# Recommend Sci-Fi movies from this 100 movie DVD set I received **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 30, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561 "2014-12-30T19:59:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/21 "2014-12-31T07:14:15Z")
I think that’s an awesome gift! Very cool and interesting. . . to me. I think the fact that I’ve never heard of any of the movies makes it even better. Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/22 "2014-12-31T13:11:27Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > You say that as if it’s a _bad_ thing! 😕 I do NOT! I have a deep affection for those movies – I grew up on them, and was a regular reader of _Famous Monsters_. I’ve seen an embarrassingly large proportion of the movies in those sets. Often more than once. Generally before MST3K got their hands on them. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/23 "2014-12-31T13:54:49Z")
Movies I’ve seen from the two sets: **Sci-Fi Classics** The Incredible Petrified World (1957) The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)\*\* The Atomic Brain (1964) Horrors of Spider Island (1962) The Wasp Woman (1960) Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965) Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968) Bride of the Gorilla (1951) Attack of the Monsters (1969) Gamera the Invincible (1966) Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)\*\*\*\* Teenagers From Outer Space (1959) Crash of the Moons (1954) Hercules Against the Moon Men (1964) Hercules and the Captive Women (1961) Hercules Unchained (1959)\*\*\*\* Assignment: Outer Space (1960) Killers From Space (1954)\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Phantom From Space (1953) White Pongo (1945) The Snow Creature (1954) First Spaceship on Venus (1960)\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Unknown World (1951) The Wild Women of Wongo (1958) The Phantom Planet (1961)\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* Eegah (1962) Sci-Fi Invasion The Day Time Ended (1980) Slipstream (1989) It’s Alive (1968) Future Hunters (1988) The Creeping Terror (1964) The Gypsy Moon (1954) The Brother From Another Planet (1984)\*\*\*\*\*\* Galaxina (1980) Night of the Blood Beast (1958) The Manster (1962)\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* The Giant of Metropolis (1961) I’ve marked ones I’ve seen multiple times with asterisks. I grew up on these films. I actually saw **Hercules Unchained** and **Santa Claus Conquers the Martians** in theaters when they came out. I saw **The Phantom Planet** and **First Spaceship on Venus** in the theater at matinees. **Killers from Space** was on WPIX’s _Chiller Theater_ all the time. I saw **The Manster** on WOR’s _Supernatural Theater_ so many times I lost count. I also saw **Brother from Another Planet** when IT first came out. John Sayles’ movie, as others have noted, doesn’t belong with most of the others on the list – it’s genuinely good. Sayles had actually worked on development of the project that eventually became Spielberg’s **E.T.** , so I like to think of this as Sayles’ version of E.T. Also, as I’ve noted, **First Spaceship on Venus** , despite being worked over by MST3K, is actually not that bad a film. It’s based on a Stanislas Lem story, features a multinational multicultural crew (how many black astronauts feature in other circa 1960 films?) with a robot, and clearly some thought went into it. It was an East German production with effects appropriate for the time it was made. The film was considerably shortened for its US release, and the dialogue isn’t great, and is badly dubbed. When you watch the film, give it a break. It’s not bad. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/24 "2014-12-31T14:34:21Z")
What? No [Brain Eaters](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051432/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? That said, as a red-blooded American Male, I’d say you probably can’t go wrong with any of these that reference “women” in the title. Might need to turn the sound down, though. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/25 "2014-12-31T17:36:53Z")
The Creeping Terror is a really bad film. However it is a testament to the human spirit. The film maker had many seemingly insurmountable obstacles that would have kept a lesser man from completing the film. (such as film making ability) But this man was a dreamer who would never give up. After filming he then discovered that most of the sound recorded was unusable. He couldn’t afford to have the actors come in and ‘loop it’ so he recorded voice over to cover this. It’s really hideous. But still, he made it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/26 "2014-12-31T18:41:07Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > The Creeping Terror is a really bad film. However it is a testament to the human spirit. The film maker had many seemingly insurmountable obstacles that would have kept a lesser man from completing the film. (such as film making ability) But this man was a dreamer who would never give up. > > After filming he then discovered that most of the sound recorded was unusable. He couldn’t afford to have the actors come in and ‘loop it’ so he recorded voice over to cover this. > > It’s really hideous. But still, he made it. I agree. I also appreciate Ed Wood Jr’s work and Phil Tucker’s (_Robot Monster_). Say what you will, at least their stuff is _entertainingly_ bad. They came up with film that was technically good (clear shots, not muddy; clear sound, decent editing, comprehensible story), even if the writing and acting were frequently awful. And I have to give them props for ambitious ideas in their stories. “The Creeping Terror” was supposed to be a sort of biological space probe, which is pretty heady stuff. The surviving women in Robot Monster were both scientists. Even the visuals could be impressive. Everyone fixates on the model flying saucers in Plan Nine from Outer Space, but Ed’s painted backdrops were pretty good. And the underlit scene of Tor Johnson rising from the grave is downright masterful. The sight of Vampira with her clawlike hands next to a dead tree in the dark freaked me out as a kid. (I didn’t notice that the shot was intercut with ones in full daylight.) Or the scenes of the dying High Civilization in Lee Wilder’s Killers from Space – those were actually pretty damned impressive. They made you forget the aliens played by guys in spandex jumpsuits with Ping-Pong ball eyes. One thing that made me appreciate the stuff that these guys could churn out on almost no money was my own experience getting together a production of my own radio play, many years ago, also9 with no money. I finagled actors, a studio, a production team, and effects, all with no money. Then got it broadcast on a local radio station. I had to stand over the engineer to make sure he didn’t kill it, but it got out there. I had had to deal with actors quitting, technical shortcuts, and downright obstruction, but I got it done. It made me appreciate the studio chief who reportedly applauded every film he saw in the screening room, no matter how bad, simply because it got completed. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/27 "2014-12-31T18:54:31Z")
