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WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SCI-FI FILM OF ALL TIME?


papasmurf

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Easy - but a tie..

1. The Day the Earth Stood Still :smiley32:

and

1. War of the Worlds (50's version) :smiley32:

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Easy - but a tie..

1. The Day the Earth Stood Still :smiley32:

and

1. War of the Worlds (50's version) :smiley32:

 

 

Add "2001", "Blade Runner" and "Alien", and you've pretty much got my top 5! :smiley16:

 

Although, those tend to vary from day to day............. :blink:

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  • 3 months later...

I might be the only one on the planet that liked Dune...prefer the extended version.

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I've never seen the extended version of "Dune". That might be interesting. I think they kept to the book fairly well in the beginning but got lazy in the last third part of the movie. Otherwise, I liked it too. It would be interesting seeing it re-done with modern tech today.

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My top 3:

 

1 - Star Wars (The 1977, REAL Episode I)

2 - Terminator (The first one)

3 - Star Trek II -The Wrath of Khan

 

My top 3 guilty pleasures:

 

1 - Galaxy Quest (By Grabthar's Hammer, it was the absolutely finest Star Trek parody movie ever made!)

2 - The Last Starfighter

3 - Space Balls

 

I think Star Wars was special for me because after leaving the theater, my perception of what a good sci-fi movie was changed forever. Although I never bought a "Force Beam", collected the Kenner figures, or joined any fan clubs, I will always remember Star Wars as the one standout sci-fi movie.

 

And since this a modeling forum, it is also worth mentioning that Star Wars was the movie which inspired me to start scratchbuilding!

 

Neal

 

 

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LOTS of GREAT flicks mentioned. You can hardly go wrong with any of them. My top 3 SF movies (just because I will and have watched them over and over and over)

 

1) Star Wars (1977, ya HAD to be there!)

2) Blade Runner

3) Forbidden Planet (it gave us Robbie the Robot and the eternal captain/doctor/1rst officer SF characters)

 

My GP is one I haven't seen listed at all, and TOUGH to find....."Galaxy of Terror"! :smiley2:

 

GIL :smiley16:

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"Galaxy of Terror"?! Ouch, that one was really bad! I actually paid money to see it in the theater.

 

I mean no disrespect whaling on your GP Gil. My personal favorite pick for the stinkiest movie in the universe goes to "Star Crash". Yeah Caroline Munro was a hottie in her day, but the bad smell of the movie could be detected from the next quadrant! And what was that stupid cowboy robot about? And on a modeling note, I think Star Crash was the first movie I saw where the majority of surface detailing of the ships comprised of whole sprues simply glued to their sufaces.

 

Oh oh, red alert! Drifting off topic! Helmsman, evade thread hijacker and recalculate course back to topic!

 

Neal "I seen a lot of really, really BAD movies in my day" Izumi

 

 

 

 

 

LOTS of GREAT flicks mentioned. You can hardly go wrong with any of them. My top 3 SF movies (just because I will and have watched them over and over and over)

 

1) Star Wars (1977, ya HAD to be there!)

2) Blade Runner

3) Forbidden Planet (it gave us Robbie the Robot and the eternal captain/doctor/1rst officer SF characters)

 

My GP is one I haven't seen listed at all, and TOUGH to find....."Galaxy of Terror"! :smiley2:

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Neal said: "Galaxy of Terror"?! Ouch, that one was really bad! I actually paid money to see it in the theater."

 

Yea, but anything in which Erin Moran gets her head squashed into a pasty mush can't be all bad! :smiley20:

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
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Neal said: "Galaxy of Terror"?! Ouch, that one was really bad! I actually paid money to see it in the theater."

 

Yea, but anything in which Erin Moran gets her head squashed into a pasty mush can't be all bad! :smiley20:

 

GIL :smiley16:

 

 

Oh... The horrible memories return. There was the other girl that died from the giant catepillar right? I can't believe that I still remember stuff from that movie. Well, maybe I just remembered that part...

 

Neal

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For me, an old fud, it's almost a toss-up between "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) and "Them" (1954), both truly oldies but goodies. If anyone wants to find old movies look up moviesunlimited.com. They have at least 800,000 titles from old to new films recently released. Best,

 

Mark (alias aAzZ09

IPMS# 14333

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  • 1 year later...

