Below is a list of the films discussed, with dates of release and a "star" rating as published by both the Blockbuster Video Guide to Movies & Videos (R), Leonard Maltin's 1996 Movie and Video Guide (in parenthesis), and our rating [in square brackets]:
The Science Fiction movie, in its "true" form, takes us into another time and place, testing our disbelieve in a manner no other genre can. We have defined the Sci-Fi genre as the combination of future societies, technologies, or simply time itself as being the key element(s) of the piece. Further, a mix of today's technology with something just around the corner will do. Now understand that just because a film was produced in the early 30s does not mean it no longer qualifies, on the contrary, many stories in the past have predicted much of our lives today, and thus not only qualify as science fiction, but quite possibly are classic science fiction.
Most science fiction films owe their legacy to writers such as Samuel Clemins or H.G. Wells, two writers with rich imaginations that loved to enterain. And since entertainment was not as acceptable without a proper grounding in pure literary form if not adhering to a very strict set of rules, the fact that these two authors managed to write sci-fi is astonishing.
The Science in Science Fiction simply means adding a bit of a new society intermixed with technology. So a writer taking the time to explain what this new world will be like, and interspersing some flight of fancy on how the science of that world works, has qualified.
Good Sci-Fi wraps these themes together, and Hard Core does it with no apology as to its "out there" approach, taking us far, far away (Thank you George Lucas). Therefore, Sci-Fi has its roots in print media and it is extremely difficult to pin down the first volume. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a bit of Sci-fi as well as his Sherlock Holmes stories. In fact isn't Holmes an Edwardian Science Fiction character? You see how it works.
There are some reoccurring themes in sci-fi, and rather than sneer and say "Hey, I've seen that before" we fans tend to say, "Hey, let's see how this one approaches the well known theme!".
A twist on this film is a satrical comedy called Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Peter Sellers plays teh President, a British Officer, and the nutsy professor
who is claimed to be the inventor of the Bomb. Slim Pickens decides to ride a
nuclear bomb on down to destruction, in a classical comedy scene.
Another example, and richer context version of the afore-mentioned time and place theme is
James Cameron's Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2 (1991), where a young
woman is given the chance to change a horrible future
history, all the while being chased by a killing machine from that future
intent on terminating her.
Below we list and describe some of the classic films of Science Fiction.
Also, we have a list we are developing called "The Notables", a list of the
good films that deserve mention, even if they weren't our top of the list movies (after all we don't remember very many sci-fi films we DIDN'T like!).
Also, we list some new films we haven't seen or haven't yet had a chance to jot down our thoughts on.
Due to the socialist outlook of the film it was difficult for it to be shown
during the McCarthy Era, and thus wasn't scene much. But during the 1970s, it
was given a rebirth and in the 1980s an excellent sepia colorization and
rock soundtrack revitalized and repopularized this epic, and classic film.
Starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal. Suddenly, a flying saucer lands on the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C. A
strange looking humanoid appears wearing a helmet which disguises his features.
Then the figure gestures with a device in its hand, and a young soldier mistakenly fires
injuring the visitor. The device is dropped and ruined, a gift from the stars to help humanity. The humanoid is taken to a
hospital and examined and appears to be much like a human man. At first
opportunity, the alien leaves the hospital and takes a room in a boarding house, where Patricica
Neal (playing the secretary to a famous physicist) meets him. As a demonstration of his power, the alien informs the famous
physicist (who looks remarkably like Albert Eeinstein) that at such and such a time, all elctrical power of all sorts will stop for a
few minutes, then return.
As the manhunt spreads for the alien, he is finally shot again and this time mortally wounded. His robot, who appeared after the first shooting, and who is now
cased in plastic by humans, melts out of the plastic and retrieves the alien. Patricia Neal is allowed to witness the temporary
rejuvanation of the Alien, who then steps outside to warn the world of its tampering with nuclear weapons, and that if they do
not control themselves, their neighbors in the galaxy will. His parting lines are akin to "Be good, we are watching".
The interesting point of this movie is that it is the one we get the most mail
about. Everyone has seen it, or so it seems. Moreover, it is the subject of
much controversy. For instance, who is the "boss" here, the man or the robot.
In the original short story, I believe it is quite clear that the man is the
servant of the more humane robot, the robot being a member of a powerful
police race. Much fun thinking of the ramifications!
The film has had incredible lasting effects on a number of generations since its
first release. The original film, in color mind you, was first shown in 1953!
