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Then something went wrong,
for Fay Wray and King Kong
they got caught in a celluloid jam.
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After all the intriguing discussion on Mark’s sf thread, I reckon we need an sf film thread for Thursday night.
That should be enough of a discussion starter!
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Does anybody remember a loopy British sci-fi movie from the 70s called “Journey to the Far Side of the Sun”? It was kind of a thinker, in an “Outer Limits”-y sort of way. Or another low-budget krazy one from the 60s called “The Mysterians”? Gunk left in my head from watching “The 4:30 Movie” on TV in the afternoons when I was like 9.
Of course, it’s really hard to beat ‘Quatermass and the Pit.’
Hey, here’s an idea, since there hasn’t been a good charity contest here in a while. So I’ll do one here: I’ll donate $250 to some good cause we can agree on, if people can do a complete version of the Rocky Horror “Science Fiction/Double Feature” lyrics, that references all British horror and sci-fi instead of Hollywood stuff. Here’s a chance to make all those Doctor Who references rhyme! How many words rhyme with ‘Dalek’?! Time to found out.
Group collaborations allowed — you can post only one stanza if you like, and others can keep it going, til there’s a finished version. Or do the whole thing on your own! It’s crazy!
As GMB apparently says (I bet he never really said it, like Jimmy Cagney never really said You dirty rat!), GO!
Ew. Girls germs.
This is SF right, please?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNTPqG6ZECU
I have a couple of half-remembered films whose names I’ve forgotten. Can anyone help?
1. There is a large black object rather like a UXB inscribed inside with a pentacle. Later in the movie there are large locusty things and goo comes through the walls.
2. A movie that features the phrase “The pig must die”. That might have been horror rather than SF but near enough.
Wasn’t the large black object in 2001? Can’t remember the locusty things or goo, though, so maybe I’m way off?
No! That’s Aeon Flux and her clone.
j_p_z, we may need to start a science fiction/lyrics blog I fear!
What I think are some good recent SF films.
Cube – a truly Ballardian horror film. No explanation just the experience.
Cube2 – a very clever riff on the original premise. Quantum physics instead of Newtonian physics.
Primer – the narrative and plot will make your nose bleed but it has the most authentic science/engineer talk ever.
Cypher – The Parallax View meets brainwashing at corporate junkets. The final twist is a let down but some fantastic visuals along the way.
Sunshine – actually I think not.
What I think are some all time great SF films – some for obvious reasons, some for making you do a double take on the future. The trick here is to avoid films where you could see the story told in any era. For example, ‘Outland’, while a great directed, acted and art-directed flick is basically High Noon without the horizons. Nothing there that could have been done elsewhere. Unlike say:
2001
Bladerunner
La Jetee/12 Monkeys – six of one, a dozen of the other
Solaris – the first version obviously. I’m not that pissed.
Planet Of The Apes – vale Heston – never mind his politics, he did create a certain unforgettable mythic archetype on screen.
Robocop – “Your move…creep”
Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection – the first two Alien films were great entertainment but didn’t really challenge accepted visions of the future. And OK, Alien Resurrection fell apart at the end but it’s one of the few films that actually explored on a decent budget the consequences of interspecies cloning.
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea – y’all notice that despite Hollywood’s desperate attempt to remake everyfuckingthing they still haven’t worked up the nerve to remake the unforgettable 1954 Disney version, featuring three most elegant and/or powerful screen entities – the Nautilus, James Mason and Kirk Douglas.
Stalker – Fuck all happens in this flick and yet somehow it ends up being quite mesmerizing and the world’s only visual SF poem. Tarkovsky was definitely in the zone there.
A Boy And His Dog – Like Mad Max 2 except funnier and smarter. Best animal acting and sperm milking scene I’ve ever seen.
Close Encounters of The Third Kind – Spielberg at his best. Wonder, mystery and paranioa in the gaping heart of America. The reason it sometimes comes across as cliched is that Spielberg and Trumball invented those fucking cliches. EG: Without CE3K, the X-Files story arc would just be Mulder and Scully busted in a motel room with a couple of vampires in fishnet stockings.
Ok, The Matrix – but only the first one. Not quite the original idea it thought it was (check ‘Virtuosity’ for starters. Or a big chunk of Philip K Dick’ oeuvre) but delivered with immense style and brio.
These Are The Damned – Joseph Losey’s only SF film and one quite out of the box. The best story John Wyndham never wrote.
The Thing – The John Carpenter version. Well yes you could call it a straightforward horror/monster movie except for the fact it’s still the most conceptually unearthly monster yet put on screen.
I just thought of another 20 movies at least but the time it just keeps moving on. My cryogenic pod awaits.
“I’ll donate $250 to some good cause we can agree on … that references all British horror and sci-fi instead of Hollywood stuff.”
Well mate, just put your solar credits here:
“Daleks For Darfur”
“The Quartermass Fund III”
“The Professor Branestawm Apeel”
“Dare the Future: A Dan Dare Trust Initiative”
“Mekon Property Developments PLC”
“The Professor Challenger Foundation (No longer affiliated with those mountebanks at the British Museum)”
“Robot Archie- For the kids TM.”
