1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 68)
2) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 82)
3) The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 80)
4) The Matrix (The Wachowski Brothers, 99)
5) Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 27)
6) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 56)
7) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 77)
8) La Jetee (Chris Marker, 62)
9) Alien (Ridley Scott, 79)
10) The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 51)
11) Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 68)
12) Star Wars (George Lucas, 77)
13) Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 72)
14) Five Million Years to Earth/Quatermass & the Pit (Roy Ward Baker, 68)
15) The Terminator (James Cameron, 84)
16) THX-1138 (director’s cut) (George Lucas, 71/2004)
17) Children of Men (Alphonso Cuaron, 2006)
18) Mad Max (George Miller, 79)
19) The Thing (John Carpenter, 82)
20) Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)
21) The Iron Giant (Brad Bird, 99)
22) Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 56)
23) The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky, 2006)
24) Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013)
25) Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 85)
26) Altered States (Ken Russell, 80)
27) RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 87)
28) Alphaville (Jean Luc-Godard, 65)
29) Slaughterhouse-Five (George Roy Hill, 72)
30) Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 97)
31) Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 66)
32) Dark Star (John Carpenter, 74)
33) Aliens (James Cameron, 86)
34) Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
35) They Live (John Carpenter, 88)
36) The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 71)
37) Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)
38) The War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin, 53)
39) Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 97)
40) The Fly (David Cronenberg, 86)
41) The Road Warrior (George Miller, 81)
42) Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 71)
43) Superman (Richard Donner, 78)
44) Threads (Mick Jackson, 84)
45) The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 57)
46) Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
47) Primer (Shane Carruth, 2004)
48) ET The Extraterrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 82)
49) The Man Who Fell To Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 76)
50) Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 36)
51) 1984 (Michael Radford, 84)
52) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
53) Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
54) Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
55) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 82)
56) The Abyss (director’s cut) (James Cameron, 89/92)
57) Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (Fred F. Sears, 56)
58) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
59) Rollerball (Norman Jewison, 74)
60) Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 97)
61) Fahrenheit 451 (Francois Truffaut, 66)
62) X—The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman, 63)
63) Time After Time (Nicholas Meyer, 79)
64) Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 83)
65) Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
66) Escape From New York (John Carpenter, 81)
67) Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2 (Val Guest, 57)
68) Fantastic Voyage (Richard Fleischer, 66)
69) Scanners (David Cronenberg, 81)
70) The Day After (Nicholas Meyer, 83)
71) Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 97)
72) The Brother from Another Planet (John Sayles, 84)
73) Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008)
74) Contagion (Steven Soderburgh, 2011)
75) X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000)
76) Dark City (Alex Proyas, 98)
77) Event Horizon (Paul W.S. Anderson, 97)
78) Invaders from Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 53)
79) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014)
80) Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (Robert Parrish, 69)
81) The Arrival (David Twohy, 96)
82) Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 85)
83) The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
84) The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment (Val Guest, 55)
85) Demon Seed (Donald Cammell, 77)
86) Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)
87) Repo Man (Alex Cox, 84)
88) Starman (John Carpenter, 84)
89) Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 75)
90) Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 99)
91) When Worlds Collide (Rudolph Mate, 51)
92) 20 Million Miles to Earth (Nathan Juran, 57)
93) Iceman (Fred Schepisi, 84)
94) Delicatessen (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 91)
95) Mystery Men (Kinka Usher, 99)
96) Man Facing Southeast (Eliseo Subiela, 86)
97) The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 85)
98) The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 97)
99) Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 73)
100) The Stuff (Larry Cohen, 85)
101) Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 68)
LIST BREAKDOWNS:
BREAKDOWN BY FILMMAKER:
THE AUTUERS OF SCI-FI:
WITH FIVE FILMS:
John Carpenter: The Thing (19), Dark Star (32), They Live (35), Escape From New York (66), Starman (88)
WITH FOUR FILMS:
George Lucas: The Empire Strikes Back (3), Star Wars (12), THX-1138 (16), Return of the Jedi (63)
Steven Spielberg: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (7), ET The Extraterrestrial (47), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (57), Minority Report (64)
WITH THREE FILMS:
