Movies for hardcore sci-fi geeks

[Ivan Seeking]

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.

Hmmmm, the tar and feather scene must be near the very end of the series. We haven't seen that yet.

As for strange and kinky, Brother Justin and his sister are quite the pair. But the entire series is loaded with slightly disturbing sexual tension.

I thought it was funny that Ralph Waite showed up just after I started calling it the anti-Waltons.

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.

Like Carnivale, Jericho only lasted two seasons, but what they did was very good. They do make some mistakes, esp wrt technical issues, and there are a few scenes that are pretty silly, but, imo, they more than make up for it generally. Also, the series does have a conclusion, which is nice.

 

[Dr Lots-o'watts]

From the Earth to the Moon. Silent, 10 min, and maybe the first ever.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Hmmmm, the tar and feather scene must be near the very end of the series. We haven't seen that yet.

Its been a while now so I do not really remember all that clearly. I tried to be oblique enough to not ruin it for any one, I hope I have not ruined anything for you.

As for strange and kinky, Brother Justin and his sister are quite the pair. But the entire series is loaded with slightly disturbing sexual tension.

Yes, they were certainly unusual. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop on that one. In general, yes, I think it was one of the things I liked most about the series was that it held nothing back. "Gritty", "suggestive", "raw", ect only begin to describe it. For all of the surreal and fantasy elements it painted an undiluted version of life for "carnies" in that time period. Its just short of that purely shock value drama that you expect from HBO. And Nip Tuck goes on.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Its been a while now so I do not really remember all that clearly. I tried to be oblique enough to not ruin it for any one, I hope I have not ruined anything for you.

We saw that one this evening. I never saw it coming; well, not until the last minute.

Yes, I never stopped to think that it was hot tar that they used!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We watched the last episode of Canivale.

Clearly they left this wide open; with new management, and a lot of dead corn.

I will reference once again my all-time favourite: 'Charly'. The only SF movie in history to garner a best actor Oscar (for Cliff Robertson).

I was finally able to get it. We should have it today. Turns out that Tsu read the book on which the movie was based - Flowers for Algernon [1958].

 

[Galteeth]

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.

IMO, a lot of those series like Roswell always seemed to me like poor Buffy imitators.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

IMO, a lot of those series like Roswell always seemed to me like poor Buffy imitators.

Haha, Buffy was way too much for me. But I have to admit that it is probably in the same class <hangs head low in shame].

Charly was good. It tends to drag a bit, but the story is good.

The futuristic surgery involved sounds a lot like [a 1968 version of] stem cell treatment. Stem cells were first identified in the modern context in 1963, five years after the original book was authored - Flowers for Algernon. I wonder if the movie stole a bit from the then recent discovery.

Canadians Jim Till and Ernest McCulloch first published evidence of the existence of stem cells in the scientific journal Nature in 1963...

http://archives.cbc.ca/health/medical_research/clips/17182/

 

[Galteeth]

Haha, Buffy was way too much for me. But I have to admit that it is probably in the same class <hangs head low in shame].

Charly was good. It tends to drag a bit, but the story is good.

The futuristic surgery involved sounds a lot like [a 1968 version of] stem cell treatment. Stem cells were first identified in the modern context in 1963, five years after the original book was authored - Flowers for Algernon. I wonder if the movie stole a bit from the then recent discovery.http://archives.cbc.ca/health/medical_research/clips/17182/

I would recommend Buffy. if you can get over the fact that the early seasons, especially season one, are clearly aimed at teenagers, it's a good show.

Edit: To be fair, I was 13 when it first came on, but I enjoyed it just as much at 21 when I re-watched the series on DVD with my girlfriend.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We just finished watching a short series called Invasion, which was created and produced by Shaun Cassidy [brother of David Cassidy].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_(TV_series )

Not great, but not bad. It had a good number of bad moments, in fact, I'd say about 20% of the show was rather poorly executed, but there were enough creative ideas and intrigue to keep our attention - a respectable effort. Unfortunately, there are only 22 episodes with no conclusion to the story. Many questions remain unanswered. The core of the plot - the truth about the hybrids - was taking an interesting turn as the series ended. It's too bad they didn't get a chance to run with that for a time.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I don't recall who mentioned this one, but I also watched Donnie Darko and really liked it! What a strange movie - a big thumbs up for that one!

Writer-director Richard Kelly's trippy, mind-bending feature debut stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a troubled Midwestern teenager plagued by incessant sleepwalking, family drama and visions of a menacing 6-foot-tall, doomsday-prophesizing rabbit. Drew Barrymore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Jena Malone, Patrick Swayze and Noah Wyle also star in this dark and intriguing psychological fantasy that swiftly earned a cult following.