War of the Worlds is a trademark of Paramount Pictures, copyright 1953, and renewed (wow, that's kinda rare) in 1980. Probably for the
re-release with stereo sound or due to the television series. Many thought that the film was more effective, in many ways, then the H.G. Wells radio play. Certainly not for its ability to invoke mass hysteria, but more because the
film added the atomic bomb to the arsenal of weapons tried against the aliens. Wells, of course, did not know of the Atomic Bomb when writing the original
play, thus was slightly handicapped in that respect. The premise that that the
invaders appeared to have no difficulty surviving the blast of an atomic weapon, made them even more indestructible, giving them technology that even today defies our physical science!
And of course the nuclear premise was quite a big deal in 1953, the world having
experienced the nuclear devastation of the first atomic bombs less than a decade
before. As expected, the 1953 film won the Academy Award for Special Effects.
The 1993 re-release with stereo sound and special effects on the 2nd Audio was
purchased by collectors all over the world making it one of the most
popular laser presentations (next to Fantasia, Star Wars and Terminator 2).
In this same vein, and some 30 years later was the Made For TV" mini-series,
V, which featured a supposedly benign race who have come to earth with
gigantic ships to "help" us. This one though turns out much like the old
Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man.
A later Alien Nation takes a
less threatening look at Aliens arrival, as does The Abyss, and
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. On the nasty side, 1995 featured
Species, and the summer of 1996 promises more nastiness with
The Arrival, and Independence Day (to be shown on July 3, 1996!).
This has been called by many, a major turning point in Science Fiction. Starring
Walter Pidgeon as an eccentric professor marooned on a wayward planet with his
beautiful daughter (with a gorgeous Anne Francis in the prime of her beauty). Uninvited,
a crew of gung ho spacers come to rescue the survivors only to find no one wants to be rescued!
In fact, the professor does not seem to need rescuing, despite his
daughter's yearning for a little experience in life and love. As the story unfolds we find that
this is just not a space opera, but harbors a hidden secret in the morass of a
psychological melodrama. The villian in the story is a machine which feeds on
the professor's Id, that part of the subconcious mind hidden to us, but which
purportedly controls our actions at some base level. In the case of the
professor, his Id is nasty to say the least, conjuring invisible monsters, and
it appears was actually the downfall of the rest of the settlers on this
strange world.
Filmed in color, the film is so well done, that even today decades after its
release, it still holds up well. In fact, a recent laser disc re-release
of the film (recorded from restored and nearly flawless masters) added a
scene cut by censors at the time...a scene where the nubile Anne Francis is
stumbled upon swimming in the nude. It is amazing to see that the scene
involves absolutely no visual nudity, just the hint that she is in the pool
nude was enough to get the scene axed.
Despite the effects being pretty tame by today's standards (at the time the
film's sci-fi effects team won a great deal of acclaim), the screenplay
is excellent. It offers
activities on the space faring vessel fitting well into a model of interplanetary
travel complete with G forces, stasis fields, and a 180 degree breaking
maneuver. Despite being in danger of repeating ourselves, we have to say these
topics are...classic, well thought out science fiction. A collector must have
this one in the library. So what if the ship looks like a classic flying
saucer...wasn't Roswell happening about this time?
The other Quartermass series are not worth watching, this being the only one
well done and interesting to view. Leonard Maltin says the other films are
The Creeping Unknown, The Enemy From Space, and Quartermass
Conclusion. Note that in Malton's Guide, the title is "Five Million Miles
To Earth", not the U.S. popular title Quartermass And The Pit.
As an aside, there is an excellent car racing scene in the film, where Robert Duvall's character steals a car used as a tunnel transport and goes screaming through tunnels at 100MPH (or so it seems). The car looks like a Ford GT40 with a traffice cop's light bar installed on top.
As a side note, if you like brief nude cameos, Jenny A. is seen for a brief
moment in the buff midway through the film as her character and the runner
shed their wet clothes. Mighty Excellent.
Also as important is a character called "Box", a tall robot, who seems to be
quite helpful to the fleeing underground dwellers. Watch out, Logan, as usual
all is not what it might seem! One of our Science Fiction Gallery visitors,
Mark Aten has an opposite opinion about Logan's Run...
"I disagree with the inclusion of "Logans Run" on a list
of really classic sci-fi films. Though credited with kicking off the big-budget
sci-fi craze of the 70's and 80's, "Logans Run" is a weak, overproduced effort
with a pat, formulaic ending. The source book is much better."