Nigel Kneale (creator of the Quatermass character): Five Million Years to Earth / Quatermass and the Pit (14), Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2 (67), The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment (84)
James Cameron: The Terminator (15), Aliens (33), The Abyss (55)
Nicholas Meyer: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (54), Time After Time (62), The Day After (70)
WITH TWO FILMS:
George Pal (producer/director): The War of the Worlds (38), When Worlds Collide (91)
Ridley Scott: Blade Runner (2), Alien (9)
Robert Wise: The Day The Earth Stood Still (10), The Andromeda Strain (36)
George Miller: Mad Max (18), The Road Warrior (41)
Brad Bird: The Iron Giant (21), The Incredibles (83)
Darren Aronofsky: The Fountain (23), Pi (53)
Paul Verhoeven: RoboCop (27), Starship Troopers (30)
David Cronenberg: The Fly (40), Scanners (69)
William Cameron Menzies: Things to Come (49), Invaders from Mars (78)
Robert Zemeckis: Contact (59), Back to the Future (82)
Richard Fleischer: Fantastic Voyage (68), Soylent Green (99)
BREAKDOWN BY DECADES:
PRE-1950s (2): 1927: Metropolis (5); 1936: Things to Come (49)
1950s (11): 1951: The Day The Earth Stood Still (10); When Worlds Collide (91); 1953: The War of the Worlds (38), Invaders from Mars (78); 1955: The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment (84); 1956 (OFFICALLY THE FIRST GREAT YEAR FOR SCIENCE FICTION): Invasion of the Body Snatchers (6), Forbidden Planet (22), Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (56); 1957: The Incredible Shrinking Man (45), Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2 (67), 20 Million Miles to Earth (92)
1960s (13): 1962: La Jetee (8); 1963: X—The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (61); 1965: Alphaville (28); 1966: Seconds (31), Fahrenheit 451 (60), Fantastic Voyage (68); 1968 (OFFICIALLY THE YEAR WITH THE HIGHEST-QUALITY SCIENCE FICTION): 2001: A Space Odyssey (1), Planet of the Apes (11), Five Million Years to Earth / Quatermass and the Pit (14), Barbarella (101); 1969: The Gladiators (39), Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (80)
1970s (17): 1971: THX-1138 (16), The Andromeda Strain (36), Silent Running (42); 1972: Solaris (13), Slaughterhouse-Five (29); 1973: Soylent Green (99); 1974: Dark Star (32), Rollerball (58); 1975: Death Race 2000 (89); 1976: The Man Who Fell To Earth (48); 1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (7), Star Wars (12), Demon Seed (85); 1978: Superman (53); 1979: Alien (9), Mad Max (18), Time After Time (62)
1980s (29) (OFFICIALLY THE TOP DECADE FOR SCIENCE FICTION): 1980: The Empire Strikes Back (3), Altered States (26); 1981: The Road Warrior (41), Escape From New York (66), Scanners (69); 1982: Blade Runner (2), The Thing (19), ET The Extraterrestrial (47), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (54); 1983: Return of the Jedi (63), The Day After (70); 1984 (OFFICIALLY THE BEST YEAR FOR SCIENCE FICTION): The Terminator (15), The Brother from Another Planet (72), Threads (44), 1984 (50), Repo Man (87), Starman (88), Iceman (93); 1985: Brazil (25), Back to the Future (82), The Quiet Earth (97), The Stuff (100); 1986: Aliens (33), The Fly (40); 1987: RoboCop (27); 1988: They Live (35); 1989: The Abyss (55)
1990s (14): 1991: Delicatessen (94) ; 1996: The Arrival (81); 1997: Gattaca (24), Starship Troopers (30), Contact (59), Men in Black (71), Event Horizon (77), The Fifth Element (98); 1998: Pi (53); Dark City (76); 1999: The Matrix (4), The Iron Giant (21), Galaxy Quest (90), Mystery Men (95)
2000s (15): 2000: X-Men (75); 2001: Donnie Darko (20), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (57); 2002: Minority Report (64); 2004: Primer (46), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (51), The Incredibles (83), 2006: Children of Men (17), The Fountain (23); 2007: Sunshine (37); 2008: Wall-E (34), Iron Man (73); 2009: Moon (86) 2010: Inception (53); 2011: Contagion (74); 2013: Gravity (24); Under the Skin (46); Her (54); 2014: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (79)
WHAT WE'RE STUDYING: A GENRE BREAKDOWN (some titles appear as part of more than one category)
The history, and the future, of mankind: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Robotics: Blade Runner, The Terminator, RoboCop, Wall-E, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Iron Giant, Demon Seed
Other Worlds: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars, Forbidden Planet, Return of the Jedi, Dark City, Flash Gordon, Moon, Barbarella
Missions to Space: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Starship Troopers, Alien, Dark Star, Aliens, Sunshine, Silent Running, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Event Horizon, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, When Worlds Collide, Galaxy Quest, Gravity
FutureEarths: The Matrix, Metropolis, THX-1138, Planet of the Apes, Children of Men, Gattaca, Brazil, Alphaville, The Gladiators, 1984, Rollerball, Fahrenheit 451, Things to Come, Minority Report, Escape From New York, Logan’s Run, Death Race 2000, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Fifth Element, Soylent Green, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Alien Invasions, Nasty Division: The Matrix, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Five Million Years to Earth / Quatermass and the Pit, The Thing, They Live, The Andromeda Strain, The War of the Worlds, The UFO Incident, Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2, Dark City, Men in Black, Invaders from Mars, The Arrival, Repo Man, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Stuff
Alien Invasions, Nice Division: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Iron Giant, 2001: A Space Odyssey, ET The Extraterrestrial, The Man Who Fell To Earth, The Abyss, Contact, Men in Black, The Brother from Another Planet, Starman, Man Facing Southeast; Under the Skin
