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I believe we have a thread somewhere else on here for discussion of favourite films. So I wanted to try something different. I just watched Star Trek Into Darkness and think it's one of the best sci-fi films I've seen in a while. Particularly for a 'blockbuster'. So what are the best sci-fi and fantasy movies in your eyes? What are the movies a sci-fi/fantasy lover like myself should go and see if they haven't.

I could list stuff like "Star Wars" and stuff, but I'll skip that and get to some real sleepers...I enjoyed Convict 762...a grade B skiffy/splatter flick. A lot of fun, but then again i was just about drunk when i saw it...if you want to see a nice mix of Grade B skiffy flicks and low-budget "art house" SF get one of those "50 SF films" packs you see from time to time at some of the discount stores...usualy between $10 to $20 bucks, you will get alot of stinkers but a handfull of unexpected gems you will never have heard of.

if you are into gameing, RPGs or the on-line WoW type games, check out The Guild, in its 6th season, likely on youtube or elsewhere on the web...about a bunch of geek gamers, my kind of peeps. :)

Well Jayne my daughter in law has just said Space Balls. I'm still thinking of my favourite film

I really liked Iron Man 3.

It depends what you're looking for. If thoughtful sci-fi is your interest then I would recommend "Inception," "Source Code" and "Deja Vu."

'Oz the Great and Powerful'. I watched this not long ago and it left quite an impression with me.
Okay the film could've been much more than it actually ended up being but you can say that about most movies these days. I love the china/porcelain doll as the expressionism and emotion portrayed on such an unrealistic character was quite a feat.
Next up on my 'to watch' list is Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.

i loved the matrix movies...mix the world of cutting-edge physics with the very deep question of 'what is reality?' ( i love the line "in truth there is no spoon" ....very deep, for the spoon does NOT exist...it is only a cloud probiblty wave-fuctions, until we look at it and the colliopse into...a spoon)

another good one...The Forbin Project...it's a old one baised on a book by d f jones...
love me some concous computers that only want to rule the world....

THX-1138

The Thing(from Another World)1951

The Arrival(yes, I know, Charlie Sheen but it's really good! A throwback of sorts!)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

The Andromeda Strain

Westworld

The Brother from Another Planet

The Incredible Shrinking Man

The Road Warrior

Pitch Black

The City of Lost Children

Species (better than you think)

Altered States

Forbidden Planet

Escape from New York

Scanners

Have to agree with Planet of the Apes (1968),The Road Warrior,Pitch Black and Escape from New York.

Planet of the Apes, Pitch Black, Aliens, Serenity. Of course the Star Wars and Star Trek series are good. I have enjoyed these new Star Trek movies they have come out with. The newer Planet of the Apes movies are okay but I don't think they will ever sit as the old ones in a "classic" sci-fi pile.

Jonathan wrote: "I believe we have a thread somewhere else on here for discussion of favourite films. So I wanted to try something different. I just watched Star Trek Into Darkness and think it's one of the best sc..."

You saw Into Darkness already? That's awesome. I have imax ticks for Thursday. I heard the movie got mediocre reviews though. Without giving away any spoilers, what did you think? As good as the first?

Hmm... favorite sci fi/fantasy movies... Here's my top 10 or so in no particular order.

1. The Dark Crystal

2. Star Wars Episodes IV, V, and VI

3. Krull!!!

4. Matrix, and Matrix Reloaded cause it was cool.

5. Willow... because who can forget Sortia and Mad Martigan. LOL.

6. Stark Trek II, Wrath of Kahn, and Star Trek IV? -whichever one they go back in time and Spock swims with the humpback whales.

7. Contact... I'm okay to go.

8. Lord of the Rings trilogy

9. Aliens

10. Pitch Black.. I know this was mentioned already.

11. Species... yes, the first one was better than you think.

12. Abyss... also better than you think.

13. Legend

14. Labrinth

15. The Arrival... LOL, I love this movie. It's Charlie Sheen at his paranoid best. I felt for the man.

I've seen ST: Into Darkness as well and really enjoyed it. I think JJ did a great job rebooting the franchise and his casting is excellent. You can imagine these guys are friends in RL. Don't was to give away anything but I did like teh character change out for one of the scenes. A nice salute to the old films. And Benedict Cumberbatch plays and excellent villain and never cracks a smile.

Alien - Ripley, enough said.

Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb if only for Slim Pickens riding the bomb.

"The First Spaceship on Venus" (1960) is a much maligned movie, but has a lot of great elements in it.

"The Blob" (1958) was Steve McQueen's first leading role.