The film was just recently shown again on the SCI-FI cable channel, and manages to hold up quite well. One scene which some might laugh at, but certainly pins the caring character played by Dern, is an event caused by a small android
disobeying orders. The little "guy" is in the corridor while Dern is racing to
the scene of a big biological problem. The little android is popped by the
racing car, and Dern is aghast, thinking he has killed his little friend.
Later in the infirmary, Dern manages to make some repairs, with another little
droid (they were named Huey and Dewey) looking on nervously. There are a lot
of interesting little details here. At one point, Dern looks over at the
uninjured droid, and asks for a tool. The little guy ignores him and Dern
says something to the effect, "that's alright, I understand". And as Dern
puts the injured droid back together, the injured droid raises a foot pad
weakly, and Dern is seen to kind of pat and hold this poor fellows "hand" in
consolation as he says gravely to the both droids, "I did all I could".
The film is slow in places, requiring a longer attention span than most sci-fi
films, but this one is introspective, not a flash bang, shoot-em up adventure
film by any means. Worth seeing however, so you might try out your local
video store.
The antagonist of this film turns out to actually be antagonists (two or more!). At first it is the crew's
own boredom they must fight, but we discover that each person also seems to have their own
crosses to bear. With Pinback, a real winner believe me, it turns out to be an
alien creature, looking very much like a lady bug colored beachball with two
tiny clawed feet (kind of reminded me of the long haired dude in the
Adams
Family TV series...Cousin IT wasn't it? Who's on first?).
Anyway, the beachball causes
all kinds of trouble, and our inept Pinback probably could have prevented it if
he had more brains than the beachball.
Then the whole ship finds out who the real enemy is, bomb #1, an AI driven
stellar destroyer, a monstrous weapon with a mind of its own. There is a
scene reminescent of Captain Kirk trying to talk the probe through a logic
path that eventually leads the probe to blow itself up. If only our fearless
Dark Star "man-in-charge" had seen that particular Star Trek Episode...tsk.
NOTE: Ned Langman in the U.K. says it was actually Bomb #20. Thanks Ned!
See if you can rent this one...it's a little slow starting but grows on you
quickly. After you see it, come back and tell us about Surfing USA.
Starring Harrison Ford as Deckard, a special kind of cop called a "Blade Runner". Deckard's job is to track down and exterminate clones who refuse
To turn themselves end at the appointed time for death.
A key figure in the film is a new higher level of replicant manufacture in the
form of Rachel, a near perfect clone who eventually Deckard falls in love
with. This slick film shows us a nightmarish society not too far in our
future, where industrial waste has caused the atmosphere to be totally
screwed up, and these clones (called "replicants") are little less important
than cattle.
There is a thriving Blade Runner fandom over at Stanford University's
"2019: Off-World"
Web Space.
More important however, is the giant and as equally awesome sand worms. Dino
De Laurentis brings these behemoths to life in a way that makes you respect
and fear them all at once, a perfect testimonial to the power of Herbert's
writing. Oh, you can tell I like this one? You bet! The only character I
don't buy is the fellow playing the Emperor. His voice and delivery of the
dialog just don't match the Emperor stored permanently in my mind after
reading all the books in the Herbert Series. Equally unimpressive is hte
Mother Helen Guies whatever, Jessica's mentor and the Emperor's right hand
Bene Gesserit truth sayer. Aside from that little annoyance, the movie plays
well and does an excellent job of setting up a sequel, an event, I believe
sadly, will never occur. I have my copy, thank you very much, so I really
don't give a damn whether they make a sequel. After all, I have it all in
book form, and the movies in my head suffice, than you very much.
We were reminded by Neal James Meryering (nmeyering@batech.com) that we need
to mention the Spice. This mineral is actually produced from the bile of the
giant Sandworms, and is the stuff that makes the members of the Navigator's
guild able to fold space. It is a major poison, and kills men who drink the
concentrated stuff
(does this mean the navigator's are not men?). Small doses make the eyes turn
blue, a very vivid special effect throughout the film, and well documented
in the novels. Of course Spice is also used by the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood,
the mentally awesome telepaths. Another amazing drug is the truth sayer
drug, made from the flowers of the Safu (sp?) plant, which turns the lips
red. It allows Mentats, particularly talented truth sayers to perform amazing
mathematical feats and produce incredibly efficient and effective strategies.
