Heinlein's novel is emphatically pro-military, but the film is not. It stands the book's themes on their heads and shows the ugliness of jingoism and shoot-first-and-ask-no-questions military policy. It would have had more bite if it had been released post-Iraq than in the relatively peaceful Clinton years.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I spent all day celebrating with my family. We went to see a production of The Little Mermaid: The Musical, and it was delightful. Today, I was able to watch part of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe which returns our heroes to Mongo to thwart Ming's plans for universal domination. In an odd production choice, Prince Barin and his kingdom seem to be based on Robin Hood, complete with tights and feathered caps. I'm planning to finish it up tomorrow and perhaps watch the 80s film.

Happy belated birthday. I hope you had a good one.


Decided to start watching Doctor Who on Netflix. I'd never seen many of the older episodes. In fact I was surprised that on season 1, not only are the episodes black and white, but they are only half an hour long.

Happy belated birthday!

I've often wondered if those odd costume choices were simply made based on what was already available from the costume dept. "Conquers the Universe" had the smallest budget of the three Flash Gordon serials which makes that a distinct possibility.

Thanks! I had an amazing day!

Thanks! Yeah, I had the same thought. Along with the odd costumes, there is a lot of stock footage sprinkled throughout the series, including some from the first serial. I went ahead and stayed up way too late to finish up and enjoyed it a lot.

Light Blast is easily my best surprise blind buy in a long time. It was nice to see something made with so many practical special effects. With no slow start, it begins with how the rest of the movie will go, [spoiler]with people melting[/quote]. Starring Erik Estrada, a death ray, car chases/crashes, an 80s montage featuring talking instead of the usual action scenes you get with other montages, this film is special indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqoOT7tXHp4

I finished S2 of Deep Space 9 Saturday and decided to watch the Theatrical version of Star Trek: The Motion Picture I finally purchased. I *really* enjoyed it and think it's possibly a better version than the "Extended" version. I also liked the original graphic effects. I really need to watch it and the Extended back-to-back sometime to see if that impression is true or if I was just ready to see the film again. I also purchased the Theatrical version of Wrath of Khan - I'll probably watch that one sometime before the challenge is done.

BUT... after that I moved on to S3 of Deep Space 9. I'd purchased a "Very Good" used copy from Amazon (fulfilled by Amazon) and since it came shrink wrapped I didn't bother to open and inspect it thinking it might be "new" after all. Bad move... it *was* used and is missing disc 7! I almost kept it as that's only 2 episodes but knew I'd be bothered by that until I got a replacement disc/set. I contacted Amazon CS and even though it was a week or so outside the return window they are taking it back so my gorging on DS9 is out for now.

What to watch... I hit on a 8-Movie Action & Sci-Fi Pack I picked up *very* cheaply a few months back to get copies of a few of the films on the set. I started with Fortress and discovered I'd seen the film some time back. It's pretty good, cheesy, fun with lots of implausible happenings. The best part is "The Intestinator" device. I recall when I first saw the film wondering just *what* keeps the prisoners from passing the thing since it's basically shoved down their throat. Somehow it stays in the stomach and provides "punishment" when they get out of line. It's also somewhat extreme as our main protagonist and his wife are thrown into prison for her becoming pregnant the *second* time and attempting to escape the US into Mexico. Surprisingly the copy on this set is anamorphic WS when all the prior releases were FS!

I fell asleep on Total Recall 2070: Machine Dreams. It opens with some incredibly laughable and superbly lame dialog. It's FS and I believe was made for TV. Probably a cable channel as there *is* nudity in the opening segment. I'll give it another go this evening unless I opt for one of the other 2 films on that disc (yeah... 4 films per disc).

Hmm. I would have thought it's surely some kind of apocalyptic fantasy-esque something... and wasn't it on SyFy?