"Jason & the Argonauts" (1963) had some of the greatest special effects of the day, especially a fight with skeletons, all done in stop-motion. If nothing else, it will make you appreciate CGI.
;-)

The original Outer Limits. Not all were great, but it had some great ones. David McCallum, William Shatner, Martin Sheen, Adam West (Batman), Bruce Dern, Robert Culp, Sally Kellerman, and Robert Duvall were in it. Robert Culp did a couple of extremely good episodes like "The Architects of Fear" & "Demon With the Glass Hand". The latter was written by Harlan Ellison which lead to a law suit (threat?) of Orion & Cameron over "Terminator".

The original "Twilight Zone". Pretty much see above. Rod Serling was a genius & had an even better cast of stars, though.

harlan has sued or threaten to sue darn near everybody who's anybody....or at least threatened to beat the snot out of them...

STAR TREK....TOS....if it ain't got Kirk its made by Klingons!!!

Adam wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "I believe we have a thread somewhere else on here for discussion of favourite films. So I wanted to try something different. I just watched Star Trek Into Darkness and think it's o..."

Yes, I saw it pretty quickly and I thought it was better than that first reboot. It had better chemistry and more of a Star Trek feel in my eyes. Some of my friends here though disagreed but most critics are actually rating it highly. It has a 89 from critics on Rotten Tomatoes which means that they see it as on the whole a well made film.

Star Trek re-boot...i know it had to happen....i know the STORY is the thing, NOT the actors....but as a old fart, i will be quitely sheading yet another tear, for absent friends...Bill...Lenord...Forest...James...and all the rest...Trek will never be the same for me

I really enjoyed Harrison Bergeron, a little bit different.



Dark City is a another odd movie which i really enjoy



I first watched this movie due to hearing Autechre were on the soundtrack, great movie. Pi

I'm going to see the new Star Trek film this week as it looks great. I saw the new Iron Man film and I can recommend that if you've not already seen it. And as for the Trecky film the old Spock is in it, and is a great story, l saw the the first one as I wanted to see if a new Star Trek film could be done with new people playing the original Kirk, Spock, bones etc. Didn't really take to the new Kirk though

Spooky1947 wrote: "harlan has sued or threaten to sue darn near everybody who's anybody....or at least threatened to beat the snot out of them..."

Yeah, I've heard that about him. I think Cameron called him a leech & tend to agree. Time traveling cyborg & the fate of humanity is all they had in common. By stretching like that, any book with a trio in a space ship visiting a planet was ripped off of someone - not sure who since dozens used that scenario including Heinlein & editor John Campbell.

i don't know if i go so far as to call harlan a leach...hes done alot for sf...but i can say he sure could use a chill-pill every morning. :P

I think he leeched in the case of the Terminator. He has done some wonderful work, though. Many have described him as pugnacious.

Oh man I want to see ST: Into Darkness. Critics don't seem too thrilled about it but you guys do, so that's good enough for me.

Recent movie I really liked, Oblivion. I mean it's not going to be a classic, but it was a fun ride with a nice philosophical premise (what is identity?)

Others... Alien and Aliens (the other two don't exist to me), Event Horizon, Starship Troopers, Serenity.

Favorite movies of all time, though: Shawshank Redemption and Forrest Gump.

T.K. wrote: "Oh man I want to see ST: Into Darkness. Critics don't seem too thrilled about it but you guys do, so that's good enough for me.

Recent movie I really liked, Oblivion. I mean it's not going to be a..."

That's most likely the major US critics. Across the world in general it's getting a strong rating and I liked it more than the first.

I've had a bit of a sci-fi film marathon over the past week. So in order of viewing:

Dark Star
Silent Running
Blade Runner
Source Code
Predators
Capricorn One
Star Trek IV: There Be Whales Here, sorry: The Yoyage Home

Good movies, Andy. It's been ages since I watched "Silent Running". That was the best role Bruce Dern ever played, although he wasn't bad in that Bruce Willis flick where he was the sheriff. (Name escapes me - remake of the Samuri thing, but with boot-leggers. Clint Eastwood did it as a western, "A Fistful of Dollars".)

Now you need to watch Kirk Douglas & Farah Fawcett in "Saturn 3".
:-)

Jim wrote: "Good movies, Andy. It's been ages since I watched "Silent Running". That was the best role Bruce Dern ever played, although he wasn't bad in that Bruce Willis flick where he was the sheriff. (Na..."

he was excellent in The Burbs :)

Jim wrote: "Good movies, Andy. It's been ages since I watched "Silent Running". That was the best role Bruce Dern ever played, although he wasn't bad in that Bruce Willis flick where he was the sheriff. (Name escapes me - remake of the Samuri thing, but with boot-leggers. Clint Eastwood did it as a western, "A Fistful of Dollars".)