Clearly, Dune is full of interesting and compelling concepts, few of which
were adequately explored by the film, and thus the film suffers, and so do
the fans...and of course, this is probably why we also will never see a
sequel, since films with interesting and compelling intellectual studies
such as these are never appealing to the non-scifi fan.
After the bomb is sent off a cliff, falling into the "Abyss", the crew
finds themselves in dire straits, and the hero (Ed Harris) decides to use a
new liquid breather hard suit to dive down to where he believes he can diffuse
the bomb before its timer sets it off. A key facet to this movie is the race
of aliens who live deep beneath the surface, and who visit the crews habitat, as
well as are indirectly responsible for the downing of the sub in the first place.
An interesting scene occurs in this movie as the hero and heroine (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) find
themselves in a miserable situation. A section of the habitat is flooding and there is only
one way to get home. The hero must let her drown so he can drag her over to the
other habitat. A truly tense bump and pump on the other end to start her back
up was tough on this viewer, having watched this activity in real time only
8 months before. Well done, to say the least...or was I too sensitive?
This film is remarkable, not only in its special effects, but in that in the original cut
(which did not make it to the theatres), the aliens threaten to kill off major
portions of population if the surface folk don't stop their warring ways.
A huge
tidal wave is sent at the shores but when our hero shows them how much humans
also love, they stop the waves...actually freeze them in mid curl, standing
50-100 feet above the beaches...awesome.
In classic sci-fi form, the humans are all saved by an enormous undersea ship
which takes habitat and our hero to the surface, while at the same time doing a
miracle to prevent the quick rise to the surface from killing the divers (i.e. nitrogen narcosis and air embolysims (spelling)) are not a concern all of a
sudden.
In this chilling tale, the young woman, played by Linda Hamilton, is rescued
by a soldier sent back by that same rebel leader to thwart the android's
mission.
In classic time travel fashion, the man (Reese) turns out to be the rebel
leader's father as he impregnates the young woman he is saving. Oh and then he
gets killed by the android, but our leader's Mom gets really pissed and crunches the terminator's head in a huge press.
In Terminator 2, the young woman has now been hospitalized cuz she can't seem
to fit into society anymore. Her foreknoweldge of what is coming
has made her quite the mercenary and from the viewpoints of her doctor, a real
paranoid complete with the full bag of delusions. Her son (son of Reese, the hero from the future), thinks his Mom is wacko too, until one day he sees the terminator chasing
him. That's right the android is back. Only this time...well we won't spoil
it. This movie also introduces a new terminator, the T1000, a liguid metal android to replace
the older Terminator line.
Linda Hamilton is impressive in this film, having worked out tremendously to
get into shape to fit the wiry, she-warrior look needed. Also her twin sister
is used in several scenes (perhaps this was also the case for Beauty and the
Beast TV program?). Rumor has it that the twin has a lot softer features,
and thus is great for the soft emotional closeups. Is there really a twin?
It seems that way, however, we have never seen the two of them together, so
perhaps it is just a playful hollywood ribbing us again!
If you haven't seen (and
heard) the laser disc director's cut of this movie, you really haven't seen
the film, just a cheap copy. Amazing!
Featured in all three films is the DOCs DeLorean modified for time travel. Anyone wonder how the DOC gets enough cash to 1) buy a DeLorean, and 2) buy a
bunch of plutonium (the DeLorean time modification is whoops! nuclear folks)?
After two sequels (Marty goes into the future with the DOC and back to the
West to find the lost DOC when his Delorean is struck by lightning), there is
not much else to do with the story. But we do see most of the classic
time paradoxes in action, and with the humor Fox brings to the screen, it is
a pleasureful journey.
Two reoccuring characters, BIFF and the tough as nails PE coach ("get to work
you slackers!") help transition us between all these ugly time switches.
BIFF's reappearance as a bully gun fighter in the Wild West is so well done,
we don't realize Mad Dog Tanner is even the same guy for at least part of the
movie. Another goodie in the number III movie is a cameo of sorts by ZZTOP,
the long beards fitting in quite well as a western square dance band. It is a
great moment when we hear the classic strains of typical ZZTOP texas rock, set to a
only slightly modified tempo. And guess who is the Sherriff, you guessed it
you slackers, the ancestor of the PE coach.
Jump forward, 20th century, pre-war digs find a strange metal ring...