“Jeff Hawke:Interstellar Crisis Management Group.”
“The Dr Who Move: Your heart is bigger on the inside.”
“Universal Import and Export – now trading as Transworld Consortium.”
I think I need more coffee before attempting to mash up Dr Who, Blake’s Seven and H2G2 (I’m assuming that H2G2 qualifies based on the excellence of the original radio series and despite the overall suckiness of the recent fillum?).
There needs to be a Banksie Culture movie, say Use Of Weapons along with the Ships:
General Contact Unit: Just Testing
GCU: Very Little Gravitas Indeed
General Systems Vehicle: What Are The Civilian Applications
GSV: Size Isn’t Everything
More at Wikipedia
And Nabs, you forgot Chris Godfrey of U.N.E.X.A
(link is screwed up in preview – remove double quote at end if nececssary)
Ah, Charlton Heston.
That run of movies (The Omega Man, Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes). All late night fodder back when post 10:00pm TV used to show movies instead of home shopping).
I have all of them on DVD and every time I fire one up, it’s like being 10 years old having snuck out of your bedroom with the TV as quiet as it could go, watching Heston chomp the scenery, gurning and wailing, shirtless and dirty with that strange sing-song tone he used to use on the long sentences in the script. The future was a scary place back then.
Would that that were true! Depends on what you mean by Hollywood, of course, but there have been at least three TV or direct to video versions in recent memory, most recently 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea (see what they did there?) starring Lorenzo Lamas. Oh yes.
This excludes a number of animated versions (including one where Cap’n Nemo is voiced by Tom Burlinson). And then there’s The Black Hole …
Mostly agree with your list (what I’ve seen of it, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do — always hear good things about A Boy and His Dog) but would add Gattaca and Children of Men from recentish times. The Thing is awesome. Love the paranoia and the ooky monsters. I watch it every year, as soon as winter sets in … while safely hidden under the doona, of course!
Also, I second Zarquon’s demand for a Culture movie.
I’d support a Culture movie. But I always thought C.J. Cherry’s Merchanter/Alliance sequence would make a great series of movies.
And there are a number of ‘New Space Opera’ novels, mainly out of Britain that would make for a great screen entertainments (maybe one day …)
“Garth”!! OK, youngsters, I forgive you for not remembering. Along with “Jane” (the gorgeous-gussie leggie comic love of WW II’s flyboys & tank crews – you see her in archival aircrew pics)- he was the star of a comic strip (?Courier Mail ?Toowoomba Chronicle) that marked the beginning of my print-addiction (OK, and SciFi addiction).
“Flash Gordon”
“The Air Adventures of Sooooooperman” voiced by a young Leonard Teale
(See, folks, I know the original source of George Lucas’s inspiration – “Foundation Triloy” came later).
For Nabakov: Can electric sheep remember it for you wholesale?
(I can hear Red’s Gong on that one!)
Nabs, I was a bit wrongfooted by “Sunshine” – I’ve usually loathed Boyle’s films at least until “Millions” (excellent), but Michael Powell was his godfather, so I usually watch them so I can wonder bleakly what Mr Powell would make of it all.
The script for “Sunshine” was bad, but the cast was great (and Rose Byrne, very-not-good-in-a-string-of-things, surprised me by turning in a grave, sad performance – I was really impressed – and I say this as someone who laughed out loud when she articulated what I imagine were meant to be emotions in “Troy”). And some of the SFX had a strange, meditative beauty.
I also rate the commentary tracks, one of which is by a proper boffin, but Boyle’s is pretty good too.
And I must confess I saw “Alien: Resurrection” twice at the cinema; I knew it was wrong, but it was still better than 3. I can watch anything with Ron Perlman, but if it features xenomorphs – BONUS! Apparently when the “Newborn” model was first introduced to the set, Jeunet shrieked, “Make it look less like a muppet!”
But they did not succeed.
Su, your first movie might be the 1964 First Men in the Moon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Men_in_the_Moon_%281964_film%29 , which I’ve only ever seen the last few minutes of. Definitely has the large grasshopper critters. Is there any chance the second film is Lord of the Flies? (”Kill the pig”)
Nabs wrote:
“the first two Alien films were great entertainment but didn’t really challenge accepted visions of the future.”
I think Alien (1979) is the first movie to show a spacecraft as a workplace and the crew as workers. The two maintenance guys arguing with the others over their share of the bonus adds a touch of class to the whole show.
And it just looks fabulous. The ‘used future’ look, where the kit is old and beat up, instead of clean, white and curvy, is borrowing from Star Wars but is still very influential.
And Ellen Ripley changed actions movies (and female leads) forever.
BTW, William Gibson’s script for Alien 3 is available on the intynet http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/Alien3.txt
and is just so, so much better than what was filmed. A brilliant re-imagining of the Alien and development of the franchise.
d