Best Sci-Fi Movies of all time?

[justin-banks]

Incredible Sulk said:

MartG said:

Fittster said:

Dark Star.

Yep, definitely up there too, if only for it’s ‘made on a shoestring budget’ appeal. Writer Dan O’Bannon went on to have a major influence on Alien too.

Has to win the award for the funniest low budget alien ever. He/she/it is an absolute scream.

Dark Star, loved it, Back in the day, getting caned to nightly viewings of Dark Star followed by The Song Remains The Same. Have not seen Dark Star for a while, have a feeling it may have dated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSccwmmrS5A&fea...

[Craig@CMR]

has no one mentioned the guyver yet

[L500]

Total Recall ;-)

"Two Weeks"

[Alexj800]

I'm going to order some DVDs!

Regarding Solaris, what version is better, the 1972 one or the 2002 with Clooney?

[The Hypno-Toad]

rhinochopig said:

I'd forgotten about The Thing - a truly epic film. Scared the hell out of me as a kid.

Also has some brilliant lines.

[Norris' head grows legs and tries to walk away]
Palmer: You gotta be fking kidding.

[last line of the film]
Childs: What do we do now?
MacReady: Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens...

I'm guessing we've done the "How do you know which one of MacReady & Childs is The Thing?" debate?

"Or am I going to have to spend the rest of the winter, TIED TO THIS fkING COUCH!"

[DirtyHarry88]

Neither.

[grumbledoak]

Anyone mention 'Equilibrium' ?


Yes, yes, have checked. Page 3.

Edited by grumbledoak on Tuesday 17th March 19:46

[Daston]

grumbledoak said:

Anyone mention 'Equilibrium' ?


Yes, yes, have checked. Page 3.

Edited by grumbledoak on Tuesday 17th March 19:46

Fantastic film shame it got overshadowed by the matrix. Come on Bale and Bean whats not to like!

Also all this anger towards the starship troopers film (ok it wasnt as good as the book) yet no hate of the latest War of the Worlds? That film was sooooo unlike the book it might as well have been called Independance day 2!

[Stealth-wagon]

When I was a kid, the Beeb ran a sci-fi film series in about 1972, and showed a whole season of what are now classic/cult science fiction films. And all in Black & White. All were fairly haunting and memorable for numerous reasons. Its amazing to think just how much atmosphere these classics can conjure up in the decades before any CGI

So, ignoring the more obvious modern sci-fi films (T2, etc) here's the ones from that series that left a big impact on me :-


Metropolis 1927 - way ahead of its time. Stunning to look at now.

The man in the white suit 1951, Alec Guinness. The Lab 'sound effects' were used by the BBC for decades. Anyone know where I can find a sample on the web ?!

Day the earth stood still 1951. Gort, Klaatu Barrada Nickto. Nice link to Tron below.

Forbidden planet 1956 - way ahead of its time. Sired Star-Trek, and featured Leslie Nielsen, exposing how old he now is !

Quatermass (series 1950's) - thrilling, yet made on a budget

Village of the damned 1960 - seriously spooky. Especially since my old neighbours had twins resembling some of the 'children' …

The incredible shrinking man 1957 - haunting

The Time Machine 1960 - stretched your mind for time travel.



Then I started watching loads more :-


Planet of the apes ? 1968-74 - seen back to back they tell a good tale

2001 1969 - landmark film

Soylent green 1972 - depicts a grim earth as it could be in 2020's !

Star wars 1977 - original unfiddled with version

Silent running 1973 - still haunting all these years later

Dark star 1974 - made on a budget, brilliant for what it was

Logans run 1976 - most memorable for Ms Agutters lack of clothing

Close encounters 1978 - wow. Memories.

Alien 1979 - In space no one can hear you scream. You cant breath either.

Star Trek - The motion picture 1979 - supreme Trekkie fest and one of the most expensive films ever made, without CGI

The Thing 1981 - superb tension for what is a low budget movie

Blade runner 1982 - mind stretching

Tron 1982 - one of the earliest CGI films, backed, strangely by Disney.



And .. stop.

[Tootles the Taxi]

Right:

Twelve Monkeys - got the plot about half way through and from that point onwards really wanted to be wrong. Best Bruce Willis film - bar none.

