Movies for hardcore sci-fi geeks

In summary, Shane Carruth's Primer is a well-done, complex science fiction film that may be too difficult for some viewers. It's an excellent movie that is sure to entertain those who enjoy time travel and scientific fiction.
  • #141


Not really hard core stuff, but I would have to include Mission to Mars on a list of favorites.

In the year 2020, a mission is launched whose goal is to carry humans to Mars for the first time. The mission's four crew members, upon arriving on the planet, discover a large mountain in their vicinity, with something sticking out of the rubble. After transmitting their find back to the command center on the World Space Station, they head for the site to try and learn more. When they arrive at the formation, they notice a strange sound, which they assume to be interference from their Mars Rover. While attempting to scan the formation with radar, a large vortex, similar to a dust storm, forms around the structure. It envelops and kills two of the mission's crew by tearing them apart, whilst a third member is killed when a large rock breaks her faceplate, exposing her to the Martian atmosphere.

After the vortex has passed, the camera zooms out to show that the "mountain" was actually a large humanoid face...

Also, I thought Sphere was quite good.

In the middle of the southern Pacific Ocean, a thousand feet below the surface, what is believed to be an alien spacecraft is discovered after a ship laying transoceanic cable has its cable cut and the United States Navy investigates the cause. The thickness of coral growth on the spaceship suggests that it has been there for almost 300 years. A team made up of marine biologist Dr. Beth Halperin (Sharon Stone), mathematician Dr. Harry Adams (Samuel L. Jackson), astrophysicist Dr. Ted Fielding (Liev Schreiber), psychologist Dr. Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman), and a member of the U.S. Navy is tasked with investigating the spaceship. The team (along with two navy technicians) are housed in a state-of-the-art underwater living environment called the Habitat during their stay on the ocean floor...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_(film )

As for science fiction comedy, I would have to put Mars Attacks near the top of the list. :biggrin:

Martians begin to surround Earth with an array of flying saucers. James Dale, the President of the United States, addresses America. The message attracts attention within the news media in New York City, employees and common goers at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel, and a trailer trash family in Perkinsville, Kansas. The Presidential scientific aides are able to set a meeting with the Martians in Pahrump, Nevada.

The Martians announce they have "come in peace" by way of a universal translator. But after a hippie releases a dove (as a symbol of peace), the Martians begin to kill the humans that have gathered. Believing the meeting to be a "cultural misunderstanding", President Dale has Professor Donald Kessler resume negotiations with the Martians. The two species decide to have a Martian ambassador address the United States Congress. However, the event goes wrong once more, leading to the total incineration of Congress...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Attacks!

I highlighted "Pahrump, Nevada" because there is a bit of hidden humor there. Art Bell, a nighttime radio talk show host whose top-rated show became UFO central for public discussions of the subject [before the internet came of age], broadcasts from his home studio in Pahrump, Nevada.

Does anyone know Mulder's apartment number?
 
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  • #142


Being that I seem to be on an alien movie kick here, as a rare addition [normally I don't think much of stuff made for TV] Tsu and I both thoroughly enjoyed the TV miniseries Taken, by Spielberg. It gets pretty sappy at times, but it was a very clever play on a variety of alien abduction stories and government conspiracy theories, with a heavy sprinkling of some truly creative ideas. These days it is rare for a TV series to fully capture my interest, but we both found ourselves anxious to see the next episode each week.

...Taken spans five decades and four generations, and centers on three families: the Keys, the Crawfords, and the Clarkes. Nightmares of abduction by extraterrestrials during World War II haunt Russell Keys; the Roswell incident transforms Owen Crawford from ambitious Air Force captain to amoral shadow government conspirator; and an alien visitor impregnates an unhappily-married Sally Clarke. As the decades go by, the heirs of each are affected by the machinations of the aliens, culminating with the birth of Allie Keys, the final product of the aliens' experimentation and the key to their future...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken_(mini_series )

Again a bit of humor and just to complete the loop, Art Bell was [loosely] represented in this series as well. In the movie, his representitive character broadcasts from his RV while on the move.
 
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  • #143


Ivan Seeking said:
Again a bit of humor and just to complete the loop, Art Bell was [loosely] represented in this series as well. In the movie, his representitive character broadcasts from his RV while on the move.

He did some voice acting, as himself I believe, in a video game recently about an alien invasion. I was laughing my *** off as I watched the game trailer.

I enjoyed Sphere. Haven't read the book yet. Crichton's older books all seem to be so much better than his newer ones.

The mention of Sphere reminded of The Abyss. I just checked and B Elliot mentioned it but I think it deserves another mention. Haven't seen it in years but I remember really enjoying it.
 
