gully_foyle
Here kitty kitty kitty!
I have a book which I received quite a few xmases ago called "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", which gives brief critical review of some of the best or most interesting movies of the past century. My recent acquisition of a digital tuner/recorder and new digital tv channels in Australia means quite a few classic and not so classic movies are getting a re-run, like WestWorld, Farehheit 451, Slaughterhouse 5, etc. So, I thought this thread might be a good one. Sort of the movie version of SFF for the Unenlightened.
Basically name any number of SFF movies that you think are worth watching, for whatever reason, but state your reason as a mini critique. And it would probably work best when the movie is fresh in your mind, rather than reviewing something you haven't seen for 20 odd years.
It's not a top 5 list, it would be more interesting to see what gems are out there, but do feel free to write up the blockbusters too.
I'll start the ball rolling (how I wish I had seen Rollerball recently):
Westworld - This is a great 70's film written and directed by the late Michael Crichton. The late 60's and early 70's were big on cautionary tales about technology (2001, Demon Seed, Collosus, etc), but this one had a distinct creepy edge to it with Yul Brynner out terminating Arnie as the Gunslinger Robot out to get the hapless Richard Benjamin. The tension is very real. I also like that James Brolin (or Mr Streisand) made a veiled reference back to this movie in Capricorn One. I think there was a sequel called Futureworld that must have bombed. And I believe there is a remake on the cards. Why do they insist on screwing with the classics?
Fahrenheit 451 - Saw this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I loved the stylings of director Francois Truffaut, particularly the firemen whose role now is to burn rather than extinguish. I have not read Bradbury's book (shame on me), but the story of repression of the population through repression of its literature is still relevant given our penchant for dumbing everything down and wanting to censor everything (I hope everyone is following what is going on in Australia WRT internet censorship, we are now officially in our own nanny state). Naturally it has a lot to say about TV as well, and I was particularly impressed with the wide screen LCD or Plasma panel that Montag had in his house. We have discussed this elsewhere, but my book to memorise would be The Odyssey.
Galaxy Quest - Did I say anything about the movies having to have style and substance? No. In fact I found this movie to have quite a bit of substance, because it was a parody on the Star Trek genre without being a send up, almost a loving homage. Tim Allen was near perfect as Jason Nesmith, a quasi Shatner whose enormous ego has isolated him from his friends and fans, until he gets the call from the Thermians, who don't quite understand that the Galaxy Quest TV show was not real. From there it moves into familiar Star Trek territory with the quintessential bad alien, broken warp drives, furious space battles, etc. In fact I suspect Eric Bana's character of Nero in the latest Star Trek outing was based on Sarris. However it is done with an one eye on the detail on one eye on the fun factor. Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco was fantastic: "Ducts? Why is it always ducts?"
Looking forward to your posts.
Basically name any number of SFF movies that you think are worth watching, for whatever reason, but state your reason as a mini critique. And it would probably work best when the movie is fresh in your mind, rather than reviewing something you haven't seen for 20 odd years.
It's not a top 5 list, it would be more interesting to see what gems are out there, but do feel free to write up the blockbusters too.
I'll start the ball rolling (how I wish I had seen Rollerball recently):
Westworld - This is a great 70's film written and directed by the late Michael Crichton. The late 60's and early 70's were big on cautionary tales about technology (2001, Demon Seed, Collosus, etc), but this one had a distinct creepy edge to it with Yul Brynner out terminating Arnie as the Gunslinger Robot out to get the hapless Richard Benjamin. The tension is very real. I also like that James Brolin (or Mr Streisand) made a veiled reference back to this movie in Capricorn One. I think there was a sequel called Futureworld that must have bombed. And I believe there is a remake on the cards. Why do they insist on screwing with the classics?
Fahrenheit 451 - Saw this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I loved the stylings of director Francois Truffaut, particularly the firemen whose role now is to burn rather than extinguish. I have not read Bradbury's book (shame on me), but the story of repression of the population through repression of its literature is still relevant given our penchant for dumbing everything down and wanting to censor everything (I hope everyone is following what is going on in Australia WRT internet censorship, we are now officially in our own nanny state). Naturally it has a lot to say about TV as well, and I was particularly impressed with the wide screen LCD or Plasma panel that Montag had in his house. We have discussed this elsewhere, but my book to memorise would be The Odyssey.
Galaxy Quest - Did I say anything about the movies having to have style and substance? No. In fact I found this movie to have quite a bit of substance, because it was a parody on the Star Trek genre without being a send up, almost a loving homage. Tim Allen was near perfect as Jason Nesmith, a quasi Shatner whose enormous ego has isolated him from his friends and fans, until he gets the call from the Thermians, who don't quite understand that the Galaxy Quest TV show was not real. From there it moves into familiar Star Trek territory with the quintessential bad alien, broken warp drives, furious space battles, etc. In fact I suspect Eric Bana's character of Nero in the latest Star Trek outing was based on Sarris. However it is done with an one eye on the detail on one eye on the fun factor. Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DeMarco was fantastic: "Ducts? Why is it always ducts?"
Looking forward to your posts.
