After skimming the lists, I see Chad and Trevor have yet to list anything. Just a reminder that you need at least one entry to qualify for a prize. If you two plan to list anything, you have two weeks left.

Continuing on with that 8 movie "action pack" set...

Cypher (2002) wasn't half bad. It's more talk and mystery than action/fx which is somewhat a nice change of pace. It's more cyber security/super spy stuff with a bit of Matrix type confusions thrown in for good measure. It was better than I'd thought it was going to be and will receive another viewing at some point.

I woke up early this morning and decided to watch another film rather than attempt ~90 minutes of catnaps waiting for the alarm. I should have gone for the catnaps as I watched Convict 762 (1997), the last film on that disc. I thought Total Recall 2070 was lame but this one almost makes it look like high art. It's one of those "trapped in a haunted house" type films - yeah... like Alien but with *none* of the good stuff. Here's the synopsis from IMDB (I'm not going to spoilerize it because you *need* to know...):
It spends the *entire* movie using all the standard tropes for this type film with the women doing all the stupid things people in these films do. No one can decide *who* is Convict 762 and by the end of the film you no longer care as there are several times the computer decides differently which of the men is the killer. Yeah... it's as bad as it sounds.

So... that's 2 watchable films and 2 turkeys. It's still worth the $4 I paid - especially if any of the other 4 are worthwhile.

I just watched Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. Good movie, but then I like any Harryhausen film. Just have It Came From Beneath the Sea and the set will finally be watched.

Thanks. I think eventually I'll have one of Crash for every challenge. I'm a fan of cats myself and since I have one...well, I made a "deal" with him. I rescue him from the shelter-he puts up with me decorating him occasionally. It's worked so far.

I enjoyed that whole set (if it's the one I'm thinking of) of Harryhausen. I'm glad I picked it up when I saw it at Big Lots. I watched all 3 this month and I'd say the "20 Millions Miles to Earth" was my favorite.

Had a surprise entry late last night/early this morning. Couldn't sleep, so was channel surfing. Stumbled across "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" with Steve Carell in it. Started watching it just for something to watch and ended up really, really enjoying it. It's not all action or anything exciting, but it is well done and you really get sucked into it. Until I looked it up, I didn't think it qualified, but it is listed with a sci-fi subplot, so it counts this month. I'm actually DVR'ing it so that I can watch again.

That's a very good set with a nice booklet! In spite of owning that 3 film set I like the films so much I actually purchased the 2 disc BW/Colorized versions of 20 Million... and It Came from Beneath... from BL sometime back when they had them for $3 each just to see if the colorization was any good. It's actually not too bad, but I still prefer the BW versions.

Our good sponsor (and frequent participant), Hamilton Books, has the 3 film box set that comes with the Ymir figure for $19.95 + shipping. I'm leaning hard on getting it for no other reason than to have all three films in the colorized versions BUT more importantly to get that cool figurine!

I (sporadically) write reviews for a website, and got a review copy of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXX. Thankfully, three out of the four movies are eligible for this challenge (The Black Scorpion, Outlaw (of Gor), and The Projected Man). I've watched the first two, and forgotten just how much I enjoyed the cheesiness of Outlaw.

Speaking of cheesiness, I found Beware! The Blob on YouTube, and that's almost painfully bad. It was directed by Larry Hagman, and parts of it are very obviously improvised (and not in a good way).

Another YouTube find was a silent movie version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea from 1916. The highlight here was the underwater photography, which (while a bit murky to modern eyes) was quite revolutionary for its time. It makes me want to compare it to the Disney version, which I found at the library and will be watching soon.

Next I watched all 4 movies in the Tremors series. I've seen the first one many times, so I knew it was good. The second one was all right, and the third one wasn't that great. The fourth one was set in 1889 and was about the first sighting of the graboids, and I liked that one quite a bit.

Finally, I did a double feature of Man of Steel and Pacific Rim. Man of Steel was about as dark and depressing as I was expecting, despite the fact that I thought Henry Cavill was pretty good as Superman. Plus I'm another person that didn't like the way Superman dispatched Zod. It seemed too out of character to me. Unless they lighten up Supes a bit in the next movie, I don't see how adding Batman to the mix is really going to help much. I did find Pacific Rim to be a lot of fun, though. I regret not seeing that one on a big screen. I think I would have liked it even more.

Those two are notorious for reserving spots and not listing anything. (Cronenbergfan71 and HyperWeather also have nothing listed yet.)

I would've had nothing listed yet either, but I finally watched something yesterday. I just haven't been in much of a TV watching mood recently, so most of what I have watched was either mindless stuff like Pawn Stars or Storage Wars, or movies or TV shows that I've seen so many times before that I didn't really have to pay attention to what was going on. On top of that, my internet was out for a couple days because of a lightning strike or something, which also killed my wireless router and my old Blu-ray player. Then my Direct TV went out. And around the same time, my new Blu-ray player decided it didn't want to send pictures down the HDMI cable anymore (I'm waiting to hear if the manufacturer will honor the warranty, since I've only had it for a few months).

I bought a cheap Blu-ray player to replace the dead one and used it to watch some stuff. I still need to test Netflix streaming on it, so I should be watching something that counts tonight or early tomorrow.

