Average rating: 4.33   86.6% from 3 members


Star Wars Trilogy

What can I say that you don't already know? Nothing so I wont bother. More central to an eighties childhood than He-man and Curly wurlys and ten times better than both (well five times better than Curly wurlys). Unlike others before me I wont take this opportunity to bad mouth the new trilogy. Come on geeks! Yes they don't compare but their not that bad. I just watched the remake of the day they earth stood still! Give me attack of the clones every time.

Silent Running

Haven't seen this in ages (its on my list), but my memories are of a beautifully crafted touching movie with an excellent lead from Bruce Dern (a underrated actor who has suffered greatly at the hands of his face). Eco theme means it must surely be due a inferior remake?
  • Silent Running on DVD (1972)
    Starring: Bruce Dern,  Cliff Potts,  Jesse Vint
    Director: Douglas Trumbull
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    In a grim future, Earth is so overdeveloped plants can no longer survive. Giant greenhouses in orbit carry samples of Earth's dying forests. When the government decides they are too expensive to maintain, one committed crew member will stop at nothing to save them. Screenplay by Steven Bochco and ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 66% from 4,610 members

The Day The Earth Caught Fire

Classic British Sci-Fi, no special effects budget, lots of dialogue, apocalyptic theme, dour people in grim circumstances beyond their control, Leo McKern and a genuinely gripping, suspenseful and thought provoking script . Like I say classic.

Quatermass and the Pit

Creepy was invented for this story. The TV original was even better. I wet my pants as a youngster (I mean when I first watched this not in general). Once again give a British film maker a couple of dodgy sound effects and a wind machine and he'll give you more atmosphere than a Russ Abbot musical retrospective. Take that Johnny Hollywood! Watch this or anything else with Quatermass in the title without the innate prejudice of a CGI junkie and I guarantee you'll be chilled to the bone by some good old fashioned Sci-Fi storytelling.

Forbidden Planet

How old is Leslie Nielsen exactly? This movies from 1956 for crying out loud! And he still looks about 45 in it. Allegedly based on the tempest (in the same way the milky bar kid ads are based on the wild bunch) this magnificent piece of fifties Hollywood Sci-Fi broke away from the plethora of 'Beware of the Russians, I mean Martians' movies that littered the box offices at the time. Leslie, Walter and the gang are of course all acted off the screen by Robbie Danger! Danger! The Robot.

Logan's Run

Not sure how a kill the over thirties policy ever got off the ground in the first place? Given the cast I think a kill the working classes policy must have already taken place. Peter Ustinov steals the show in classic bumbling old man mode.
  • Logan's Run on DVD (1976)
    Starring: Michael York,  Jenny Agutter,  Richard Jordan
    Director: Michael Anderson
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    Winner of an Oscar for Best Special Effects. A dazzling preview of America in the 23rd Century, a perfect world of total pleasure, but living past 30 is a crime. Based on the novel by William F. Nolan.
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 69% from 2,666 members

Alien

An interstellar leviathan creeps through the vastness of space, visits an alien world, discovers a cavernous incubation centre full of endless rows of soft boiled face huggers. How on earth (or not) does this movie manage to feel so claustrophobic and SMALL! A masterpiece in tension.
  • Alien on DVD (1979)
    Starring: Sigourney Weaver,  John Hurt,  Tom Skerritt
    Director: Ridley Scott
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Director Ridley Scott's breakthough film, an immensely successful blend of horror and science fiction, is a classic in both genres and spawned a host of sequels and imitators. Starring Sigourney Weaver as warrant officer Ellen Ripley, ALIEN focuses on the crew of the space cargo ship Nostromo, ..read more »
    Rate this: 4 stars out of 5 77% from 49,269 members

Aliens

Where the first was small this is BIG! These films are chalk and cheese yet just as brilliant as each other. Eighties action at its best, what else from James Cameron (a soppy load of watery old plop possibly?). Nice to see a big part for Paul Reiser of My Two Dads fame.
  • Aliens on DVD (1986)
    Starring: Sigourney Weaver,  Carrie Henn,  Michael Biehn
    Director: James Cameron
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor from the original ALIEN, is awakened after 57 years of drifting through space, her stories disbelieved by Company executives who tell her that the alien's planet is now inhabited and colonized. When contact is suddenly lost with the colonists, Ripley ..read more »
    Rate this: 4 stars out of 5 78% from 40,226 members

The Thing

Alien rip off? Maybe, but for me (and don't all beat me about the face and head with a large stick at once) it's the better film. Why I hear you cry in anguish? Well having previously extolled the virtues of virtually effect free pieces like the day the earth caught fire I have to say it comes down to the sheer inventiveness of the gruesome shape shifting shenanigans Carpenter conjures up in this film. Couple this with the constant who's the enemy now tension, Carpenters trademark flashes of black humour and a only lightly hammy performance from Russell. An absolute winner.
  • The Thing on DVD (1982)
    Starring: Kurt Russell,  T.K. Carter,  Richard Dysart
    Director: John Carpenter
    Certificate: Certificate: 18
    Based on both the short story by John W. Campbell, Jr. and the 1951 film produced by Howard Hawks, THE THING is John Carpenter's stunning masterpiece of horror. A group of weary scientists enduring the winter in an isolated camp deep in Antarctica chance upon an alien spacecraft buried in the ice. ..read more »
    Rate this: 3.5 stars out of 5 72% from 20,022 members

The Terminator

As an O'Connor I can tell you that in real life the terminator would never have found Sarah Connor as he would have spent all his time mistakenly looking for a Sarah Conn bloody E r, but enough of my personal hang ups. What was achieved on such a low budget was remarkable, it still looks goodish today. Arnie at his best without a doubt . No T2 on this list, I like it but for me not in the same class and as for 3 well ok. Yet to see the new one, am fully braced for disappointment.
  • The Terminator on DVD (1985)
    Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger,  Linda Hamilton,  Paul Winfield
    Director: James Cameron
    Certificate: Certificate: 15
    James Cameron's THE TERMINATOR is one of the tightest, tensest sci-fi films ever made and a landmark in the genre. In the year 2029, battles rage between the superintelligent machines that rule the world and the last vestiges of humanity. In late-20th-century Los Angeles, Sarah Connor (Linda ..read more »
    Rate this: 4 stars out of 5 75% from 57,035 members




Average rating for this collection: Average rating: 4.33   86.6% from 3 members

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