davidh777

All superhero stuff should count as fantasy.

LJG765

If you're talking about the 2003 movie, Daredevil, it's listed as Fantasy at IMDB.com so it counts. I have not watched the TV show, but if it's based on the same premise, than it should count as well. A movie/show just has to have one genre at either IMDb.com or allmovie.com to count.

Since this has come up a few times this challenge, I'll just make a blanket statement: If it is not listed as fantasy or sci-fi AND is based on a superhero comic from Marvel or wherever, you may use it as a wildcard. Everyone gets 3. You can use it on the checklist if you do so.

LJG765

I'm not sleepy so I put in "Escape from New York." I bought this a few years ago mainly because it checks off so many of the items on the checklist this challenge. I think I've seen it 3 times now in recent memory...so far, each time I've watched it some things still hold up fairly ok. Typical action movie, really. But then the tech just really stands out and not in a good way. The computer graphics, which I'm pretty sure were actually drawn to make them look like computer graphics, the cassette tapes (especially the cassette tapes), the tracking devices. All huge and clunky and very 1981, but not very 1997. Heck, in real 1997, cds had been around for a little while and DVDs were starting up. I guess I'm just surprised that the film makers didn't try to at least envision ahead more about what technology would be like.

Heck, I think Star Trek:TOS did a lot better job in the 60s then did "Escape." Though, I would listen to the argument that technology evolved to look like the equipment in Trek...

Overall, I guess it's not my favorite movie, but I like it enough to watch it every summer. I just wished they had skipped that music that runs throughout and maybe had a bit of a better imagination technology-wise!

shadokitty

I woke up early, and couldn't go back to sleep, so looked on TV for something for the challenge. I just finished The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on Encore Family. I've always liked Sean Connery. And it's a decent movie besides.

pacaway

Had a good time last night! Our local indy theater showed the new documentary Dark Star: H. R. Giger's World followed by the theatrical cut of Alien, which I probably haven't seen in a theater in over 15 years, since theaters always show the director's cut since it came out in 2003. A well timed 2'fer for this challenge!

shadokitty

I just finished a great first time view. The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers was on Encore Suspense. It didn't strike me as the typical 50s sci-fi. More like a metaphor for losing one's individuality. A very good movie.

LJG765

This has a bad rap, but I liked it too. I'm a Connery fan as well. It could have been better, but I really don't think it deserves all the bad reviews on it.

This is on my list of movies to watch. I'm not sure I'll get to it this month, but one of these challenges I will...

I hope you have fun at Oshgosh. I've been there but not during this festival. I know that there is a ton going on, so I hope you have a good time!

Dimension X

It's been a long time since I last watched that one (maybe I'll get around to it this month), but I suppose it could be argued that the huge amount of crime (and loss of at least one major city) stalled technological advances.

LJG765

Maybe...but wouldn't the president have better tech than anyone? I get the people on the island prison, but outside it?

BobO'Link

I think the bad reviews mostly came from people who'd read the Graphic Novel, on which it was (very) loosely based, expecting to see the comic come to life. That creator Alan Moore distanced himself from the film due to the changes made didn't help. I can't say that I blame him but the film was not too bad in spite of the changes. I enjoyed it and I'm a fan of the OGN and its sequels but they're really completely different products.

I'm always a bit surprised when people haven't seen certain classics of the genre. Shadokitty's description is a very good condensation of the film. LJG, you *really* need to get to it this month and then both of you need to watch the 1978 remake with Donald Sutherland. It's almost as good as the original and one of a handful of remakes that deserves classic status alongside the original. While not quite as good I'd also recommend giving Body Snatchers (1993) a viewing.

Ash Ketchum

Ditto on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956 version). Great movie. I first saw it when I was about 12 at a summer youth program at church. The hip young seminary student who was running things rented it on 16mm and showed it to us. Every time I've seen it in the years since (including for one of the challenges a couple of years ago) just confirms how great it is.

Yesterday, I finally watched a complete movie for this challenge when I put in my Blu-ray of REBIRTH OF MOTHRA (1996), which came in a bargain set with its two sequels. I'd only previously seen this on bootlegged, fan-subbed VHS not long after it was released on video in Japan. The Blu-ray is quite a revelation as revealed by these shots:




As you might imagine, it's more kiddie-oriented than its kaiju predecessors, but I found it very lovely and charming, if a tad lacking in the excitement and suspense of previous monster battles. Most of the effects are either on-screen mechanicals and miniatures or film lab optical effects. Mothra fights Death Ghidorah in this one (spelled "Desgidora" in the subs.). The two tiny singing fairies are the heroines, assisted by a brother-and-sister child pair, and the fairies' gorgeous older sister is the sexy black-clad villainess, also tiny, but riding around on a dragon.

popcorn

Yesterday, TimeHop informed me that it was 30 years to the day since the release of Back to the Future. Even though I was out all day, I still had to throw it on for all times sake. I even saw a Delorean during the day to remind me. Always a good watch.

LJG765

I'll try! That's all I'll promise! It is one of the reasons I really like these challenges. It makes me watch things like this where they are classics that I've never watched or things I've never heard of. I won't say I haven't run into a few duds, but I feel like I've really come across quite a few that I really enjoyed that I would never have gone outside my box to watch without the challenge as incentive.

