Good luck! I wanted to do that in May's challenge. Got through Rogue One before petering out, though I want to try finishing up this month. I did watch Star Wars IV yesterday, so progress at least. I agree, once you get through the 3 prequels, the rest is all downhill from there just because they are that much better!

I ran the Star Wars saga in this revised order the last time I watched: Solo, Rogue 1, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Ep. I-III, Return of the Jedi, and was going to finish with the new trilogy. I got a bit burnt out before starting those and feel they're derivative of the first 3 movies (aka Ep. IV, V, VI) so held them for this month. I somewhat liked that ordering as it makes the prequel trilogy a "flashback episode" so you see how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader right after Luke finds out who Vader is.

If you have access to Apple TV+ Destination Planet Negro is a $0.99 rental.

Thank you!

M - Sci-Fi
Argoman The Fantastic Superman (1967)
The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
Charly (1968)
Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Mad Doctor Of Blood Island (1968)
Scream And Scream Again (1970)

GP - Sci-Fi
The Astro-Zombies (1968)
Beware! The Blob (1972)
Bigfoot (1970)
Blood Of Ghastly Horror (1967)
Brain Of Blood (1971)
Brother John (1971)
Creatures The World Forgot (1971)
Dracula Vs. Frankenstein (1971)
Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary To Destroy The World In Order To Save It. (1970)
Horror Of The Blood Monsters (1970)
House Of Dark Shadows (1970)
The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971)
Island Of The Burning Damned (1967)
The Man With Two Heads (1972)
The Mind Of Mr. Soames (1970)
The Omega Man (1971)
THX 1138 (1971)
Trog (1970)
The Vampire (1957)

GP - Fantasy
The Committee (1968)
Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
House Of Dark Shadows (1970)
The Light At The Edge Of The World (1971)
The Projectionist (1970)
Taste The Blood Of Dracula (1970)

I didn't lose this list, I never had it. My list was for the Comedy Challenge, I lost that one.

I have another stupid question. ''Christmas In July'' doesn't have to take place in July. It's called that because we are watching them in July, right? Otherwise it would be a very limited catagory. I believe there is an old Romantic Comedy from the 40's and a made for tv remake of it from the 90's and I don't think either one is Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Unless I'm wrong then I'm gonna need some examples. The only thing I can think of is that episode of Haven that I don't have access to.

Haven’t embarrassed myself by sharing a dream recently, so here is last night’s Challenge qualifying entry:

I was Matthew Broderick in a mash-up of his Godzilla and Jurassic Park. The final scene had me at a park research site being awarded for coming up with a technique that allowed the cloned dinosaurs to survive longer than just to adolescence. On a platform with a couple park worker scientists and a bunch of cute baby dinosaurs when suddenly an alarm goes off, “warning, level one containment breach”.

The scientists are visibility shaken, and muttering things like “we’re all dead” and “run”. As the velociraptors run towards us the scientists try to enter the control room which has those sorta phase walls like Doom and other sci-fi films, the walls can go immaterial to allow entry but then shift back to solid. They’re not quick enough as the velociraptors enter right after them and screaming and munching is heard off camera behind the phasing wall.

I decide there is little use running and think that perhaps my calming communication techniques will work on the raptors. Then I decide I might as well try to hide and enter a warehouse looking for safe places. Consider a refrigerator, washing machine, and car as my fear escalates.

But then my alarm goes off and here I type. Haven’t thought about those films recently and watched Hamilton just before bed, so have no idea where that dream came from.

Here's the "key" to easily get those for other genres and/or ratings.

This is the URL for M rated SF (broken up a bit with spaces to keep the link parser from working):

https: // www. imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&genres=sci-fi&certificates=US%3AM

In that URL you see a section which says "genres=sci-fi" followed by "&certificates=US%3AM"

Replace "sci-fi" with "comedy" and you'll get the "M" rated comedy films.

For "Certification" you replace the letter(s) following "%3A" at the very end with the desired cert. In the example, if you replace "M" with "R" you'll get R rated sci-fi movies. You can also get ratings for other countries by replacing the "US" following "certificates" with the proper country code.

