Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

I saw the show as a kid off and on, so it's a blast seeing them sequentially - some of the fx shots are so cheezy they are almost laughable - but it's sooo entertaining.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

the tv spots for It's Alive were terrifying to me as a kid - I always closed my eyes, when I thought we'd see the monster in the baby basket.

III's the one with an entire island of the mutants - right?

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

What, am I on your ignore list or something?

This is from earlier in this thread:
Not that you'll see it... :(


:lol:

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Different movies.

It's Alive! (1969)
It's Alive (1974)

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Just finished Firefly (my third time watching)! :banana: I'd use it for the picture in my list post, but when I was going back through my old July lists I noticed I had already used Serenity in 2010 and 2011. :lol:

Instead my picture is Game of Thrones, which is appropriate since season 2 ROCKS. I have one episode left, but I'll be away from my BD player for the weekend. :sad:

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

No you are not! SORRY! I thought I'd seen those posted early in the discussions and looked for it but just didn't see the post. I *did* see the one but not the rest of the list! I *thought* I'd encorporated those when you first mentioned them and they were not there. Obviously not, eh? Oh well... chalk it up to sleep deprivation. I've spent roughly 24 hours on the road over the past week or so with several very long days in between *plus* watching as much SF as possible when home. :D

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

:D Yeah, when I went back to find my old post, I saw that you'd quoted my first one and I figured maybe you'd just missed the second post somehow. Easy thing to do. Especially with the forum acting up like it was last night and earlier this morning.

(I was joking about the ignore list, hence the :lol:. Sorry if my recent vacation made you think I was seriously offended or anything.)

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Thanks. These changes didn't sound familiar, so I took a look back at my lists from the last couple of years, and it turns out I never finished Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (or Battlestar Galactica). I'd been slowly working my way through them, but somehow neglected to go back to them last year, which I suppose led me to think I'd finished them when this year's Challenge rolled around. Now to see how many episodes I can get through by the end of the month.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Two first time viewings last night:

Zombieland: Enjoyed this way more than I expected. Really good performances by the main cast. The story had some good messages too. One of the best cameo appearances as well. :) if you haven't seen it, I won't spoil it for you. I didn't know about it and it was a great surprise!

Robocop: Such an 80's movie... too violent and too much foul language. I loved the almost cheesy special effects. I was extremely surprised and delighted to see the Ed209, or whatever it was, stop motion animated! That looked great! I also always think it is so ridiculous when villains are portrayed as laughing historically while they are torturing/raping/killing terrified victims. Somehow I just don't think it happens that way.

Questions:
1. Does Robocop qualify as a cyborg movie on the checklist even though it does not involve "revolt"?

2. Does Zombieland qualify as "post-apocalyptic" because society has been wiped out, even though there really has not been an "apocalyptic" event? To me that signifies a war or nuclear event, but I may be wrong on that.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

1. Cyborg movie yes, revolt no, sorry.

2. I'll allow it as post apocalyptic.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Not at all... I tried to come up with a snappy comeback but nothing "clicked" so... :D

I watched another turkey last night - Doomsday Machine (1972). I thought I was watching a early made-for-TV film as I remembered most of the principals from their TV work, Bobby Van, Ruta Lee, Mala Powers, Grant Williams, and James Craig. I was surprised to see Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicut on M*A*S*H) as a reporter early in the film. Casey Kasem is also present in a minor role as a Mission Control Officer.

It's yet another end-of-the-world film but in this one 7 people leave for Venus (why do I feel like I'm watching *lots* of films about Venus this year??). 3 of the men are replaced by women at the last minute presumably to be the genesis for repopulating the Earth should the Chinese set off the Doomsday Machine, a fact the crew works out *after* the quickly moved up launch. And why 7? 4 men, 3 women. It has disaster written all over it and is just cliche ridden, lazy scriptwriting! You *know* one of the men will be a jerk and he is.

Early in the film they view the destruction of Earth and later

The film has potential, but cheap sets, bad acting, lapses in logic, and poor special effects keep it from developing. Add that most of the production was done in 1967, halted before filming the ending due to lack of funding, and was completed by another company in 1972 without the original cast or sets and it's a film you have to see to believe. Mala Powers is especially bad turning in a mostly telegraphed affair. I wondered if this was one of those "I need some quick cash" jobs as it certainly looked that way. The ship exterior changes several times - it's a normal NASA staged rocket (which at least helps explain the ending), sleek winged ship, and a space station. I recall at least 4 different ships shown as the same one. Outside shots with the actors show the ship to be roughly 10' in diameter while it has a very spacious interior but that's typical of 50s films... wait... this was done in the mid-late 60s. The tacked on ending is one of those "What the heck was that?" moments.

