Movies for hardcore sci-fi geeks

[TheStatutoryApe]

Ok, I just watched a trailer for you to refresh my memory. I would say it is likely worth it to get the HD version if they were really able to translate it into full quality HD.

 

[stevebd1]

What did people think of Southland Tales?

This was shown on Sky Movies in August last year and watched it as it was simply on the premiere channel, initially not making much time for it as it had received almost universal bad press. At the end of the movie I found myself seriously thinking what had been the critics problems. I went to the IMDB message boards for ST and discovered that the version that had been shown on UK sky premiere had been the Cannes cut, or something that closely resembled it. I have seen the opening to the theatrical version and the exposition (which I think Kelly was pressured to introduce) is almost instantly off putting. Maybe the version shown on UK Sky was the Cannes version with some further editing done, even with personnel taste aside, the version I saw was coherent and I find it hard to believe it would have been beguiled as was the initial showing in Cannes. Maybe the version shown on Sky UK could be classed as a directors cut.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ok, I just watched a trailer for you to refresh my memory. I would say it is likely worth it to get the HD version if they were really able to translate it into full quality HD.

Okay, thanks. I'll give it a few days and see if the Blu-Ray version becomes available.

 

[Mark24]

Tesla as a character = Sci-Fi?

Tesla is also a character in the Sanctuary series. That's bordering on fantasy more than Sci-Fi, though. His character is a vampire with an obsession with electricity.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We thought The Prestige was great! And yes, no doubt it qualifies as sci-fi - a very brief but pivotal few moments in the movie. At first I thought the hats and cats may be a ruse.

Did anyone notice who played Tesla?

Spoiler

David Bowie

I don't think I ever would have guessed.

 

[turbo]

The Lost Room series from SciFi is OK. Apologies if it has been mentioned before.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

We thought The Prestige was great! And yes, no doubt it qualifies as sci-fi - a very brief but pivotal few moments in the movie. At first I thought the hats and cats may be a ruse.

Did anyone notice who played Tesla?

Spoiler

David Bowie

I don't think I ever would have guessed.

I don't think I paid close enough attention to notice. I only remember thinking that he was not quite as I would expect him to be.

Its hard to explain why it is sci fi without giving anything away. I would say that it is a classic sci fi type plot though as opposed to most sci fi movies that are mostly action, special effects, and monsters.

The Lost Room series from SciFi is OK. Apologies if it has been mentioned before.

Ivan and I were talking about it earlier in the thread. Definitely a pretty good mini series so mentioning it more is a good thing.



I started watching Lathe of Heaven but have not been able to get back to it. So far it is pretty good though the special effects are certainly bad lol. I noticed that it was based on a story by Ursula Le Guin. She is a good author from what books of hers I have read

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ivan and I were talking about it earlier in the thread. Definitely a pretty good mini series so mentioning it more is a good thing.

Tsu and I both really enjoyed the Lost Room miniseries. Not good sci-fi but fun. [whoops, meant to quote Turbo]

I started watching Lathe of Heaven but have not been able to get back to it. So far it is pretty good though the special effects are certainly bad lol. I noticed that it was based on a story by Ursula Le Guin. She is a good author from what books of hers I have read

The second half of the movie gets pretty interesting.

Last night we started on the Defying Gravity series. So far it looks pretty good. I esp like the premise of a tour of the solar system. Not sure that makes sense or ever would, but a fun premise. Obviously there is a dark secret not yet revealed.

 

[dilletante]

20 pages and no one has mentioned "The Man Who Fell to Earth" with David Bowie?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

20 pages and no one has mentioned "The Man Who Fell to Earth" with David Bowie?

Good point! Even after mentioning Bowie it didn't occur to me. I haven't seen that since it first came out, in '76. Already queued up at Netflix. I do see piecewise viewing at youtube.

