Ten Truly Underrated Sci-Fi Movies »
Posted By Rollic 1 year, 2 months ago in Arts & Entertainment
In an effort to save sci-fi fandom from crappy, derivate junk like Babylon AD (hitting theatres this weekend), here are ten truly underrated science fiction movies that don't get the credit they deserve.
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Rollic
I'm an enthusiast.
I spend way, way too much time thinking about genre.
I like pie.
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Wil1 year, 2 months ago
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I read an interview (at Underwire, maybe?) with the director and creator of Babylon AD. Poor guy worked for *years* to get his project into production, and then was shocked -- shocked! -- that putting Vin Diesel in the lead turned it into a crappy action movie with no soul.
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Rollic1 year, 2 months ago
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Yeah, I don't get that. Did the guy not see any of Diesel's other movies? Had he heard really warm and supportive stories coming from the set of Chronicles of Riddick? I just can't see how he's blind-sided by the Diesel law of diminishing movie quality.
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mark-stevens1 year, 2 months ago
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brendoman1 year, 2 months ago
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I have to say I'm very impressed with the Movie Retriever site. I love the Videohound books, especially the one on cult movies, which is probably what got me into that stuff in the first place.
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I'm a bad geek, I haven't seen Primer, primarily because I couldn't find it anywhere. It's now on my Netflix queue. I love Sleeper though. People never believe me when I say Woody Allen made a great sci-fi movie. He totally did and it's also one of his funniest.-
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warreno1 year, 2 months ago
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I caught Primer when it ran on IFC a couple of months ago, and sat there afterward wondering why movies like that never seem to get made. There was simply no insult to intelligence anywhere in the plot, which was actually story-driven rather than FX-centric, and it was nice to see included on the list.
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Grrr1 year, 2 months ago
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Primer rocks. Paycheck was a kicker, too. And if you've never seen Pi, you should probably check it out. Believers is a newer one along those lines, kinda.
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But for Woody Allen movies, my all time fave has to be 'What's Up Tiger Lily?'. He takes a bad Japanese spy movie and completely rewrites the lines behind it. It may have been his first movie, and I think it remains his absolute funniest. Kind of hard to find, though, I've noticed.
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EricT591 year, 2 months ago
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Up here, the Seattle Community College TV station on cable has this guy Fred Hopkins who screens bad Scifi movies on saturday afternoons. The kind that are so bad they are great. he wears a graduation gown and mortor board and goes by the moniker Professor Hopkins or some such. This saturday they showed a movie called Voyage to the planet of the prehistoric woman. It is actually a sort of mashup of soviet Scifi space movie and original footage shot in and around Manhatten beach. It features Mamie Van Doren and get this, is directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Truth be told it was actually pretty fun
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MatildaZQ1 year, 2 months ago
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Ah, Tron. On the night that my (now) husband moved to Chicago, we stopped on the way from the airport to our new place at a gathering of friends of mine. For some reason, Tron came up and (now) husband said proudly, "That was the first movie I saw all on my own. I bought the soundtrack on vinyl in the lobby!" The friend I like to call "my asshole friend" looked at me and said, " . . . and he's all yours!"
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groonk1 year, 2 months ago
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Chronicles of Riddick should have bumped Aeon Flux off the list. What I saw should have been called Charlize Theron Wears a Catsuit, Blows Stuff Up, and manages to Fall over a SciFi-Lite Plot.
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But it *was not* Aeon Flux.
At least with Riddick, I got what was advertised.
Need to re-watch A Boy and His Dog now. Saw it in syndication back in the 80s. i think the sex-hunt bit flew right over my head. i was a stupid kid.
Primer, Gattaca, and Existenz are my favorites off that list by far.
that 1993 Body Snatchers still haunts my dreams with screams.
i'd like to add Vincenzo Natali's CYPHER to that list: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4td2af6Eqig
Now that was a little bit of awesome. -
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neOnbubble1 year, 2 months ago
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The list was mostly okay, I guess, but I'm not sure about Silent Running being underrated among sci-fi fans; surely any sci-fi fan worth his or her salt rates that film highly. Or do they? Damn you subjectiveness! Damn you to heck!
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Now, what about the 2001 movie Impostor starring Gary Sinise? I'd certainly never even heard of it before picking it up for a couple of quid on DVD but that turned out to be surprisingly good. Of course, it had a great writer which helped. -
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Elimare1 year, 2 months ago
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I've got Gattica on bleddy VIDEO TAPE - its rotting away quietly somewhere in my parents garage mind.
