Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

It's more comedy... but not all that good. I've always felt Lorre and Cedric Hardwicke are present mainly to add more box office draw. The movie *does* benefit from their presence. Otherwise it's a rather stock WWII story with the Invisible Man grafted on because that's what everyone was doing (the WWII connection bit that is) in those years.

Did you spot Keye Luke? (I tried switching to the "enhanced editor" to embed the image but it broke... badly... - and I can't get any editor to display the photo using the IMDB link so it's on his name)

I'd absolutely put Revenge at the bottom of the group. No true hero, sub-par visual effects, just another run-of-the-mill story with invisibility thrown in for box office appeal.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I agree, they were a benefit to the movie! I think you nailed it saying that it was a stock film since everyone was doing it and let's support the war type of thing. Pulled out the nearest script and tweaked it. I saw the actor in the movie, yes, but until I looked at his filmography, didn't realize who he was. I've watched a lot of his performances and probably went, huh, he looks familiar, without realizing why!

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Revisited Ghosts of Mars. The Indicator Blu Ray is nice and the film has some entertaining moments, but I have to ask the question, "was this just a paycheck film for Carpenter?". Sure felt that way. If the director's name was left off the credits i would be hard pressed to identify this as a Carpenter film.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I don't know if he just did it for the paycheck, but Carpenter was certainly on the decline at this point in his career (and would only direct one other feature). I only watched it once when it was new. Was this the movie with the ludicrous flashback structure (flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks)?

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Yes. I prefer to think of it as Carpenter's Rio Lobo (1970) to his El Dorado (1966) (Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)), though that may still be giving both movies and Carpenter too much credit.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Thoughts for next year's challenge:

Actors to Add:
Dwayne Johnson (16 titles)
Josh Hutcherson (10 titles)

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

THANK YOU! I always love suggestions and appreciate you offering them! I'll add these to the first post so I don't forget next year.

Anyone else think of actors/directors/changes to add?

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

300: Rise of an Empire (2014), Zach Snyder's followup to his 2006 300 feels like more of the same with a script and story in need of work. I liked 300 but felt it needed less of the slow-mo battle sequences. Well... they're back with a vengeance in the sort-of sequel. It's visually interesting, frequently looking like a comic come to life, but suffers from a story that's just a bit too much comic come to life. It was OK but not something I see myself revisiting as much as anything because I've never rewatched 300.

Tonight I finally opened and watched the "Director's Cut" of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A Spielberg SF outing from 1977 that I've always found to be a rather overblown, turgid, affair with a wholly unsatisfying ending. I didn't care for the movie when it came out and still do not. The "Director's Cut" does nothing to change my opinion of the movie. It's one of the "SF" movies Spielberg's done that has convinced me he needs to be kept away from the genre and stick to what he truly does best - biographical/historical drama and Indiana Jones movies. SF is not his forte.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Was going through my movies, trying to figure out what to watch (still going back and forth between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Fellowship of the Ring) and saw my collection of Avengers movies. I'm thinking next year, we should add watch a "superhero movie" to the subgenre list. Yeas or nays?

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Tough choice... I have new BRs of the LOTR and Hobbit extended trilogies that keep calling my name... It's been very hard to devote the two full days needed for them this year.

"Watch a superhero movie" - Sure - Probably should have been included long ago as those seem to be the summer "tent pole" movies these days. I know I have over a dozen just waiting for my attention (mostly BR upgrades but there're a few I've never seen before) and likely won't get to any of them this year (partly due to wanting to watch them with my grandson who's been quite busy this summer).

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I went with Raiders. It was shorter than the extended version of Fellowship. Depending on time, I may try to fit in the next 3, but I do want to try to fit the LOTRs in too. Decisions, decisions!

There are so many and if you combine them with the superhero movies pre-Marvel, I think there are more than enough for people not to be stuck watching one or two films over and over.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I did a quick search on IMDB with "Feature Film - Science Fiction - Superhero (key word)" and came up with 387(!) titles. Wow! I'd have never guessed there were that many. I tend to think only of the "big" ones - Superman, Batman, Marvel Universe (and those only in the past ~15 years), and a handful of others. Until I did that search I was thinking there'd be 50 or so and felt that might be generous. Looking at that search's results it seems Marvel movies make up the majority of the top 50. That's just insane!

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Both Rutger Hauer and David Hedison have passed. I'll be pluging in Split Second (1992) and The Lost World (1960) tomorrow.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

That is a LOT of superhero movies...though looking at the list a bit, they do include Matrix and Tron and other films that I'm not sure fall under the category normally!

I can put their names down for next year since they died during the challenge.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

It's interesting, how I never realized there are some slight similarities between 'Field of Dreams' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' - finally hooked up a new 4K player to my 4K TV and have gotten into a swing of rewatching and buying more in the format, saw the steelbook for 'Dreams' the other day at Best Buy and said, aw what the heck ... haven't seen this movie in years, and rewatching it made me appreciate it even more.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Yeah... I saw that too and wondered just how they, and some others, have "superhero" as a tag/keyword. That list also includes a number of movies that are supposedly being released in 2020. It'll need some tweaking to be useful next year but still returns a surprising number of truly qualifying titles.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Another actor to add to the list would be Tim Thomerson. He has a ton of movies.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I watched Logan last night with my grandson. We both felt it was kind of "meh" and generally like the previous Wolverine movies better. To us it felt like a bunch of action sequences strung together with a very loose script. A "road movie" without much road. What did we miss that others see to make this one rank higher than the other Wolverine efforts?

We both felt like there was a build-up movie we'd missed but looking it up find that was not the case. It needed one...

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Done, thanks!

I can't believe how fast the month has flown. I plan on not going out much myself the next few days, so hope to get more watches in than usual. Never too early to watch animation!

This has been on my to watch list for a couple challenges. I need to just sit down and watch it, but I've been wondering myself if it'll match up to the hype.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Head's up. The Boys starts streaming on Prime today. If you like your superheroes with a dash of gore and buckets of blood, check it out.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

November is so far my favorite first-time viewing movie of the month. Though I imagine it's not a movie many have heard of (let alone seen). The stark B&W cinematography is striking and really contributes to the atmosphere. 19th century Estonian folklore is such a foreign thing to me, and I love movies that expose me to something new. It's arty for sure, but the underlying story wasn't difficult to follow. And the movie was constantly filled with weird and surreal things (like werewolves, ghosts, deals with the devil, witches, talking snowmen, giant chickens, and a cow-stealing flying robot) that my interest never wavered. I also liked that the movie wasn't afraid to lighten up and have a laugh at things.

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Sounds interesting. Looks like I'll need to pick up a copy for the Horror Challenge...

Re: 12th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Last night, I started watching Return of the King. Of the three LOTR movies, it's my favorite. I did have to split it into two viewings, but it didn't suffer for the break.

I also decided to watch Star Trek Into Darkness. It's been about 5 years since I watched it last and am enjoying it. I think it really gets a bad rap. I know that when it first was released, I thought of it as more of a homage than a remake.

The challenge is quickly coming to a close! Anyone running out of shows to watch? Or more likely, too many to watch? Don't forget the last day you do get double credit with the animation challenge!