Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Perhaps a Trekkie can enlighten me - what is the deal with Chekov's hair? It's like some sort of bizarre pageboy/moptop hybrid, and rather...feminine.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Thanks guys, that's a lot of help. I think the Little Shop of Horrors one will work great. I like the newer one so it'll be fun to see how they differ.

I never even thought of Star Trek. The Borg do qualify, don't they? I was wondering if I would actually watch some Trek for the challenge. I thought of Terminator but I didn't really enjoy it the first time or two I've watched it. Thanks for the suggestions...I don't think I would have thought of any of those and it does give me some good choices.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

It was done to appeal to the youth audience - mimic The Beatles and The Monkees haircuts a bit. Make him look like the typical teenager/young adult of the era (yeah... riiiiight).

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I looked more, you're right. Doesn't this mean the title of the book is incorrect? If someone wanted to count them as cyborgs, I wouldn't care too much.

Does the final cut make the movie decent? I remember watching it as a kid and it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

No, the book title *is* correct *for the book*. In the novel they *are* androids and called "Andies". The screenwriters made them bioengineered and called them "replicants". From all I've read on the film the screenwriters didn't read the novel but had only an idea as to the plot, etc. and used it as a basis rather than adaptation.
I like it better, but I never thought the opening narration help much. Even so, it's *not* an easy film to follow. I first saw it when it came out and was somewhat unimpressed, but I was looking for more of an adaptation of the novel which the film is not. It took another viewing years later before I developed a liking for the film. That second viewing was the "Director's Cut" of the film and after I'd seen the "Final Cut" I liked it even more. So does that make it decent? I guess it depends on your outlook. If you've never seen the "Director's Cut" or "Final Cut" I'd recommend either, especially considering you saw it "as a kid". You would probably come away with a different perspective after viewing it with adult sensibilities.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I have a question on the cyborg listing for the checklist also. First I watched Syngenor from 1990 because the cover says its cyborgs and AllMovie listed it as cyborgs, but they are really sythetically engineered beings, I don't believe there are any robot parts. Then I watched Sucker Punch because it lists cyborgs but they are only in one fight scene in the movie. Do either/both of these qualify? I may be dramatically overthinking this, in the past I always counted anything that listed the subgenre in the keywords.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

And you went over all this last week <slaps forehead>.

As for watching it as a kid, that meant being on TV or renting it on VHS. I'll try to get at least one viewing in.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I finished FLASH GORDON (1936) this morning, the first Flash Gordon serial. It’s a really bizarre piece of big-studio filmmaking, with some strange elements, awkward acting and a very primitive, crude approach to its subject. (E.g., those tin-can rocket ships that emit sparks and smoke and take off like planes and have no seats for anybody but the pilot.) But it deserves attention because it was the first example of filmed space science fiction to come out of America. There’d been George Melies’ A TRIP TO THE MOON in France (ca. 1902); AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS (1924) from Russia; Fritz Lang’s WOMAN IN THE MOON (1929) from Germany; and THINGS TO COME (1936) from England, which ended with a space capsule being shot off from a space gun to go to the moon. But nothing from the U.S. until FLASH GORDON.

I was curious to see the comic strip, by Alex Raymond, that the serials were based on, so I stopped in at a comic book shop in Manhattan and bought a coffee table edition that had every Flash Gordon strip, in color, from 1934-36, just what I was looking for. I’d forgotten how sexy the strip was—the equivalent of a pre-code movie, but available in every family’s Sunday paper! Poor Dale Arden gets stripped and whipped in one scene. It was hard to find a page to scan that could fit on the scanner, but I think this will give some idea of what I'm talking about;
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7253/7...e8697defcd.jpg

The serial occasionally aims to try and capture some of this quality. Dale Arden is put in some sexy outfits and Priscilla Lawson, a dark brunette, is pretty sexy as Aura, but it’s never as explicit as it is in the comic strip.

Flash and Dale are played by Buster Crabbe and Jean Rogers as, essentially, dumb blondes. Good-looking, but not terribly proactive. Ming the Merciless and his daughter Aura have the more interesting characters and are acted by performers who give what could have been seriously stereotyped characters some nuance and layers. Charles Middleton is pretty amazing. He was capable of great oratorical gifts and could have made a great Lincoln. In fact, he played Lincoln three times in the 1930s, and Lincoln’s father once (in ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS). He played Lincoln’s Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis, in one movie (VIRGINIA CITY). His rich American voice may not have had the right accent for an Oriental despot from outer space (not that I know how such a character would have sounded), but Middleton’s authority and gravitas made Ming quite a formidable character.

John Lipson plays the rotund, bearded King Vultan, ruler of the Birdmen, and laughs his way through the entire serial. His performance is definitely atypical of a serial villain, even one who becomes an ally of the hero. But he's always fun to watch (and listen to).

I'd never seen FLASH GORDON (1936) in its entirety before. When I was a kid I watched the sequels, which are much, much better, when the chapters ran on a local kids' show (The Chuck McCann Show) in the mid-'60s. Now to re-watch the sequels.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

while im still well behind I got back into atching some first time views.

