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

:up:
I almost watched one of my few anime discs last night, glad I changed my mind. Cyber City Something or Other is now queued for the 31st.

I ended up finally watching the pilot episode of The 4400. I enjoyed the premise and most of the cinematography, but found the acting and some of the dialogue to me quite mediocre. I'll finish this short first season, but almost hope it stays sort of meh so that I don't feel compelled to buy anymore seasons.

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

How rude :D! I wanted to watch Transformers: the Movie for this challenge, guess I'll make it my last viewing on the 31st. I just started the sci-fi challenge, now I gotta start thinking about animation challenge. These are good problems to have.

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

Looks like I'll be watching some Robotech or Star Blazers on the 31st. Watched Incredible Petrified World last night, rather dull movie that came across more as an adventure movie than actual sci fi, but IMDB listed it as sci fi, so it still counted.

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

Oddly enough, not all movies in the 50 movie Sci Fi Classics set by MC are even classified as sci fi by imdb. The Incredible Petrified World was the only movie on Side A of Disc 1 that even had a sci fi tag under imdb's classification, the others were horror or adventure.

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

I've got enough anime sci-fi to last me the rest of the year, at least. So I'll probably focus on live-action Japanese sci-fi this month: Godzilla/Gamera/Kaiju movies and tokusatsu TV shows: Ultraman, Space Sheriff Gavan, Super Robot Red Baron, Iron King, and a couple dozen sentai shows, including the most recent one I have: "Celestial Clothing Squadron Goseiger," which I watched four episodes from last night and this morning, before getting ready for work:
http://tokin4thought.files.wordpress...4/goseiger.jpg

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

Just finished another movie in the 50 movie Sci Fi Classics set, The Amazing Transparent Man. Interestng to see a take where the scientist wasn't actually a Mad Scientist.

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

I went through that and the Horror Classics set a long time ago and enjoyed both. I also recall hitting those odd movies that didn't seem to fit in the set. I want to say there was some film in the horror set about some guy that worked for a newspaper. Had nothing to do with horror but it was a decent enough drama. It's been about 10 years, so my memory is a bit hazy.

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

Super sad to hear that Andy Griffith passed away this morning. His sitcom is perhaps my favorite show of all time. Tempted to veg in front of the TV watching episodes of it today, but the Challenge addict in me wonders if he has anything that would qualify as fantasy or sci-fi. I guess the animated Christmas specials he lent his voice to would count, right?

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

I also was saddened to hear of Andy Griffith's passing. As for any SF credits, there was his short-lived TV series Salvage 1.

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

I'm on a 1970's / made for TV / post-apocalyptic roll! All the movies I've seen thus far have fit this mold, I didn't plan it, it just happened. 15 episodes of Ark II and the made for TV movies Genesis II, Planet Earth, Strange New World and Where Have All the People Gone?
Trouble is I've only been able to check "post-apocalyptic" and "film from the 1970's" off the checklist.

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

i rewatched a childhood favorite of mine Predators I didnt watch alot of action/sci fi movies growing up but this movie I remember watching fairly often. havent seen it since and was curious if it held up and was pleasantly surprised how much i still enjoy this movie.

I also pushed my way thru she wolves of the wasteland that was not nearly as enjoyable especially trying to finish it at 4am

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

I have been on a buying spree for my 1st animated challenge this August, so this is good news.

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

+1, there goes all my (albiet unrealistic) hopes of a Matlock reunion movie... RIP Andy Griffith aka Matlock. Very uncool.

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

I ran into that same issue a few times on the 2 horror 50 packs I purchased for last year's Horror Challenge. I got to where I'd check each disk just before I put it in and skip the non-qualifiers. I distinctly recall a couple of disks where only 1 title out of 4 had horror as a genre on either IMDB or AllMovie.com.

I've yet to open the 2 50 film sets I picked up for the challenge this year - "Sci-Fi Invasion" and "Sci-Fi Classics". I'd really like to think they have a better handle on this but the "Sci-Fi Classics" set *does* have a few peplum films that I wouldn't consider to be SF so I look them up to find at least 5 of them have both Fantasy and Sci-Fi as genres. Giants of Rome is the only peplum I found that doesn't qualify and has the expected "Action/Adventure/Drama/History/War" genres. In a quick look at the set contents it appears that there are about 8 or 9 films that do not have Sci-Fi as a genre. It appears that even the non-qualifiers are of the type films that would regularly show up on the various "creature feature" programs.

I'm curious as to the opinion of our illustrious moderator. Would *all* of the films on such sets count simply because of their inclusion in a set with a Sci-Fi label or does IMDB need to be the final arbiter?

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

This is also a big problem with Netflix. If you pick out a movie based on their genre classification of Sci-Fi/Fantasy there are many that do not qualify according to IMDB. After I watched a few that didn't qualify I had to start checking with IMDB first, which was very annoying.