Time Travel: La Jetee, The Terminator, Donnie Darko, The Fountain, Slaughterhouse-Five, Primer, Time After Time, The Time Machine, Back to the Future
Experiments out of control: La Jetee, Altered States, Seconds, The Andromeda Strain, The Fly, Primer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pi, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Contact, X—The Man With The X-Ray Eyes, Time After Time, Fantastic Voyage, Scanners, The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment, Demon Seed, Back to the Future, Iceman
Post-Apocalypse: Mad Max, Wall-E, The Road Warrior, Threads, La Jetee, Cloud Atlas, The Terminator, The Time Machine, The Day After, Delicatessen, The Quiet Earth, Contagion
Superheroes: Superman, Iron Man, Flash Gordon, X-Men, The Incredibles, Mystery Men
Innerspace: The Incredible Shrinking Man, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Inception, The Abyss, Fantastic Voyage, Her
Star Trek II should have been higher (says the Trek fan), and where's A Clockwork Orange?
ReplyDeleteI see Trek as primarily a TV phenom, so thus its place on the list. A Clockwork Orange is a great movie, but I don't see it a sci-fi, per se. There's not a lot of science in it. It takes place in a not too distant future, but that's about all I see as being science fiction about it. It's really a drama, straight out. I decided to give the spots to films that were much more of the genre.
ReplyDeleteI've seen most of these films (and the few I have missed I mention) and thought perhaps some future alien being might find Dean's list along with some old DVDs of these films and get the wrong impression. So in the interest of setting those bug - eyed freaks set straight I add here my own opinions. For those lowly earthlings who might think my comments are too negative all I can say is that humans are doomed to destroy themselves and this planet so who cares anyway. Those films I have not commented on I like.
ReplyDelete1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 68)
2) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 82) - frank miller made me hate future noir
3) The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 80) - hate the friendly robots
4) The Matrix (The Wachowski Brothers, 99) - overrated fashion show
5) Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 27)
6) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 56)
7) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 77) - french UN guys running around makes me sick almost as much as friendly aliens
8) La Jetee (Chris Marker, 62) - never seen it but I hate Chris Marker
9) Alien (Ridley Scott, 79)
10) The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 51)
11) Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 68) - monkeys ruling the earth is stupid enough but having some friendly monkeys there is worse. I liked the statue of liberty gimmik however
12) Star Wars (George Lucas, 77) - looks really dated
13) Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 72) - it takes less time to travel to the next galaxy then it does for this film to end
14) Five Million Years to Earth/Quatermass & the Pit (Roy Ward Baker, 68)
15) The Terminator (James Cameron, 84)
16) THX-1138 (director’s cut) (George Lucas, 71/2004)
17) Children of Men (Alphonso Cuaron, 2006) - hate the title and hate babies that can save the world altogether
18) Mad Max (George Miller, 79) - I hate a future where the bad guys are rejects from an east village punk concert
19) The Thing (John Carpenter, 82)
20) Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001) - never seen it
21) The Iron Giant (Brad Bird, 99) - never seen it
22) Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 56)
23) The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky, 2006) - never seen it
24) Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 97) - another fashion show
25) Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 85) - forced humor
26) Altered States (Ken Russell, 80) - awful
27) RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 87)
28) Alphaville (Jean Luc-Godard, 65)
29) Slaughterhouse-Five (George Roy Hill, 72)
30) Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 97)
31) Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 66)
32) Dark Star (John Carpenter, 74)
33) Aliens (James Cameron, 86)
34) Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008) - never seen it
35) They Live (John Carpenter, 88)
36) The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 71) - spends too many hours in the lab
37) Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007) - screws up the ending with the silly bad guy
38) The War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin, 53)
39) The Gladiators (Peter Watkin, 69)
40) The Fly (David Cronenberg, 86)
41) The Road Warrior (George Miller, 81)
42) Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 71) - seventies fashion show
43) Superman (Richard Donner, 78)
44) Threads (Mick Jackson, 84) - never seen it
45) The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 57) - silly when it wants to be scary
46) Primer (Shane Carruth, 2004) - never seen it
47) ET The Extraterrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 82)
48) The Man Who Fell To Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 76) - alien fashion show
49) Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 36) - i hate intellectuals in the future talking shit
50) 1984 (Michael Radford, 84)
51) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) - I hate Jim Carrey
52) The UFO Incident (Richard A. Colla, 75) - never seen it
53) Pi (Darren Aronofsky, 98) - never seen it
54) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 82) - are you kidding?
