Open Discussion:
Total Recall opened this weekend, and sic-fi fans are excited about another look at the Phillip K Dick story We Can Remember it For You Wholesale. The original Total Recall staring Arnold Schwarzenegger counts as a favorite action/sci-fi thriller for a lot of people. Others have called the movie a total screw-up of the original source material, and hope the new version of the film will harken back to the Phillip K Dick story more closely.
Can the new Total Recall touch the 1990s awesomeness of the Arnold version? Or is there a lot there to improve upon?
What’s your favorite Sci-Fi movie in history?
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My favorites:
The Matrix (1999)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
The Fly (1986)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
District 9 (2009)
Inception (2010)
2001 A Space Odyssey
Galaxy Quest LOL
Children of Men.
Gattaca! Or yes, Children of Men – dystopian futures FTW, if you see what I mean.
My favorite was the Matrix. Now, it is Inception.
I loved Inception, too.
It was oddly marketed as a romance, but it truly was sci-fi.
The score really made it amazing, one of the best movie scores. (Inception)
Of the Star Treks, I liked IV best. I really liked the new Star Trek movie, too.
More favorites: Matrix, Gattaca, Spaceballs, Blade Runner (another based on a Dick book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which I nominate for remaking, too), Moon, The Fly, Back to the Future, Wall-E, Soylent Green, They Live!, Starman, Children of Men.
Do you want to talk about which ones we hated? I loathe Independence Day. It should be called Imperialist Day.
Blade Runner, regardless of how far it strays from “DADoES should never be remade. Ever. But I do like your choice of “Moon.” Never seemed to get the attention/respect it deserves (but what do I know-I thought “Solaris” w/George Clooney was at least decent
I mainly want to see DADoES made again because for some reason I want to see giraffes on top of a skyscraper. I felt I should have gotten to see this in Blade Runner. I got Daryl Hannah instead. It’s hard to complain, but when I finally did read the book I dug all the high tech robotic animals and the fetishization of even the lowliest creatures. I wanted to see that world.
District 9
It took until the 6th comment for someone to mention “Blade Runner” as the best SF film? That should be the most obvious, utterly uncontroversial choice.
Star wars if it was R rated (Vader should be able to crush people, and pull starships out of orbit).
Inception, the new star trek, the avengers, iron man, predator, aliens (the second, nuke from orbit!).
hard question to answer with just one, but for me, Blade Runner (although Matrix and Inception would be on my top list).
Interesting choices coming out – and quite a few I can agree with – especially “Blade Runner”. Yes it is not the book – NO It does not need a re-make , It stands 110% on it’s own, especially the full directors cut! Never allow executives to play with a film and have it re-cut.
But I like my sci-fi to put people first, with the special effects and gizmo’s second.
My favourites list starts with “The Bicentennial Man”, with Robin Williams tackling that Asimov invention of Andrew Martin. So human and comical.
“Forbidden Planet” (1956) – it may be over half a century old but still a master class of how to take all the possible whistles bangs and special effects you can – and still keep the human as the central issue!
… and then you have Armageddon and the real biggy “Deep Impact” – less Sci-Fi and more human.
I’ll take all three Aliens (especially No 2 and 3) – throw in Cocoon, THX 1138 (Robert Duvall’s acting is spot on), Twelve Monkeys, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Silent Running – and one of the most insane movies of all time “The Fifth Element” – mad bad and totally silly with one hell of a great diva singing her heart out! Talk about Space Opera!
I thought THX 1138 was cold and weird and unfollowable, but Cocoon is a great movie. I should have added E.T., too.
I liked Source Code better than Inception. I thought it was badly titled/marketed but good!
Source Code was a great movie! Creepily enough, I watched it on a train to Chicago. It was TOTALLY marketed wrong, like some sort of romance/action film. It really did was Sci-Fi is best at – it took something that is currently impossible, but seems very possible in the future, and it takes that technology to make us look at a bigger society issue in our world today.
The best Sci-Fi is often allegorical, just as this was, and raises big questions.
Source Code is totally overlooked as a great Sci-Fi film!
I enjoyed Source Code quite a bit better than Inception, which I would have fast-forwarded through if I hadn’t been in a theater. It’s also free of all the auteurist baggage surrounding director Nolan.
One of the signs I’m getting old that I see with increasing frequency is remakes of movies that still feel like recent releases to me. Total Recall fits that category, and I didn’t think it needed remaking (or that it was a great movie the first time around). Then again, I’m only a sci-fi enjoyer, not a true afficionado, so I had no idea until this thread that tit was based on a Philip K. Dick story. I remember reading the Total Recall book by Piers Anthony when it the original movie was out, because I was into Piers Anthony at the time, but even then I just figured it was a companion book to the movie, since it matched too closely to feel like the movie came from it. Anyway, I enjoyed the original when it came out, but it wouldn’t make any of my lists for top sci-fi movies of all time.
“The Fifth Element”, which MediaHound mentioned, would be way up there for me. It’s fluff, but utterly enjoyable and well-executed fluff. “Multipass” said with a Leeloo accent still cracks me up, and I have no idea why.
“Aliens” is a nearly perfect sci-fi thriller, in my opinion, and I loved that it had a kick-ass heroine instead of a kick-ass hero. That was pretty novel for it’s time, and still is for this and most other genres.