You can get country codes and other certifications from the "see all certifications" link on every movie. That page shows all the countries with certifications for the film along with what it is. You can click on the link desired which opens a page with all certs of that type for that country. For example, here's the one for Norway with the "15" certification:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?certificates=NO:15

So... Norway's country code is "NO"

That "see all certifications" page also shows the different certifications a film may have had issued during its life in the respective countries. It's interesting to look at these and see how many times a film has been recertified in the US. Do that for the "M" and "GP" and other deprecated certification films to find those which can be used for multiple certification checkmarks. Using "Prometheus" as an example, it qualifies for "M" and "R" ratings.

If you don't know the correct genre names you can extract them from other advance searches. For some reason, IMDB makes it hard to find the "advance search" on their site. It's in the "Site map" section link at the bottom of every page but I just keep a bookmark to it:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/

That way I don't have to go through the several other links to drill down to it

Watched Revenge of the Sith today. It took three movies, but Lucas finally got it right. Well, all except for the love story part, that's still cringe worthy.

No, the film does not have to take place in July. Film should still be a fantasy or sci-fi film, though. Think It's a Wonderful Life or The Santa Clause rather than Die Hard. Die Hard takes place at Christmas and is eligible for the Holiday Challenge, but since it's an action film with no real fantasy elements to it, it wouldn't qualify for this one. But, since The Santa Clause has Tim Allen turning into Santa, with a sleigh that flies, it qualifies for fantasy. Does that make sense? So tons of options that would qualify.

You might actually be quite surprised at what qualifies. I was when I did IMDB advance searches on "Feature film" - "Sci-Fi" - "Christmas" (as a keyword) and got 81 titles:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?t...ords=christmas

Fantasy has even more - 212 titles (with several being cross-overs with sci-fi):

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?t...ords=christmas

Judicious editing could take that trilogy down to a single film which could be quite good... When I recently rewatched it I found I liked Revenge of the Sith less than the last time I watched, and I still like it best of that trilogy of films. I don't know if that was because I'd watched them all back-to-back or that I keep seeing all the holes and places where the story was lacking. Visually, that trilogy is quite good. It's a shame the story doesn't live up to them.

I just finished a first time viewing of Equilibrium (2002) and was quite underwhelmed. They just about lost me in the first 15 minutes when it became apparent it was mostly a reimagining of Fahrenheit 451 with a bit of The Matrix and several other sci-fi works thrown in for good measure. It has a rating of 7.4 on IMDB. Did the people who gave this rating never see any of the works it's obviously based on (or rather stolen from)?

Totally agree. And you can add the Hobbit trilogy to that, edit out all the bloat and there's a great single movie there.

Is the refrigerator lined with lead? Makes a difference.

Watched Woman in the Moon last night. It was a $1.00 find at Half Price Books late last year. I knew only that it was a Kino DVD of a movie made by Fritz Lang, and that was good enough for me. I love pretty much everything about it. The first third is a crime/noir mystery about stolen plans and a cartel of villains in a board meeting held in a room that surely influenced Ken Adam, from its absurdly high ceiling to its drop down projection screen. There's some clever deception work and taut mystery. The whole thing works because of Willy Fritsch's restrained performance. We can see enough of his emotions and thoughts to follow along, but also we can see him quickly recover his composure and try to maintain an air of stoicism in front of the other characters. The upshot is that I took on his frustrations and anguish for him, exacerbated by him not demonstrating them more himself. It's quite effective. Lastly, the kid Gustav slides down the rail of the stairs in Helium's apartment building and it is the most spectacular stair-rail slide in cinema.

The middle third is all about the launch of the rocket, with some remarkable model work intercut with footage of actual people rolling some kind of launchpad-looking thing out of a hangar. Lang and screenwriter/wife/future Nazi Thea von Harbou did a brilliant job depicting physical demands of breaking Earth's orbit and the pressure of G-forces. It's not that they were proven prescient and accurate, but more that there is a verisimilitude about it all that feels right. Typically, leaving Earth is one of the shortest parts of any such movie. This takes up pretty much the entire middle third, with everything from strapping themselves down to struggling to reach controls, passing out for around 16+ hours, and having to use straps and braces scattered throughout the rocket to account for the loss of gravity. The actors mostly do a great job portraying diligence necessary to get from one strap or brace to the next, without ever overdoing it and taking it into comedy. If anything, they sometimes err on the side of being a bit too casual about it, but I'd rather that than exaggerated slow motion. Plus, I'll give 'em a pass that they'd acclimate after a little bit and get better at it.