Now you need to watch Kirk Douglas & Farah Fawcett in "Saturn 3"."

Last Man Standing is the film with the Bruces. I watched Saturn 3 when I was about six years old, courtesy of the irresponsible teenager next door who used to babysit me (other child friendly films he exposed me to we're The Terminator, American Wearwolf in London, and a long forgotten film wherein a man picks up an olive off a block of ice with his buttocks (Fandango?)

As a TNG era fan and a lover of TOS, I found "Into Darkness" to be fantastic. It's certainly an alternate universe, but it's a good one.

Other favorite Sci fi movies of mine are 2001, The Fountain, Alien, Blade Runner and Contact.

2001 would have been a much better movie if the first 10 minutes had not been cut...for those not in the know, the cut footage explained what that big black rock was...if those 10 minutes had been left in, the movie would have actualy made sense.

Yeah, I'm not sure why Kubrick cut it to the point of being vague and never putting in at least a sentence of dialogue to explain the monolith. Von Neumann probes are pretty straightforward things.

yep, but at the same time all the non-SF people thought is was some great-super-mystical movie and i guess that helped sell it...even so, that 10 minutes should have stayed in

Andy wrote: "Last Man Standing is the film with the Bruces. I watched Saturn 3 when I was about six years old, courtesy of the irresponsible teenager next door who used to babysit me (other child friendly films he exposed me to we're The Terminator, American Wearwolf in London..."

That's it! "Last Man Standing". Fun movie.

As for the 'irresponsible teenager', my kids were watching 'Aliens' & such from the time they were born & I always let them read what they wanted. I just made sure I was there to discuss it with them. I never saw much sense in trying to 'protect' them from media, although my wife gave me hell occasionally.
;-)

Spooky1947 wrote: "2001 would have been a much better movie if the first 10 minutes had not been cut...for those not in the know, the cut footage explained what that big black rock was...if those 10 minutes had been ..."

I was spoiled because I saw the long version at its debut at the World's Fair in San Antonio, TX back in 66 or 67. I remember it was loooonnnnggg - like 4 hours. We had an intermission during the time the regular one let out & got out just before the 2d showing of the regular one. I was young, but it fascinated me.

Andy wrote: "I've had a bit of a sci-fi film marathon over the past week. So in order of viewing:

Dark Star
Silent Running
Blade Runner
Source Code
Predators
Capricorn One
Star Trek IV: There Be Whales Here, ..."

Dark Star
Silent Running and
Capricorn One -- I've never seen them but I've been hearing about them for ages. Thanks for the heads up!

Jim wrote: "Spooky1947 wrote: "harlan has sued or threaten to sue darn near everybody who's anybody....or at least threatened to beat the snot out of them..."

Yeah, I've heard that about him. I think Cameron..."

I'd be careful about calling Harlan Ellison a "leech". Not because anything bad would happen to you or anything but if you're on GoodReads you're probably >ahem< a reader, you're probably smart and if you're in this group, you probably dig speculative fiction. I don't know Harlan Ellison and from what I've heard, I would not like him as a person but he is a HELL of a writer. I don't know that he's seminal in the way that H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov are but he definitely staked out a territory that only he seemed to be able or willing to walk in for a while. Is he a weird, pugnacious, ego-maniacal, quirky guy? Again, I don't actually know but everything I've seen or read points to yes on that score. But he is also easily one of the best and most far out writers I've ever read. Now, his particular imaginative landscape is almost standard fare, and I'm sure that's what hacks him off sometimes but he was definitely something special.

All this to say, if you haven't read him, you should. You'd probably like him. A lot.

Jim wrote: "Andy wrote: "Last Man Standing is the film with the Bruces. I watched Saturn 3 when I was about six years old, courtesy of the irresponsible teenager next door who used to babysit me (other child f..."

My brother has movie night with his kids on Fridays. I remember when they were little he watched Terminator with them. I said to him "You're going to give them nightmares." He said to me "I fast forward through the bad parts". I laughed and said "What's that about 90% of the movie.

Bobby, man, i LOVE harlan's stuff...the man can write like a demon...and i just dont mean just his Fantasy and SF...he also reads his own stuff better than any other author ive ever heard read (check audible dot com if you dont belive me folks)...still, the stories are legion about how Harlan is quick to anger, and belive me you don't want to be on the reciveing end of that..i have a mp.3 somewhere with Harlan himself telling what he did to a publisher that crossed him...still, Harlan is a damn fine writer...some writers drink, some take advances for books they never produce, Harlan, Harlan kicks butt...but by damn, the man CAN spin a story...i forgive him

Spooky1947 wrote: "Bobby, man, i LOVE harlan's stuff...the man can write like a demon...and i just dont mean just his Fantasy and SF...he also reads his own stuff better than any other author ive ever heard read (che..."

