Does anyone DVD anymore?

[OperaTenor]

I can't sit through Top Gun just from the perspective of a motorcyclist.

:puke:

And I like Tom Cruise.

[Angie Parkes]

Selma, did you see A Boy and His Dog?

I've seen most of the movies you mentioned. I agree, it's hard to find good SF movies. Fantasy is different, and I've loved all the LOTR and Harry Potter movies.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

A Boy and His Dog. Nope.

[trombonepirate]

I'm a poor source on this stuff. I read so much, and complain so bitterly about the departures from the plot, that almost any book I read will be a movie I complain about.

Amen to that! I have a reputation (probably not entirely unfounded) for ranting and throwing things at the television when I'm watching an adaptation. Some of them are actually quite good, but these are rare exceptions.
TBP

[analog]

Memorable SciFi movies?

Two, with remarkable casts:

"Forbidden Planet" (1956) still has a following today. http://www.forbidden-planet.org/Robby/


"Mars Attacks" was way more entertaining than I expected. It got me started collecting Slim Whitman albums.

<small>[ 05-31-2005, 10:09 PM: Message edited by: analog ]</small>

[Angie Parkes]

Originally posted by Selma in Sandy Eggo:
A Boy and His Dog. Nope.

It's not everyone's cup of tea, but from what I remember, the movie is quite faithful to the Harlan Ellison novella. I found a review that might prove useful to those folks who like their science fiction hard boiled.

[treebeau]

Originally posted by analog:
... It got me started collecting Slim Whitman albums.

Oh, so YOU'RE the one!!

Regards,
Tim B.

[mmichaelson]

Originally posted by OperaTenor:
I can't sit through Top Gun just from the perspective of a motorcyclist.

:puke:

And I like Tom Cruise.

I have NO problems sitting through Top Gun. That's when Cruise looked his best to me.
He almost looks like a different person now.

And, btw, the idea of him and that actress, Katie Holmes, is kinda weird to me. She's my age. Ick.

[piqaboo]

Angie,
I LOVED "A Boy and His Dog". Book & movie both.
One of my fav stories is "Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison. A nice contrast to my all time fav sci fi story "A Canticle for Liebowitz" by ?Miller?

I shall have to exhume them and reread them. I think they are in 14-year old boxes in my mom's garage. <cringe>


My G'ma was "the" other person who collected Slim Whitman records. Mars Attacks had its plusses, fer shure!


TopGun - ooh baby. But they all look so young now! I had a good time watching it with friends very familiar with San Diego and SoCal streets. We mapped all the topographical "jumps". I enjoyed a lot of the music too, and watching the flying. I guess I'll save re-viewing for nights when OT is at work!

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I prefer Tom Cruise as he is now. The boy in "Top Gun" didn't know how to act, but improvements have been made.

A Canticle for Leibowitz was the sole bright spot in a "SciFi As Literature" course I suffered through in 1967? or 1968?. Aside from that, I'd already read the entire mandatory and suggested lists, had a couple of shelves full of Amazing/analog and Asimov magazines quietly yellowing in my room, and a prof who thought that George Orwell wrote SF. It was dire.

[treebeau]

Whenever I am feeling down and rejected I remember what a wise person told me once...that I am TALLER than Tom Cruise!

Regards,
Tim B.

[Shapley]

What?

All this support for Top Gun and no mention of An Officer and a Gentleman? I believe without AO&AG there would have been no TOp Gun

V/R
Shapley

[Angie Parkes]

Chalk me up as another "Canticle" fan.

I can only take Ellison in short doses, but I enjoyed the book AB&HD, too. I don't remember "Deathbird" but the end of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" still gives me the willies just thinking about it.

I liked Cruise in Minority Report which I also thought was a decent SF movie (does anyone else remember Spider Robinson's comment that "sci fi" is the plural of "scum fum"?).

I enjoyed George Clooney in Solaris as well, not least because Rob and I couldn't agree on what had actually happened at the end. I've never read the book, although I've read a lot of Lem's short fiction.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

An Officer and a Gentleman. Ah, yes. I remember that one. Actors not as cute. No cool flight scenes. No Sandy Eggo. Equally drippy plot. Not even in the same league.

[analog]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by piqaboo:


My G'ma was "the" other person who collected Slim Whitman records. Mars Attacks had its plusses, fer shure!


QUOTE]

Well! Your G'ma and I will be ready.....


Anyone else remember the name Robert Sheckley? His "Specialist" is my favorite ever SF story; recollection is still vivid though it was summer of '62 when I read it.

[Schmeelkie]

Angie - you beat me to Minority Report - one of the better recent sci fi movies. Although the color scheme - lots of it is in this bluish tint - really bothered my husband. For all the implausability, I still enjoyed Total Recall - husband and I can't agree if it was a dream or not in the end. And of course, for a real classic you can't leave out Blade Runner - director's cut, of course. And 2001 (I was pissed we didn't have a Hilton on the moon yet when it actually became 2001) - I watched this a lot as a kid (maybe half as many times as Star Wars - and since that was on HBO 6 months out of the year for several years and my brother and I watched it any time we were home and awake...that's a lot) - took me a long time to understand it....wait, maybe I still don't... great flick though. Not to mention the Star Wars flicks and even numbered Star Trek films.

Most recent sci fi films are really just action or horror movies in space and generally suck in my opinion. Most fantasy films were also disappointing until Peter Jackson and LOTR - maybe people will take note and try to do a decent job with fantasy - maybe take on some Guy Gavriel Kay, Mercedes Lackey or Phillip Pullman.

Well, I could go on forever, but my movie viewing has been severely limited lately with the presence of Pumpkin (sleep being more important than movies when you have a baby) and I should really get back to work....

[Shapley]

Outland was pretty good. Sort of a High Noon in outer space.

[Angie Parkes]

Schmeelkie, I was also thinking about Blade Runner but I haven't had the chance to see the director's cut, and I last saw the commercial release more than 10 years ago.

I saw Revenge of the Sith on the weekend with my older son, who's 12. I hadn't seen it yet although my son had. I felt a tiny frisson of the excitement I felt when I saw the first movie back in 1977 when it was all so new, and realized that my boys will probably never understand what it was like to see those shots and effects for the very first time.

I felt the some of the same excitement when I was watching the LOTR movies. I agree with you, Schmeelkie, that I don't think fantasy had been done well until Peter Jackson did it. In addition to the fantasists you mention, I'd love to see what Peter Jackson or his equivalent would do with the dragons & riders of Pern!

As for how a baby changes one's viewing habits, I've been there even (and still am, mostly) though my kids are long past babyhood. As much as I miss movies though, I miss the concert hall more. However, I'm seeing light at the end of that tunnel, too.

[Schmeelkie]

Quick note - I LOVED Revenge of the Sith!! I had to wait a week to see it (which was really killing my husband) - no relatives free to babysit, so had to wait until I could play hooky from work - of course, we were working on a grant so I was swamped until we had to turn it into our research office 5/26 - and Pumpkin could be in daycare. My husband went and saw it again Tuesday (ah, the life of an academic - summers off...) and is still raving about it.

[piqaboo]

Kids who saw Matrix got that same magic of new cool effects that some of us got from StarWars.
I remember watching the melding technology in one of the Terminator movies and being very wow'd.
Now its "old hat" and used in way too many TV commercials.

kid(s) ... Whats a movie?
Do you suppose our sitter would notice/mind if we dropped off Altoid Monday night before rehearsal, and picked her up after the Tuesday ROTS matinee?