I must admit that after watching three episodes, Defying Gravity is getting interesting. FInally gave up on the Blu-Ray version of Dark City and have the standard def for this weekend. The problem with Netflix is that when a movie is temporarily unavailable, there is no way to get in line. You have to try to time a movie return with availability of the one you want. Am I missing something here, Netflix users? Is there some way to reserve a movie?

 

[joelupchurch]

FInally gave up on the Blu-Ray version of Dark City and have the standard def for this weekend. The problem with Netflix is that when a movie is temporarily unavailable, there is no way to get in line. You have to try to time a movie return with availability of the one you want. Am I missing something here, Netflix users? Is there some way to reserve a movie?

Not as far as I know. I cut down from the three movie plan to two and use the money I save to get a movie from RedBox once in a while. Some RedBox machines are stocking Blu-Ray now.

I'm kind of bummed about the new agreement between Netflix and Warner Bros that means there will be a 28 day delay before new releases show up on Netflix.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100106-710531.html"

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Definitely watch District 9. I have just seen it and I can only recommend.

We started on that last night. Both District 9 and Dark City are too much for Tsu so I will have to finish them a little later. District 9 is funny! I like it. It is also fairly unique in the genre. Tsu didn't last long enough for me to get a good feel for Dark City yet, but I can say that kid is creeeeeepy!

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Tsu didn't last long enough for me to get a good feel for Dark City yet, but I can say that kid is creeeeeepy!

I was wondering about Dark City perhaps being too dark. Does the HD look good? I'm considering buying it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I was wondering about Dark City perhaps being too dark. Does the HD look good? I'm considering buying it.

So far I'm fine with it, but Tsu has limits when it comes to Sci-Fi. It was clear that it was not a Tsu movie and I didn't get to watch enough to get a real feel for it yet.

The subtle and not so subtle comedy of District 9 kept her interest for a time.

I finally gave up on waiting for the Blu-Ray version of Dark City. It is still unavailable.

 

[joelupchurch]

I was wondering about Dark City perhaps being too dark. Does the HD look good? I'm considering buying it.

This review on the Blu-ray version is pretty good.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/263/darkcity.html"

They generally consider it a big upgrade over the DVD version.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Metropolis was one of Hitler's favorite movies

Cinema's Exiles from Hilter to Hollywood
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/cinemasexiles/

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Okay, District 9 gets a lot more serious in the second half. In many ways it is a serious movie from the start, but it has an overlay of tongue-in-cheek humor that worked well for us; somewhat reminiscent of Airplane. I'm not much of one for the CGI gun fights, so I would say there was too much of that, but it was good. What I found interesting was the focus on the human reaction to, and the world of, the prawns. There was a superficial level to the prawn as they were far too human. I don't think any realistic expectations for an insect-like species would lead us to Andy and Opei with scales, but a good bit of effort was made to explore one scenario within the range of expectations, for the human response to an alien presence on earth. As a frame for the story, District 9 explores the question, "How would it look on CNN?" That was fun.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wow... District 9 was nominated for four academy awards - one for best picture! The others are for best editing, best adaptation to a screen play, and best visual effects.
http://www.showbizgossips.com/academy-award-nominations-2010-who-are-the-academy-awards-2010-nominees/5430

 

[DaveC426913]

Wow... District 9 was nominated for four academy awards - one for best picture!

Good. So maybe Best Pic won't simply be handed directly to Avatar.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Btw, I did like Dark City. Tsu didn't care for it so it took me forever to get back to it.

 

[Tsu]

Btw, I did like Dark City. Tsu didn't care for it so it took me forever to get back to it.

It was... dark.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

However, surprise surprise surprise! Tsu likes the tv series, Roswell. I kept telling her that it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I saw that it became available for online viewing at Netflix, so we gave it a try.

One expects it to be really stupid, but it is actually a rather fun series; and not nearly as exotic or stupid as one would think. I think Frakes [commander Riker, from Star Trek TNG], who produced this, did a fantastic job of taking a seemingly absurd plot - teenage aliens living in Roswell - and making something downright respectable.