Jump forward, 20th century, 1990s, a top secret group is attempting to decipher
the heiroglyphics on the ring (why'd it take so long...I don't know), until
the lady professor brings in Daniel, a young rebel heiroglphic genius who
does it in a few weeks.
Jump to stargate huming and spewing, and
Jump across the galaxy...ala transporter theory folks,
Jump to a new planet but with a very familiar...surprise, pyramids.
That's enough of that. The sci-fi content is there, the mystery starts to
unravel quickly. But the photography, the effects, and that fierce look on
Kurt Russell's face. Well it played well for me. I devoured the Stargate
Multimedia experience on a CD ROM, then jumped at the laser disc version to
see if I could beat the sound quality of my local Century Theatre (not hard,
as they have never played it as loud since they played Star Wars).
This is probably another cult film in the making...I have noticed that it has
appeared in VHS, Laser, but not on the SCI-FI Channel. Has it hit cable
pay per view yet? (Since I bought the laser, I probably ignored it if it
appeared on pay pre view). Does anyone know why Sci Fi Channel doesn't have
major SCI FI motion pictures before pay-per-view? Probably economics I guess.
Just doesn't seem right some how.
Johnny, one of these new tech couriers is trying
to make one last big score so that he can switch to a new line of work or
at least get out of the present one, which frought from danger both from within
and without.
Suddenly Johnny finds out the overloaded data buffer in his head is going to
kill him if it isn't "offloaded" right away, but he can't just dump it, cuz,
well it just may be the documentation on the cure for the nerve disease.
Boy meets girl in the form of a neurologically enhanced bodyguard type who is
just starting to come down with the symptoms of the disease.
This film is exciting cuz it mixes so many of the new literary themes centered
around cyberspace: VR computer terminals, VR ICE (anti-intruder software in
cyberspace), bio-computer-tech, and others. Add to this the fact an
intelligent dolphin who worked for the DoD, but now works for a fringe rebel
outfit, and you have perfect new elements for classic Sci-Fi. Older film
watchers may remember The Day of The Dolphin which starts out to be
a rather touching pro-animal film about training dolphins to speak, and winds
up an anti-war film as we discover the nasties the U.S. Navy has taught the
dolphin to do with its intelligence. Just a link there between the two...just
thought you might see it. By the way the earlier dolphin film starred an
angry George C. Scott, was released in 1973, and Leonard Maltin gives it a two
star rating.
The Worker and the Machine
Metropolis - 1926
This is the story of a the son of the political leader of huge city, who goes underground, literally, to see how the other half
lives. He becomes a worker, trudging day-to-day from job to his home. He meets and falls in love with a young revolutionary woman who is inciting the workers to throw off their oppressors.
The movie is remarkable because it shows the drudgery of the worker, and finally a worker's
rebellion as they throw off "the shackles" as it were. It is even more remarkable when the inner workings of this city are shown
to be vast machines, whose cogs are both metal and human, as people become almost robot like in the performance of their
very boring and android like routines. Matched today with a modern synthesized sound track of music and subtle shadings of
sepia like coloration in tasteful quantities, the film takes on an almost surrealistic look to it.
Earthlings Grow Up!
The Day the Earth Stood Still - Fox,
1951
Black & White
Click on Klaatu for an image from the movie.Alien Invasion
War Of the Worlds - Paramount, 1953, based
on the book by H.G. Wells
Starring Gene Barry. This epic tale brings the frightening H.G. Wells tale to the movie screen.
The Orson Wells Radio Play based on the book was so well done, people panicked and fled the areas described as being taken over by the aliens. This made for a difficult challenge to the
film-makers, a challenge many thought impossible to overcome.
The story involves a town in Texas, where a series of
meteors come down into the desert. We watch as a man inspects the landing site where one of the meteors has hit. A
manhole like cover rotates slowly, its metallic rasp heightening the suspense. Suddenly it clangs and falls off the top of the
very metallic looking surface of the meteor. A humming sound begins, and a strange 3 eyed metallic tentacle looms up and
out. In a moment the eyes spurt sparks and a errie pulsing sound pierces the air as the man and his pickup truck glow red
then vanish. The Martians have landed. As they move through the cities, the military is unable to stop them. Even an atomic
bomb drop fails. Finally as the Earth prepares for its death, the Martians begin to slow and their ships begin to crash. A
biological agent, a simple Earth virus, has caused the Martians to sicken and die.The Basics
Forbidden Planet
An Old Evil
Quartermass and the Pit - 1968 - British B&W
Adapted from a super series on science fiction adventurer Professor Quatermass,
this well done B movie features a bearded professor who is brought in by MI such and such, when an escavation for a subway in London
uncovers an artifact that is clearly from off planet. When workers in the
shaft begin to have nightmares and one commits suicide, Quartermass is given
the assignment to figure out why...features a haunting tidbit of alien
video showing the aliens marching towards their deaths in long rows evoking
images of Hitler's Nazi parades. The aliens turn out to look very much like
our images of the devil.
