I don't know why people are using them as examples, but Night of the Living Dead and all of the Star Wars films are listed as Sci-Fi.

it's the inclusion of Lord of the Rings I don't get though?

Thanks for taking me seriously. I wrote and rewrote nearly all of my posts to come across as persuasive and not whiny. I even used G4 on purpose because it was the most over-the-top ridiculously tenuous Sci-fi related channel so I hoped the joke would come through. Tone is hard to convey over the internet and there just wasn't the right emoticon to express this.

I'm not sure how wanting to watch Pan's Labyrinth truly dilutes a list that would include Star Wars.

I'm geek, too. I understand the need to separate genres so that it looks like we have more interests than we do (you know what I'm talking about-"What kind of music do you play here?""Both kinds: Country and Western."). There's also that school of thought that hates to lump Star Wars and Star Trek fans together because "the other guys make us look bad". We all have our lines of geek-marcation (If I may coin a phrase). Some consider SF the fiction heir to Einstein and Heisenberg. Somehow the purity is besmirched including elves and orcs and cyberspace. I say, embrace your inner geek. Christ, it's the middle of summer and we're watching science fiction movies indoors! Turning your nose up at Fantasy is a bit supercilious, don't you think?

I have to disagree with the horror challenge being ruined with documentaries.

Horror, ghost, vampire, haunting etc. documentaries are typically watched by more people in October for the same reason the Horror Challenge occurs in October, Halloween.

I tend not to watch seasonal themed movies out of season either.

I think many challenge participants reserve movies, tv shows and documentaries in a specific genre to be watched during the appropriate challenge and these dvds sit on the shelf during the remainder of the year.

If a challenge becomes an annual event it lends itself to the thinking that such and such month is dedicated to one specific genre. Because of that, any additional dvd materials should add up just like short films in which I believe the 23 minute idea is an excellent one. You still have to spend the time watching it. If you are going to cheat on supplemental materials then most likely you would cheat on the rest.

The best part of any challenge is seeing something on someones list that I have never seen or had long forgotten.

I might have been a bit harsh.

Anyway, I had been sitting on 2001 for months. It was the reason I even got the TV and went blu-ray. I was hoping to save it for the right time and this was it. I want to thank MrPeepers for hosting the challenge. It helped make it special watching it.

This has been really fun.

I was thinking last night that the only thing missing from the Horror Challenge that I liked was the checklist. That's something I'll want to get done for next year.

I'm still deciding if I want to do it as a Sci-Fi & Fantasy challenge next year. For this challenge, I'll keep it sci-fi only since that's what it's called. It seems like that's the major complaint for allowing fantasy movies this year which I agree with.

Let your voice be heard, majority rules, you are the future, blah blah blah. We have one in favor so far.

I vote for including fantasy next year.

Rob

Here was the last horror challenge template. A lot of it obviously doesn't apply, but here it is in it's entirety for discussion/editing.


Watch one film from every decade, starting with the 1890's.
--- 1890:
--- 1900:
--- 1910:
--- 1920:
--- 1930:
--- 1940:
--- 1950:
--- 1960:
--- 1970:
--- 1980:
--- 1990:
--- 2000:

Watch films in at least two languages other than English.
--- First language, .
--- Second language, .

--- Watch the MST3K version of a horror film.
--- Watch a film and its remake.
--- Watch a film based on a video game.
--- Watch a film based on a novel.
--- Watch a film directed by Uwe Boll.
--- Watch a film which won an Academy Award -- any category.
--- Watch a silent horror film.
--- Watch a Criterion version horror film.
--- Watch a film with commentary.
--- Watch a film and at least two sequels.
--- Watch a film that takes place on a holiday.
--- Watch a film that takes place in space.
--- Watch a film that takes place on or under the sea.
--- Watch an animated horror film.

Watch a film for each rating:
--- G
--- PG
--- PG-13
--- R
--- NC-17
--- X
--- Unrated

Watch a film in each of the following horror subgenres:
--- Vampire
--- Frankenstein
--- Werewolf
--- Mummy
--- Invisible Man
--- Ghost/haunting
--- Witchcraft/satanic/religious
--- Zombie
--- Slasher/psycho/homicidal maniac
--- Monster/creature feature
--- Documentary
--- Musical
--- Spoof
--- Revenge
--- Killer doll
--- Killer animal

Watch a film starring:
--- Bela Lugosi
--- Lon Chaney Sr.
--- Lon Chaney Jr.
--- Peter Cushing
--- Boris Karloff
--- Vincent Price
--- Christopher Lee
--- Jamie Lee Curtis
--- Robert Englund
--- Bruce Campbell

(* - First Time Viewings)

Thanks Trevor.

Here's what I came up with

Watch one film from every decade, starting with the 1890's.
--- 1890:
--- 1900:
--- 1910:
--- 1920:
--- 1930:
--- 1940:
--- 1950:
--- 1960:
--- 1970:
--- 1980:
--- 1990:
--- 2000:

Watch films in at least two languages other than English.
--- First language, .
--- Second language, .