Netflix instant viewing

Drew Barrymore was also one of the producers.

 

[cronxeh]

Watching Outlander. Awesome movie

 

[The Geoff]

Another series rather than a movie, and another one from Joss "Firefly, Buffy" Whedon: Dollhouse.

Proper classic science fiction where you bring in a single groundbreaking technology (in this case, the ability to treat the human brain as a re-writeable drive) and run with it. It looks at aspects of the technology, ethical questions, commercial applications, sociological effects and military applications, a real tour-de-force. It's also wickedly funny sometimes, some really good, clever writing. The alpha-geek, Topher Brink, is one of my favourite characters ever.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Another series rather than a movie, and another one from Joss "Firefly, Buffy" Whedon: Dollhouse.

Proper classic science fiction where you bring in a single groundbreaking technology (in this case, the ability to treat the human brain as a re-writeable drive) and run with it. It looks at aspects of the technology, ethical questions, commercial applications, sociological effects and military applications, a real tour-de-force. It's also wickedly funny sometimes, some really good, clever writing. The alpha-geek, Topher Brink, is one of my favourite characters ever.

Thanks, I just added it to my instant-viewing queue, at Netflix.

With a sales pitch like that, I couldn't possibly ignore it!

 

[joelupchurch]

Warning about Dollhouse. The season two story lines are much more interesting as they start to peal back the layers at Rossum Corp. I spent a lot of season one thinking that this is a ridiculous amount of money and technology to provide rich guys with a "girlfriend experience".

 

[Gaius Baltar]

No series better than Battlestar Galactica.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

How would you act if you knew your entire life was being recorded through your own eyes, and your surviving friends and family could watch it after you die?

We haven't been doing much movie-watching lately, but the other night we watched The Final Cut, with Robin Williams. Excellent! A fascinating premise, Williams plays a "cutter" who edits the digitally-stored memories of a lifetime, of the deceased. Memories are stored by a chip implanted before birth. The "selected" story of the person's life is then played at the "Rememory" of that person, for family and friends. This plays against a backdrop of protests and challenges to the ethics and morality, and the effect on humanity, of recording entire lives. No secrets are possible. The cutter sees all. But his job is to present a pseudoreality for those who wish to forget the truth.

Also, I noticed that The Man from Earth [one of my top picks] can now be streamed from Netflix. Until recently it was only available on DVD.

 

[ThomasT]

The thread seems to be mostly about limited release or presumably not well known, or at least not blockbuster, scifi. But I don't recall the OP making any restrictions. I'm a hardcore hard scifi 'realistic' in your face cgi geek. My ideal scifi movie would be hard scifi heavy on cgi with no romantic or moralistic subplot(s) and no extraneous drama. The following, not yet mentioned, movies all fall short for one or more reasons, but were nevertheless interesting/enjoyable for other reasons.

Aeon Flux
Terminator Salvation
Tron Legacy
Pandorum
Splice
Predators
GI Joe The Rise of Cobra
Alien Resurrection
Alien vs Predator
Alien vs Predator Requiem
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
Skyline

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I'll generally agree with all those except GI Joes. That was an awful awful movie. Skyline was pretty bad too.

 

[ThomasT]

I'll generally agree with all those except GI Joes. That was an awful awful movie. Skyline was pretty bad too.

I didn't like any of them unequivocally. My take is also that Skyline was the worst of the bunch. Disappointing because it could have been really cool with a big budget.

GI Joe was sort of comicy, but still the cgi stuff was cool.

My ideal hard scifi movie would be something like two hours of stategy and tactics a la 'Mech Warriors' encountering an alien civilization on some far away planet 1000 years from now. No drama, just wall to wall fantastic cgi realizations of the starships, the landing ships, the weapons, the aliens and their terrain, infrastructure and weapons. Discussions, detailed presentations of the hardware, the living quarters on the ships, that sort of thing.

Or perhaps the aliens come here. And we knew about it hundreds of years in advance, and have developed fantastic weapons and built extensive infrastructures to deal with the impending invasion.

I'm looking forward to Battle LA and Cowboys & Aliens.

 

[ThomasT]

Just watched The Man From Earth. What a cool movie! But not the sort of hard scifi that us hard scifi geeks like the best. Nevertheless, a great script delivered wonderfully. I was engaged from start to finish.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Just watched The Man From Earth. What a cool movie! But not the sort of hard scifi that us hard scifi geeks like the best. Nevertheless, a great script delivered wonderfully. I was engaged from start to finish.

Glad to hear it! I love that movie!