Big Brother
1984 - George Orwell
A young man defies big brother and a fully instrusive society where privacy is nearly non-existent. Eventually, the hapless
hero meets his mate, and they try together to escape from their plight in this exploration of the complete police state.
Eventually, the "mind police" find the two and force the woman to confess her crimes and implicate the young man. We see
them later after they have been "readjusted" to society. In reality, they have been brainwashed and become in-distinguishable
from the rest of the "brainless".THX 1138 - George Lucas' first film
Starring Robert Duvall - similiar in approach to a new society as 1984. In this movie, Duvall plays a
man who stops taking his pills, begins to think for himself, and realizes how programmed his existence
his. He eventually escapes from his underground city, and looks upon his home planet in freedom for the
first time.Logan's Run
Starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter, a story of a controlled society
living underground near
Washington D.C. The man is Logan 7, a terminator who chases down people
called "runners". Runners
are those who refuse to go to a special "festival" to give up their life,
in order that a new clone may live.
The people in this society know it is time time to go to festival because a
crystal imbedded in their palm starts blinking red. Eventually the terminator
himself becomes a runner, first, as part of a secret mission given to him by
the city's computer, then later for real as he realizes how hopeless his
society has become. By the way, the mission given him was to seek out
"Sanctuary", the legendary place where many runners have been to thought to
manage their escape.
Winding up outside the underground city, he and his girlfriend (whom he met
as a young woman offering herself as a volunteer for sex), visit the weed
infested city of Washington D.C. where they meet Ustinov,
portraying an old geezer, and his many cats. Eventually the threesome go
back to the city and release the people back onto the face of the earth.
Now You've Gone and Done It!
Silent Running
Starring Bruce Dern (thanks to Cam Villar for the correction) as a biological
engineer on one of several ships whose mission is to protect
samples of life on Earth. Little robots (with it seems a highly tuned
biological skill set and some intelligence)
help the biologists tend to the plants. But when the Earth
organization runs out of funds to continue the program, they are
ordered to detonate nuclear charges in
the ships, thus destroying all the plants. Dern's character refuses to
destroy the ships, and in the end, winds up
supervising the little robots aboard the only remaining ship...the ship
with the last bits of Earth's biosphere.
Oops!
Dark Star
This Dark Comedy, a real tour de farce, helps us laugh at the techno wizardry of
the modern sci-fi film. But lo and behold friends, this film actually adds
more humor and downright good sci-fi...there's serious stuff hidden in there!. This is
probably why it is a sci-fi cult favorite. Makes you wonder why we don't
see more of it...listening sci-fi channel?
Androids
Blade Runner
- Based upon Philip K. Dicks's
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
Blade Runner Poster Dune
Frank Herbert's Dune classic came to the big screen with just the right touch of
mystery and classic cult film, sci-fi leading edge photography and coarse
brief dialog one would expect. So much so, the Director's cut added in a nice
45 minute long dialog and sketch introduction to help out the poor movie goer
who hadn't read the predigious novel or its many sequels. Kyle MacLoughlin
is superb and believable as Maud'dib-cum-Paul Atreides. The book, the movie, and two superb video games have made the Herbert legend a three generation
icon in my family. You can live the movie, and added to the video games,
your imagination runs free. Life in my house-cum-video-game-parlor-multimedia-
sound-lab-studio-computer-lab-web-service-headquarters for awhile was emersed in Dune mania. Dune II, the video game, moving
armies of Fremen against the Harkonean animals, listening to lectures from
the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and really well done music rifts from the
computer game. Well it was heady stuff around here. The movie is so well done, that a plot
device, the sound actuated weapons of the Atreides, seems to pop from the
pages of the books. Unfortunately they are pretty hard to find in there...so
much so, well, I am embarrassed, but I can't find them! Maybe only the movie
has these cool little devices? It seems inconceivable.
