Great film. I have it on my hard drive and just watched it. If Criterion does another sci-fi box like their Monsters & Madmen set, The Day the Earth Caught Fire would be a worthy addition.

Does not compute.

Finally saw the inspiring (MST3k, Moon, Wall-E) Silent Running... gotta love 70s sci-fi.

Had me a René Clair double feature tonight, watching I Married A Witch (1942) and The Ghost Goes West (1935). I think I lean more toward Witch (Veronica Lake nails that movie), but they're both a lot of fun.

Random comment... I picked up "Wizard of Oz" 2-disk version cheap (I do not care for the film, neither do my kids) and it's in the "unwatched" pile. I always use these challenges to drill through the unwatched pile and as the sci-fi/fantasy movie titles currently comprise only about 10 titles I'll probably get to it before the challenge is over. My grandkids (age 4.5 & 7.5) have never seen it so I'll watch it with them so they'll at least have seen it once.

If you mean "Why would anyone want to subject themselves to this film?", it's because I have a mentality for collecting where I'll purchase certain films I don't particularly like because of their historic value to film making. For these films to be added to the collection the price has to be very low, but when it hits the right price I'll pick up a copy. I have a dozen or so films in my collection that fit this description. It's not a perfect science as there are "classic" films which fit the description that I plan to never own unless given a copy. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. Why would you purchase something you don't like and if there are exceptions, why not all "classic" films? My only defense is that no one ever said collecting should be logical.

I believe Trevor was stunned that you still haven't seen one of the most beloved and admired motion pictures of all time. And if anyone here has anything bad to say about The Wizard of Oz, they'd best not say it to me. I fucking love that movie. It's #3 on my Flickchart, behind Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Lawrence of Arabia.

As for Ralph Bakshi, I've seen Cool World and Wizards. I told myself I liked Cool World for years until I sat down with it on DVD a year or two ago and had to admit it's just not my thing. Wizards had some entertaining moments, but I found it a chore to finish watching. Bakshi's a legend and all that, so if you dig his work, more power to ya. It's just not my cup o' tea.

If he's like me, it goes into the unwatched pile until I watch the disc. My pile is more of an unwatched disc pile instead of an unwatched movie pile.

We all have gaps in our movie-watching. Kudos to BobO'Link for finishing the checklist, and further kudos if he removes Wizard of Oz from the pile.

Yep, that's what I meant.

It's a masterpiece. Even if one is not entertained by it, and I can barely imagine that, they should at least appreciate the artistry and importance to film history.

It's in my top ten for sure, maybe number one if I really thought about it.
Doh! I forget that some people define "unwatched" differently. I'm way too cluttered to even think about individual discs as "unwatched", it's all about the film for me. I probably own some films 5 to 10 times, in different budget collections or editions of the DVD or HD-DVD or BD.
Yes, bravo on the checklist completion Bob!

As for gaps in our film watching, here's an interesting subject: What film is probably the least unwatched? Star Wars? Wizard of Oz?

I know it varies based on age and type of movie fan, but for either all people all time or the average DVDTalker (I'm guessing a 20-50 year old male who loves film), I wouldn't be surprised if one of those two films would be the answer.

This would be a good poll. On this board I'd guess Star Wars over Wizard of Oz. Offhand I can't think of another contender.

This exactly. Anything "new" (unopened) goes in a specific "pile" (actually a shelving unit and several stacks). Even if I've seen the film before I consider the DVD to be "unwatched" simply because I've not yet watched *that* DVD. I can see where use of "unwatched" can easily have the other connotation.

I *have* seen "Wizard of Oz" several times. While I appreciate the artistry and it's overall importance I just do not much care for it. The overall story is fine, it's more the "staging" in that, to me, that's *exactly* how it looks. Like a stage play that's simply been filmed. I do not care for "the stage" nor any film that looks that way... never have.


Thanks to you and others for the "bravo"s! It's nice to finally have completed one.

I'd have to go with "Wizard of Oz" on both counts due simply to the fact that it ran (runs?) annually for decades on broadcast TV, is a true "family film" that parents watched as kids and now want their kids/grandkids to see, plus is one of the true film classics. Not that "Star Wars" isn't a classic, but it's not yet achieved the status of a film like "Wizard of Oz".