I saw “District 9″ for the first time a couple weeks ago, and was completely surprised at what it was. I see very few movies anymore, so I was expecting a typical alien invasion movie, but this was more about inhumanity than kicking alien ass. It’s too fresh to elevate straight to classic status for me, but it was definitely intriguing.
The first “Matrix” was pretty awesome, but I’d probably be more gaga over it if I was about ten years younger when it game out. Partly due to more favorable timing (I was 7-8 when it was released), the first Star Wars is way up there for me – the original, not the altered version that somehow counts in the official line-up as the fourth episode.
Though it’s a bigger reach, I also give high marks to “Enemy of the State”, starring Will Smith, which wasn’t super futuristic, but seemed to anticipate a lot of hacking and tracking type technology and how that could be abused by government.
Oddly enough, I still haven’t seen any version of Blade Runner. I hear it’s good.
“The Fifth Element”, which MediaHound mentioned, would be way up there for me. It’s fluff, but utterly enjoyable and well-executed fluff. “Multipass” said with a Leeloo accent still cracks me up, and I have no idea why.
I just saw this on SyFy channel last night. For me its all about the beginning where she was trying to say, “Help Me.”.
… Lilu Multipass is definitely a crack up moment – but mother on the phone is a great element!
I just love the way people’s behaviour is shown in the midst of madness. It truly speaks to the human condition.
2001: A Space Odyssey
La jetée – Chris Marker
Metropolis
Forbidden Planet
Blade Runner
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Primer
Alien, Aliens
Donnie Darko
Videodrome
Starship Troopers
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, both versions
A.I.
20 Million Miles to Earth
I’m fond of The Matrix, Galaxy Quest, Tron and some Star Trek movies but they don’t really belong in the company of those above.
Great list, Rick. Let me second your votes for the following:
2001: A Space Odyssey
La jetée – Chris Marker
Primer
Alien, Aliens
Donnie Darko
I’d probably also add:
Solaris (the Clooney version)
The Bourne trilogy (if you think Bourne’s original training regime & resulting skills push the movie into sci-fi territory)
I’m so glad I’m not the first person suggesting Primer. The Matrix, Blade Runner, and Twelve Monkeys are all kind of a toss-ups to me as to whether or not they belong in the upper tier, though I certainly understand why they’ve received the nods they have.
No votes for Life Force? (Kidding.)
To me the idea behind The Matrix make it top tier although the execution (to me at least) is what makes it top tier status questionable. Honestly I think the first movie stood up enough on it own that the second and third films should not have been made (and this is despite really liking the Neo vs. Smith Army fight and the highway chase from the second movie).
Oooh, Metropolis should also be on my list (saw it mentioned above), it is a great film. I have posted above already but I like that Twelve Monkeys was mentioned too. Everyone’s list obviously depends on a certain critiria and the films people have actually seen which I assume has certain differences among everyone (for example, I didnt think of the Bourne trilogy as a sic-fi – although I love those movies – and I have not seen Children of Men – although I hear it is something I should see). Besides the special effects, the editing, the acting, etc. I also add on the message – it could be a social commentary or the effectiveness of how a certain question about our human condition is presented. I like the lists above and adds on to my list of what I might need to catch.
I saw the restored version of Metropolis outdoors in Buenos Aires and accompanied live by what I’d guess we can call an experimental orchestra. Quite the experience.
Buenos Aires is where they found a bunch of lost scenes.
Blade Runner- wow distopia
2001- WTF
Outland- good old fashioned western
AlienS- the ultimate feminist movie
Prometheus- mostly because I’m nuts for Ridley Scott
Biggest disappointment sci-fi movie of the century…. Cowboys & Aliens
I look for the 4 point must in movies
Horses
Machine guns
Flying Machines
Frontal Nudity
Ghost in the Shell
Borrowed from Blade Runner, Influenced The Matrix.
Speaking of old Schwarzenegger flicks is there any love for The Running Man?
A future world where prisoners are used for sport to make sure the masses stay mindless?
(And honestly I think Running Man would make a better candidate for a remake than Total Recall. Vin Disel or Dewayne Johnson to lead, Michelle Rodrigez to play Maria Alonzo’s role, a few current WWE or MMA fighters to play the gladiators. Done deal.)
Gotta give some love to RoboCop as well. One of the first movies to get me thinking about the borders between human and machine.
Good call, Danny. I do think “Running Man” would have been the more interesting remake compared to “Total Recall”. It has that “reality tv of the future” feel to it, put pre-dated the explosion in reality tv. Oddly enough, I read that one before seeing the movie, too, and if my memory is right, it was a Stephen King story (writing as Richard Bachmann). Having seen nothing of the Total Recall remake except a short preview, one change I do like is casting the lead as someone slightly more everyman-ish instead of the musclebound hunk of the day. Running Man would have a better underdog feel if the lead didn’t look as strong or stronger than the gladiators.
When I can suspend my personal dislike for Tom Cruise, I would also add Minority Report to my list. (Another by Phillip K. Dick.)
Running Man would have a better underdog feel if the lead didn’t look as strong or stronger than the gladiators.
True. Maybe instead of Dewayne Johnson or Vin Disel go with someone like the guy that does the lead role in Burn Notice (can’t recall his name).