Earthlings Grow Up...Again
The Abyss
An excellent...no, not just excellent, but THE standard by which undersea films should be judged upon, this
James Cameron film records the underwater trials of a undersea mining crew who
are forced, due to political and financial pressures to help a Navy team go
check up on a downed submarine. Unknown to the civilian mining crew, the
Navy guys are really out to recover a warhead from the ship and if hostiles
show up, detonate it to prevent the sub from falling into the wrong hands.
It goes down hill from there.
Time Travel Sometimes Makes Strange Sci-Fi
Terminator and Terminator 2
Terminator one of James Cameron's first films, was a fairly low
budget film, starring a young and relatively unknown Arnold Schwartzenegger, as
a biologically correct android that is sent back in time to kill the mother
of the rebel leader in the Android's time, thus preventing the rebel leader from being born.
Back to The Future
Starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. This whimsical (circa 1991)
tale starts in
current time, where the DOC, (Lloyd) is about to finally do something worthy
of his status as the eccentric professor, and his young protege, Marty, soon
finds himself thrust back in time to a crucial point in time for his family,
where his mom is about to meet his dad. If that weren't frightening enough,
he finds Mom is pretty damn serious about finding out about the other side of
the gender gap, and we mean pretty much like right now...with Marty!
The Time Machine
An H.G. Wells classic, Rod Taylor stars in this 1960 color film of epic
quality. While not all that impressive in some places, it never-the-less
follows the novel quite faithfully, and Taylor does an excellent job of
protraying a scientist and his excitement over the experiment, damn the lifes
at stake. At least until he meets the love of his life, some many millenia in
the future. Tsk Tsk, guess where the dear doctor goes after returning home
for some supplies?
Metaphysical Horror
Village of the Damned (Black & White)
This is a frightening tale about a sleepy village that wakes up one day and find that their children are acting just a bit strange.
When the adults begin to try to make the kids conform, they suddenly forgot about
the whole idea. In the original black and white thriller, the special effects when the kids were using the PSI powers on the adults, their eyes light up with
an errie glow. As a young child watching this one I was scared silly, the film leaving its mark. Even today, the image fo the errie glowing eyes causes a shiver even today, some 30 years later.
Destined to be Classics
Time Cop
Speaking of time travel...how about a guy who is hired as one of the first
time cops? What's a time cop. Simple. Somebody had figured out how to go
back in time. Cool! But they are stealing money, and killing people with a
wild abandon. Ooops! That could get really serious...paradoxes and all that. So, yep pilgrim, we need ourselves some tough hombres to go back and bring
back the bad guys, try em and hang em high. And this classic western motive
is even carried right through to the first scenes in the movie, where a bad
guy from the future UZIs some confederates spiriting away a Confederate gold
cache. Jean Claude Van Damme stars as the cop, whose wife is killed by the
bad guy time travellers, turning him into a rather nasty and dedicated time
cop. The plot from there is pretty stiff, so we won't spoil it for you. Suffice to say, lots of Von Dammmish kicks and punches and a not so subtle twist,
and some cool effects. Good sci-fi fare however, a movie that we would have
died for ten years ago, it is sadly eclipsed by Star Trek television or just
about every other sci-fi movie last year.
Stargate
Speaking of Time Travel...well sort of. Kurt Russell and James Spader
etar in this "almost a cult film" based upon a loose connection between
ancient Egypt, heiroglyphics, astronomy, astrology, egyptology, and
archeology. Oh and nearly instantaneous space travel (isn't that time
travel of sorts???). Oh and throw in a rather nasty alien, the last
survivor (possibly...no sequels...yet) of his kind. Seems he/it visited the
little blue planet back in the time of the pyramids, his ship using the
silly pointed things as landing docks (bet Kurt Vonnegut smiles at that one), and promptly subjegates (spelling?) the human race.
Johnny Mnemonic
Starring Keanu Reeves, this is a story about a fastly degrading society in
which it appears rival corporations (or gangsters...hard to tell the difference) are ruling the world via cyberspace, but with a cool new twist...humans are
used as storage receptacles. These couriers then carry the data where they
wish and "deposit" into the target mainframe. Meanwhile people are dying of
a neural disease that may be attributable to the information overload of the
new cyber-high tech, high neural input in a vastly different information age
than our own.
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Last Updated: May, 1997