I'm holding "Wizard of Oz" to watch with my grandkids as I'm sure they've not yet seen it simply because their mom doesn't care for it. And, no, I did not influence that decision. I made sure my kids saw it, as well as other cinema classics, while they were growing up. I *always* kept my opinion to myself until *after* they had seen a film and gave me theirs. At best I'd recommend a film with a "you'll probably like this one".

Good job. I've only managed to finish one, the cult/b-movie/drive-in one and I had to do wild cards.

But since someone's completed it, we clearly need to make it harder next year

Though I haven't made it through the checklist, I have watched some interesting titles that I hadn't seen before:

Dune was strange and utterly incomprehensible. I couldn't even tell you what the heck happened in this movie. Did I miss something?

I'll finish the first season of Torchwood tomorrow and it has been ok. There were a couple really interesting episodes but the rest were a tad cheesy. Though I probably won't be able to watch the next two seasons before the end of the challenge, I'll get to them eventually.

Sherlock Holmes wasn't quite what I expected. There wasn't much substance to it but there were some fun moments. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a lot of fun. I might have to pick up the blu-ray.

I hasn't seen Strange Days since it was released in theaters and it holds up fairly well. I still don't care for the ending but no movie is perfect.

Every time I tried to watch Dune, it made zero sense and I never finished it until the one time after I read the book. The book's good but the movie is awful and it's the only way I manged to follow any of it. I have zero desire to ever watch it again.

Yes, lots. You need to read the book before you see the David Lynch film. Even then, as Mister Peeper says, it's not that good and the extended version is recommended over the Theatrical version.
The "Director's Cut" of the Sci-Fi Channel Mini-Series is the one to watch, as well as the sequel "Children of Dune". Both are *very* good, stick to the novels fairly well and do not require one to have read them to enjoy and comprehend. Of course the combined length of roughly 9 1/2 hours helps with this task. If I hit 100 with enough time left I may watch them again for this challenge.

Has anyone seen the German movie 7 Dwarves? It is streaming on Netflix and is a live action version of the story of Snow White and the 7 Dwarves, but is not listed as Fantasy in the IMDB. It seems that it should qualify but I wanted to get other opinions.

just watched return to oz and am baffles on how i never knew this movie existed.

That movie is weird with a beard, but I dig it. My wife hated it, though, and has been mistrustful of any movie recommendations I've made since. That was almost eight years ago! Lots of great WTF? moments throughout.

As for me, I'm in excruciating dental pain and was told yesterday that I have to hope the inflammation comes down by Monday before they can extract the offending wisdom tooth and the tooth in front of it that is now its accomplice. I'm therefore highly medicated, which may be the only way I got through 2009's Princess of Mars. A friend of mine turned me onto Burroughs's "Barsoom" novels a few years ago and I began reading them on the same one novel annually schedule that I went through the Fleming Bond novels. This film adaptation has been in my queue for about a year, but it took seeing the trailer for next year's John Carter to prompt me into finally streaming it.

It's awful in a "SyFy Originals" kind of way, with really bad visual effects. Actually, for a movie of the mid-late 90s, it would be pretty impressive. Sadly, it was released in '09 where its production values were subpar even for TV. And Traci Lords as Dejah Thoris? She worked the Princess Leia slave outfit, yes, but nothing about her presence felt right in the role to me.

I will say that I actually liked Antonio Sabato, Jr. as John Carter. He had nice, effortless blend of action hero with wisecracking victim of circumstance. Otherwise, the novel was butchered in the process of adaptation and what did make it to the screen fell prey to budgetary restrictions so badly that I cannot, in good conscience, recommend it as a primer of any kind for those who are curious about the forthcoming John Carter. At best, it may spoil a few things that the future movie will do well.

Mind you, I watched while under the heavy influence of medication. It may be that my review has been entirely too generous. Go read Burroughs's novels instead, and then come to this knowing how inferior it is. At least then, you'll have a proper context for evaluation.

Question: IMDb has the "Giant Insect" tag for this. Will it satisfy the "Giant Critter" checklist item? The insects in question were very large spiders.

yes

The one with Robert? Is that a viable sci-fi title? I have it in the unwatched pile and would love to see it in the next hour, anyone?

It's an example given on Wikipedia's "Steampunk" page, so I was gonna watch it for this challenge on that basis.

Even though it's not listed as sci-fi or fantasy, it was listed as steampunk which is why I used it. I hope it counts.

If it's steampunk, then I guess it works. I think it leans somewhat towards fantasy.

Just watched Drive Angry and .