55) The Abyss (director’s cut) (James Cameron, 89/92)
56) Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (Fred F. Sears, 56)
57) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001) - I hate nice robots
58) Rollerball (Norman Jewison, 74) - dated
59) Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 97) - boring
60) Fahrenheit 451 (Francois Truffaut, 66) - the worst movie on this list
61) X—The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman, 63)
62) Time After Time (Nicholas Meyer, 79) - there are better things to do in the past then look for someone who killsf whores
63) Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 83) - never seen it
64) Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
65) The Time Machine (George Pal, 60)
66) Escape From New York (John Carpenter, 81)
67) Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2 (Val Guest, 57)
68) Fantastic Voyage (Richard Fleischer, 66)
69) Scanners (David Cronenberg, 81)
70) The Day After (Nicholas Meyer, 83) - never seen it
71) Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 97) - stupid beyond comprehension
72) The Brother from Another Planet (John Sayles, 84) - should have been so much better
73) Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008) - has only one good scene when the iron suit assembles itself
74) Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980) - unwatchable
75) X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000) - terrible
76) Westworld (Michael Crichton, 73) - the hero is a pussy
77) Event Horizon (Paul W.S. Anderson, 97)
78) Invaders from Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 53)
79) Superman II (Richard Lester, 80)
80) Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (Robert Parrish, 69)
81) The Arrival (David Twohy, 96)
82) Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 85) - I hate the professor. Would have been better if he had screwed his mom
83) The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004) - never seen it
84) The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment (Val Guest, 55)
85) Demon Seed (Donald Cammell, 77)
86) Logan’s Run (Michael Anderson, 76) - more like Logan's trot
87) Repo Man (Alex Cox, 84) - east village is over
88) Starman (John Carpenter, 84)
89) Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 75) - silly car fetish film
90) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Kerry Conran, 2004) - the second worst film on this list
91) When Worlds Collide (Rudolph Mate, 51)
92) 20 Million Miles to Earth (Nathan Juran, 57)
93) Iceman (Fred Schepisi, 84)
94) Delicatessen (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 91) - never seen it
95) Mystery Men (Kinka Usher, 99) - never seen it
96) Man Facing Southeast (Eliseo Subiela, 86) - never seen it
97) The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 85)
98) The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 97) - french fashion show future
99) Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 73)
100) The Stuff (Larry Cohen, 85)
101) Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 68) - soft core porn
westworld? logan's run?, flash gordon? rollerball? wow, there's some truly awful films on this list! lol. perhaps a list of 50 sci-fi films worth watching would be more appropriate.
ReplyDeletebtw, where's stalker? wojna swiatow? sexmission? road warrior? a scanner darkly? battle royale? dark city? a boy and his dog? le dernier combat?!, the quiet earth!? soderberg's solaris? even tron is better than half the stuff on this list! or despite its any faults, zardoz. so many more...
i don't think i'm disciplined enough to compile a list this extensive but if i was bedridden for a month i would add a lot less unworthy american garbage and a lot more from abroad. good work nonetheless...that must have taken a while. thanks for the food for thought/debate/etc.
Anon: great comments, most of which are spot on. although i personally think children of men belongs in the top 5.
oops...just noticed u did have quiet earth (but why so low?!). how could you say westworld is a better movie? lol
ReplyDeletestalker--The greatest sci-fi classic I have yet to see
ReplyDeletewojna swiatow--never seen it, but looks good.
sexmissionnever seen it, but looks good.
road warrior--resides at #41
a scanner darkly--wanted to love it, ended up despising it.
battle royale--most modern japanese movies suck; this one is no different. I prefer SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS, but I don't consider either film science fiction. You need to do more than set your movie in the future to be science fiction. I consider these movies very dark satire.
dark city--this is a great movie. But sci-fi? I consider it fantasy. It'll top my 101 greatest fantasy movies.
a boy and his dog--overrated.
le dernier combat--stylitically interesting, but a bore.
the quiet earth--resides at #97
soderberg's solaris--thought long and hard about including this, but gave the edge to non-remakes.
tron--the only good part of the movie is the look of the part that takes place inside the computer. Another overrated 80s movie.
westworld -- Great premise; it's only weakness really is Richard Benjamin in the lead. Excellent perf by Yul Brenner. Image of them taking his face plate off will always haunt me. Terrific final 30 minutes.
logan's run -- sentimental favorite with good sequences
flash gordon--cheesy, but in a memorable way.
rollerball--four star movie. Just cause it takes place in the 1970s and you hate the 1970s because you hate the clothes doesn't mean you need to go slammin' on this movie, which is one of the most telling films ever made about the bloodthirstyness of sports.
on the contrary, the 70's is the decade i consider to be american cinema's finest.
