Did any one else see Screamers? Or was it just me? Bleak, moody and starring Peter “Robocop” Weller.
Oh, yeah…Robocop too. But just the first one.
I love time-travel movies, so 12 Monkeys is incredible.
Dark City was a good idea, but much better done as The Matrix. I saw that episode with Kirstie Alley as the woman in the picnic and remembered more. There was an episode that was the same story as The Truman Show–guy finds out his real life is the highest rated tv show that his friends and wife have all been in on. In the end, he chooses to keep on doing what he does and pretend he doesn’t know about the cameras all over him.
Don’t know if this is sci-fi, but I love The Highlander–movies and the tv show.
How come no one has mentioned The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai?
I guess it’s Ridley Scott day. I vote for Alien and Blade Runner. I’m a sucker for non-Utopian depictions of the future.
Hey, Ross there’s a full Hitchhiker’s movie in the works. Apparently Douglas Adams wants one of the regulars from Black Adder to play Arthur, Baldrick maybe? I forget, but it’s the some guy that played the father in Stewart Little.
Back to the OP…
Here’s another for vote **Aliens, The Star Wars Trilogy, ** and The Fifth Element.
Throw one in for the original Highlander too.
There are people dissing 2001? 2001: A Space Odyssey is a brilliant piece of visionary film making. Complaining that it’s not as exciting as Star Wars is like someone complaining that champagne doesn’t taste as good as Kool-Aid. 2001 is an exploration of the fundamental questions of existence, whereas Star Wars is 1940s-style space opera. Great fun, but hardly part of the literature of ideas. Check out this column for an explanation of why Star Wars sucks.
A Clockwork Orange is another brilliantly subversive Kubrick SF film, this time exploring free will and the definition of humanity as being capable of choice.
Gattaca is a rare example of biology-themed SF, as opposed to spaceships and ray guns. Again, this is a film that explores what it means to be human and the consequences of free will.
Shape of Things to Come, from 1936, presciently predicted the advent of World War II, and predicts an optimistic future for the human race.
Phase IV, from 1972, is an eerily beautiful film about First Contact, but with the hive mind of ants, rather than from outer space. This is NOT a giant bug movie, but an almost surreal film about a truly alien species underneath our feet.
**The Quiet Earth, from 1985, a Last Man on Earth movie from New Zealand that is beautifully photographed with a gripping story.
The City of Lost Children, from 1995, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s comic masterpiece with clones, stolen dreams, and a wistful circus strongman.
Also gotta agree with Brazil, Dark City, 12 Monkeys, and Blade Runner
My top ten:[ol][li]Blade Runner- Far and away the best of the best.[/li][li]Alien[/li][li]The Thing- John Carpenter version.[/li][li]Forbidden Planet[/li][li]Invasion of the Body Snatchers - 1950’s version.[/li][li]Village of the Damned- Black-and-white British version. I can’t believe no one has mentioned this one.[/li][li]The Terminator[/li][li]12 Monkeys[/li][li]Predator- Ahhnuld vs. Daunting Creature from Outer Space. Bonus appearance by Jesse Ventura.[/li][li]Star Wars (But only the first one.)[/ol][/li]
It makes me proud of this Board that not one person has listed any of Spielberg’s emote-o-fests.
Oh yeah, and Eve, you slay me.
And by the way, anyone who has ever gotten into an argument over the distinction between science fiction and horror has waaaaay too much time on their hands. 
Back to the Future.
Thank you, thank you, please throw money. 
gotta be “Twelve Monkeys” by Terry Gilliam
While we’re being Peter Weller fans here, may I nominate The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension? Peter Weller battles John Lithgow (the High Commander on Third Rock) for who controls the gateway to the eighth dimension, possibly releasing ET communists onto Earth. Jeff Goldblum is a cowboy from New Jersey, too. Yes, it’s a comedy, but a definite cult classic.
Also, may I nomincate these, too?:
- Soylent Green. Spoiler: Charlton Heston yelling, “SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! WE’RE EATING OURSELVES!”
- Terminator- This is the only movie (besides the Little Mermaid) that truly scared me. It makes me so afraid of the future. Cool.
- Hi Opal.
- Cube - Very suspenseful, bad acting, and the greatest portrayal of a nihilist I’ve ever seen.
- Gattaca - Sort of a warning concerning the neo-eugenicists at Celera who are making our world a better place (sarcasm intended).
