Sci-Fi

[TheeGoatPig]

I'll second or third or fifth Serenity. I cry at parts. I love it that much.

Pitch Black isn't really a horror movie, even though it is. The horror doesn't really get to you like it would in Alien or other movies of that vein. It was made to be one of those movies, but for me, it wasn't that tense. I'm not sure why. It isn't poorly made or anything, it just isn't really that much of a horror movie. I can't explain it...

Close Encounters is great. One of the few movies about aliens that doesn't have us fighting them in a brawl to the death. The world needs more sci-fi like this.

I haven't seen Outworld in too long. I don't remember most of it.

lot of people don't like it, but I have always liked 2010. I think it is even better than 2001. The first was a very interesting movie, and broke a lot of visual effects ground, but the pacing was so slow, and the ending was a bit more ambiguous than it should have been (of course, it was filmed while the book was being written, and the book's ending was a bit too strange for typical moviegoers to enjoy). 2010 on the other hand has a bit more of a brisk pace, has more likable characters (for me at least), and an ending that seems to wrap things up a bit better, without giving away everything that could happen after that. I really enjoy it.

I really want to Saturn 5 again. Not because it was good. I honestly don't know. I was five when I saw it, and I don't remember a bit of it except a robot pulling a shard of glass out of the female lead's eye.

Ooh, The Black Hole. It's a cheesy Disney movie trying to compete with more cerebral sci-fi movies of the time, but I still find it enjoyable and well worth watching.

 

[CrazyCatGuy]

The Fifth Element
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Day the Earth Stood Still

umm, so many more I'll have to think on it...LOL

The Fifth Element is GOLD! Highly recommended.
Equilibrium, as the others have said, is also one of the very best. It's like the Matrix, but less... well... matrix-y.
Chronicals of Riddick! also good.

If you like anime, there's always Akira... i've never seen it, but my friends say it's compareable to Blade Runner in the mind-screw-y way.
For anime, there's also Crest of the Stars and its sequals... those are good if you like space opera type animes... its pretty well done.
Another anime that i liked (mostly, cept for the last episode) was Scrapped Princess. It starts out fantasy-y but gets to be Sci-Fi... very very original setting.
Um... Ghost in the Shell? That should be good too.
Gundam... but lets not go there :/

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Check out 'The Thing.' There are two versions, a 1951 release by Howard Hawks and a 1982 remake. Both movies are based upon a story 'Who Goes There' by John Campbell. The original has James Arness [Gunsmoke] as the thing.

Both great movies, but both completely different. They are both trying to be horror movies, and both succeed, but in such different ways. The 50s movie is just that, a 50s movie. But they got away with things that a modern movie would never even try (lighting Arness and the rest of the set, cast, and crew on fire? never get away with that in modern movie making), and it is still tense, even in this day and age, though not fully a horror movie.

The remake is just a total mind-fuck. It's real horror, with not just tension but real gore that instead of detracting from the mood, multiplies it tenfold. You will keep your feet off the floor, and jump, and holler even when things happen and the movie takes off into the depths of real horror. One of the scariest movies I have ever seen.

Leviathan
Deep Star Six
The Abyss

The 1982 version of The Thing is one of the best out there. Kurt Russell is great in it...

Deepstar Six being the worst of the underwater movies, if you ask me...

Leviathan was ok the first time I watched it. Tense, but ultimately predictable. And upon further viewings, I really don't care for it anymore.

Abyss was good, and gets better with repeat viewings, but every time I see the ending, I expect it to be an 80s style MTV commercial. It just has that vibe about it.

If you want to try gritty with a touch of humor, check out 'They Live.' It's a John Carpenter flick, so you know it's going to be a little weird. 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and David Keith fighting aliens no one can see without special glasses.

Oh, and Meg Foster's in it, too. Damn, I love her eyes . . .

Awesome movie. The moment it came out I bought the DVD. When we originally watched it, it was only because we saw an ad for it where Roddy says "I've come to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum." It's completely whacked out of normality, and it achieved greatness in my mind's eye because of it.

The Fifth Element
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Day the Earth Stood Still

umm, so many more I'll have to think on it...LOL

The Fifth Element is just good clean sci-fi fun. I watch it every time it is on TV, even on commercial channels. You just can't miss with that one.

