Movies for hardcore sci-fi geeks

Huckleberry

I can be a bit hard to read sometimes, but I do find the introduction endearing. Love at first sight isn't anything I remember personally, but I'm glad it's out there somewhere. It is priceless, and I get a little kick of humor out of it as well.

For future reference, in case you're wondering, a good indicator of whether I'm being serious or cynical is the nature of the material I'm commenting on. If I'm cynical about love I must be really low.

EDIT - Ivan, were you aware that at least some of that footage has been found?
http://www.reuters.com/article/enter...ertainmentNews


Another man's wife or his own? I can think of a few times that might be a good thing. Probably not at Thanksgiving dinner though.

You can download Cherry2000 for free with bittorrent. You can also order it from Amazon.com for $10US new and about $6US used + shipping and handling. If you call up your local video store and request it they might be able to accomodate you in some way.

Summer Glau is a crazy, little sweetheart. Unfortunately, I think Sarah Connor Chronicles has seen its last season.

Ivan Seeking

Wow! That is fantastic. Also, an interesting excerpt from your link:

Danger

No, it's pretty standard among SF fans. It's really quite insulting, equivalent to using the 'N' word for African North Americans or the 'S' word for those of Latin background. It very seriously offends us, when applied to real SF. The aforementioned crap movies deserve the moniker; true SF does not.

Huckleberry

Does SF mean science oriented fantasy? I guess I've always realized there is a difference between movies like 'Killer Clowns from Outer Space' and 'Aliens', but I never thought to seperate them into individual genres. I've always thought of fantasy movies to be something like 'Krull' or 'Conan the Barbarian'.

So let's see if I got the classifications right.
Sci-fi = 'Toxic Avengers', 'Monster A-Go-Go' or 'The Blob'
SF = 'Back to the Future', 'Donnie Darko' or 'The Lathe of Heaven'
Science comedy = 'Mars Attacks', 'Coneheads' or 'Idiocracy'

Is there a horror genre? Can one movie fit into more than one genre? This could be a fun game all by itself; guessing which genre a movie fits into.

Danger

One of the things that draws me to you as a friend, Huck, is that you challenge me on an intellectual level that few others can achieve.
You have the categories a bit off. 'Back to the Future' is in the same classification as MIB; science-oriented comedy. I have the book 'Lathe of Heaven', but haven't read it in over 25 years, so I can't comment upon it. Never saw the movie, or even knew that one was made. Straight SF are things like 2001, Charly, the book version of 'Altered States' by Paddy Cheyevsky (sp?) who had his name removed from the film version. Most of Star Trek was true SF, given that they had to make most species humanoid in order for human actors to portray them. (I always found it amazing that the universal translator not only changed alien speech to English, but also holographically altered the speaker's lip movements so that deaf people could understand them. ) As much as I detest Greenpeace, ST IV—The Voyage Home was my favourite Trek movie. I'm not sure if that's because of Scottie talking into the computer mouse or because of Catherine Hicks in a wet shirt. (Oh, who am I trying to kid...)
Horror/terror/psycho are a bit different, in that they are meant to scare the audience. In that regard, Alien qualifies as both horror and SF (the science was fairly accurate). There's a lot of overlap.
The main point is that true SF deals primarily with the human (or alien) condition in a setting that is scientifically plausible but beyond current technology. That's one of the coolest things about 'Charly'. It was total fiction when it was written ('Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes) and when it was filmed. The core technology that made it SF now exists.
Another thing that just fries my 'nads is the turn-around on movie rights. Phillip K. Dick wrote a pretty cool story called 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale'. 30 or 40 years later, they decided to make it into a movie called 'Total Recall'. Once the movie hit it big, they novelized the screenplay into a book called 'Total Recall'. Same damned thing with 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', which was filmed as 'Bladerunner', and then novelized as 'Bladerunner'.
I actually have more to say about the subject, but I'm staying over at W's place tonight. She's downstairs wearing not very much, and I'm up here conversing with you. My body took a vote, and the gonads won over the cerebral cortex by a significant majority.
I'll get back to you tomorrow.

Huckleberry

Haha! I should have read the end of your post first. What are you wasting your time with me for? Yup, that's me; always frustrating my friends on any level I can. Glad to be of service.

'Lathe of Heaven' is about George Orr (a Portlander) who is just an average guy who's only notable quality is his lack of personality. He discovers that his dreams change reality and this frightens him, so he decides not to sleep. He goes to see a psychiatrist who starts manipulating his dreams to his own advantage. I haven't seen the movie myself.

I also haven't seen 'Charly'. Looks like I'll have to add that to my list so I know what you're talking about.

Ok, I can already see I'm going to have a bit of a problem with the classifications. With advanced enough technology I might consider anything plausible. Something like time travel or faster than light velocity I would consider plausible with some hokey exposition. Something like 'A Boy and His Dog' with psychic dogs, or 'Lathe of Heaven' with reality changing dreams I didn't even stop to consider the plausibility even though there is no technology involved. I only consider the plausability within needs of the story itself. So... I'm guessing both of those movies would go into the sci-fi category because they aren't plausible outside the story, but just about anything with technology would go into the SF category.

And then again with the second part of the qualification, I see issues of the human condition in everything. Meaning can be applied to any event or sequence of events in layers upon layers. Characters exist in in settings, and the whole thing spins together on every axis in a plot that is unpredictable enough to provide an epiphany to the viewer, but not so unpredictable that the pattern becomes unfathomable in retrospect. All that is required for me to see an issue of the human condition in a story is that it provides that epiphany of meaning. Like that scene from 'American Beauty' where that videophile kid films a plastic bag floating on the breeze like a weird, purple jellyfish. Depending on the observer it could evoke a response of loneliness, or freedom, or purposelessness, or adventure or just about anything.

Now that I think about it, a plastic bag floating around says more to me about the human condition than say, 'Transformers 2'. So while that movie has robots and technology it doesn't appeal to the human condition and could safely be placed in the sci-fi category? What about something like 'Iron Giant' made into a live action film, or if Godzilla were a giant robot gone haywire?

Eh, I think I get the point I guess, though it's still a bit rough around the edges. There always seems to be something that defies being readily categorized. I don't like categorizing things specifically. It feels cumbersome. I can only imagine the arguments that shelf stockers at Blockbusters must suffer through.

Nobody has mentioned 'Contact' yet. That was a brilliant movie.

TheStatutoryApe

Done!


;-)

Huckleberry

Oh cool! I've never seen this guy. Not a fan of the movies so I probably still won't see him, but it will be at the top of my list of movies I would watch but never intend to see.

Borek

Mechagodzilla if memory serves me well.

Kronos5253

Yup lol Was a pretty good one

Borek

Danger, please contact me privately - I can't reach you through the PM and your forum mailbox is full.

DaveC426913

Short Circuit was popular and pretty good but not sci-fi.
I really enjoyed Explorers and Enemy Mine.
Gattaca was more serious science fiction.

Borek

Speaking of Godzilla...

Borek

Interesting world, but I wasn't convinced by the plot. About 6 out of 10

Ivan Seeking

I'm sorry, but you can't link to Godzilla and be a sci-fi critic on the same day.

Borek

In my time zone I wasn't

Borek

Has anyone mentioned Outland?