Haha! There it is!

Spooky1947 wrote: "yep, but at the same time all the non-SF people thought is was some great-super-mystical movie and i guess that helped sell it...even so, that 10 minutes should have stayed in"

I'm jealous. I have to see this version. Though, I have to say, I never missed it. I actually felt like it was pretty -- well, not clear exactly-- but I got it. Monolith, ape man looking at bones, monolith, ape man looking at bones, monolith, ape man picking up a bone, monolith, ape man hitting other bones with bone -- monolith was responsible for man's first use of tools! Now when I type it out it sounds dumber than it did when I first saw the movie but I always felt like I got it.

Well, there's another aspect to the confusion in 2001. Dare I mention the treacherous scene of the giant space baby. I can imagine Arthur Clarke's reaction to seeing that one . . . "Reyley Stanley, must we?"

But on the other hand, there are ideas in there that still give me the chills. HAL and the character development around him, for example.

Last nights sci-fi viewing: Robocop and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Bobby wrote: "I'd be careful about calling Harlan Ellison a "leech". ..."

Cameron said it & I said I tended to agree in that case. It's not the first time anyone has said it & it won't be the last. Here's a great write up by Jason Sanford who holds about the same opinion as I do.



I've read quite a bit of Ellison's work & think he's a great writer, truly amazing & talented. The man wrote some great stories off-the-cuff while sitting in a book store window. Is there anything better than that? I'll give credit where it's due, but also have the right to express my disapproval.

I don't approve of his litigious side. I quit buying his books new after one law suit that was completely frivolous, IMO. I don't recall the particulars any more, but it was made quite a splash in the early 80's, I think. I decided that if he was going to beat milk out of every cow he came across, he wasn't going to get my money any more.

Jim wrote: "Bobby wrote: "I'd be careful about calling Harlan Ellison a "leech". ..."

Cameron said it & I said I tended to agree in that case. It's not the first time anyone has said it & it won't be the las..."

Simmer down, slugger. I wasn't saying anybody did or did not have the right to say whatever they want. There's a huge history of writers, musicians, painters and other artists not getting their due or dying broke and hungry soooo...I'm not gonna lie, I tend to err on the side of the author. From my own experience I can tell you that if the artist doesn't look after his own interests no one else will. And like I said, I've heard Harlan's a difficult guy and it doesn't sound like I would want to know him.

But the fact of the matter is, I only really know him, ever need to know him, ever want to know him as reader to author. The only part of him that I'm personally familiar with, is his best self. And in that capacity, he has always come across as one of the most influential and evocative speculative fiction writers who ever lived.

I'm not sure which is more depressing: that a Movie discussion topic is the most active in a Book discussion site, or that nobody has mentioned an animated film yet :)

Amazon US has a deal today on DVDs of Hayao Miyazaki's animated movies. (The studio Ghibli titles distributed in the US by Disney.)

At a minimum, I'd like to recommend his fantasies Nausicaa, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. And then you should also watch everything else he directed, including my personal favorite, Porco Rosso.

On the subject of Japanese animation directors, Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell and Innocence are smart cyberpunk movies (and I personally really enjoy his Polish live-action cyberpunk movie, Avalon, though you absolutely must not watch the US Miramax release, which simply made up all new dialogue for the "dub" and the subtitles (who produces a DVD with subtitles that lie? It's sort of like Woody Allen's "What's up Tiger Lily?", but without the egg salad recipe.)

Satoshi Kon died tragically young, but he left behind Paprika (and several excellent non-scifi films.)

The movie adaptation of the YA The Girl Who Leapt through Time is charming in the quotidian uses a teenage girl finds for a newfound ability to travel back in time.

Voices of a Distant Star is a scifi short.

For little animated action adventure: Appleseed Ex Machina's futuristics cyborgs and Sword of the Stranger's flashing blades (not actually certain the latter qualifies as fantasy; there is this mystical ritual, but...)

(You may have noticed I didn't mention Akira; not impressed.)

I'll start working on my list of non-Japanese animated sci-fi and fantasy (hint: it will not include the animated Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit.)

Then, I'm going to do my favorite SF/F Musicals!

Did you read Sanford's article? It's more in sadness than anger, my feelings on it, too. I really admire his work & detest the litigious part. It demeans him & that's just a shame.

how about Wizards? it was a very good animated movie, did great at the box office for a week...Star Wars was released the very next weekend after Wizards hit and killed it...

another good animated series, saturday morning type, was the Star Trek cartoons, with the cast from the orginal series doing the voices...won several awards and had a wonderful soundtrack