 

[rgraham666]

My all time favourite TV SF series is Babylon 5.

Great characters, great dialogue, big ideas. A plot line that took five years to resolve.

Highly recommended.

 

[christabelll]

It was jaws that ruined me!

Hmmm... The original Loguns Run... un-expunged LOL

Loved Terminator - the first one...

crap cant think of any gritty ones... meh! meds suck


"Wandering Kid" japanese anime underground film

 

[slyc_willie]

My all time favourite TV SF series is Babylon 5.

Great characters, great dialogue, big ideas. A plot line that took five years to resolve.

Highly recommended.

I'll always be a Stargate: SG-1 fan.

Richard Dean Anderson's best character (yes, that includes MacGuyver).

 

[only_more_so]

Alright, I have to start with an old school selection:

Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang masterpiece

Cube - liferaft sort of story, but in a killer sci-fi setting.

Primer - interesting, low budget time travel movie

They Live - directed by John Carpenter, stars Rowdy Roddy Piper and features one of the longest most realistic fight scenes ever.

Dark City - Not for everyone, unless you have the hots for Jennifer Connely

Rollerball (1975 version) - starring James Caan

Death Race 2000 - Alright, its cheesy, crude, etc. But fun watching

Freejack - Starring Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo... Oh, and Emilio Esteves and Mick Jagger (yes that Mick Jagger). Not great, but definitely has moments

Escape from New York - Cult classic

A Boy and His Dog - Kevin Costner, Postapocalyptic movie with a talking dog. Very strange, not very good, but interesting to watch once

I'd also second: Equilibrium, Logan's Run, and Outland

 

[silvermoon_]

.....

 

[slyc_willie]

It was jaws that ruined me!

Hmmm... The original Loguns Run... un-expunged LOL

Loved Terminator - the first one...

crap cant think of any gritty ones... meh! meds suck


"Wandering Kid" japanese anime underground film

Speaking of anime . . . Eight Man After. Only saw about half of it, but I liked the premise.

And for grit . . . Aeon Flux. Either the anime series or the movie with Charlize Theron.

 

[slyc_willie]

Dark City.. damn good, very dark, very gritty!!! Shocking end!!

Dark City was good. loved Kiefer Sutherland in it, and Rufus Sewell as well.

But better is Twelve Monkeys.

Getting all this, Topanga?

 

[starrkers]

The last two are slightly harder to find-- they were both made for TV miniseries.

Rhys reminded me of this one;
The Man who fell to Earth (not off-world grit, but pretty damn good)

The Man Who Fell to Earth is great - damn, haven't seen that in 20 years!!

The Fifth Element's pretty damn good.
12 Monkeys

brain's gone dead on me, can't think of others right now.

 

[rgraham666]

The 1975 version of Rollerball is great.

Opening it with Mozart's Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor on a honking big church organ just blew me away.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Alright, I have to start with an old school selection:

Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang masterpiece

Cube - liferaft sort of story, but in a killer sci-fi setting.

Primer - interesting, low budget time travel movie

They Live - directed by John Carpenter, stars Rowdy Roddy Piper and features one of the longest most realistic fight scenes ever.

Dark City - Not for everyone, unless you have the hots for Jennifer Connely

Rollerball (1975 version) - starring James Caan

Death Race 2000 - Alright, its cheesy, crude, etc. But fun watching

Freejack - Starring Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo... Oh, and Emilio Esteves and Mick Jagger (yes that Mick Jagger). Not great, but definitely has moments

Escape from New York - Cult classic

A Boy and His Dog - Kevin Costner, Postapocalyptic movie with a talking dog. Very strange, not very good, but interesting to watch once

I'd also second: Equilibrium, Logan's Run, and Outland

I can't believe I forgot Dark City! It was the first DVD I ever bought, even months before I had a player to watch it on (I was planning ahead ).

And Escape From New York is another I'm surprised I couldn't remember. I own that and Escape From LA, and I just couldn't think of them.

And harkening back to one of the first posts, is Brazil really sci-fi? The technology in it seems so old these days. Like they were imagining their future that is now in our past. I love the director's version (the studio cut being a completely different movie made out of the same film stock, oddly enough), but it just doesn't seem like science fiction anymore...

 

[only_more_so]

The Man Who Fell to Earth is great - damn, haven't seen that in 20 years!!