  • #144


A really good one I would highly recommend is "Capricorn One" made in 1978. It has a really powerful cast and stars James Brolin, Elliot Gould, Sam Waterstone, OJ Simpson, Hal Holbrook and others. The plot is a manned mission to Mars that is a hoax. The supporters of the Apollo program Moon hoax theory will love this movie. Looking at the reality of going to the Moon and all that that entails, pondering why we have never been back there (if we ever did go), I would submit that it is more Sci-fact than Sci-fi ?
 
  • #145


Guesser7 said:
A really good one I would highly recommend is "Capricorn One" made in 1978. It has a really powerful cast and stars James Brolin, Elliot Gould, Sam Waterstone, OJ Simpson, Hal Holbrook and others.

Telly Savalas comes to mind. And yeah, that was a good one.
 
  • #146


Guesser7 said:
A really good one I would highly recommend is "Capricorn One" made in 1978. It has a really powerful cast and stars James Brolin, Elliot Gould, Sam Waterstone, OJ Simpson, Hal Holbrook and others. The plot is a manned mission to Mars that is a hoax. The supporters of the Apollo program Moon hoax theory will love this movie. Looking at the reality of going to the Moon and all that that entails, pondering why we have never been back there (if we ever did go), I would submit that it is more Sci-fact than Sci-fi ?

I've actually heard the other way around, that its a good example of why a hoax would have been so impossibly difficult to perpetrate.
 
  • #147


TheStatutoryApe said:
I really enjoyed it. Though there were nagging little bits it was definitely good over all. I personally didn't like the ending much. And the way Baltar acted like a loon and no one really much noticed was a bit too hokey at times.
There was some lazy writing in the finale, no doubt. Poof... gone. What? That and they all seemed to suddenly agree on this new choice that was made for them when throughout the series they could never agree on anything. All the time they spent on those useless flashbacks could have been used to actually tell a story using characters instead of pimping them out to send whatever message was intended. I don't care about the historical innacuracies since it is a fictional world. I think many people forget that in their criticisms. However, just because of the lazy writing I could have done without the last 20 minutes or so. I absolutely loved the series up until RDM groped me like a cheap date at the end of the night.

Baltar was one of my favorites. He was a loony, manipulative, genius plagued by overwhelming guilt and a need for survival. I don't think his character development was very credible, but I did find it entertaining. Really, who elects a mumbling madman to be president besides Americans?
 
  • #148


Guesser7 said:
I would submit that it is more Sci-fact than Sci-fi ?

That is complete rubbish! See the many threads in which this claim is soundly debunked.
 
  • #149


I just don't get some of these responses at times.

Of course man has never set foot on the Moon. There is not one shread of honest proof or tangible hard piece of evidence that they were there, end of... Let me give you an example. Prove that I am not sending this response from the Moon! And tomorrow when I return I am going via the Greater Antartica plateau where I will go meteorite hunting an pick up some Moon rocks, and maybe some from Mars. They get thrown up from impacts and get caught in Earths gravitational field y'know. Man on the Moon, don't make me laugh, we can't do it now never mind in the days of transistors.
 
  • #151


Huckleberry said:
There was some lazy writing in the finale, no doubt. Poof... gone. What? That and they all seemed to suddenly agree on this new choice that was made for them when throughout the series they could never agree on anything. All the time they spent on those useless flashbacks could have been used to actually tell a story using characters instead of pimping them out to send whatever message was intended. I don't care about the historical innacuracies since it is a fictional world. I think many people forget that in their criticisms. However, just because of the lazy writing I could have done without the last 20 minutes or so. I absolutely loved the series up until RDM groped me like a cheap date at the end of the night.

Baltar was one of my favorites. He was a loony, manipulative, genius plagued by overwhelming guilt and a need for survival. I don't think his character development was very credible, but I did find it entertaining. Really, who elects a mumbling madman to be president besides Americans?

I enjoyed Baltar on and off. I think all of the characters at some point or another had their moment. I liked Starbuck to begin with but started to not like her so much later. Saul Tigh though I started liking more and more as the series went on. From what I understand they intended it to be that way. They wanted the characters to be both likable and unlikable at different points. They certainly did a good job with that.
 
  • #152


TheStatutoryApe said:
I enjoyed Baltar on and off. I think all of the characters at some point or another had their moment. I liked Starbuck to begin with but started to not like her so much later. Saul Tigh though I started liking more and more as the series went on. From what I understand they intended it to be that way. They wanted the characters to be both likable and unlikable at different points. They certainly did a good job with that.

Saul is awesome. His voice alone won me over from the start. Then he got even cooler when he got the eyepatch and started doing that wide-eye look all the time. I think he was jealous when Felix los his leg. Until that point nobody could touch Saul in a pirate contest.