To me, the definitive hard sci-movie is the one that motivated this thread - Primer. Do you agree? If you haven't seen it, consider it a life priority.

IMO, hard sci-fi remains true to science to the greatest extent possible based on the premise. Whether the setting is technical or not is irrelevant. In The Man from Earth, Jerome Bixby endeavored to tell the story in a way that honors logic and science. Clearly the premise was sci-fi, so for me it definitely qualifies as hard sci-fi.

He [Bixby] wrote that story on his death bed but didn't live long enough to finish it. His son completed the novel. If you Google Bixby, you will probably find other work of his that you recognize and liked.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Splice

The DVD was already on its way from Netflix.

I failed to mention that I'm CGI'd out. I specifically look for great movies with minimal special effects. However, there are exceptions. For example, I thought Sunshine was absolutely stunning.

 

[Borek]

IMO, hard sci-fi remains true to science to the greatest extent possible based on the premise

tell the story in a way that honors logic and science

That rules Splice out. I couldn't stand it.

 

[ThomasT]

Glad to hear it! I love that movie!

To me, the definitive hard sci-movie is the one that motivated this thread - Primer. Do you agree? If you haven't seen it, consider it a life priority.

Ok, I've been holding off on this one because it's not big budget cgi. But since I really like The Man From Earth I'll see it.

IMO, hard sci-fi remains true to science to the greatest extent possible based on the premise. Whether the setting is technical or not is irrelevant.

Well, for me the technical cgi stuff is what I find most entertaining. I don't really care about plots or drama or stories or dialogue. I want to be dazzled by really well done, realistic, cgi stuff. On the other hand, I watched The Man From Earth and really liked it. Wonderful dialogue and acting. Really well done. But I wouldn't call it scifi in the sense that I normally think of scifi. Ok, there's the premise. So, I guess that, strictly speaking, it's scifi. Anyway, you get where I'm coming from, or at, or whatever.

In The Man from Earth, Jerome Bixby endeavored to tell the story in a way that honors logic and science. Clearly the premise was sci-fi, so for me it definitely qualifies as hard sci-fi.

Hard scifi entails, imo, the inclusion of scifi hardware. The Man from Earth is, imo, soft scifi. Not my favorite -- however, as I've said, wrt this particular movie, well, I really liked it. Hey, I liked Moon and Solaris a lot also, which I would consider essentially soft scifi.

But I want Mech Warriors destroying stuff. Vast Earth infrastructures and futuristic weapons defending against alien invaders. Or Earth invading another planet. No story, no plot (individuals and personalities are irrelevant in such a context) just two hours of mindless cgi destruction -- with detailed depictions of both the alien and the Earth defenses, weapons, living conditions, strategies and tactics, etc.

He [Bixby] wrote that story on his death bed but didn't live long enough to finish it. His son completed the novel. If you Google Bixby, you will probably find other work of his that you recognize and liked.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

[ThomasT]

That rules Splice out. I couldn't stand it.

Why?

 

[Borek]

Why?

No logic and no science, plus a combination of all possible cliches. After about 30 minutes script becomes so predictable watching it doesn't make sense.

 

[ThomasT]

No logic and no science, plus a combination of all possible cliches. After about 30 minutes script becomes so predictable watching it doesn't make sense.

The problem is that you're too knowledgeable. For somebody like me, ignorant about biological research, it was possible to make the required 'suspension of disbelief'. Still, I didn't really like it all that much. It was a bit unsettling. But being a diehard scifi fan I welcome any and all contributions to the genre. But the cgi was very good I thought. And that alone usually overshadows any other shortcomings as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ok, I've been holding off on this one because it's not big budget cgi. But since I really like The Man From Earth I'll see it.

Not big budget is right! The budget was $7000.

Note that the entire movie drags. The first twenty minutes or so are almost intolerable, but from there, good luck keeping up with the plot!

Well, for me the technical cgi stuff is what I find most entertaining. I don't really care about plots or drama or stories or dialogue. I want to be dazzled by really well done, realistic, cgi stuff.

Ah, you mean hardware sci-fi. I can appreciate your perspective. There was a time when I loved special effects for their own sake; beginning with the opening scene of Star Wars, in 1977, which completely blew us all out of our seats! Now, I look for stories with a smart or particularly interesting premise, inspired writing, good acting, good science and logic, and perhaps above all, new and creative ideas.

 

[turbo]

Primer is a tangled puzzle through and through. Repeated watchings don't necessarily help, either.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Primer is a tangled puzzle through and through. Repeated watchings don't necessarily help, either.

After multiple viewings, I figured everything out, more or less, except the guy dying in the driveway. I finally gave up and went to a Primer website for the answer on that one.