It's at least three-quarters the way to fantasy, though, isn't it..? It's like Batman or The Bionic Woman or even Starship Troopers where it's all essentially just extrapolated-reality... which thus makes it fantasy. V for Vendetta could happen; it's still fantasy. Even something like RoboCop seems close enough to reality that it's possible...

So is Wrestling...

LJG765 - I *just* noticed the graphic on your list!

Happy belated birthday!

I admit to just getting it on there not too long ago. I've been looking for something for awhile and finally just made my own. I was trying for more of an action shot, but it was harder to tell what the toys were.

Okay, two questions. Is "Warm Bodies" sci-fi/fantasy? It's about zombies, so I think it would be covered but IMDb considers it comedy, horror, romance. I suppose I could use it as a wild card...

2. Would "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" qualify for the martial arts fantasy checkmark? It's not quite what I imagine, but having just watched it, I kind of feel like there is enough to make a case for it.

zombies are definitely fantasy, no matter what IMDB or allmovie.com say. do NOT waste a wildcard on that! IMHO

The Resident Evil movies are about zombies, and according to IMDb, they count, so I say you can count it without a wild card.

2. Never seen it, but if you think there is enough to make a case, go ahead and count it.

Especially zombies nailing hot chicks.

Just finished the first season of the original series of Doctor Who. I enjoyed it, but was somewhat surprised to see, it wasn't just the first season that was so short. Every season of the original series is only 4-6 episodes long and one story arc.

wow - FX's The Strain is insane - can't wait to see more as the story unfolds!

which is a good thing in my book.

Whew! I just finished Total Recall 2070: Machine Dreams (1999). It's the first 2 episodes of a single season series edited into a TV movie. Before I go any further I should qualify that I do *not* care for "police procedural" type shows - never have. That said, that's pretty much what this is just with SF trappings. It kind of blends Blade Runner with Total Recall to make a fairly pedestrian made-for-(Canadian)TV outing. It's full of horrible, and frequently juvenile sounding, dialog and sub-par acting. I read that Showtime picked it up in the US before it went into syndication. They must have been hurting for content as this would be right at home on SyFy. At least I get a couple of checklist items for the time spent...

Thanks! Just finished watching "Warm Bodies" and I can say it should definitely count. Zombies abound. It was a lot better than I thought it would be, so I'm glad I went ahead and watched it.

As for the "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" I'm on the edge about it. It's not like it's straight out martial arts, but he does get pretty wicked twirling about with his axe and coat. There's a lot of slow mo action shots, as well. I'll probably hold off on counting it unless someone else chimes in. I'm really on the fence about it myself.

I'm thinking about using The Swimmer as a wild card. It's clearly not sci-fi, but it definitely has elements of fantasy, especially at the film's conclusion. BTW, the Grindhouse Blu-Ray is gorgeous!

If I had any wildcards left, I'd use one for Black Swan, which no site calls fantasy. Allmovie came closest calling it a "supernatural-flavored psychological thriller" in their synopsis.

I think that pacaway's point is that allmovie.com lists Romantic Fantasy as a sub-genre for Warm Bodies. See first post of this thread regarding allmovie.com as an arbiter.

I don't think of zombies as fantasy. Resident Evil is sci-fi because the zombies are changed by a virus, which is a common element in many zombie movies and TV shows (The Walking Dead, Channel 4's Ultraviolet, which I just started watching last night), but not all (George Romero's zombie movies offer no real explanation, White Zombie and Zombies of Mora Tau offer the traditional voudon explanation).

I think that the unusual relationship between a living person and a dead person, rather than the zombie element per se, results in the classification of Warm Bodies as Romantic Fantasy (like Pushing Daisies).

Although I see imdb classifies Zombies of Mora Tau as fantasy, so it appears that either imdb or I am wrong (since they classify White Zombie soley as horror, it appears that they are wrong, or at least consistently inconsistent).

When I watched it, martial arts never crossed my mind.

After reading about your banner LJG, I was curious enough to look myself. It's adorable. I love cats.