Some of the charaters, like Baltar and Tyrol and Saul, I enjoyed their shifting personalities. I hated Starbucks change towards the end of the 3rd season. She was crazier than Baltar. Adm. Adama and Roslyn progressed pretty much as I expected. I never really liked Lee's personality. Hits a little too close to home maybe. Boomer and Athena were also favorites. I never liked Felix, but it also seemed to me that he got shafted. Well, he got what he deserved, but before that he had been loyal and hardworking and completely ignored. I just wanted to wrap Dualla up in a blanket and smuggle her off the Galactica. She's mine, Lee! Go explore the steep side of a cliff. We've got a planet to repopulate.

I wonder what happened to Boxey? Boomer rescued him off Caprica in the very beginning. Boxey was with Starbuck in the ready room when Saul came in and said "Where are your parents?" Boxey's last words were "Dead. Where are yours?" I'm guessing Saul had him spaced halfway through the first season.
 
  • #153


Huckleberry said:
I just wanted to wrap Dualla up in a blanket and smuggle her off the Galactica. She's mine, Lee! Go explore the steep side of a cliff. We've got a planet to repopulate.
I know what you mean! Very lovely woman.
Never really liked Lee much either, though I think he still had his moments.
Huck said:
I wonder what happened to Boxey? Boomer rescued him off Caprica in the very beginning. Boxey was with Starbuck in the ready room when Saul came in and said "Where are your parents?" Boxey's last words were "Dead. Where are yours?" I'm guessing Saul had him spaced halfway through the first season.
I completely forgot about him. I never saw the original series so I didn't recognize him as anyone important anyway.
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Boxey_(RDM )
 
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  • #154


Has anyone else here watched the Sci-Fi channel's miniseries, Taken?
 
  • #155


Ivan Seeking said:
Has anyone else here watched the Sci-Fi channel's miniseries, Taken?

I watched it on CBC (or CTV; I forget) off the air when it first came out, but I can't remember much of it. I'll rent it sometime and watch it over again.
 
  • #156


Wow! No one else? I think most Sci-Fi fans here would enjoy it. If you happen to be knowledgeable about all of the facts, claims, theories [wild and prosaic], and myths, associated with the UFO phenomena, the series can be appreciated for the clever mix of history and legend. But, imo, the series is a qualified success in its own right. I would rank it as the best attempt to explore the most exotic ET claims ever seen on TV. My biggest criticism is that while the story is often rather brutal [there are a few fantastically cold, hard characters] the occasional narration and parts of the story drip sentimentality. Also, many of Spielberg’s techniques are easily recognizable from movies like CE OTTK. For example, he has beaten the “crowd gazing in awe at bright light” bit to death. Many CE overtones are pretty obvious. I even noticed in one scene that the same Universal Studios "rural road with rustic fence" used in CE, was used in Taken.
 
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  • #157


This was a nice surprise: Timecrimes

A Spanish film about an accidental time traveler, while not nearly as logically challenging, it has much the same flavor as Primer. After about an hour I nearly lost interest, but then the plot was salvaged by an unexpected turn of events.

After accidentally traveling to the past, Héctor (Karra Elejalde) meets himself and triggers a series of mysterious events that lead to a shocking crime. The gripping time-travel story -- at once deeply intricate and easy to follow -- also stars Candela Fernández. Oscar-nominated short-film director Nacho Vigalondo makes his feature debut with this finely crafted sci-fi thriller.
- netflix [available for viewing online]

I should add that some parts of the plot were rather artificial, including the requirement for nudity. But given the quality of the nudity I decided to live with it. :biggrin:
 
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  • #158


I've not seen Taken. I think the couple of scenes I saw from that show Roswell turned me off of alien conspiracy shows. I figured the genre probably died after X-Files.


Have you seen Eureka on the Scifi.. erm.. SyFy channel Ivan? Its hokey but pretty neat. They have at least some of the episodes on Hulu. Most of the episodes are more or less stand-alone but each season has an overarching metaplot that you might miss out on if you don't watch all of them.

For anyone who hasn't watched it is about a secret small town (called Eureka) in the Pacific NorthWest populated by inventors and scientific genuises all working for a big government contracted corporation working on the cutting edge of scientific research and paving the way for new technologies. There is a lot of silly stuff in the show but they mostly try to give a nod to actual scientific ideas though their representations of them in the show are hardly realistic. The main character is contracted as Sheriff of the town though, unlike pretty much everyone else in the town from the mechanics to the baristas, he is fairly illiterate when it comes to science and technology. Pretty much every episode involves some strange incident or crime (that may well destroy the whole town! lol) that the sheriff is eventually able to figure out even though all of the genuises are befuddled. Its hokey but fun.


edit: oh and I will have to look up that Timecrimes movie. It looks very interesting.
 