--- Watch the MST3K version of a sci-fi film.
--- Watch a film and its remake.
--- Watch a film based on a video game.
--- Watch a film based on a novel.
--- Watch a film directed by Ed Wood.
--- Watch a film which won an Academy Award -- any category.
--- Watch a silent sci-fi film.
--- Watch a Criterion version sci-fi film.
--- Watch a film with commentary.
--- Watch a film and at least two sequels.
--- Watch a film that takes place on a holiday.
--- Watch a film that takes place in space.
--- Watch a film that takes place on or under the sea.
--- Watch an animated sci-fi film.
--- Watch a film with special effects by Ray Harryhausen
--- Watch a film directed by Roland Emmerich
--- Watch a film directed by Larry Buchanan

Watch a film for each rating:
--- G
--- PG
--- PG-13
--- R
--- NC-17
--- X
--- Unrated

Watch a film in each of the following sci-fi subgenres:
--- Alien invasion
--- Artificial intelligence
--- Cyborg
--- Post Apocalyptic
--- Dying Earth
--- Hollow earth
--- Cybernetic revolt
--- Immortality
--- Parallel universe
--- Mutants
--- Documentary
--- Musical
--- Spoof
--- Time travel
--- Spy-fi
--- Space opera

Watch a film starring:
--- Sigourney Weaver
--- Harrison Ford
--- Peter Cushing
--- Boris Karloff
--- Arnold Schwarzenegger
--- Will Smith
--- Jeff Goldblum
--- Patrick Stewart
--- Keanu Reeves
--- John Agar

(* - First Time Viewings)

Anyone running across reused monsters or props?

I'm watching Scared To Death and thought the monster looked familiar. The people that made Syngenor, 8 years later, decided to reuse the mold for their movie to save money.

It's ultimately a philosophical question. What it comes down to is what kind of challenge is this? Is it a movie challenge or a DVD challenge? There's nothing stopping anyone from watching that interview or short video on how they brought the story to life. There's nothing stopping anyone from starting the movie over again and watching it with the commentary. It's just that we've decided to quantify the challenge. We make lists. Is this a challenge about how much time you've spent in front of the TV or is it about movies? If it were just about the time, then why even bother keeping lists? We could all just have posts with accumulated times. No, it's about movies. As you say, the best part of the challenge is looking at other lists and seeing titles you've never seen or forgotten about. How exciting is it to look at a list and see one movie listed and then listings of all the fluff they put on the DVD to help sell them? Do we get a cookie because when the movie was done we watched the trailer? Are the overall numbers so important that we need to get credit for every scrap of entertainment we expose ourselves to? Do we get extra credit if we take the lame quizzes on some DVDs? Do I get to list the 20 minutes it took me to figure out the damned menus on Memento?

Is this about winning? These have never been competitions. We do these because we love the movies and we want to share the experience with others. Again, there's nothing stopping anyone from watching DVD extras. The desire to count them just seems to miss the whole point of these challenges and turns them into just time-filling exercises. That goes for commentaries, too. You are just cheating yourself out of the experience of watching the movie and just filling an equivalent amount of time. Yeah, they are fun and informative, but when you are in a movie challenge where you are watching movies for fun and listing titles, then you should approach every film like you've never seen it before or you are revisiting an old friend, not a chore.

You could almost have a whole category for reused costumes and props from Forbidden Planet, alone.

Has he made any movies that are categorized as Sci-Fi?
I wouldn't call these three "sci-fi sub-genres." They should probably be moved up to the earlier section.

--- Watch the MST3K version of a sci-fi film.
--- Watch a film and its remake.
--- Watch a film based on a video game.
--- Watch a film based on a novel.
--- Watch a film directed by Uwe Boll.
--- Watch a film which won an Academy Award -- any category.
--- Watch a silent sci-fi film.
--- Watch a Criterion version sci-fi film.
--- Watch a film with commentary.
--- Watch a film and at least two sequels.
--- Watch a film that takes place on a holiday.
--- Watch a film that takes place in space.
--- Watch a film that takes place on or under the sea.
--- Watch an animated sci-fi film.
--- Watch a Documentary
--- Watch a Musical
--- Watch a Spoof

Sci Fi musicals, per IMDB:

The Apple (1980), Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Eagah (for you MST3Kers), Earth Girls are Easy, Garbage Pail Kids the movie, Jetsons the Movie, The Little Prince (1974), Little Shop of Horrors, Radioactive Dreams, Rock & Rule, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Voyage of the Rock Aliens, The Star Wars Holiday Special,

Sci Fi Spoofs:

2001:a Space Travesty, Airplane 2, Amazon Women on the Moon, Blobermouth, Flesh Gordon (and sequel), Galaxy Quest (arguably), The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Man with Two Brains, Mara Attacks, MST3K the Movie, The President's Analyst, Spaceballs, What's up Hideous Sun Demon, Young Frankenstein.

I didn't look up documentaries.

Of course there are Sci-Fi musicals (I watched Pajama Party this morning). I'm just saying that "musicals" and "spoofs" aren't "Sci-Fi sub-genres" the way "alien invasions" and "time travel" are, and would fit better with "animated films" and "silent films."

I see I could've raised the same question last October in the Horror challenge thread, but I didn't fill out the checklist back then and I guess I never read it very closely.

They are more general subgenres, admittedly. I was just demonstrating that there were enough titles to justify them. I had the Apple on my DVR from last month and didn't even know it qualified until I looked these up.

I agree about Uwe Bolle. How about Ed Wood, instead?

When I wrote my post I hadn't noticed that those three categories were also on the Horror movie checklist. Since no one objected to that list, forget I said anything about that part.

Plan 9 from Outer Space. Bride of the Monster. Are there any others?

I noticed a car crash from Thunder Road (1958) was reused in Invisible Invaders (1959). Does that count?

Yeah, you're right. Must be some equivalent Sci Fi hack out there.

I would suggest Larry Buchanan (Creature of Destruction, In the Year 2889, Mars Needs Women, Curse of the Swamp Creature, Zontar: The Thing from Venus, and Attack of the The Eye Creatures), but I actually enjoy watching his movies (along with Ed Wood's). Something I can't say about Boll's.

Roland Emmerich? (though I do like some of his things)

Can we add John Agar to this list?

Killed off Mr. Boll. Added actors.