October 21, 2005
Friday Afternoon Sci Fi Movie Meme
Yeah, yeah. I know. But it's late Friday afternoon, it's cold and it's drizzling. Besides, I already had something to say about Buckaroo Banzai today, so I feel this is Meant To Be. This comes from Dan. The ones I've seen are bolded and, as always, I add some commentary here and there:
* The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension! - I ran this off the other night. It's wonderful how fresh it stays. And I'm still picking up on new jokes after all these years.
* Akira
* Alien - I don't like scary movies.
* Aliens - Ditto. And I'm really not that crazy about Sigourney Weaver, either.
* Alphaville
* Back to the Future - If you had to make a short list of Quintessential 80's Movies, this would definitely be on it. And is not Christopher Lloyd one of the most entertaining actors around? Sometimes I secretly watch Cyberchase from the doorway behind the Llama-ettes just to hear him doing Hacker.
* Blade Runner - Just once, long ago. I need to revisit it.
* Brazil - One of the most horrifying things about this movie is watching Michael Palin, of all people, being chillingly sinister. And doing it well.
* Bride of Frankenstein
* Brother From Another Planet
* A Clockwork Orange
* Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I never liked it, frankly. Too 70's for me.
* Contact
* The Damned
* Destination Moon
* The Day The Earth Stood Still - Mostly for the sake of Patricia Neal.
* Delicatessen
* Escape From New York - Surely the acme of Truly Bad Films.
* ET: The Extraterrestrial - I am proud to say I've never seen E.T. and furthermore, I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in doing so. Feh!
* Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
* The Fly (1985 version)
* Forbidden Planet - This movie isn't half bad, considering it was made in the 50's. The only trouble is that the hero is played by Leslie Nielsen, who nobody who's seen Airplane and The Naked Gun could ever take seriously again. I believe this movie heavily influenced Gene Roddenberry, because you can see an awful lot of proto-Star Trek ideas in it.
* Ghost in the Shell
* Gojira/Godzilla - Several of them.
* The Incredibles - What a great movie. What. A. Great. Movie.
* Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
* Jurassic Park
* Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior - I was ruminating on the Mad Max series the other evening. The first movie was really quite good in terms of concept and story, but it was ruined (for me) by its lousy production values. The third one - Beyond Thunderdome - had all the coo-el post-Apocalypse freaks, costumes and machines worked out, but the spirit of the original had died out. Road Warrior represents the happy medium.
* The Matrix - Yes, the series tanked. And yes, this movie is full of college dorm room bull-session crap. But it's still a damn fine flick.
* Metropolis
* On the Beach
* Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
* Robocop
* Sleeper - C'mon, Sheila, this is Woody Allen! And one of his funnier slapsticks. Plus, it's got a suh-wheet jazz soundtrack.
* Solaris (1972 version)
* Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Best Thing ever to come out of the entire Star Trek franchise. And I'll put a spread of photon torpedoes into anybody who disagrees with me.
* Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - I'm putting on my flak vest to say this, but while I still marvel at the innovation of this movie, the more I see it the more I'm aware of its flaws. It just isn't aging well with me.
* Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back - I'm willing now to go along with those who argue that this was the peak of the Star Wars cycle.
* The Stepford Wives
* Superman - Well, no, can't say that I did believe a man could really fly. But have you ever seen Gene Hackman do a bad job with anything?
* Terminator 2: Judgement Day - Why this one, I wonder? The original was a classic. I no longer bother with the rest.
* The Thing From Another World
* Things to Come
* Tron - I haven't seen this in 20 years. Wonder if it's worth going back just for old times' sake.
* 12 Monkeys
* 28 Days Later - I don't much care for zombie flicks.
* 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
* 2001: A Space Odyssey - However, I've never made it all the way through without dozing off.
* La Voyage Dans la Lune
* War of the Worlds (1953 version)
Yips! to Sheila. And by the way, go and read her account of abasing herself before the Scorpion King The Rock. Hi-larious.
Tron is definitely worth seeing again.
You haven't seen Metropolis!? That is THE original sci-fi movie! First use of the word Robot, I think. Or maybe the first use of a robot. Something like that.
Kinda hard to find. Impossible to find the original version. All copies were destroyed in Germany, and the US version of the film was hacked to pieces. The newest version is pretty complete, with parts put back in the right order for the most part. Also colorized with crazy music.
Posted by: TheRoyalFamily at October 21, 2005 04:44 PMI am so going to do this ... tomorrow.
Posted by: lemuel kolkava at October 21, 2005 05:15 PMAliens is not THAT terrifying. And take this from someone that really dislikes "horror" movies. It's creepy, but it's more of a "Die Hard" with spiny aliens vibe than "Carrie." "Alien" was more suspenseful, but still a very good movie.
Posted by: Bill from INDC at October 21, 2005 06:40 PMAndroid but you will never find it.
"Star Trek: First Contact" had enough comedy to recapture some of the ST magic. I have no idea what number it might be.
"Earth Girls are Easy" is a good campanion to Buckaroo Bonsai.
"2010: Oddyssey Two" is decent - and it doesn't assume you are using mind altering substances, as I think 2001 did.
Everyone should see "The Day The Earth Stood Still." A Classic SciFi. (Gort made a cameo appearance on DaybyDay recently.)
"Spaceballs" is better than most of the Star Wars movies it parodies.
"Mars Attacks" and "Galaxy Quest" are also good comedy SciFi. As is "Ghostbusters."
Posted by: Zendo Deb at October 21, 2005 10:36 PMAlien and Aliens are two of the greatest movies of all time. Compared to the first two, yeah, Alien 3 is not all that great, but Aliens movies are like pizza: when they're good, they're amazing, and when they're bad, they're still pretty good.
I second Star Trek: First Contact. Never been a big Trekkie, but that movie did a fantastic job with the Borg.
I second Spaceballs, and I'd like to point out that before Galaxy Quest came along, it was the greatest sci-fi spoof ever. Galaxy Quest easily holds that honor now.
Blade Runner is a good sci-fi/think piece.
Incredibles is a great movie, but sci-fi? How are we defining our terms, here, to let that one in?
Agree with you all the way on the Matrix movies. Great concept, fantastic direction, could have toned down the pot-headed psycho-babble, and the series totally died by the end. The problem is that a super-human fight scene is great to watch when Neo is a mortal, but at the end of the third movie, how can you possibly stay interested in a fight that neither opponent can really lose?
I prefer Terminator 2 over the original. Maybe the first is just a little too '80s (dude, Linda Hamilton's hair about gives me seizures).
12 Monkeys. Go see it. It's the movie that firmly convinced me Brad Pitt was worth watching, as I had previously assumed he was nothing more than eye-candy. Wonderful performances by Pitt and Willis.
Posted by: Sobek at October 24, 2005 02:49 PMFirst Contact was the best of the Star Trek: TNG movies, by far. But the day I pick Picard over Kirk is the day they bury me in the cold, cold ground.
I frankly didn't think Spaceballs was funny at all. To me, Mel Brooks' problem has always been that he doesn't know when to quit. Young Frankenstein was something close to the Perfect Spoof Movie. But in Spaceballs, like History of the World, Part 1, it seemed to me he tried to make too much of too little material and had to resort to some sledge-hammering to stretch it out.
But this is moot: Pigs In Space from the old Muppet Show holds the crown of best space spoof ever.
Posted by: Robbo the LB at October 24, 2005 03:02 PM