ReplyDeletebut westworld is not. westworld is basically a hokey twilight zone episode made into a feature. based on the execution of it, it looks to be made entirely by people who worked in TV. i think the only thing that justifies the existence of this movie are the parodies it inspired.
because i loved it as a little boy, i had a soft spot for logan's run too. then i watched it as an adult. soft spot died and fell off.
rollerball a 4 star film? i don't think you could find too many who agree with that assessment. hell, even running man might be better! i agree that battle royale isn't a masterpiece, but one could quite easily argue it says a lot more about the bloodthirstiness of sports than rollerball.
regarding japan, there's a lot of gold there you've overlooked: akira, ghost in the shell, tetsuo (visually, at least), casshern, or even all the way back to the original gojira (godzilla).
sure tron's a movie for kids, but visually it's as unique and impressive today as it was when it first came out.
i'd even put the hidden on the list considering how much fun it is. and hey, can this list really be complete w/o schwartzy's predator?
one other thing, should the day after really be on this list? if so, why not dr strangelove?
oops, was logged in on my gf's computer.
ReplyDeletei love carpenter's the thing as much as the next fan, but if you gave the edge to non-remakes how come you snubbed nyby's original the thing? it's a pretty amazing movie to leave off a list that includes the likes of flash gordon ;)
ReplyDeletei know i'm probably driving you nuts with this game, but titles of my faves keep popping into my head (needless to say, your list has inspired the great procrastinator in me).
ReplyDeleteanyways, i'm curious to know if you actually believe flash gordon is better than: them! or on the beach?
i know, i know...flogging a dead horse.
Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on WESTWORLD. While I realize it's somewhat of a guilty pleasure (as are all the post-"2001" MGM sci-fi movies of the 1970s that made the list, including Westworld, Logan's Run, Demon Seed, and Rollerball). But this is my list, so I do as I please to include them. Cheesy, yes, but I like them. Don't care what the hoi poloi have to say about it. Running Man IS a good movie, and almost made the list. Battle Royale, like Series 7, does have alot to say about audience bloodthirst. But I considerer it no more science fiction, really, than NETWORK, for instance.
ReplyDeleteI should have included Tetsuo. Perhaps I'll go in and change that.
And I'm watching Dark City again so I can decide if it's sci-fi or not. I might be adding that on the list.
Akira and Ghost in the Shell are both fine examples of their genre. But it's still a genre I don't care for: I juts don;t like the look or stylings of anime.
Predator, Tron, Them, Godzilla, and The Hidden would probably fall in the 105-125 range for me. Good movies, all.
STRANGELOVE I look at as primarily a comedy; it will certainly top my COMEDIES LIST coming up. And I feel like we go into more scientific aspects of the fiction if we look at the aftermath of a nuclear blast. Somehow that adds more a speculative element to it all. Thus the inclusion of both THE DAY AFTER and THREADS, which is like THE DAY AFTER times 10.
I think I said this in another post, but I reiterate: Nyby's THING is pretty boring when you get right down to it. Thus my non-inclusion of the original. Carpenter's THE THING, Cronenberg's THE FLY, and Scorsese's CAPE FEAR are three rare examples in which the remake far eclipses the original.
Flash Gordon is dumb fun, pure and simple.
And THE BEACH? With Leonardo DiCaprio?? What are you talking about?
ON THE BEACH...not THE BEACH! yikes!
ReplyDeletethanks for the tip on threads, don't know how this one slipped under my radar. gonna watch it in the next couple of days. to play devil's advocate on the this tangent...what about fail safe? or ON the beach?
as for cheese...i love demon seed, so there you go. cheesy or not, it's a smart film.
i like the original thing, but because carp's version was a childhood favorite i'll always favor it, although i prefer the original cape fear. i'm not really a fan of scorsese's...except for the parody of it on the simpson's.
just finished threads. talk about being kicked in the gut. i'll have to write a post about this one. thanks again for the tip.
ReplyDelete