Comments for Ten Truly Underrated Sci-Fi Movies »
Posted By Rollic 1 year, 2 months ago in Arts & EntertainmentIn 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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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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mark-stevens1 year, 2 months ago
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I have seen A Boy and His Dog the movie... Ann Wilson of Heart prior band was called A Boy And His Dog... Dark City another great who/what done it.
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Worse sci fi was the Russian version of 2001, sub titles and that slow pace an art film for coffee drinkers. George Clooney starred in the Americam remake
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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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brendoman1 year, 2 months ago
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Yeah, Tiger Lily was his first. My fave of all time of his is probably Annie Hall or The Purple Rose of Cairo.
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Pi is really great.
Has anyone seen The American Astronaut? It's this bizarre space musical. I can't even begin to explain it. It's rather recent, I found it on Netflix. Really good.-
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Grrr1 year, 2 months ago
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I thought of that one, too, a bit ago, but was sidetracked on another thread.
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I think American Astronaut is the greatest film of the century so far. No matter what I could say about it, you won't be prepared for the sheer f*cking freak genius of that oddity. It's worth the price of admission just for the music driven scene of the moonwalk from the ship to the bar. Or THE SHAVING!! And that's all in about the first ten minutes. It quickly veers into indescribability. Thanks for mentioning.
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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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Mdiar1 year, 2 months ago
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Yup.
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I think the fact that the book was so much better plays two ways, though:
1. Everyone compares it to the book, thus they under-rate it
2. Everyone says that the plot could have been SO MUCH better, but they ****** it all up and those who like it are simply die-hard fans of the book, thus its over-rated.
I tend to go with 2.-
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CaptainLucid1 year, 2 months ago
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I read the book and the only similarity I could draw to the movie is men fighting giant bugs. The book discusses why the ships are coed (women with more compact bodies suffer less from g-forces) to politics where only vets can vote and many other concepts. The movie is an excuse for action with a BS love story and jealousy to pad the time between the action and get chicks to put up with it. Once Heinlin died his wife sold the rights to everything with no regard what would happen to it. I am surprised "Footfall" hasn't been made yet. Basically an alien which resembles an elephant but has 9 tail type things where the trunk goes. They can pull asteroids out of their path and send them to Earth. In the end though the elephants are a herd culture and cannot comprehend that just because the human leader surrenders does not mean all his followers will and that a select group of humans will build a ramming ship propelled by exploding nukes instead of regular fuel and that the humans are willing to cross the point of no return to help the rest of society. It has plenty of room for special effects without losing too much story.
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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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Grrr1 year, 2 months ago
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I played the game and saw the movie on the screen as a kid when it came out. How could you not when it was so heavily hyped and it was probably the first game/movie tie in from conception to release. The game was out first, actually. Never liked either.
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Goppy1 year, 2 months ago
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084827/
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aproptart1 year, 2 months ago
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I've actually seen most of these films - the ones I haven't are definitely on the to do list. I must admit that though I normally despise Woody Allen films, I really liked Sleeper the first time I saw it. Silent Running is such a dark horse - glad it made the list. I'd add The Fifth Element too, but I'm biased.
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CHAM1 year, 2 months ago
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I though the fifth element was outstanding. And so was Predator. Some of the best books that were made into movies just didn't measure up. The Time Machine, The Caves of Steel, Second Foundation Trilogy, the Dune Series, etc. etc. Good books , not good movies.
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Goppy1 year, 2 months ago
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106308/
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I realize some call it Horror ... but it's really not. -
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Fangarius1 year, 2 months ago
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Woody Allen's Sleeper is definitely a classic, and I agree with VideoHound, the inspiration of 'Futurama.' My fave scene is where Woody disguises himself as a servobot when the police raid the complex where he's at. After getting 'reassigned' to Diane Keaton's house, he notices she's having a get together where they introduce this sphere, which Allen inadvertently gets intoxicated on.
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Tron was a true classic, the reason it gets spoofed so much was the fact Disney did it and many were still going by the light-hearted genre they did than the adventurous mode they usually did with live-action stuff.
I liked it because it was genuinely ahead of its time. Sure the computer fx nowadays are far from what it was back then, but without Tron you wouldn't have those fx today.
One of my own faves happen to be 'ZPG - Zero Population Growth' because though it was supposed to be serious, it's a bit hokey, but also served as a precursor to 'Logan's Run.' -
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bill-smith1 year, 2 months ago
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Am I the only person who would include Brazil on that list? And I'm not talking about that butchered piece of carp that was released in the US.
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And folks, I've got just one word for you, Metropolis. Come on, that was a way cool movie. -
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Ratskii1 year, 2 months ago
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ballisticpenguin1 year, 2 months ago
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You know, it never occurred to me that Sleeper is a Sci-Fi film.
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I Have to agree with the people who mentioned Event Horizon, Equilibrium, and Brazil as all being underrated.
I'd also nominate Screamers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/ -
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fappyheet1 year, 2 months ago
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I'd include "The Hidden" on this list and not just because I like Kyle MacLachlan. For a guy seeking two hours of entertainment, it turned out really, really well for an 80s movie I'd never heard of.
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I really have to object to including "Gattaca" in the underrated list. While the arguments for a non-schlock story line have a certain merit, a hearty "ugh" to the final product. With its stable of good actors, why so much dumb? Uma melodramatically tosses away Ethan's hair? Mr. Hawke continues to no-look type at his terminal while a supervisor marvels at his typing ability? The throw-away line about holding your **** with the wrong hand at the crucial end? Seriously? There are decent ideas in the story, but the movie executes them with arrogance, as if somehow sci-fi requires super-intelligence just to watch... -
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