Of course, Ultraviolet is a vampire series, not a zombie series, but my point about the virus was more or less correct (I don't think they have identified the infection as a virus).

We watched a couple more episodes tonight, and I highly recommend it.

I forgot I had planned to watch "Pacific Rim" this challenge, so I'm glad you mentioned this. I also have "Man of Steel" and I should add that to my list. Just picked up a couple movies from the library that I need to get to first. Nothing too exciting, though. Took today off, needed to clear some of the shows of my DVR that have been filling it up.

I hit a bit of a brick wall with The X-Files. I've gotten to that point where I really want to finish the series but I also really want to be watching something else. It doesn't help that season 8 wasn't exactly the high point for the show.

You'll enjoy Pacific Rim. I own it. Plan to watch it some time this month myself.

During the theatrical release I basically dismissed Pacific Rim as it looked pretty much like a "Transformers clone" and my thinking was it would be absolute crap. Then I read and hear all these good reviews which piques my interest. THEN *you* guys talk it up! Looks like I'm going to have to pick up a copy to see for myself!

I'm wondering if my Blu-Ray player is on the way out, as the other night, I could hear the disc inside. I know what you mean. Lately, I've just been watching what I want, and not worrying about the challenge.

I opted to continue that mini-box set last night and watched:

Equilibrium (2002) - I think I'd have liked this one better had I not been constantly thinking it was pretty much a update of Fahrenheit 451 with a bit of The Matrix (1999) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) style acrobatics/fighting thrown in for good measure. There was even a very quick shot of someone who looks remarkably like Oskar Werner, the fireman in Fahrenheit 451. The basic premis is pretty much the same. To eliminate war, emotions are suppressed and controlled by drugs you must take daily. There are people who do *not* do this and collect "entertainments" (Art, Music, Books, Pets, etc.), many of whom have hidden rooms to house and enjoy these items. The penalty is destruction of your entertainments, typically by burning, and death. The Clerics and Firemen are responsible for carrying out the sentence and destruction. The action was quite good and the "Gun-Kata", martial arts with gunplay, scenes are amazing.

After that was a repeat viewing of Impostor (2001). Looking at my rating from last year shows I didn't care for it as much on the second viewing. That could have simply been due to my being a bit tired and dozing off several times forcing a backup/restart of sections. I still enjoyed it, just not as much as I indicated last year. I recently read this film was originally a shorter segment of a 3 part film. It and Mimic were expanded to feature length after the 30 minute versions had been created (the third part was abandoned). It's possible those added parts are what caused me to doze off and are the root cause for my lower rating.

So far I've pretty much stuck with the unopened piles only getting checklist stuff by happenstance. I'm really tempted to pull more deliberately from the unwatched material to get a few checklist items done this evening. I have enough of them that I'm starting to feel that compulsion to complete the list.

It was quite awesome in IMAX 3D, I gotta say!

I think I'm done with Under the Dome. Anyone else feel the same way? I just power marathoned the last 4 episodes of season 1 that I hadn't seen yet and then the first 3 of season 2. It seems like they're just pulling stuff out of their rear ends now for a 'calamity-of-the-week' type series. I really don't care anymore. It seems so contrived now. Maybe I just shouldn't have power-marathoned 7 episodes.

couldn't wait til next month's Animation challenge - watched Spirited Away (bluray) tonight. I've seen the movie quite a few times and yet I still winced when Chihiro breaks the wood stair as she's trying to walk down them gingerly.

I think I need a clarification. What does "animalcadabra" mean on the checklist?

I didn't make up the term, but I believe magic having to do with animals.

I suggested the term just as a new category to liven things up, and it includes any film where an animal plays a pivotal role. For example,

Babe, (talking animals)
Charlotte's Web (ditto)
Tarantula
Them
It Came from Beneath the Sea

Yeah, I tried to dress up my cats a couple of times, but it never worked. When Lillian goes to the groomers, they put her a bandanna around her neck which usually lasts a few hours. I did once put a scarf on her and dubbed her hipster cat.

Yesterday, I revisited an old favorite, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. When I was a kid, my grandparents had the Disney channel, and we would always bring an armful of tapes to fill up with movies and shows. This film was one that stuck around for years and got watched over and over. I think it holds up pretty well, and it's still exciting to see these kids survive in a jungle that's right outside their house. Also, I'm not to proud to admit that I still got teary when the ant died.

I also watched a few episodes of The Adventures of Superman before bed. That is one charming show, and the cast has great chemistry. I'm always amused at how mean everyone at the Daily Planet is to poor Clark Kent. At one point in "Jet Ace", Clark feigns hysteria in order to dash from the room, transform into Superman, and save the day. When he gets back, Perry White immediately berates him, fuming that Clark is unreliable in a situation where Clark's actions wouldn't have made any difference. It's great!

I would say that all the movies in the set qualify because MST3K itself is Sci-Fi.

The Warriors

Not listed as sci-fi on IMDB, but has to be close. Should I use a Wildcard?

I'm not familiar with the movie. What does someone who's seen it say?

I ordered a used copy of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad today with the remaining funds on a $25 gift card. Looking forward to adding a new Harryhausen picture to my collection. And if it doesn't come this month, I can always watch it next month.

Ramona would not put up with any outfits, either. She's far too surly, as can be seen in her picture. Her favorite movie is Mutant Girls Squad.