SPOOF, could I please use this in a sig?!
One that I like (beside those listed above) is a 60s one A Crack in the World. Not a fantastic one (although coming out the same year as Fantastic Voyage probably hurt it),but very interesting nonetheless.
And, SPOOFE, Yes I do like Spaceballs too. May the Schwartz be with you.
Well, lessee
2001
Star Wars : A New Hope
Star Trek 4
Brother from another planet
Sleeper
Twelve Monkeys
Aliens
Mad Max Road Warrior
Does Picnic at Hanging Rock qualify?
Best book made into worst movie: The Postman.
Just about broke my heart.
My fault, entirely. I have tend to have a hair trigger wherever rolleyes smilies pop up.
Yeah, that’s definitely true. I have a terrible time sitting still through old movies.
It looks like no one but Mack has ever even seen Solaris. Too bad, you guys don’t know what you’re missing! It is a total masterpiece.
Have to admit its “distribution” has been dismal to nonexistent, so probably most Americans have never even gotten a chance to see it. I was lucky to catch it at the Tarkovsky retrospective put on by the American Film Institute (at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), in 1998.
Harlan Ellison once referred to 2001 as “an excercise in directorial excess.” Just thought that was interesting… Personally, I found myself watching the last third of the movie wishing I had some really good pot.
Akira - the only good anime I’ve seen
The Matrix - great s.f. concept and visual execution
Aliens - Ripley & the Space Marines kick ass
Bladerunner - I don’t have enough superlatives
The Road Warrior - the only good post-apocalyptic flick
TRON - but isn’t it time for a sequel/remake?
The Fly - the Goldblum one
Predator - is anyone still talking about a “Aliens vs. Predator” movie?
Robocop - fun & funny
B-movies that I still enjoyed:
Dark City
Event Horizon - if Clive Barker had done sci-fi
Screamers
Soldier - Mr. Goldie Hawn in a story that the “Dark Angel” series does better and with better… ah, visuals.
Also - has anyone here seen a British TV version of “Day of the Triffids”? I remember seeing it years ago… Much better than the 60’s American movie version.
After lurking here silently for several months, I’ve been wondering what topic would finally induce me to post a message. Anybody who knows me in person would not be surprised to find that it’s this topic.
I’m a great fan of the SF movies of the 50s. They may not be technically the “best,” but those are the ones I enjoy the most; the ones I go out of my way to catch when they’re on TV. Thus I agree with the mentions of Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, and so forth.
A couple films I haven’t seen mentioned here yet are It Came From Outer Space and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Both directed by Jack Arnold, one of the minor geniuses of this genre. Neither is a masterpiece, but they both hold up well. Check 'em out if you get the chance.
I’d also like to put in a good word for the 1952 version of Thing from Another World. I love this film (I love the Carpenter version too, but not quite as much), and I often see it dismissed these days as “not faithful to the story.” That’s true, of course. But then the same could be said for any number of films. Fidelity to source material is only one criterion in judging the quality of a movie, and perhaps not even the most important criterion.
Looking at it just as a movie in its own right, The Thing has a lot to offer. It’s fast-paced, exciting, witty, reasonably intelligent (if one ignores the “intellectual carrot” line), and has better than average acting. It also has a wonderfully strong and competent female lead, a rarity in this period. And darn it, the scary scenes still work today. I realize I am perhaps overstating my case a bit, but I adore this film.
Well, that was a longer post than I expected. Not bad for my first time out, I hope. Be gentle with a newbie, huh?
MrAtoz-
Good first post.
You are absolutely right. The Thing (1950’s version) is a very solid piece of sci-fi. I would have put it at number 11 on my list (had my list continued that far) and I rank it behind only Forbidden Planet and Invasion of the Body Snatchers among 1950’s science fiction movies.
The scares in The Thing hold up better than the scares in any other movie of that era or earlier eras, for my money (with the possible exception of Body Snatchers). Plus, The Thing has one of the great closing lines in science fiction history: “Keep watching the skies!”
I still rank it behind the Carpenter version. I would agree with your remark that being “untrue to the short story” is not grounds to condemn the film in and of itself. However, in this case the short story has the added element that you don’t know who the monster is. It could have taken over the bodies of your companions. It could be sleeping in the bunk next to yours. It is that added element of terror, preserved in the Carpenter film and missing in the 1950’s version, which makes the later movie superior, in my view.