Terminator - classic '80s urban psycho punk, but continuity terrible, I mean after the "I'll be back" line, you see the headlights of the pickup illuminate the desk sergeant, then in the cutaway shot of the pickup crashing through the window/wall the headlights are off.

Blade Runner - any version - Sean Young in black leather mmmmmmm

Forbidden Planet - special effects pretty good for the age of the film and the story keeps the suspense up

"Klaatu Barada Nikto" - The Day the Earth Stood Still - original

Just the bit in Star Wars (Episode IV) where they power up the Death Star and I've remembered to turn on the surround sound sub-woofer.

Them - Giant Ants - Scared the pants off me as a child, especially the sound effect dubbed on to represent the ants.

Westworld - Yul Brynner

Oh, and The Day After Tomorrow - just because in 200 years they'll be pi**ing their pants with laughter about all the eco-twaddle that film contains.

Thank you and good night.

[A4_Family_Man]

Stealth-wagon said:

When I was a kid, the Beeb ran a sci-fi film series in about 1972, and showed a whole season of what are now classic/cult science fiction films. And all in Black & White. All were fairly haunting and memorable for numerous reasons. Its amazing to think just how much atmosphere these classics can conjure up in the decades before any CGI

So, ignoring the more obvious modern sci-fi films (T2, etc) here's the ones from that series that left a big impact on me :-


Metropolis 1927 - way ahead of its time. Stunning to look at now.

The man in the white suit 1951, Alec Guinness. The Lab 'sound effects' were used by the BBC for decades. Anyone know where I can find a sample on the web ?!

Day the earth stood still 1951. Gort, Klaatu Barrada Nickto. Nice link to Tron below.

Forbidden planet 1956 - way ahead of its time. Sired Star-Trek, and featured Leslie Nielsen, exposing how old he now is !

Quatermass (series 1950's) - thrilling, yet made on a budget

Village of the damned 1960 - seriously spooky. Especially since my old neighbours had twins resembling some of the 'children' …

The incredible shrinking man 1957 - haunting

The Time Machine 1960 - stretched your mind for time travel.



Then I started watching loads more :-


Planet of the apes ? 1968-74 - seen back to back they tell a good tale

2001 1969 - landmark film

Soylent green 1972 - depicts a grim earth as it could be in 2020's !

Star wars 1977 - original unfiddled with version

Silent running 1973 - still haunting all these years later

Dark star 1974 - made on a budget, brilliant for what it was

Logans run 1976 - most memorable for Ms Agutters lack of clothing

Close encounters 1978 - wow. Memories.

Alien 1979 - In space no one can hear you scream. You cant breath either.

Star Trek - The motion picture 1979 - supreme Trekkie fest and one of the most expensive films ever made, without CGI

The Thing 1981 - superb tension for what is a low budget movie

Blade runner 1982 - mind stretching

Tron 1982 - one of the earliest CGI films, backed, strangely by Disney.



And .. stop.

I know exactly the apparatus sound effect you mean!!

Look here: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?cid=222699

I remember a sci-fi movie season on bbc2 in the early 80's - included Silent Running and This Island Earth amongst others. Got me hooked on the genre.

[cymtriks]

Star Wars
The forbidden planet
Alien

Thinking about this certainly makes me think how hard it is to define Sci Fi. Are we allowed films that are mainly action movies? In which case I'll add Total Recall. How about films that aren't obviously sci fi like Gattaca?(Is it a thriller? About ambition? About overcomming predjudice? About the effects of technology on society?).

Total Recall
Gattaca

The Sci Fi film I've enjoyed most recently has been Wall-E. Long ago I watched the original version of this story, Silent Running. While Wall-E had a happy ending the ending of Silent running was a notch darker and sadder.

Are we allowed Sci Fi series?
Dr Who
Babylon 5
Heros
Lost
The X files
Star Trek (and all its spin offs)

Have all had some great episodes. Just listing the X files makes me realise how badly it's dated. I saw an episode last night. Strange to think how good this looked ten years ago. Then "dark" was cool, now it just makes me want to adjust my set to get the daylight back!



Please stop listing Close Encounters and 2001 as these are massively over rated.

The best bit, by far, of Close Encounters is that it inspired "The Goodies" version with trombones on the top of Nutters Knoll. Spiellburg, see this version, which is actually entertaining, and weep.