Day the Earth Stood Still - original...debating on watching the remake as I bought it to get the original on blu
Inception - which I enjoyed alot more then I thought I would prolly of of my favorites so far this challenge
Shutter Island - another decent flick...anyone know if this is a remake at all seemed really familiar but cant remember the title it reminds me of I do remember it was a foreign title.


tonight gonna watch me Super 8

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I’m not as far along with the checklist as I would have liked. I have films selected for about everything, but am not sure I’ll get to everything. I’ve been watching a lot of Babylon 5 and Star Trek: TNG. As noted, I often find it easier to watch television episodes than films.

Saturday, my parents took me to see Brave for my birthday, and I really enjoyed it. The people at Pixar are so good at pulling heartstrings. I was sitting next to my mother and noticed that she was also getting emotional.

I rewatched a couple of old favorites: Superman and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I was not really into superheroes as a kid, but Superman was one of the films that the choir director showed during downtime after competitions. I also wasn’t a big fan of science fiction, but my younger brother was. He convinced me to stay up and watch Close Encounters with him. It started at midnight, and he fell asleep about thirty minutes in. However, I was already sucked in and watched the whole thing. He was all chipper in the morning, and I was tired and grumpy. Same thing happened with Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Today, I watched The Terminator, which was quite a wonderful ride! I cannot believe that I waited so long to watch it. I also watched Curse of the Aztec Mummy which raised two questions: 1) how can such an attractive box set with such awesome poster art contain such terrible films? 2) what the fuck, Mexican Hollywood?

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I grew up with this book as a kid

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

The ones I read the most were the early years, which I happily discovered had been reprinted in this volume:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

I'll have to watch the serial some day.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I took a break from Irwin Allen and movies from the sci fi classics set yesterday to watch some Godzilla. I decided to watch Godzilla X Mechagodzilla. I have the subtitled version that I got at G Fest last year.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Does 'Watch a film directed/produced...' include Executive Producer?

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Generally, no. IMO, that's a pretty low level title to have. Even I have a couple Executive Producer credits, which goes to show that they don't mean much. It's the equivalent of the Good Conduct medal you get in the military that they hand out to anyone that isn't a screw up.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I finally followed up on my end with Something Weird Video. They're offering:
Battle Beyond the Sun
Destination Space
Atomic Brain/Love After Death/Incredible Petrified World

If you don't like those titles, you have me to blame since I chose them :)

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

while 'Zardoz' could have been the third film on the bill, last night I enjoyed both 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People' and 'Outland' starring Sean Connery - what was funny about the latter two films, is that both endings mirrored each other in that

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I finished my checklist. Now I'm free to watch what I please; as long as it's sci-fi/fantasy.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Congrats to coyoteblue, just avoid the colorized version!

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Congrats Coyoteblue

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

MI4 have enough (or any) Sci-Fi elements to make it viable (or perhaps with a Wildcard)?

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Nice choices! I've had my eye on the Atomic Brain disk for a while. Are the other 2 new releases? I've not seen them listed from Something Weird, only Sinister Cinema and Alpha Video.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I don't think they're new but they are DVD-R releases, so that may be why. I can't remember seeing any of their DVD-R stuff sold outside their site before.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I passed the number of films I got in last years whole challenge but looks like I am going to miss the 100 by a long shot.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

*Makes mental note to scan future credits for "Mister Peepers"

I just saw it a few weeks ago and don't recall anything. As we discussed with Bond, I don't think having gadgets is enough.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I watched Star Trek: First Contact tonight. Man, Patrick Stewart works out a lot! Loved the ending when he's climbing those tubes at the end. :) I like how it seems like a long episode rather than a movie.

I also just got done with Little Shop of Horrors, the Roger Corman version. I liked it. It's different enough to the remake which I really enjoy that it didn't feel like I already knew the story. I know it's the original but the 2nd one I've watched so often, it's a lot more familiar. I liked the ending in this one, though I thought it was a bit abrupt. Could have drawn it out more, I think. Though, I just realized I have a movie at the library that's by Corman as well, but I'm glad I watched it as I did enjoy it.

I have 2 more categories to mark off the checklist: 2nd foreign language and written/starring the late Ray Bradbury. I also have the optional one of nc-17/x-rated, but I don't have anything that work and don't really want to watch anything x-rated. Does anyone have any suggestions for that one? The other two I have in mind already and hope to watch tomorrow. I have Once Upon a Warrior (Telugu) and The Illustrated Man which is in transit but I hope comes in tomorrow.

For ideas for next year, how about a parody? Or are there too few out there? I was watching Ice Pirates and thought about Spaceballs...or is that considered just humor?

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Congratulations to Coyoteblue! That was extremely fast. Nice prize!

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

So I finished a second serial for this Challenge:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8162/7...ebcbab1578.jpg

I'm a huge fan of the 1961 film version with Harryhausen's special effects and Herrmann's music. I've also seen the 1929 version, which is more like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. So I've always wanted to see this serial from 1951 to see what it had in common with the 1961 version. I read a synopsis of it in Serial Quarterly many decades ago and was intrigued by the addition of aliens from Mercury, including a cute girl named Rulu (Karen Randle) in some kind of Elizabethan page or squire outfit. (I guess they used whatever oddball period costume they had on the rack that fit the actress.)