HyperWeather

Ditto

Ash Ketchum

Because it was July 4th today, I decided to skip the Japanese sci-fi and watch some good ol' fashioned American sci-fi. (And, no, I didn't watch INDEPENDENCE DAY today, did anybody?) I went old school with chapters from three serials: THE FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS (1938), BUCK ROGERS (1939) and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (1940). THE FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS is about two marines who try to stop the efforts of a secret super-villain called The Lightning to develop a super weapon capable of killing everyone in a building when its electric rays strike. Interestingly, it opens in Shanghai in 1937 with newsreel footage of the Japanese bombing the city. Our marine heroes are restricted to the International Settlement but leap out of their barricade to rescue a fleeing Chinese woman and her baby. No mention is made of the Japanese.

Also, in just the first four days of the challenge, I've seen something from every decade from the 1930s (FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS) to the 2010s (today's Pokémon episode on Cartoon Network).





And you gotta love juxtapositions like this in FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE:

shadokitty

I started off today by finishing Disc 2 of Ancient Aliens, Season 4. The episode was about Leonardo Da Vinci.

pacaway

Picked up the new Criterion edition of The Fisher King yesterday. Now I need to decide whether to watch it this month or wait for September. I've seen this movie many times, including twice on the big screen during a film festival last year. I love it. One of Robin Williams' (and Terry Gilliam's, for that matter) finest efforts.

pacaway

Wholeheartedly agree! Yes, even the remakes are very good, with the possible exception being the Nicole Kidman one, Invasion from a few years back, but if you're a completist...

shadokitty

Well, I lost my chance to watch Buck Rogers in the 25th Century this month. I had ordered a used copy of the Complete Epic Series, but my order was cancelled due to the item no longer being in stock. Why put something up for sale if it's not in stock any more?

LJG765

How about both?
Alright, you convinced me. I'll see if I can get it from my library.
That sucks. Probably they sell on multiple fronts and their inventory is not automatic, is my guess.

shadokitty

I have the trilogy on Blu Ray as well. If they will work on my PS3, I plan to watch the trilogy this month too. I say if, as I tried to watch my Galapagos blu Ray last moth for the historical appreciation challenge, and the PS3 would not even read the disc.

BobO'Link

I just watched this twice.

The first viewing was a colorized version with limited sound effects (mostly grunts and backwards sounds/speach) and a totally inappropriate sound track of mostly electronica type stuff. You could get a better one by doing a needle drop on just about *any* Pink Floyd record. I'm normally 100% against colorization but on this one the colorization was interesting and actually fit the film OK. I'd watch it again this way but without that sound track. It makes me wonder if the disc version offers more than one audio track.

The second was apparently the one you saw. BW with a narrator/voices over a piano soundtrack. The music fit better but the voices really didn't add much and frequently reminded me of a "Whose Line..." skit.

I'd like to have the colorized version (that way I could turn the color off if desired) with just a piano/orchestra track leaving off the "modern" music and voices.

Both are available on Amazon Prime streaming.

BobO'Link

I think you made a wise choice. Independence Day is a OK popcorn flick but I'd rather watch any of the dozen or more 50s films it seems to be channeling.

I didn't watch ID either, instead I focused on those new titles I picked up for the challenge.

The One (2001) wasn't bad. Not great but good enough that I'd watch it again. The happy ending totally caught me off guard.

Surrogates (2009) was pretty interesting. Of course I have lots of questions about the civilization and the process of using "surries" which weren't answered. It had a couple of twists that weren't surprises but that didn't detract too much although they brought new questions into play (which also weren't answered).

The Final Cut (2004) was the least interesting of the three. Not that it was a "bad" film but it also missed a few opportunities. It had a plot twist I somewhat expected by the time it appeared. On several occasions it was a uncomfortable film to watch due to what a "cutter" sees when making a "rememberance" for a family. I couldn't help but wonder if some of the pain Williams had in his personal life made its way into his performance. He seemed so sad, which was in character, but it felt more real than normal. I hurt a bit when he delivered the line in a library of "Are suicide books in the self-help section?" It added to the overall melancholy of the film.

Before those three I watched Transformers (2007) and was mostly unimpressed. I'm guessing to really appreciate this one you have to have been a 80s kid and watched the show on TV. I'm neither. Still, it's the best Michael Bay film I've seen so far.

I ended the day with A Boy and His Dog, one of my all-time favorite post-apocalypse films. I recently purchased the newly remastered BR/DVD combo set which now looks spectacular. If you're a fan of the film I highly recommend this release.

Dimension X

Assuming it was this version, the "colorized version" is the way the film was originally presented (minus the music).


I own a copy, but haven't read it yet, but maybe the original graphic novel has some of the answers you want.

And thanks for mentioning that film. I had forgotten it was based on a graphic novel, and had my Blu-Ray on the "wrong" shelf.

Edit: Before anyone corrects me; I just looked at my copy of the book, and it was originally a 5 issue mini-series, not a graphic novel.

BobO'Link

I'm a completist and own that one but I do not recommend it unless you, too, are of that breed. Like Spielberg's War of the Worlds it's somewhat interesting but unfulfilling and really shouldn't be seen before all other options are exhausted.