I can well see why certain bits were left out. Tom Bombadil and the end section are, amongst others, really not pertinent to the main story. But if I had a wish list...
BTW I always disliked the character of Sam - a bit of a "woose" if you ask me.
Originally posted by F4Codec: Dark Star - have the DVD, its very grainy which is a shame
Unfortunately that's because it was made on a shoestring.
BTW which version of Blade Runner do people prefer the original or DC version? For me, it's the original I just think the film lost something without the voiceover and the extra bits add nothing IMHO.
BTW which version of Blade Runner do people prefer the original or DC version? For me, it's the original I just think the film lost something without the voiceover and the extra bits add nothing IMHO.
I think the Director's cut is darker.
The V/O bits were added under duress when the studio was concerned that American moviegoers wouldn't understand what was happening.
The driving sequences at the end are actually location footage from The Shining, added because the studio didn't think American moviegoers could cope with such a dark, open ending.
The dream sequences are kind of key to the "is he / isn't he" subplot which runs through the book, but never really came to the fore in the original.
At the end of the day, though, I guess I like dark films and I like challenging films, so it's personal preference really. The OTR was still years ahead of it's time.
Oooooh... anyone seen Primer? That's a fantastic film. Total brain mangler though.
------ "The lack of flying kangaroos patently proves that Darwinism is false." - blast99
Oooooh... anyone seen Primer? That's a fantastic film. Total brain mangler though.
yes! great film, possibly my favourite time travel film. watched it 3 times in a row to try and get my head round it, plus spent hours poring over timelines on the web...
The V/O bits were added under duress when the studio was concerned that American moviegoers wouldn't understand what was happening.
Yeah, apparantly HF wasn't too happy about having to do it since it was extra work and he wasn't going to get extra pay for it.
quote:
The dream sequences are kind of key to the "is he / isn't he" subplot which runs through the book, but never really came to the fore in the original.
I disagree, I don't think there was any ambiguity. In "Do Androids Dream..." Deckard is quite clearly described as a human (albeit one who is not deemed quite genetically fit enough for space colonisation). However, it was only the insertion of the Unicorn references into the film which raise the question of his android status. Certainly Phillip K Dick is on record as stating that Deckard was definately human whilst Ridley Scott has similarly stated that in the film he is an android. IIRC this change to the character did cause a bit of friction between them which is why it is merely implied.
At the end of the day I never was too bothered about this ambiguity as the main premise of just what is it to be human isn't really affected by it being either way. It is a bit like the case in Ronin - it does not matter what it contains merely that it is of value (Though obviously the case is required to drive as a plot device rather than as an aside.)
quote:
At the end of the day, though, I guess I like dark films and I like challenging films, so it's personal preference really. The OTR was still years ahead of it's time.
Well it was all part of the Cyberpunk thing started by Gibson and that has always been a good source of material for sci-fi. And of course Rutdger (sp) as Roy Batty was a good baddy.
quote:
Oooooh... anyone seen Primer? That's a fantastic film. Total brain mangler though.
Name rings a bell but that's it, I'll have to have a look at the IMDB and see if that sparks any memories.