So now I've finally seen it. It's not very good. It was produced for Columbia by Sam Katzman, who managed to turn out tons of B-movies and serials from the '40s to the '60s, without spending much money. The 1961 film was shot in coastal regions of Spain, with some remarkable mountain and seaside locations. This one was shot in Bronson Canyon (a stone's throw from downtown L.A.) and in some of those rocky areas outside L.A. where they shot tons of westerns. Plus a few cheap cave sets. There are four different sets of characters in the serial: the five Civil War castaways, a trio of aliens from Mercury, a group of pirates, and an island tribe that apparently lived underground for centuries. Most of the serial consists of one party or the other running frantically around the rocks or into the caves.

There's not much logic on display, nor much in the way of mental faculties. Not a hell of a lot happens except when the aliens shoot their "ray guns" and cause fire and sparks to burst out of the rocks they shoot at. The aliens are the only ones who have a real agenda, but it takes 13 chapters before we learn what it is. Captain Nemo pops up late in the proceedings--in Chapter 14--although he lurks about quite a bit as a masked "mystery man" in the early chapters.

There are a few things in common between the serial and the movie, although now I have to re-read the original book by Jules Verne to see if they're in the book, which I read most of in Junior High School. But there are no aliens in any other version I know of.

Bernie Hamilton (Captain Dobey on "Starsky and Hutch") plays Neb, the one black character in the serial and the only significant black supporting character I've seen in a serial--ever. He gets to carry things and do drudge work. And when they shoot it out with the pirates, he has to load the rifles and pass them to the white guys, who do the shooting. He also sits out most fights and has to speak in a slightly exaggerated black accent.

The other actors are generally pretty bad. I've heard of very few of them. Richard Crane, who plays the hero, Captain Harding, played Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, on TV. The one decent actor in the cast, aside from Hamilton, is Gene Roth, a stocky character actor who usually played sheriffs and gruff official types. He plays the pirate captain here and treats everyone pretty roughly, although I can't blame him. The one woman in the cast, Karen Randle, is cute, but not much of an actress.

Republic Pictures' serials were far superior. And Universal Pictures' also. Now I have to tackle CAPTAIN MARVEL and the other Flash Gordon serials. And BUCK ROGERS.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

The CBS stylists/wig-weavers seem to have straightened things out by the "Mirror, Mirror" episode.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

so Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is listed as Fantasy....Yet Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies isnt :(
im assuming it prolly needs to be used as a wildcard?

oddly enough i think i enjoyed Lincoln vs. Zombies alot more

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

You mean NBC. And it was only responsible for airing the show, not producing it. The stylists/wig-weavers would have been working for Paramount.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

"Oooh, Wig Weaver, I believe it took four to get it riiiight..."

Could I use a wildcard on Shocker?

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

There are very few that fit. I'm planning to use Predator 2. There's also George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, The Cell, and Arabian Nights (1974) of those I've found that I'd consider. I don't know anything about the last 2 but they sound interesting. If you're not *totally* opposed to the "X" rating you could use A Clockwork Orange which originally received an "X" rating but was re-rated later (with no cuts) to "R". Because of the original rating it still qualifies.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

What about Flesh Gordon? Was that originally rated X?

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Yes

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Yes, and was edited to get an "R" rating when it was originally released. Supposedly the print on the VHS & DVD is the original "X" rated version.

From Wikipedia:

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Watched Total Recall (1990) for the first-time. Nice sci-fi / action movie with some classic Arnold lines.

Just a confirmation - TDKR does not count in this challenge, right?

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

*Another* good adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. This one based on "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". It was originally given an X-rating for excessive violence. Some violence was trimmed and different camera angles were used in some of the more over the top scenes after which the movie was re-rated R.

Maybe we should have a "Adapted from a story by Philip K. Dick" checklist item next year:

Blade Runner (1982), based on the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
Total Recall (1990), based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"
Screamers (1995), based on the short story "Second Variety"
Minority Report (2002), based on the short story "The Minority Report"
Impostor (2002), based on the story "Imposter"
Paycheck (2003), based on the short story "Paycheck".
A Scanner Darkly (2006), based on the novel "A Scanner Darkly".
Next (2007), loosely based on the short story "The Golden Man".
Radio Free Albemuth (2010), loosely based on the novel "Radio Free Albemuth" (no DVD release of this one yet).
The Adjustment Bureau (2011), loosely based on the short story "Adjustment Team".
And a remake of Total Recall is on slate for release August 3 this year.

Re: 5th Annual Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Taking a little break from the challenge for a few days. I'm not burned out yet, just that I am going on vacation next week and won't have access to movies or shows unless I bring my IPod with me. And before I leave I am watching some aviation documentaries on dvd since I am going to Oshkosh, the home of the world's biggest airplane convention next week to get me in the mood for vacation.