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

Unless it's something completely out of place, like Roots being in a sci-fi box set, I don't mind it counting. It's the equivalent of things that wouldn't really count that air on SyFy but do because it's SyFy.

If you find stuff at Amazon or Netflix that are categorized as sci-fi and/or fantasy, that's good enough. Imdb and allmovie are just decent places to start.

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

Thanks! Found the pilot TV film on YouTube and am watching it now.
Will likely watch the Andy Griffith Show reunion film tonight. And shed a few more tears. He really was my favorite TV star.

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

List of Sci-Fi movies that won Oscars?

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

Avatar
Independence Day
The Wizard of Oz
ET
Disney's Beauty and the Beast
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
Return of the King
War of the Worlds
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Hth

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

I should change that to nominated.

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

Yes. There are a ton that have been nominated for some category, but not won. Here are a few more winners:

Babe (1995)
Beetlejuice (1988)
When Worlds Collide (1951)
Mary Poppins (1964)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
The Abyss (1989)
Independence Day (1996)
Total Recall (1990)

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

Doomsday was a better movie than I expected - Adventuresome with a unexpected humor.

Hellraiser: Bloodlines (kind of pinhead in space) seems to get worse every time I watch it.

Star Trek 1 is not worthy - predictably disposable characters, overly emphasized but dated effects, cutesy twist... bring on Wrath of Khan.

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

The annual tradition of watching ID4 on July 4th will commence shortly. It's not the best movie in the world but it's fun.

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

IMDB Advance Search results using "Feature Film", "Science Fiction", "Won Oscar", sorted A-Z.

And again but with "Fantasy" as the genre.

Here are the results for Oscar Nominated Sci-Fi Feature Films.

Award specific information is at the Awards link on the detailed page of the respective film.

IMDB advance search is pretty good at helping find stuff like that. There are a lot of options and many can be combined to further narrow results.

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

I was pleased to see that Import CDs already shipped Body Snatchers (along with High Noon), so I'll be able to give it a spin earlier than expected!

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

I haven't seen Alien 3 or Resurrection in over a decade. I didn't mind them before but they sure are awful now. Resurrection also looks like crap on blu-ray. Neither one needed to be longer than 90 minutes. I've also grown to dislike French cinema in the last few years, which just added fuel to the fire of hate for Resurrection.

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

Does True Blood count towards fantasy, an episode featuring fairies?

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

According to IMDB, it has fantasy as one of its genres, so you're good.

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

Good point, and I even own one (Hogfather). I should have said "live-action, non-craptastic major studio version with a real budget".

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

After having seen the latest Batman trailer right before the new Spidey movie, it made me wanna revisit the 6 previous movies :) though the ones made by Nolan won't qualify for this challenge, I still had a great time watching them & can't wait to see the 3rd movie in the reboot franchise in a couple of weeks time.

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

I watched the Superman marathon on Encore. Don't know why I stuck with III and IV because they sucked.

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

Watched Starship Troopers (an all time fav I knew I would watch for the millionth time for this) and Starship Troopers 3 (for the first time). I had tried to watch 3 once and only got 20 mins in. I finished it this time, and was glad I did. Not too bad.

You might say, what about Starship Troopers 2?

THERE IS NO STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 IN MY WORLD.

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

I watched the first 3 Crow movies, yesterday, first time views for two and three. The Crow is still a great movie, City of Angels suffers mightily from being a sequel and Salvation I liked, not as much as The Crow, but I was alright. I'll have to get number 4 eventually and see if it's the abomination that it's claimed to be.

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

I took a day off yesterday as I just wasn't in a mood to watch tv or movies, wasn't burnt out, just kind of a blah day and one of those days where you don't feel like doing much of anything. I started as soon as I got up this morning though with Queen of the Amazons.

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

What about Starship Troopers 3?

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

The first thing I watched for this challenge was the 1988 Starship Troopers anime series--well, the first four half-hour episodes (out of six).

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

The ones by Nolan count under the Comic Book Act of 2008.

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

Would the Harryhausen Sinbad movies count as High Fantasy in the checklist? It seems to me that they are set in an alternate world based on some real world cultures but where magic works and is very common and accepted by everyone. Is that enough? I did read the article linked to, but that kind of categorization discussion can make my head hurt. Being set in another world seems to be enough but then they go on to talk about a bunch of other things so any opinions?

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

I could be completely wrong but I think it's no. I just looked up one of the films and in it, Sinbad is the prince of Baghdad and has to travel Hyperborea, which in reality is supposed to be around the Arctic Circle and of course Baghdad exists. It seems like it's more of an Earth with some magic which would make it low fantasy.

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

Here's some examples which might make it clearer:

Urban Fantasy - Cast a Deadly Spell, Lost Girl
High Fantasy - Lord of the Rings, Narnia
Sword and Sorcery - Sinbad, Sword & the Sorcerer
Dark Fantasy - Lord of Illusions
Martial Arts Fantasy - Miracle Fighters, Holy Flame of the Martial World