I really don't have a definitive favourite Sci Fi Film. But I can remember my parents taking me to see Forbidden Planet and being gobsmacked at the special effects, as this was my very first foray into science fiction at the movies. Also, I can remember as a kid seeing the Disney version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Disney version of the Nautilus submarine is to me what a submarine would have looked like using Victorian ship building methods.

So I guess that these two movies were influential in getting me interested in Sci Fi.

Airfis was about to release a model of Disney's Nautilus in the late 70's but the project was shelved and never got into production. I remember seeing the test shot at an industry trade show in London at the time and being very excited about it. Shame it never got to production though. I believe that Comet Miniatures make a resin kit in a similar scale to the proposed Airfix kit that is currently available at a reasonable price. There are some much larger scale kits about in resin as well but very expensive. I am surprised that Revell did not kit the Disney version instead of that abortive kit they released a few years back. Maybe the licencing would be prohibitive.

I would love to see the Disney Nautilus done as a proper injection moulded kit in a reasonably large scale like 1/200th, as to me it is the DEFINITIVE NAUTILUS and should have been done long ago.

Over the years I have watched many Sci Fi movies. Some were great like Star Wars, Star Trek ,Alien, Predator and the Matrix. Plus more recently Avatar.

Jurassic Park would have been brilliant if Michael Crichton had not allowed Spielberg to compromise his book so much. If made like the book it would definitely have only been a movie for an adult audience. Martin Scorsese would have done a better job at remaining true to the book

Mind you I have also watched a lot of dross sci fi as well!!

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I really don't have a definitive favourite Sci Fi Film. But I can remember my parents taking me to see Forbidden Planet and being gobsmacked at the special effects, as this was my very first foray into science fiction at the movies. Also, I can remember as a kid seeing the Disney version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Disney version of the Nautilus submarine is to me what a submarine would have looked like using Victorian ship building methods.

So I guess that these two movies were influential in getting me interested in Sci Fi.

Airfis was about to release a model of Disney's Nautilus in the late 70's but the project was shelved and never got into production. I remember seeing the test shot at an industry trade show in London at the time and being very excited about it. Shame it never got to production though. I believe that Comet Miniatures make a resin kit in a similar scale to the proposed Airfix kit that is currently available at a reasonable price. There are some much larger scale kits about in resin as well but very expensive. I am surprised that Revell did not kit the Disney version instead of that abortive kit they released a few years back. Maybe the licencing would be prohibitive.

I would love to see the Disney Nautilus done as a proper injection moulded kit in a reasonably large scale like 1/200th, as to me it is the DEFINITIVE NAUTILUS and should have been done long ago.

Over the years I have watched many Sci Fi movies. Some were great like Star Wars, Star Trek ,Alien, Predator and the Matrix. Plus more recently Avatar.

Jurassic Park would have been brilliant if Michael Crichton had not allowed Spielberg to compromise his book so much. If made like the book it would definitely have only been a movie for an adult audience. Martin Scorsese would have done a better job at remaining true to the book

Mind you I have also watched a lot of dross sci fi as well!!

 

 

Solid choices, can't go wrong with classics! I have a very old Comet Nautilus kit, not very big, but nicely detailed. Still in the box, and the graphics on the box are very sweet.

 

Not seen a post in this topic in some time, thanks for sharing! :smiley20:

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Its not really a scifi film. but the Family Guy send up of Star Wars was pretty funny. The art work was amazing as well.

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Its not really a scifi film. but the Family Guy send up of Star Wars was pretty funny. The art work was amazing as well.

 

 

I saw that, it was very well done indeed Ron, I really enjoyed it as well!

 

Stewie as Darth was a great concept, thanks for adding this comment! :P

 

You just never know when a topic is going to come back to life!

 

I also want to add "Avatar" as one of the very best films lately.

 

I haven't seen "Skyline" yet, anyone got a revue on that one? :huh:

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BLADE RUNNER

MAD MAX [cept for the 3rd film ]

The day of theTtriffids

Firefox

the 1st Robotech movie

 

AND MY GP,S ARE

 

Empire strikes back

Origanal godzilla [ non US, version]

Rocky Horror , [yea i know but it realy is sci fi ]

and lastly and best of all

 

Battle beyond the stars. with a big thank you to Mr, Vaughn Mr, peppard and a HHHHUUUUGGGGEEEE THANK YOU TO SYBIL DANNING LOL

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BLADE RUNNER

MAD MAX [cept for the 3rd film ]

The day of theTtriffids

Firefox

the 1st Robotech movie

 

AND MY GP,S ARE

 

Empire strikes back

Origanal godzilla [ non US, version]

Rocky Horror , [yea i know but it realy is sci fi ]

and lastly and best of all

 

Battle beyond the stars. with a big thank you to Mr, Vaughn Mr, peppard and a HHHHUUUUGGGGEEEE THANK YOU TO SYBIL DANNING LOL

 

 

AAaaaahhh yes. Mz. Danning, quite hot in her time! Know the movie, MMMmm, call that one a "Guilty Pleasure", but she was easy on the eyes.