The final third is basically Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Sierra Madre with a love triangle on the moon in which there's breathable air and people can literally run without any kind of space suit. Is it possible? Nah. But when you see the backlit silhouette of Helium standing at the mouth of a cave wearing a fedora, it doesn't matter because it's cool as hell. Six people go to the moon and four of them end up being killed violently. That sounds about right. The love triangle melodrama plays out in such a way that I was invested in it. I don't for a moment accept that the kid could get the rocket going on his own until the others came to, but that's not the important part by then. What's important is the sacrifice.

Highly recommended. Because of its attention to detail, it feels realer than several science-fiction movies that have been made since we've actually made it to the moon and back and know now what it got wrong. Question, though: The onscreen text is in German and has English subtitles, so does that count in this challenge for foreign language? I know we allow it in Criterion but can't remember if that's a universal ruling or if it varies by challenge.

This sounds good! I really likeMetropolis by the same director. I'll have to check this out at some point.

For your question, I'm not sure. As a participant, I don't claim silent films as a foreign language requirement on check lists, but I've always wondered if it did count. I didn't realize that you allowed it in the Criterion challenge...I would have totally used the french Beauty and the Beast on it and now will remember this for the future!

Any objections to including silent films with on screen subtitles in a language other than English to count for that check mark?

It's been the source of debate, but ultimately it came down to English text being an accommodation made to the original version of the film. It can be as simple as substituting English translation title cards for the original language ones. Sometimes they'll fade from the original language to an English translation; sometimes they just replace those frames altogether. Even in those instances, though, the original language text can almost always be seen on any items in the movies themselves, whether it's the text on a poster or a book page, or a business storefront, etc. In Woman in the Moon, for instance, there are a few handwritten notes/letters that are shown in closeup. We see the German as written, and have to rely on English subtitles to tell those of us who do not read German what they say. Clearly, the expectation for the "proper" release was that viewers were literate in German.

You should. I saw it a few years back and really enjoyed it. I also have a copy of the KINO DVD in the wings that I plan to watch this year. Travis' synopsis is excellent and right on target.

I'm perfectly OK allowing silent foreign films that have English subtitles as a language check - assuming that most of the title cards are still in the foreign language with subtitles and not replaced with English versions. It's really a tough call though.

Another checklist clarification: Does watching something on the Criterion Channel count for the Criterion Collection, or are we strictly speaking of what has been issued with a spine #? For the Criterion Challenge, we allow anything that's ever been shown on the Channel (so long as it can be verified), but I don't expect that to be a universal ruling.

You never realize how much you rely on streaming until you go without internet. It’s back up now, but last night it was out all night. I have a Chromecast and that gets a lot of use.

On another note, I’m looking forward to some live-streams on maybe some kaiju movies this weekend. With G-Fest cancelled this year, there will be a virtual kaiju con this weekend.

I watched the Star Wars sequels yesterday. I liked them better than I did when I saw them in the theater but still feel they're mostly reimaginings of the original trilogy. I find I like "Episode VIII" better than its bookend episodes. It feels a bit more "fresh" than the other two. There's apparently some youtube clown pushing (originating?) a rumor that Disney's going to make the sequel trilogy an alternate universe version of the original trilogy. While I don't believe that for a second it *does* make the three films more palatable and fits into what I see on the screen in spite of the "callbacks" to the original trilogy films, most of which can be ignored without ill effect.

My middle granddaughter (age 9) came in while I was watching "The Force Awakens" and asked what I was watching. I told her, adding "But you've seen this haven't you?" Turns out that's a big "Nope." She was too young when it was in the theater and I've only watched my disc twice - one of those times being yesterday. She then asked "Do you have the Star Wars movies?" - "Of course... on DVD and BR. The BR's are right there (pointing to the shelf)." Well... she was off to spend the night with a first cousin twice removed (one of my wife's cousins) so wasn't about to give that up just to watch a few Star Wars movies with me. I suspect she'll be asking for a few of them over the next week or so...