The primary saving grace was I watched it as a Elvira "Movie Macabre" episode. I understand it was also shown as a Cinematic Titanic (episode 2 - which is available free on HULU). Should you chose to watch this outside the auspices of either of those you've been warned! It's available for free streaming at the Internet Archive site.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

So the cyborgs definitely have to revolt? Bummer. That narrows down the options a lot. :(

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Cyborgs *or* Cybernetic (i.e. robot/computer). Some that come to mind are:

Terminator series
Matrix series
2001: A Space Odyssey (HAL turns on crew)
Blade Runner
Wall-E
I, Robot
Battlestar Galactica - either series
Colossus: The Forbin Project
Hardware
Endhiran (The Robot)
Red Planet
Tron

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Yes. That was the one series of movies I wouldn't rent back when I was a kid. I hated that baby but it still wouldn't stop me from occasionally taking a peak at the back of the box now and then.

Oops. Similar titles and director names.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

That was annoying in the last Die Hard film, since he had the most annoying laugh and he'd do it while not doing anything particularly evil.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Anybody here see PACIFIC RIM yet? Perfect choice for this challenge, although not a perfect film by any means. I've been watching a lot of related Japanese stuff for challenge and will be watching even more now, simply to get the sour taste of PACIFIC RIM out. It's way too serious and intense and it just got to be a bit much after a while. It didn't have the sense of fun that a kaiju movie is supposed to have (well, post-GOJIRA, anyway). There was no humor and not much to point to in the way of acting. No real chemistry among the cast. There are reasons why THE MATRIX and two of the TRANSFORMERS movies are true pop classics, while this one isn't and won't be.

Still, I recommend it to this self-selected group. There are a lot of very impressive scenes and quite a few original touches in the midst of all the derivative ones. You can name-check tons of other movies and TV shows as you're watching it. (My daughter's reaction: "Evangelion the movie.") It definitely has its place in the long history of giant monster/giant robot/alien invasion movies/anime/TV shows.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Well, I finally got around to finishing disc 1 of Tekkaman Blade. I have to say I enjoy the unedited version of Teknoman much better. It has also got me psyched enough for the upcoming animation challenge to watch a couple days of sci fi animation.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

I decided to postone my animation day for a day or two, as I had been wanting to watch Star Trek for the past couple days and finally decided, no time like the present to watch my DVDs of what eps I have and my movies, and maybe some eps on Netflix and tv.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

I have seen all of those except Colossus and Endhiran. I don't own either nor would I likely find one by month's end. I do not remember that aspect of Red Planet and I recently got the blu-ray for $5. Maybe it's time to rewatch that?

Thanks for the list!

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Demon Seed is another good pick. It's about a learning computer system that, among other things, does home automation for the people that built it. Eventually it decides it wants reproduce with a human and goes about doing it.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

You're welcome!

I highly recommend Endhiran. It has a pretty good plot and some amazing special effects. You just have to get past the Bollywood approach of a song and dance production number every so often. The first time I saw it was on YouTube and I enjoyed it so much I purchased a copy. You might still be able to view it there. I've heard there is a sequel in the works.

Red Planet is basically:

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

and there's also this one, which is a remake of the '74 film:

It's Alive (2008)

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

I was in the mood to watch Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness today, and while I found Evil Dead 2, a video game was in my PS3, while I thought AoD was in there, so I have no clue where the disc is. Just my luskc. Luckilly, Encore Action is airing Army of Darkness at 10 PM Eastern time tonight, and being Encore, it will be unedited too, just won't be the blu ray of the movie.

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Agreed. It was very, very poor. Mr Hemsworth did the best he could under the circumstances, I felt, but even Ms Theron did not seem to be putting forth much effort. The plot was all over the place (and what was the point of the brother..?), the characters were neither relateable nor interesting, and your last point is an important one, too!

Yes, it seems as if they realized (during/after filming...?) that they didn't really have enough to sustain a film plotwise, and just amped up the blood and intestines to compensate. Who would have thought that that wouldn't be enough to interest people...? :rolleyes:

Boo! It was a little slower, but it was VERY good.

Youth, inorganic webshooters, the Lizard...? The tone was lighter in its flippancy (the wisecracking), but also less cartoon-y in its action. I thought it did very well to keep true to Spider-man while being different from the Raimi version. Nolan and Burton's Batmen were both dark and mildly-"realistic"; Raimi and Webb's Spider-men were both grey (light-darkness) and embraced the pseudo-science of the villains.

I found it quite deadly dull, and a distinctly lesser sidenote to the Sword in the Stone which is already a very minor Disney offering. I'll be interested to hear if you felt the charm continued. :)

Re: 6th Annual Sci Fi/Fantasy Challenge
 

Most of my time has been spent burning through Fringe. Like Buffy and Angel, Fringe was built for binge viewing and it's a lot easier to keep track of what's going on. I can just imagine the agonizing wait between weeks and sometimes months (having had to live through the same for Buffy and Angel). I'm almost halfway through the series now.

Still managing to work in at least one or two movies a week.

The first time a watched The Black Cauldron I was totally disappointed by what I considered (a still mostly consider) a cop out ending. It still pales compared to the actual The Chronicles of Prydain; compressing the five books into an 80 minute movie didn't do it any favors. Still, the second time I watched it, after decades, I liked it a lot more. The ending still grates though.