The Fifth Element's pretty damn good.
12 Monkeys

brain's gone dead on me, can't think of others right now.

I cheated, I had the IMDb give me all the sci-fi movies I posted votes for. Just a bit over 200 movies.

I left out the less interesting ones, and the ones that weren't appropriate. Back to the Future is good, but not gritty sci-fi. Also Playmate of the Apes was... entertaining, but again, not gritty. Dirty maybe, but not gritty.

 

[slyc_willie]

A Boy and His Dog - Kevin Costner, Postapocalyptic movie with a talking dog. Very strange, not very good, but interesting to watch once

That was Don Johnson, actually, and the dog (an Australian Sheephound, I believe) was telepathic.

I only saw the movie once, and the cannibalism aspect of it stayed with me. From what I remember, it was an interesting premise and had some real 'whoa!' moments.

I may have to check that one out again.

 

[slyc_willie]

Also Playmate of the Apes was... entertaining, but again, not gritty. Dirty maybe, but not gritty.

*snicker* Confusing your sci-fi with porn again?

 

[only_more_so]

That was Don Johnson, actually, and the dog (an Australian Sheephound, I believe) was telepathic.

I only saw the movie once, and the cannibalism aspect of it stayed with me. From what I remember, it was an interesting premise and had some real 'whoa!' moments.

I may have to check that one out again.

You're right Slyc. Now I'm wondering which post-apocalyptic movie with Kevin Costner I'm thinking about. The Postman maybe?

Oh, this one probably doesn't count, but on the post-apocalyptic movie note: Six String Samurai.

 

[rgraham666]

Yeah, that was The Postman.

 

[slyc_willie]

You're right Slyc. Now I'm wondering which post-apocalyptic movie with Kevin Costner I'm thinking about. The Postman maybe?

Oh, this one probably doesn't count, but on the post-apocalyptic movie note: Six String Samurai.

Ah, yes, The Postman. Every bit as good as Waterworld . . .

Which is to say that it sucked.

Waterworld could have been a good movie if, A) It didn't star Kevin Costner (whoever wrote the role obviously had someone more athletic in mind), and B) It stayed away from the political statements.

 

[Topanga_Blue]

Yikes, I go do some writing for half an hour and the thread picks up a page and a half.

Thanks everyone. Bookmarked this so I cna look back to it. If I buy all these now I'll got bankrupt.

 

[Topanga_Blue]

Ah, yes, The Postman. Every bit as good as Waterworld . . .

Which is to say that it sucked.

Waterworld could have been a good movie if, A) It didn't star Kevin Costner (whoever wrote the role obviously had someone more athletic in mind), and B) It stayed away from the political statements.

The book of the 'Postman' was actually quite enjoyable. Not awardwinning mind you, but a good read. Guess thats what makes the movie so much more disapointing. But I guess thats usually the way.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Yikes, I go do some writing for half an hour and the thread picks up a page and a half.

Thanks everyone. Bookmarked this so I cna look back to it. If I buy all these now I'll got bankrupt.

You can get Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick, and Dark Fury (which I believe is an animated movie that tells the story of what happened to Riddick between the first two movies) in a trilogy at Wal-Mart for about $13.

 

[packersfan]

Or Costner was in Waterworld. Don't get it, unless you just love the man. Just post apocalyptic, not much sci-fi in it. Although Dennis Hopper played a good bad guy.

As far as comedies, Mars Attacks was cheesy enough to be funny, with lots of celebs in it. Also, Galaxy Quest, for the hokey factor...

 

[CrazyCatGuy]

Dark City was good. loved Kiefer Sutherland in it, and Rufus Sewell as well.

But better is Twelve Monkeys.

Getting all this, Topanga?

O yeah! Dark city was great.... and did it come out so long ago? i thought it was only a year or two before the Matrix... :S

Twelve Monkeys made me so, so depressed :/

 

[slyc_willie]

O yeah! Dark city was great.... and did it come out so long ago? i thought it was only a year or two before the Matrix... :S

Twelve Monkeys made me so, so depressed :/

The thing about Twelve Monkeys was how all the little details were pieced together. It really was a brilliantly-written movie. The skipping back and forth from the present to the future kept you distracted enough to wonder what was going on, then . . . bam! It all makes sense.