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I don't think I was in full possession of my mind when watching Existenz - possibly a good thing.
Silent Runnings is a FANTASTIC Sunday-afternoon-I've-got-a-hangover type of film.
I'm going to have to watch a few of these again. -
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toph19731 year, 2 months ago
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This was a good list. I Agreed with most of them. I would have switched Aeon Flux with the entertaining, yet cheezy, Fifth Element. Thank god Dim Weasel and his movies didn't make the list. I've seen all but two of these movies, I'll have to see if I can find the ones I have not seen for this long weekend.
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markmawn21 year, 2 months ago
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Of all those listed, I was most impressed with Enemy Mine. It was not about the special effects as more as social bigotry (or species bigotry). THe alien role was outstanding.
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One that deserves one of the highest SciFi honors of all time would be Tarkovsky's "Stalker". This is Sci FI at its absolute best. No special effects. Pure imagination in art and execution. Pretty much ANY Tarkovsky film is great, but this one takes it hands down.
Another sleeper from the 80's was This Quiet Earth, which has been recently re-released. Again, no special effects, just a psychological journey into a science experiment gone terribly wrong. -
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neOnbubble1 year, 2 months ago
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Solaris belongs in an overrated list rather than an underrated one. It was mesmerising, okay, but only in the same way that watching grass grow is. I know there are deep meanings hidden in the film but I was happily comatose during them.
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Dionys1 year, 2 months ago
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Yeah. Dark City should have made the list for certain. Lots of films post-D.C. stole various portions of the plotline, not to mention visuals. Think of 'the Gentlemen' episode of Buffy and the creepy 'bad guys' in DC (I don't mean the Republicans).
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neOnbubble1 year, 2 months ago
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When I first saw this film I couldn't believe how bad it was but I subsequently caught it again while drunk and fell in love with its over-the-top, completely non-serious satirical swipe at nationalism. Now, when it's on TV I watch it every time.
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As for it being underrated or overrated? I don't really know. It always gets good ratings in the TV guide I buy but you never can tell who decides to give a film 4 stars over 1 anyway; did that person rate it highly because it has a Busey in it, for example, rather than as a science fiction piece of filmwork? I know I would.
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Natureboy1 year, 2 months ago
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and what about the classic ""the Jungle Captive" with acromegalic Rondo Hatton? A foreshadowing perhaps of Ed Woods, this movie was absolutely riveting for its absence of plot and hilariously inane dialog. One of my guilty pleasures. As is "Invasion of the Saucer Men," And the self-aware and very funny "Killer Clowns from Outer Space.
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ppiittuu1 year, 2 months ago
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movies that i'll tend to watch on tv no matter how many times i've seen them:
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- them
- predator
- rodan
- fantastic voyage (always wanted a model of the submarine...)
- alien
- deep impact
- the relic
- the fly (original)
- blade runner
- visit to a small planet
- 2001
- seconds (creepy)
- reign of fire -
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CHAM1 year, 2 months ago
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Superb Post. My Science Fiction interest goes way back. My top ten in order:
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1. Silent Running An unbelievable good movie starring Huey, Dewey, and Louie and loyalty
2. Solaris The Russian Version I've also seen the American version
3. Artificial Intelligence A boys quest for a mothers love - great, great, movie
4. The Illustrated Man A myraid of stories woven around a a woman and a tattoo
5. Gattica The perservance of man on a quest for a goal
6. Alien Got to be the best suspense ever except maybe my #8
7. Deep Impact A daughter learns to love her father - a real tear jerker
8. Pitch Black My first time to see Vin Diesel
9. Terminator Why on earth was this left off?
10. 12 Monkeys Very entertaining look at a very bleak outcome for earth's inhumanity
Closely followed by another 100.-
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CaptainLucid1 year, 2 months ago
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The only reason I can think of that Terminator was left of the list is because it was the most Underrated sci fi list. Even though T2 was 10 times better in the action department T1 was the original and had a better plot with good special effects for its time. Most people will agree that the first 2 terminators and first 2 matrix were both great in the same way, the first for plot, the second for effects. Both the 3rds sucked. No one is Underrating them though.
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Goppy1 year, 2 months ago
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