As for 2001 what exactly is the point? It lurches from monkeys finding a black slab, through the Blue Danude, to some very drawn out light show at the end with some odd bit that no one understands (but won't admit to not understanding because it is soooo deep and meaningful) chucked in just before the credits.

[mattikake]

Easy. Star Wars.

It revolutionised cinema:
- The intro was a demo of how to break the mould of credits first, movie later.
- The music, composed to tie in with the scenes to add enhance them.
- The development of THX sound for the sound effects for cinema accoustics
- Special effects CAN be realistic!
- Merchandising from the movie can be so great, it can even fund other movies...
- It was awe-inspiring, to everyone.
- Suddenly Sci-fi was no longer geeky and was big box office.
- And last but not least, all other succeeding sci-fi's now had this to live up to. It upgraded the genre overnight.

Ok the story was a simple swashbuckler, but can you have complexity that can hook kids as well as adults?

Anything else simply came second.

Except Forbidden Plant, Day the Earth stood still etc.!

Anyway, has anyone mentioned John Carpenters' They Live? Not the greatest but good fun for the anti-capitalists out there!

[JonRB]

mattikake said:

- The intro was a demo of how to break the mould of credits first, movie later.

And caused George Lucas a world of pain and inconvenience. He had a major falling out over it which meant he was black balled by all and sundry. He had a lot of problems with Empire Strikes Back because of it.

mattikake said:

- Merchandising from the movie can be so great, it can even fund other movies...

Lucas securing the merchandising rights as a settlement of a dispute is right up there for "really stupid things people have conceded thinking they are worthless" with IBM giving Microsoft exclusive rights on MS-DOS with their machine and Hewlett-Packard telling Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak that they weren't interested in a personal computer (Woz was contractually obliged to offer any inventions to his employer first) and they were free to set up Apple Computers.

[FEZZA_RS]

Craig@CMR said:

has no one mentioned the guyver yet

Winner! I aint seen it since I was about 13 its like the mask on crack lol! awesome film though!

Event Horizon the only film in my collection I ever get to watch alone as our lass had nightmares the only time she watched it with me! Probably my favorit sci fi flick though.

Screamers - Any one seen it? one of my faves aswell.

I robot - watch it at least once a month part from all the audi-ness its great!

Starship troopers - Mindless fun to watch

having a mind blank now i'll have a cup of tea and a wagon wheel and get back to you!

[The Hypno-Toad]

DirtyHarry88 said:

Neither.

Last scene. Check whose breath you can see. Be very afraid.

[Fetchez la vache]

mattikake said:

Easy. Star Wars.
It revolutionised cinema:
- It was awe-inspiring, to everyone.

That is the bit that's lost on people. I even remember the trailer being shown on Newsround - it was THAT groundbreaking, and was absolutely like nothing that had come before it. It was the first film I ever saw twice.

Now? I'm not a huge star wars fan, and I'm sure the experience of watching it on a small screen now that special effects have long passed it by is nowhere near as euphioric as back in 1977. I waited till the later films were on DVD, but the enormity of the original isn't lost on me.

The only film that came anywhere close to that feeling of coming out of the cinema and thinking "crumbs, that was something really special" was the matrix, but not on a scale of the original star wars...

[Alexj800]

cymtriks said:

As for 2001 what exactly is the point? It lurches from monkeys finding a black slab, through the Blue Danude, to some very drawn out light show at the end with some odd bit that no one understands (but won't admit to not understanding because it is soooo deep and meaningful) chucked in just before the credits.

This is as good an explanation as any I have come across.

http://www.kubrick2001.com/

[superkartracer]

Films that changed film-making

2001 no Question - 1968!!!! - morons won't understand he he

It came from outer Space

War of the Worlds

The Thing from Another World

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Bladerunner

Starwars

Alien

Terminator

THE THING

Eraserhead

Matrix

Ghost In The Shell

Urotsukidoji - Legend Of The Overfiend


- Bernard Quatermass he he

Edited by superkartracer on Wednesday 18th March 15:21

[cottonfoo]

cymtriks said:

Please stop listing Close Encounters and 2001 as these are massively over rated.

No. 2001 it is. You've listed 'Lost' ffs