Looking for Science Fiction Recommendations/ Suggestions

[iansales]

Returner, Natural City, Avalon, Casshern, Immortal, Possible Worlds, Galaxy of Terror, Smilla's Sense of Snow, Steamboy, Renaissance, Monarch of the Moon.

 

[j d worthington]

Solyaris (1972)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Metropolis (1927)

Things to Come (1936)

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

This Island Earth (1955)

The Thing from Another World (1951)

and also John Carpenter's remake (though try to get the original theatrical release... the later re-edit has an ending that weakens the impact considerably):

The Thing (1982)

It Came from Outer Space (1953) (though it's best to see this one with the 3-D... nice use of the process; actually used to add to the storytelling)

Planet of the Apes (1968) (though you should skip the sequels)

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

Silent Running (1972)

Westworld (1973)

A Clockwork Orange (1971) (though, if you're chary about nudity, this one may not be for you... darn fine film, though)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Année dernière à Marienbad, L' (1961) (which, with some justice, has been viewed as a strange time-travel sort of piece)

Outward Bound (1930)

Lost Horizon (1937) (look for the reconstructed version)

On Borrowed Time (1939)

Death Takes a Holiday (1934)

The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)

Cat People (1942)

and, for completely different reasons, even though it is a "sequel":

The Curse of the Cat People (1944) (which is just a lovely film)

(these last few are more "fantasy" -- though not what most people think of as fantasy these days -- but are beautiful films well worth seeing)

 

[HardScienceFan]

and STILL no photographing Faeries!
or Le pacte des Loupes

 

[iansales]

Last Year at Marienbad an sf film?! JD, you can't be serious

 

[j d worthington]

Last Year at Marienbad an sf film?! JD, you can't be serious

Oh, but I am. Struck me as odd, too, when I first saw that it had been short-listed for a Hugo back in 1963; but it makes a certain odd kind of sense, when you think about it, as it plays with a lot of the same themes that the New Wave SF did -- time, identity, memory, epistemology, and so on... and it's left ambiguous whether these are conflicting memories, alternate realities, etc., with a hint of each....

 

[iansales]

I suppose if it had been made now, it'd be classified as slipstream... Mind you, if you look at the rest of Hugo nominations for 1963 - film and print - it was definitely the odd one out...

 

[j d worthington]

Oh, that it was...

 

[MsGudBod]

Have you seen all three "blobs"?
I think there was three. I know for fact there was an old, old one in black and white, and then another one in 1980 something with Matt Dillion's brother as the star. And I thought I had seen a trailer a while back for another one.

Thanks to your quest I've seen many new ones from j.d.'s list.
Thanks j.d. (Westworld Rules - pay homage to "Kidd Creole" Yule Brenner)

 

[j d worthington]

LOL. Yes, I've always had a fondness for Westworld, with the mixture of tongue-in-cheek parody, social commentary, and sometimes dark, menacing atmosphere. Yul Brynner did manage to walk that line very well, I think. (Though I feel sorry for the poor stuntman who had to do that flaming android bit... which I recall hearing, several years ago, was all done in one take.....)

EDIT: By the way, I'm only aware of two film versions of The Blob per se, though Larry Hagman(!) did a sequel of sorts to the original in 1972:

Beware! The Blob (1972)

 

[unclejack]

As far as I know there were only two blobs and I've seen both. One was in black and white and I barely remember it, but I remember the remake better which I think came out in the 80s. I've also seen both children of the damned movies which were both great. I think they are equal in quality. (is it children or village? There are two originals, one is village of the damned and one is children of the damned but there is only a remake for one of them starring Christopher Reeves I just don't remember if it is village or children.)

 

[unclejack]

By the way, thanks for all the suggestions. I'm sure that's more than enough to keep me busy for awhile.

 

[unclejack]

Hey, as for the comment on "The Thing From Another World" and there being a remake by John Carpenter...if you're referring to "The Thing", I thought that was an orignal John Carpenter flick, darn good one too. I had no idea that was a remake. Are those two movies the same?

 

[Connavar]

This thread is perfect for me i wanted to see more and older SF movies.


I have seen the asian ones cause im a big fan of asian cinema specially Korea.

I enjoyed Natural City to bits.

 

[Kostmayer]

Dark Star - An early (possibly the first) John Carpenter film.

Low budget Sci-fi spoof. Very silly, but quite poignant in places.

 

[unclejack]

Yeah, I think I'm gonna try and watch that one. I did a search for the trailer but couldn't find it but I saw some of the pics for it and it looks awesome.

 

[unclejack]

I meant Natural City, not Dark Star, although I don't know anything about Dark star. Just clarifyin my response was to the natural city post.

 

[Connavar]

Try it its a good and different SF.


Its better than The Returner who is much more action oriented. Looked alittle inspired by Matrix actionwise you will know if you see the action scenes.

 

[j d worthington]

Answer: Yes, The Thing is a remake of the earlier film... so much so that the opening title in the Carpenter film is an hommage to the Christyan Nyby/Howard Hawks film; the difference being that, by the time Carpenter made his film, they could actually do such a chameleon creature; whereas in the original they had to play it as a humanoid being -- but with very nasty elements. It's actually a rather good suspense film with some nice atmospheric moments, and some good characterization.

And it was Village of the Damned; Children was the sequel, and Village has been filmed at least one other time (possibly two): once by John Carpenter (1995) and once in Mexico, by Miguel Marte (as Pueblo de maltidos; 1993), if this is the same story, which I'm not certain of. I've not seen either of the later film versions. It was based on John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (1957).

 

[unclejack]

I don't know about the one in Mexico but I've seen the John Carpenter version a couple of times and it's really good. It's been awhile since I saw the first one though. I don't know that I've ever seen the original of the thing though. I will say that I liked it, it was one of the best sci fi horror flicks around. And I don't know how the first one ended, but I like the ending in the John Carpenter version. Kinda leaves you in suspense not knowing if either one of them is the the thing or not. Most of the time when that's done in movies it leaves you feelin frustrated but in this one it was pretty cool.

 

[j d worthington]

There are two versions of the John Carpenter film. In the original theatrical release, there's an ending such as you describe. In the other, there's a further bit where there's voice-over and a repeat of some of the opening landscapes, etc. It really weakened the punch of the original ending which, as you say, was left open... were either of them? If so, would this whole thing start all over again... only worse (being out in the world at large)? And, for that matter, the possibility that sharing the bottle spread the contagion... and so on.

For all its over-the-top (at times) effects, it really was a rather good adaptation of the incidents (though not the underlying philosophy) of John Campbell's "Who Goes There?", while the original is a different film, really; good, but quite a different proposition.