 

"The Day of the Triffids" was a great Brit film. done on a tight budget, was that the "Hammer" guys again? Can't remember, but that's a classic, no doubt about it.

 

"Rocky Horror" was an SF film, and it was a lot of fun! Curry's put on a little weight since then however, see him in "Congo".

 

Godzilla is a childhood fav, so much modeling work in those films! It's amazing The Japanese artists are really talented, love their work!

 

Blade Runner first, you are the "Man"! A film that really "knocked me up-side the head", as they say down here.

 

Nice post, they are all really good! :smiley31:

Edited by papasmurf
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I would like to add a bit more to my earlier post. As a kid going on into my teens, I used to go and see many of the old black and white sci fi movies.

Anyone remember such films as The Incredible Shrinking Man, the Colossal Woman and The Earth Versus the Flying Saucers? When you see any of them now, they really seem a bit of a joke. I can remember a classic line from Earth v the Flying Saucers about one of the Aliens Space Suits being described as 'Solidified Electricity'

However the original Day the Earth Stood Still with Michael Rennie playing the main role, stands out as one of the best black and white SF films ever made. It's message is still very relevant even today with nuclear proliferation going on worldwide. The original King Kong movie starring Fay Wray was a masterpiece of stop go animation that influenced Ray Harryhausen's special effects in movies such as Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and Valley of Gwangi.

Peter Jackson's recent remake of King Kong is a really good film. However, I was not very impressed with the recent remake of Day the Earth Stood Still as it deviated too much from the original, although trying to embrace the same concept.

It's funny how some remakes really work and some just don't. The Dino De Laurentis version of King Kong didn't work at all for me as I seem to remember that the dinosaurs got dropped in that version.

Besides the movies I mentioned in my last post I forgot to mention a few more (for me anyway) classic SF movies. 2001 A Space Odyssey had brilliant special effects for a film made in the early sixties. And look how much of the predicted technology shown in the film is for real today.

The Terminator series was a great vehicle in lateral thinking for a SF movie, that an android should come back from the future to kill the future mother of a resistance leader to prevent him from being born. Brilliant conceptual thinking!

The Predator movies and Aliens movies were both brilliant in their own right. But personally I feel that the Aliens v Predators spin offs really were a bit poor by comparison and it was just flogging the thing to death.

The Fifth Element, Dune and the Chronicles of Riddick are also of note as being good if underrated. I enjoyed all of these.

The latest Star Trek film that sets up all the original characters that we all know and love , Kirk, Spock ,Bones Scotty ,Uhura, Checkov and Sulu was inspired. The casting was great as finding good young actors with a physical resemblance to the original cast must have been some undertaking. Absolutely spot on! A great movie.

Sci Fi has its memorable moments for all of us. For me it was the opening sequence to the first Star Wars film when I took the kids to watch it when it first went on cinema release. After the titles had rolled into the distance the little space craft appeared whilst being fired upon. But what I did not expect to see was a massive imperial cruiser in pursuit appear from the top of the screen and almost filling it whist the surround sound shook the cinema. Both my kids and I were just awestruck by this moment of cinematic experience.

Of course now with the advent of modern 3D technology....Avatar....That was something else!!!

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I would like to add a bit more to my earlier post. As a kid going on into my teens, I used to go and see many of the old black and white sci fi movies.

Anyone remember such films as The Incredible Shrinking Man, the Colossal Woman and The Earth Versus the Flying Saucers? When you see any of them now, they really seem a bit of a joke. I can remember a classic line from Earth v the Flying Saucers about one of the Aliens Space Suits being described as 'Solidified Electricity'

However the original Day the Earth Stood Still with Michael Rennie playing the main role, stands out as one of the best black and white SF films ever made. It's message is still very relevant even today with nuclear proliferation going on worldwide. The original King Kong movie starring Fay Wray was a masterpiece of stop go animation that influenced Ray Harryhausen's special effects in movies such as Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and Valley of Gwangi.