I’ll speak up for “Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon.” It’s a cut above the average peplum (Italian sword and sandal flick from the sixties – which is what it is, it is in no way SF, there are no supernatural anythings other than Hercules, and all he is, is a huge fellow (played by Peter Lupus of Mission Impossible fame) who can bash other guys into unconsciousness with ease). It’s better than other films because it features a lot of scheming and double-dealing instead of just the usual lunkheaded fighting (though there’s plenty of that, too). But it’s still not a great film by any means … it features the Stupidest Civil Engineering Project in movie history. I write a review of the movie, it has one not work safe image, so I’m gonna spoiler box the link to it: [http://www.bondagerotica.com/articles/sword\_and\_sandal\_movies/tyrants-of-babylon/tyrants-of-babylon.html](http://www.bondagerotica.com/articles/sword_and_sandal_movies/tyrants-of-babylon/tyrants-of-babylon.html) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/28 "2014-12-31T19:15:35Z")
Excellent gift. I’d just leave it running somewhere in the background, for the rest of time. Drinking games may or may not be called for. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/29 "2014-12-31T19:31:41Z")
Creeping Terror is just painful to watch. The creature is so slow, and everyone just lays there and let’s the carpet engulf them. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/30 "2015-01-01T00:27:21Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Creeping Terror is just painful to watch. The creature is so slow, and everyone just lays there and let’s the carpet engulf them. That’s untrue. Many of the actors can be seen actively pulling themselves into the monster’s gullet. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/31 "2015-01-01T04:04:26Z")
In Soviet Union, carpet munches YOU! I’ve only heard of a few of the movies on this list and have seen maybe… three of them, tops. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/32 "2015-01-01T09:25:56Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Joe Bob Briggs liked [Hundra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundra). Holy hell, thank you for reminding me about Joe Bob! I had forgotten all about him. I think I’d bought almost all his books, loved him on the Daily Show (The God Report–pre Colbert), and his Monstervision hosting cracked me up! He has a website (last time I checked was probably about ten years ago) so thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/33 "2015-01-01T14:56:47Z")
They didn’t give you these movies and then strand you on a satellite, did they? ---
**Author:** ![ch51](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ch51/32/3111_2.png) [@ch51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch51)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/34 "2015-01-01T19:04:18Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > The only one I’ve seen is _Morons From Outer Space (1985)_, by a bunch of well-known British comedic actors. It’s farking terrible. It is one of that family of mid 80’s comedy films … Bad film with some very funny “bits”. My friends and I used to quote this film regularly. Like others have been saying - don’t expect too much and you won’t be disappointed, ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/35 "2015-01-01T19:12:09Z")
As noted, Brother from Another Planet is the only title that has more than camp value. It was impossible to get for the longest time, which I suspect may be related to the rights oversight that made it available for this pile of public-domain crap. It’s one of the best films made by one the best American filmmakers, so do at least watch that one. Then use the other discs for craft projects. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/36 "2015-01-01T19:28:23Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > They didn’t give you these movies and then strand you on a satellite, did they? You know you can control where movie begins or ends if leave all the parts you find up there intact. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/37 "2015-01-01T19:38:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I agree. I also appreciate Ed Wood Jr’s work and Phil Tucker’s (_Robot Monster_). Say what you will, at least their stuff is _entertainingly_ bad. They came up with film that was technically good (clear shots, not muddy; clear sound, decent editing, comprehensible story), even if the writing and acting were frequently awful. > > And I have to give them props for ambitious ideas in their stories. “The Creeping Terror” was supposed to be a sort of biological space probe, which is pretty heady stuff. The surviving women in Robot Monster were both scientists. > > Even the visuals could be impressive. Everyone fixates on the model flying saucers in Plan Nine from Outer Space, but Ed’s painted backdrops were pretty good. And the underlit scene of Tor Johnson rising from the grave is downright masterful. The sight of Vampira with her clawlike hands next to a dead tree in the dark freaked me out as a kid. (I didn’t notice that the shot was intercut with ones in full daylight.) Or the scenes of the dying High Civilization in Lee Wilder’s Killers from Space – those were actually pretty damned impressive. They made you forget the aliens played by guys in spandex jumpsuits with Ping-Pong ball eyes. Also you’ve got Kreskin, and the concept of humanity creating a light/photon bomb is interesting. I’ve referred to that kind of weapon before when discussing the Fermi Paradox. For a more interesting movie on biological probes there’s “The Green Slime”…and for an actual good movie (though it’s not a biological probe, but similar) there’s Peter Cushing’s “Island of Terror” ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/38 "2015-01-01T19:43:54Z")
FFS…Criswell, not Kreskin. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/39 "2015-01-01T19:48:26Z")
Most of the ones on the list I’ve seen I’ve seen in MST3K. The exception is [Mission Stardust](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Stardust) which is the movie based on the first Perry Rhodan book - which is the long running German sf series with over 100 books translated into English. It is worse than the books, which is saying something. ---
**Author:** ![Meme\_Chose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Meme\_Chose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meme_Chose)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561/40 "2015-01-01T23:00:55Z")
Let yourself be guided by this insightful review found at your link. Apparently happy purchaser --“Very large boxset ! Much bigger than I thought it would be, I knew there is a lot of disc’s in this set but I figured the box would be the standard dvd size box set maybe a little larger in thicness, but wow was i surprised by the actual size in length to . So this will be going on the shelve that houses all the other odd ball size boxsets” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-sci-fi-movies-from-this-100-movie-dvd-set-i-received/708561.md?page=3)