Rest in peace to Ennio Morricone. I'm going to watch The Thing now in his late honor.

Bruce Campbell came up earlier in this thread and I got sidetracked before I shared the anecdote so here it is a few posts late. Back in 2011, I decided to finally try my hand at NaNoWriMo. Problem is, I have a terrible time coming up with character names. I tweeted to Bruce Campbell and asked him for a character name. He gave me Shemp Malone and said, "Trust me." So I trusted him and used it for a bit character. I ended up liking the way it turned out, did some revisions, and sold it on demand online. (Not naming or linking because this isn't a shill post.) Cut to 2015, when I'm moderating two panels at Wizard World Louisville. Bruce Campbell isn't on my panels (how amazing would that have been!) but he is a guest in the building so I go to his booth at a time when the line has pretty much petered out for the time being. I explain to his handler that I want to show him that I used his contribution, and he says that's fine but if someone who has paid for a signature gets in line, I have to let them past. No problem. Turns out, no one did show up in those few minutes after the ones ahead of me anyway.

I'd printed out a screenshot of the Twitter exchange, just to illustrate that that part was legit, and his acknowledgment at the end of the book, which he underscored. He then had me show him that name in the book, which I was able to find quickly enough since I'd inserted the printout at that page. He circled it with his blue Sharpie and signed that page, "Well done!" and added "Shemp" below his signature. I had intended to give him a copy as a thank-you, even going so far as to have inscribed the first page to him, but it ended up something he inscribed to me! It wasn't until later that I realized that was his polite way of getting out of a potential copyright quibble with me in the future over anything that may be in some vague way similar. I can understand that, though I admit it was a bit deflating. But then I also realized he'd signed my own book on the page where I'd used the character name he'd given me, and he did it without me having paid for anything, which he may not have known so instead of disappointment I ought to feel some guilt. As I said, there was no one else around in the few minutes I had with him. He could have been a total jerk without any witnesses, but he was as kind and complimentary as one might hope.

I'll say your first question is a yes, you can count the silent film as another language as long as the title cards are in another language. I think for this year at least, I'm going to say that the Criterion check mark should be one of the official issued films with a spine #.

It's amazing how much you start to rely on internet for everything now a days! While I'll usually watch more disc based films for challenges, the last two I've done have turned more into streaming. It's convenient and cheaper than renting individual discs. I usually get a lot of films from my library for free, but they were closed for 2 months and now are online orders only (you reserve online, hope that the library it's coming from is open and then get called in to make an appointment to pick them up). It takes about 3 times as long to get items in since a lot of the libraries in the system aren't shipping yet so I can't rely on getting a film in time for a challenge anymore. I've definitely been relying on streaming to fill that gap!

I just finished the original trilogy myself and hope to watch the last 3 at some point this month. It'll be nice to watch them so close together. I've noticed a lot of weird inconsistencies between the prequels and the originals where they tried to make them work together, but just missed the mark. And even between IV and V, you could tell that IV was filmed as a standalone before it got so popular that they added to it.

I think I've heard this story before, but it's a good one! It makes me happy when celebrities you like are really nice in person. You hear so many anecdotes about how rude they are, mean and dismissive so when one is nice to their fans, it means a bit more.

Last night, I couldn't sleep so I was watching Youtube as one does, and remembered I hadn't watched The Lord of the Rings Reunited Apart reunion. Really enjoyed it and recommend it if you're a fan. Think it was "One Zoom to Rule Them All," if you want to search for it. It pretty much had everyone from the cast on it that could possibly be in it which was pretty cool.

If you haven't heard about this Youtube series, Josh Gad is hosting Zoom reunions from classic (mostly 80s) films. Started with The Goonies which was amazing. Back To The Future, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and a couple others. They are all fun to watch (though I will say only the ones that are on fantasy or sci-fi films will count for the challenge!)