I don't mind Star Trek but my knowledge of what movie is what is 1%. The only movie I remember distinctly is one about whales that I saw in the theater. Then there's a few after that and they all mush together.

Does Back to the Future 2 count for Elijah Wood?

Elijah is in a lot of things outside of LOTR. Forever Young, Eternal Sunshine, The Faculty . . .

Yes, I know, but for the Sci-Fi / Fantasy challenge? I mean some of his other movies technically count, but if you are going to put an actor as one of the featured players in the checklist, I would think you would want a wider breadth of primary Sci Fi and/or Fantasy movies. Not as the 3rd, 4th, or 5th genres.

Someone else mentioned him in BTTF2. I guess the point of the checklist is the keyword "starring." I was thinking about counting Sigourney Weaver for WALL E, but then I realized that it was not really a primary role for her in that movie.

It's funny. The only Star Trek my mom really remembers is the "whales" one which is Star Trek IV, although she has watched the new one 3 times now.

I'm not going to go all Trekkie on you or anything, but you should really consider watching the movies (and Rifftrax does not count.) If you want, skip ST:TMP and go right to Star Trek II, III, and IV. They comprise a pretty fulfilling trilogy. Star Trek V is probably not the greatest stand alone Star Trek and you could skip to Star Trek VI (my personal favorite.) Star Trek II and VI were both directed by Nicholas Meyer and are just amazing movies in and of themselves. After that, First Contact is the single "must see" for the TNG group of movies and Star Trek (2009) is just great for anyone.

I'm sure user data plays at least some part. And official studio info.

The actors thing is much harder with SF/Fantasy than the others. Horror has a bigger stock company and exploitation actors tend to work only in exploitation. SF/F actors tend to only be in a couple SF/F movies.

I've even backed down. I'm still philosophically opposed to it, but I even allowed it in the Exploitation challenge.

I agree, but I don't think he's such a bad choice overall, not as much as Radcliffe anyway. He wasn't the best choice though, especially when including fantasy people.

I've bought the set of the first few movies on blu-ray, so I have that. I'll probably be hitting the second one by Wednesday.

I'd be happy if they allowed those, even though I don't plan on ever watching one during the challenge. That and being able to watch different cuts of the same film. If someone wanted to go through their Dawn of the Dead boxset in the month of Halloween, more power to them.

Is there an easy way to find a list of NC-17 rated SF films? I was going to go for Flesh Gordon, but the uncut version is X.

I'm also unclear about the wildcards for the checklist. How do they work? If I don't want to watch an Elijah Wood film, can I put "Terminator - Wild card" in that slot?

I'm actually getting more into this as the challenge progresses. I might take a stab at finishing the checklist. It's fun trying to uncover movies that I wouldn't mind watching in order to get them checked off.

wasn't able to see it yesterday, but the AFI Silver showed a 35mm print of 'Empire Strikes Back' - that would awesome to see on the big screen again. Ridley Scott's 'Legend' is playing next Wednesday - can't wait!!

Caligula - where did you see 'Castle in the Sky' in HD?

I see that some are watching 'Jason and the Argonauts' - what, can't wait til the release of the bluray on the 6th??

Pounding the anime with the kids: Ponyo then The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Mononoke might be too intense though.

I might take the occasion to open my 20MM Miles to Earth!

I was curious if I could include the pilot of Firefly "Serenity - Parts 1 & 2" as a movie with commentary (I watched with commentary by Whedon and Fillion) or did we determine that the checklist was for films only?

TV shows are fine for the checklist. I made it a little more difficult that if you're going to to a TV show for the checklist, you'd need as many shows for the checklist item as you would for your regular list.

For your 2 part Firefly, that works our perfect.

For wildcards in the checklist, just mark it as done and throw a "wildcard" where you'd normally put the movie.

As for your NC-17, here's a couple links. If something was originally NC-17 but later edited for an R, you can count it if you can find an unrated version.

http://www.imdb.com/search/title?cer...er_rating,desc
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?cer...er_rating,desc

Or, if you find a porn that spoofs a sci-fi movie, like Star Trek, that's also acceptable to me. By porn, don't mean the stuff they show on Cinemax at night.

Well, now that porn counts that opens up a whole range of possibilities. But to have to watch 2 hours of it may take some time... I guess I'll just have to do it in 10-15 minute segments. :P

And added another few movies to the growing list.
July 3, 2010
6) Blade Runner - Still a masterpiece in every sense of the word.
7) Pandorum - Great first half...devolves in the second half to Aliens/Descent in Space. Twists were alright but nothing mind-shattering. Would like to see what the proposed sequel(s) may entail.
8) Moon - Now this is how you do hard sci-fi and still make it entertaining. Remarkable performance by Rockwell and after watching Blade Runner, could definitely see this fitting inside that universe.

July 4, 2010
9) Independence Day - Awww Hell Noooo, this is still a good, fun movie.
10) Serenity - I feel sad everytime I watch this, not because it isn't awesome but because we'll never see these characters again. With the crap on tv nowadays to think this crew only saw half a season of exploits is depressing.

I'm tempted to watch Independence Day tonight, just because it's, you know, Independence Day, but I'm really getting into Supernatural season 1 and it's going to be hard to stop it.

I think I almost fell asleep twice during Luigi Cozzi's Contamination

How about some recommendations for the "What If" category? All I can think of is It Happened Here.

I ended up with Big or The Invention of Lying but I could use some suggestions also.

The Butterfly Effect films?

So what's the general consensus on post apocalyptic movies? I've been wanting to watch The Road. I know some people count these types of movies as sci fi and others don't

All of the few post-apocalyptic films I checked were listed as sci-fi. I don't know that particular film, but I'd count any of the sub-genre without even asking.

Any film that takes place in the future is by definition sci-fi and/or fantasy, so it would be fine.

I had decided to take a really casual approach to this challenge and not worry about it too much, but I've already watched more than I thought I would. The interesting thing is that instead of watching the movies I've never seen before, I've been more compelled to revisit the ones I haven't seen in years, though I am hoping to finally watch all of Forbidden Planet sometime this month. Another helpful aspect is that many of the movies my son likes to watch ad naseum fits in either sci-fi or fantasy. This has been a lot more fun than I thought it would be, especially since I'm not really into sci-fi that much.

^ I agree in that the challenges can be more fun when it's possible to involve the kids/family. Much of last year's challenge for me was spent going through the old Wonder Woman television show. This year, I've been knocking out the remainder of my unwatched Adventures of Superman episodes.