Peter Jackson's recent remake of King Kong is a really good film. However, I was not very impressed with the recent remake of Day the Earth Stood Still as it deviated too much from the original, although trying to embrace the same concept.

It's funny how some remakes really work and some just don't. The Dino De Laurentis version of King Kong didn't work at all for me as I seem to remember that the dinosaurs got dropped in that version.

Besides the movies I mentioned in my last post I forgot to mention a few more (for me anyway) classic SF movies. 2001 A Space Odyssey had brilliant special effects for a film made in the early sixties. And look how much of the predicted technology shown in the film is for real today.

The Terminator series was a great vehicle in lateral thinking for a SF movie, that an android should come back from the future to kill the future mother of a resistance leader to prevent him from being born. Brilliant conceptual thinking!

The Predator movies and Aliens movies were both brilliant in their own right. But personally I feel that the Aliens v Predators spin offs really were a bit poor by comparison and it was just flogging the thing to death.

The Fifth Element, Dune and the Chronicles of Riddick are also of note as being good if underrated. I enjoyed all of these.

The latest Star Trek film that sets up all the original characters that we all know and love , Kirk, Spock ,Bones Scotty ,Uhura, Checkov and Sulu was inspired. The casting was great as finding good young actors with a physical resemblance to the original cast must have been some undertaking. Absolutely spot on! A great movie.

Sci Fi has its memorable moments for all of us. For me it was the opening sequence to the first Star Wars film when I took the kids to watch it when it first went on cinema release. After the titles had rolled into the distance the little space craft appeared whilst being fired upon. But what I did not expect to see was a massive imperial cruiser in pursuit appear from the top of the screen and almost filling it whist the surround sound shook the cinema. Both my kids and I were just awestruck by this moment of cinematic experience.

Of course now with the advent of modern 3D technology....Avatar....That was something else!!!

 

All those "oldies" do bring back memories of a better time, in my opinion. You didn't mention "The Prisoner", which was a spin off from "Secret Agent Man", and the original "Outer Limits", and "Twilight Zone", which scared the heck out of me as a kid! Little known fact is that the concept for "Terminator" was written years before, by my favorite author, Harlan Ellison. A Lawsuit straightened that out, and he was awarded a settlement. I completely agree that "The 5th Element" and "The Chronicles of Riddick" were highly underated, both great SF films! "The 5th Element" has become a cult favorite to a lot of SF fans. "Dune", well, I read all of Herbert's books, and although the first version wasn't bad, no one has really captured the true essence of that tale. The Worms were simply "awful" and killed that section of the film. "Hey, I can see the wires".

 

The first Star Wars release did impact me, but it's "Empire Strikes Back" that really stood out then. Those Imperial Walkers on Hoth, truly memorable!

 

And yes, "Avatar" in HD at home, on my first "Big Screen" TV, was amazing. I hear a second film is in the works.

 

Nice post, thanks very much for sharing that! :smiley32:

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"The Thing" - The original one. Scared the crap out of me as a kid. For days I didn't even want to go out into our yard.

 

"Star Wars" - I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A giant step for special effects. My daughter and I saw it every weekend for weeks when it was first released.

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"The Thing" - The original one. Scared the crap out of me as a kid. For days I didn't even want to go out into our yard.

 

"Star Wars" - I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A giant step for special effects. My daughter and I saw it every weekend for weeks when it was first released.

 

 

"The Thing" was scary as heck back then, and I have to admit, the remake with Kurt Rusell wasn't bad. Call it a "guilty pleasure", as most remakes just don't cut it. Like the already mentioned "The Day The Earth Stood Still" remake, which couldn't capture Rennies' stellar performance.

 

"Star Wars" was a HUGE leap in FX, that's fer' sure Dude! Finally, a film were the hardware wasn't shiny, silver, and right off the showroom floor. God bless weathering, it made all the difference.

 

Thanks Les, gosh...I do believe this almost "dead" topic is slowly coming back to life!!

 

"Rise, Rise....Muhahahaha...." Frankenstein (Don't forget Karloff and Bela...) :smiley11:

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MST3000. I know its not a movie, but they did show old SciFi movies. Joel, Gypsy, Tom T. Robot and Crow. Mike was kind of lame, but he did keep the show alive.

