Science Fiction Movies

[snake river rufus]

Well then I'm ashamed of him. That DVD went into the 'closet of doom' after one viewing. It resides there with some real stinkers like 'willie wonka' which I could not sit through.

[Ottawan]

Rufus,

I would be interested to know what other science fiction has gone into your "closet of doom"

And a quick personal question; have you tired yet of Bob Haller?

[snake river rufus]

Bob is a little ,,,, uh redundent but no, not yet
Event horizon,and one that I cannot remember the name of. I started watching it several years ago when the twins were about 4. Something about teenagers who looked human and were looking for a planet suitable for their giant space lobster. Their rayguns melted the flesh off of whatever they were shooting and the first thing was a dog. My daughter was so upset.
edited for typo/srr

[Ottawan]

I take it you are referring to the 1959 classic Teenagers from Outer Space

[snake river rufus]

That's the one. I didn't care for alien 1 and 3 but they will stay on the video rack just to keep the set together. Mostly the things in there are what my oldest daughter bought because "they will be good for you to watch". Since they are gifts, I can't sell them,,,, but I'm never going to watch "three men and a baby" or some other chi- excuse me, female oriented film
edited for typo,again/srr

[Ottawan]

Has anyone here ever watched the Brit B&W film, "The Day the Earth Caught Fire"? It's one of my favourites and I was wondering if any one else either enjoyed it or hated it?

[jdbenner]

I can name a lot of movies that were pretty bad in the last ten years. The worst is when they adapt it from a good book and butcher the hell out of it. Let me think of some bad ones:

1. Jurassic Park 2, by far the worst movie ever made! It was so bad, I walked out of the theatre in the first 20 minutes (minus the previews).

2. Mortal Kombat 2, I came out of that theatre wondering what the hell was that?

3. Contact, Pretty bad adaptation of Carl Sagan's book. The movie was toooo long, Jodi Foster is a terrible actor and did I mention that the movie was tooo long!

4. Aliens the fourth movie, forgot the full title, that was bad too.

5. Sphere- that was a waste of time

6. Event Horizon, a bag of burning dog crap has a better plot than that movie.

7. The Batman and Robin movie, the one with Arnold, even though it was not scifi, it was pretty bad and every seat at the theatre should of had a barf bag for that movie. I thought it was worth mentioning.

8. Wild Wild West, I was wondering when they were gonna hang Jim West in the post-Civil War South.

9. MIB2, that was bad and a little too late to capitalize on the first movie. Robot Jox was a better movie than this.

10. Star Wars Episode 1, I liked the pod racing scene but Jar-Jar Binks must die. He wrecked the whole movie in my opinion.

11. Hitch Hiker's guide to the galaxy, even though I read 4 out of the six books of the series, I am positive Douglas Adams is spinning in his grave at 12,000rpm. THey jump all over the first books and the comedy stinks. Whenever Hollywood touches something that is good, it becomes crap!


See you at the movies!

SM

The biology in Alien was Lamarckism rather than Darwinism, like in most science fiction.

[Ottawan]

Excuse me JD, but what is "Lamarckism"?

Never mind. I googled.

You're right

[jdbenner]

Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) proposed that animals could move up the ladder of nature by exercising the primal, creative force, besoin (need).  Creatures that achieved a goal in there lifetimes, such as a giraffe stretching its neck to reach leaves, could pass on to its offspring that acquired traits, such as a longer neck.
The concept is the same as children of self made millionaires becoming rich threw inheritance.

[spacecat27]

Interesting how movies you see as a kid can be a big influence on you- then you see them years later as an adult and they're so.... hokey!  For me two come to mind-

The original film, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA- with Walter Pidgeon as Admiral Nelson- was MUCH better than the silly TV series it spawned (clean it up, Kowalski)... but still kind of disappointing to see now. 

AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA was another that seemed so great back in high school; and is just plain laughable now, with everybody smoking in the submarine and Shirley Eaton wearing high heels on deck....  BTW, that old sub has been sitting in the parking lot of a water-theme park in Ft. Lauderdale for about 25 years now- painted all kinds of pink, blue & yellow garrish colors.

[all this got me thinking.... I'm an old man now and in my entire life I've only met one (rather lackluster, I'm afraid) family named NELSON.  Sixties TV was crawling with Nelsons!  Ozzie & Harriet had their brood- SEA HUNT had Mike Nelson- VOYAGE.. had Admiral Nelson, I DREAM OF JEANNIE had Capt. Tony Nelson.... and there must have been 4 or 5 others...    What's the deal?]

[Johno]

I just have to throw something else in here on the topic of bad movies.

My wife bought me a discount copy of the movie "Dune" for my birthday (as a cover for a surprise present clubbed in with others, but that's another story).  I started watching it last night.  I like the book (although it is a little dull and slow moving in places), so I assumed that even if the movie was old, it should be enjoyable.

It was the version edited by Alan Smithee, the one which David Lynch was cut out of.

I had heard what a wonderful movie this was, usually from people who were dissing Star Wars.  To say that I was disappointed with it would have to be the understatement of the year.  The acting is poor, the characters are wooden and 2 dimensional (especially when compared with the excellent characterisation in the novel) and a lot of the effect are . . hokey:).  Added to all that, the cut is disastrous (but I guess that can be overlooked, since this is a controversial version of the film).

Am I the only one who feels this movie to be a letdown?

[Bob B.]

Are you talking about the movie starring Kyle MacLachlan?  If so, I thought it extremely boring.  I watched it years ago back when I had HBO.  I fell asleep the first time I tried watching it, which is never a good endorsement for a movie.  I thought I'd give it a second try and fell asleep again.  Hoping that I dosed off before the movie got to the "good" part, I decided to try a third time.  I finally managed to stay awake to the end.  Unfortunately the good part never came. 

[LunarOrbit]

It took me a couple of tries to get all the way through Bladerunner too. I haven't seen the original Dune movie but I saw the mini-series last week for the first time. It was a little boring at first but got better once I figured out what was going on.

[Ottawan]

The mini-series was a damn sight better than the movie. I was a big fan of the books and looking forward to the movies release. I agree with Johno. A letdown.

[snake river rufus]

'DUNE was a pretty bad movie for sure. In any version.
I always thought all the Nelsons was some type homage/bribe to remind viewers of that day to fill in their watching habit notebook for the nelson ratings