Granted, it is sci-fi fluff, but still, not bad for fluff.

 

[Integral]

We finally watched Avatar. Yawn! Pretty movie but completely predictable I knew how it was going to go within the first 15min. The kids said it was just a remake of Pocahontas. Perhaps so, but I have not watched that so I can't say for myself.

 

[Janus]

We finally watched Avatar. Yawn! Pretty movie but completely predictable I knew how it was going to go within the first 15min. The kids said it was just a remake of Pocahontas. Perhaps so, but I have not watched that so I can't say for myself.

 

[cronxeh]

Umm.. I don't know if this was posted or not.. but I have seen The Island. It is pure epic awesomeness.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399201/

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Just watched this one. It was pretty good.

Moon
2009 R 97 minutes
As he nears the end of a lonely three-year stint on the moon base Sarang, astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) begins to hear and see strange things. It's not long before Sam suspects that his employer -- the conglomerate LUNAR -- has other plans for him. Featuring Kevin Spacey as the voice of a robot, this sci-fi thriller also stars Matt Berry and Kaya Scodelario. The film was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival.

- Netflix

Available for streaming

Tsu absolutely fell in love with the theme song from Roswell. We've been watching the entire series on Netflix, over the last few weeks. It really is well written. Some shows are heavy on the love drama - esp the first half of the second season - but others are excellent sci-fi. The acting is well above average all the way around; at times it too is excellent. With all of this, the unique concept, the depth of the characters, and the overlay of tongue-in-cheek humor, Roswell is in my top ten list of favorite tv sci-fi shows. My hat is off to Jonathon Frakes. Making a show like this work for a true, hard-sci-fi junky, like me, was quite a feat. It is still hard for me to believe that I really like this show!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlyGApATNGk

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Tsu and I have started watching a made-for-HBO series, called Carnivale. So far it is pretty intriguing. Not hard sci-fi by any stretch, and worse yet, arguably it is fantasy, but it has captured our interest nonetheless. It is highly period driven and the writing has been above average [at a minimum]. The big question is whether the increasingly intertwined subplots will actually play out. We have only watched 6, one-hour episodes, so far.

It only ran for two seasons, so hard to say where it will go. It is also fair to say that, in contrast to the fantasy, Carnivale provides a brutally honest and rare view of life in the 30s. These are the anti-Waltons.

Carnivàle (pronounced /kɑrnɪˈvæl/[1]) is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes Christian theology with gnosticism and Masonic lore, particularly that of the Knights Templar. The show was filmed in Santa Clarita, California, and other Southern Californian locations...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivàle

Speaking of the Waltons, I noticed that a very good episode of the Night Visions series, called "Quiet Please", was written by John-Boy [Earl Hamner]. He really has written some great short stories!

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Canivale is amazing. It is also incredibly dark, I am wondering how well Tsu will fair as things progress.

From what I remember the end of the series mostly ties everything together, unfortunately it is open ended as if in anticipation of a new season.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Canivale is amazing. It is also incredibly dark, I am wondering how well Tsu will fair as things progress.

From what I remember the end of the series mostly ties everything together, unfortunately it is open ended as if in anticipation of a new season.

We only have a few episodes left.

Tsu has really enjoyed it, as have I. It is easly in my top-ten list of tv series.

It does get pretty kinky at times!

Did you ever watch Jericho [not sure if we hit on this already]? It too was excellent.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

It does get pretty kinky at times!

Did you ever watch Jericho [not sure if we hit on this already]? It too was excellent.

The first bad scene that came to my mind was the episode where the daughter in the burlesque show died. The other scene that jumps out now that I think of it was the tar and feathering. Something I saw so many times in slapstick like the Three Stooges that I never really thought of how horrible it really is.

I saw Jericho when looking for shows but have not watched it, I remember that the description gave me the impression that it would be rather cheesy. My friend decided to watch Lost and told me about how crazy it is so I decided to watch that next. I'll have to see about Jericho after that.