Possibly it’s not well known now, but this was a Major Movie when it was released. It was pretty wel known.
The first time they showed it at MIT, it was prefaced (by the folks from LSC, who were presenting it) with a slide listing Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.
It was interestingly put together and conceptualized, but once you knew the basic idea – which the movie posters pretty much spelled out – there wasn’t anything new to tell. And they really didn’t know how to end it.
Ne vertheless, it spawned a cut-rate sequel, Futureworld.
I’m trying to remember the name of this other one from the '80s. The premise is aliens secretly arrive on earth and their food is the chemicals released during orgasm. It’s not a porn movie, though (but it was low budget).
Remembered it - Liquid Sky
Primer is a great ultra-low budget time travel movie. I watched in instantly on Netflix, don’t know if it’s still available there.
Two young aspiring engineers accidentally invent a machine that allows backwards time travel. Among the best treatments of the “time travelers paradox” that I’ve seen in a movie, and the ending will pretty much compel you to watch it again, after saying “Huh? WTF just happened?!?” (but in a good way).
When I was in college, I had a friend (who was rather fond of controlled substances) who loved this movie, and encouraged us all to see it. Another friend opined that you had to be on controlled substances in order to enjoy it. I tended to agree with the latter opinion. Although the scene where the woman gives herself a blowjob was sort of intriguing.
My Science Project. Two nerdy teenagers, on the verge of flunking their science class, discover a time machine. I recall enjoying it, although I don’t recall much of the story. Dennis Hopper, as the science teacher, was fun to watch.
Capsule critique of pretty much all of Crichton’s movies.
“You have been selected by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada!”
One of my favorites as a kid. I watched it again a few years ago and… well, it hadn’t aged well for me, at least. I prefer my hazy memories, and will not visit the real thing again.
Another “favorite as a kid” was Flight of the Navigator. I’m staying away from it as well, trying not to make the same mistake twice.
Prototype: Christopher Plummer is a scientist who builds an android, played by David Morse. The poster for this movie is incredibly misleading, as it makes it look like some sort of Terminator ripoff.
Saturn 3: Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, Harvey Keitel, and a killer robot. I haven’t seen this since I saw it on TV when I was a kid, so I don’t know if it is actually any good.
Early David Cronenberg movies: Shivers (aka They Came from Within) with genetically engineered parasites; Rabid; The Brood.
Larry Cohen made some interesting low-budget SF films back in the day: God Told Me To has something to do with UFOs and Jesus. Q: The Winged Serpent is a fun monster movie with Michael Moriarty.
I saw XTRO recently. I liked it, but it left me frustrated. There was this amazing movie about a genuine alien in there, but then there was all this pointless shlock.
A few more I just thought of:
Death Watch, with Harvey Keitel and Romy Schneider. Based on a D.G. Compton novel.
Z.P.G. Somewhat cheesy but entertaining dystopia where Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin have an illegal baby.
Parts: The Clonus Horror, which Michael Bay ripped off in The Island (which is the only movie of his I actually liked.)
The world will be destroyed at precisely midnight in an unexplained and unavoidable apocalypse. A variety of people try to find different ways to face their last few hours.
The Man Who Fell to Earth with David Bowie was pretty trippy.
I think Screamers is underrated, but I admit I like the idea (it’s based on a Philip K. Dick story) better than the execution. I haven’t seen the direct-to-video sequel.
The Arrival, which starred Charlie Sheen (before he went insane). And a couple of comments on other suggestions.
This is notable, I think, mostly because it inspired 12 Monkeys.
I liked this one, and I think Roger Ebert’s review mentioned how one scene involving Sandra Oh demonstrated how very Canadian it was.
She’s looking for a bottle of wine to drink that last night. She went to a liquor store/supermarket (can’t remember what sort of shop it was) and after considering and rejecting one bottle, carefully put it back on the shelf.
Colossus: The Forbin Project - intelligent, fascinating flick from 1970. Heaven for computer/artificial intelligence (AI) nerds. IMHO, the best movie focused on AI ever made.
I consider La Jetée to be a lot better than Twelve Monkeys.
Moon was a smaller movie a few years ago, so I think it qualifies, though it stars Sam Rockwell, who is a reasonably big star; also, he is pretty much the only person in the entire movie.
I thought it should have won best picture that year.
You’ve played the game, now watch the movie that inspired it: Stalker. It’s Tarkovsky, so it’s got that going for it, and I’ve always loved the set-up behind it. Basically, aliens are really alien. They care nothing about us, their stuff is often lethal and near completely impossible to understand, and so what do you do when they decide to visit and what do people end up doing with their trash?
I was all set to mention The Hidden until CalMeacham got to it first. Decent B-movie.
For a true guilty pleasure, not to mention the opportunity to see a heartstopping naked Mathilda May, Lifeforce is a decent way to kill two hours.
The City of Lost Children (Not entirely sure that counts as scifi, but it’s good.)
Until the End of the World (Made in 1991, set in 1999; in terms of style at least, it’s one of the better attempts to portray a near future (which has become the past since I saw it) that I’ve seen.)
Not sure how little known, or Sci Fi these are, but:
Earth Girls Are Easy starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Goldblum. It has been many years since I saw it, but I liked it at the time.
Spaced Invaders is a silly comedy about alien visitation.
Small Soldiers is somewhat like Toy Story, only not.
Alien Nation with Mandy Patinkin and James Caan.
Enemy Mine with Lousi Gossett Jr, and Dennis Quaid.
For low budget action SF you should probably go through the oeuvre of such actors as Brion James, Rutger Hauer, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, and Lance Henriksen.
Agree with CalMeacham about The Thirteenth Floor, streamed it from Netflix this past weekend and thought it was really well done.
This thread should be a sticky. Tons of great recommendations… Tarkovsky being the pinnacle of cinema in my opinion.
Someone has already mentioned Primer, but I would like to add that it is one of the best time travel films.