As an aside, one of the first "bad guys" was Josh Weinstein who went on to be the Producer of a little show called "The Simpsons".

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MST3000. I know its not a movie, but they did show old SciFi movies. Joel, Gypsy, Tom T. Robot and Crow. Mike was kind of lame, but he did keep the show alive.

As an aside, one of the first "bad guys" was Josh Weinstein who went on to be the Producer of a little show called "The Simpsons".

 

 

I LOVE that show, and even though it's out of production, all epsiodes are found on Netflix! Mike was the "straight man" in that comedy team, and he was supposed to be the "bland" one. And,....he was.

 

Didn't know that about Mr. Weinstein, good trivia there! :smiley20:

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  • 2 weeks later...

One or two posts placed after mine reminded me that I had forgotten about and not mentioned 'Blade Runner'.

I agree that this was also one of the most brilliant SF movies in its own right.

Someone also mentioned the Prisoner. If any Prisoner fans come to the UK they must go to Portmerion in North Wales

and visit the 'Village'. It is open to the public for day visits, there is a hotel on the site and also some of the houses in the village can be holiday rented.

The Village was the inspiration of a man named Clough Ellis who started work on it before WW2 and finally finished it in the 70's.

He wanted to build an Italian styled village that blended harmoniously into the surrounding landscape by a river estuary.

There is probably a website to look at. I think that the tennis courts seen in the old Prisoner series from the sixties have since been replaced by ponds with fountains.

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One or two posts placed after mine reminded me that I had forgotten about and not mentioned 'Blade Runner'.

I agree that this was also one of the most brilliant SF movies in its own right.

Someone also mentioned the Prisoner. If any Prisoner fans come to the UK they must go to Portmerion in North Wales

and visit the 'Village'. It is open to the public for day visits, there is a hotel on the site and also some of the houses in the village can be holiday rented.

The Village was the inspiration of a man named Clough Ellis who started work on it before WW2 and finally finished it in the 70's.

He wanted to build an Italian styled village that blended harmoniously into the surrounding landscape by a river estuary.

There is probably a website to look at. I think that the tennis courts seen in the old Prisoner series from the sixties have since been replaced by ponds with fountains.

 

"The Blob" scared the crap out me when I was a kid. I saw it at the drive in with "13 Ghosts". I was afraid to lay my hand over the side of the bed for years! The original "House On Haunted Hill" while not really sci fi, was also scary as hell. The dropping bed scene made me afraid to go to bed! My uncle had a sadistic side to him as he always took us to see those flicks at the drive in.

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I too am a great fan of Clarke and his books. 2001 was an art movie more than anything. Keep in mind that it was originally released in Cinerama. For those who don't know, it was a huge curved screen. The film was shot with three separate cameras and projected by three projectors. It was an immersion type film and the special effects and cinematography were the major focus. It was more about the experience than the story line. This is much like the movie Gran Prix, also a Cinerama film. Cheesy story line to support the immersion effects. I still like HAL. IBM -1 Next letter up from H is I, A is B and L is M. Nice bit of trivia.

 

QUOTE (kptucker @ Jan 15 2009, 05:31 PM) Don,

 

No disagreement on your take but many well written books don't make it through the Hollywood process.

 

...

 

I find 2001 a little difficult to take but I also take it for what it is in the time in which it was made.

 

The interesting thing about 2001 is that Clarke wrote the book and the screenplay at (roughly) the same time. The book had to go to the publisher before the movie finished shooting so they diverged - mostly where Kubrick decided the changes made the movie better. The big one I remember is that Kubrick added the scene where HAL traps Bowman outside in the pod with no space suit - the one place I thought the movie was actually better. Tying this back to modeling - in the book the Discovery goes to Saturn; in the move its Jupiter - because they couldn't get the rings of the Saturn model to look right on film...

 

What bothered me the most about the movie is that it failed to convey any of the main themes of the book: what the monoliths were, the whole "sufficient technology is equivalent to being God" and your standard anti-war, anti-nuke messages (it was the 60s). It wasn't that Kubrick left them out - bits and pieces are scattered through the movie - but there is no attempt to explain any of it - its just lost amongst all the cool imagery. I thought "Marooned" - made at the same time with a much smaller budget and a straightforward storyline actually worked much better as entertainment.

 

Don

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