Posted on 12/12/2008 3:10:10 AM PST by mattstat
Since we had so much fun with the Military List. Plus, it’s Friday.
1. Star Wars The original 1977 theatrical, error-filled release only. Han did shoot first. The storm troopers did want the blast doors to be closed only to then want them re-opened. Darth did do the wagging finger gesture for no apparent reason after his speech in the war room to Tarkin was over. When I saw the movie when it came out I wanted a light saber so bad it hurt. I was 13. I could still find a use for one.
2. The Thing from Another World Original; the remake is excellent, too, but probably better classified as Horror; see below. If you have never seen this, you are in for a treat. I have seen this movie dozens of times, and each viewing I hear a new line I somehow missed before. This is one of those Rosalind Russell fast talking comedy dramas. It’s hard to keep up. Dr Carrington’s motivations are natural, believable, and consistent throughout. The only, very minor, jarring point is when Scotty faints at the end, when he had been on Okinawa during the end of World War II. Anybody who made it through that would not pass out when seeing a vegetable cook. This movie does not follow the now usual conventions and will surprise you. You also have to keep in mind that this came out at the height of the Great Saucer Scare.
3. The Day the Earth Stood Still. The original!...
(Excerpt) Read more at wmbriggs.com ...
Was staioned at Ft Lewis and flew in a chopper down what was left of the Tulley river, filled with large timber tucks and tracktors thrown around like toys. Went to cougar wa. to look for survivors and inspect damage. Bottom of Heuy was bare metal after ash sand blasted the bottom. Only flight of the day after that.
people, animals, and property are being destroyed by something unknown. The movie audience is as much in the dark about what is doing it as the charachers for the first 30 minutes (It's all played as a big dramatic mystery)
But I won't spoil it and tell you what it was.
If a planet has a breathable atmosphere, but rains hydrofluoric acid, you're darn right I'd pass it up. (Unless, of course, I can cheaply harvest naturally occurring Uranium Hexafluoride...)
And, if I'm wearing the sort of armor our troops (or riot cops) regularly wear, I'm a heck of a lot less vulnerable to bats and knives that most people. And I'd sure as heck have a better weapon than a short-range nerve-gas projector. The aliens were apparently too stupid to equip themselves properly.
What I never figured out is, if Mel Gibson suspected something nasty was in the cornfield, why not start up the combine, get Bubba and Billy-Bob to fetch their shotguns or deer rifles (and why the heck didn't Mel have a gun in his rural home?) and ask ‘em to ride shotgun, then start harvesting the corn? Great comedy scene: the alien declares “Resistance is ERRRRRK” as he's dragged into the combine...
Of course, anybody actually worried about the aliens or the other "sci-fi" parts of 'Signs' is missing the point of the whole darn movie anyway... (Yes, that includes me!)
He’s right about Blade Runner. And he’s right that the theatrical version with the voice-over is superior. The “director’s cut” is fine once you’ve seen the theatrical one and know what’s going on, but the extra scenes don’t add much. Rutger Hauer is absolutely terrific as the creepy, Milton-quoting superhuman.
I think of ET more as a fantasy than sci-fi. But, you’re absolutely right, ET is a truly awful and mindless movie!
I think this is the “best Sci-Fi movies before 1990”... Jeez.
I realized it after I hit the post button. Sorry. I will post no more forever ... At least until after my second cup.
Let's see -- Close Encounters of the Third Kind was his "Old testament," with a revelation from a desert mountain -- "Devil's Mountain," naturally. ET was his "New testament" movie, complete with sodomite subliminals and overt references. I don't want my girls asking me what the innocent young lad meant when he called his brother "penis breath."
Star Trek I, The Phantom Menace, gave us a virgin-born prince of darkness, and was so unrelentingly stupid that I've not even bothered with II or III.
The Thing From Another World was The Thing (1951)
Any list like this that doesn’t include Serenity and includes Snake Pliskin isn’t much of a list...
As far as I know the original "body snatcher" movie (1953 vs. 1956 for Invasion of...).
OMG! I saw this one at the theater in 1958, when it was released, in Houston, Texas. I was just a kid and when I was going home, I kept looking over my shoulder for that 50 ft woman. I was sure she was just around the corner, somewhere... LOL...
ET should be up there somewhere. Also, Total Recall, which is a far better representation of PKD’s work than Blade Runner, although I still think Blade Runner is a better flick.
And I’ve always thought “The Fly” remake was brilliant, far better than the original (I have both)
Maybe the aliens were engaging in "counting coup?" Rather than equipping themselves with the most advanced weaponry at their disposal, maybe the whole thing was some sort of ritualistic exercise, meant to show how tough they are. Perhaps that's how they get mates- all of the males go down, unarmed, to a planet full of hostile sentients and the ones who come back alive with trophy humans get the girls?
The remake of "The Thing" could also bump some movies from this list.
I used to go camping up there, where Harry Truman had his lodge and went up the mountain to the turn-around point, many times. I drove town the Toutle River Highway, all the way to Mt. St. Helens, which you can no longer do, close to the mountain. The highway now takes a high route, above the river. But, there are places, along the original highway where you can still see buried houses and stuff like that
It sure changed things around there...
Sounds like they’re gonna devolve. All the “good” males(?) are gonna be dead...
But, as I said previously, if you’re worried about the SF in ‘Signs’ you’re missing the point of the movie. No big deal - it was mostly wasted on me, too.
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