  • #159


TheStatutoryApe said:
I've not seen Taken. I think the couple of scenes I saw from that show Roswell turned me off of alien conspiracy shows. I figured the genre probably died after X-Files.

Not at all. This is a whole different animal.


Have you seen Eureka on the Scifi.. erm.. SyFy channel Ivan?

Yes. I haven't followed it closely, but it has its moments. :biggrin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4veXeLkK9g
 
  • #160


Huckleberry said:
Really, who elects a mumbling madman to be president besides Americans?
*cough* Boris Yeltsin?
 
  • #161


dorlomin said:
*cough* Boris Yeltsin?
I was being facetious. Nothing serious there.
 
  • #162


I really liked Roswell. :redface:
 
  • #163


Danger said:
I really liked Roswell. :redface:

Do you mean the TV show with the kids, or are you referring to your last vacation? :-p


I never would have even looked except that it came on right after something else I would watch. After a while it started to capture my interest. In the end I rather enjoyed the show; esp the tongue-in-cheek elements.

Did you ever happen to notice who produced the show?
 
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  • #164


Ivan Seeking said:
Did you ever happen to notice who produced the show?

:smile: for the first comment, although I chose not to quote it.
No, I knew at the time, since I always read the credits, but I can't recall now who it was. (It would take me a tenth of a second to find it on Google, but I'll leave it up to you to enlighten me. You're slower, but more entertaining.) I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be Stephen J. Cannell, because it has some of his charactistics, but it seems a bit light for him.
 
  • #165


Lazy. :biggrin:

Jonathan Frakes was the executive producer.
 
  • #166


Ivan Seeking said:
Jonathan Frakes was the executive producer.

Oh, ****... now I remember. I feel so ashamed at having forgotten. (Really, I did know that, but it escaped me.) I remember now that he actually directed a few of the episodes, and he guest starred in one that involved a Star Trek Next Generation audition session in which one of the Roswell stars (Brendan Fehr?) tried out for a role and crashed big-time.
I bow before you for having bested me.
 
  • #167


Danger said:
Oh, ****... now I remember. I feel so ashamed at having forgotten. (Really, I did know that, but it escaped me.) I remember now that he actually directed a few of the episodes, and he guest starred in one that involved a Star Trek Next Generation audition session in which one of the Roswell stars (Brendan Fehr?) tried out for a role and crashed big-time.
I bow before you for having bested me.

Heh, I never saw that one.

I really like tobasco; put it on everything I can. That is why I could relate to the characters. :biggrin:
 
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  • #168


I'm allergic to vinegar, so I tend to avoid Tabasco. It's not so much an allergy as an intolerance. I have no problem with it, as long as I don't smell it. To me, it's the same sort of experience as sniffing ammonia, but of a higher magnitude. One whiff, and my respiratory tract locks up instantly. If I can get it into my body without smelling it, there's no problem. In fact, Prairie Fires are a great shooter. And one that I invented about 25 years ago, when I was working in the cowboy bar, is called 'aftershock'. It's half and half Red Sourpuss and tequila, with about 1/2 teaspoon of Tabasco to get your attention. Now that I finally got to go the the local Mexican restaurant with my cousin (W would never go, because KFC is hot for her), I realized that there's habenero (sp?) sauce available in town. I think that I might swap that in for the Tabasco. I expected it to be hot, so I poured a little puddle on my plate and dipped my quesedia (sp?) bit in it tentatively at first. Then I figured, what the hell, and splashed it all over. The stuff isn't all that hot.
 
  • #169


Looks like District 9 is a worthy sci-fi movie

The movie is amazing, it's everything I never expected.
 
  • #170


waht said:
Looks like District 9 is a worthy sci-fi movie

The movie is amazing, it's everything I never expected.

I was pretty impressed with it too.
 
  • #171


I believe that if my budget will allow, I might go to see that in the theatre. Usually, for anything other than Marvel releases, I wait until it's in the cheap section of the video store and rent it. (And with the Marvel ones, I always buy a copy once they get down to $10 or so in the stores. Not the original Hulk, though... I know why they made it the way that they did, trying to evoke the old King Kong thing, but it isn't worth buying. I'm not saying that I didn't like it, but I have financial priorities. Also, Daredevil and Electra both kinda sucked. I sure as hell have at least one copy of every X-Men, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four movie.)
 
  • #172


Danger said:
Also, Daredevil and Electra both kinda sucked.
Daredevil was horrid. They are apparently making a part two. :-/ Affleck is crazy.
Considering Favreau's connection to Daredevil I was worried he was going to screw up Ironman. He did a damn fine job though. He even had a myspace group where he took comments and suggestions from fans. I'm not sure if it was my comment that gave him the idea or not but I had suggested the use of rapid prototyping. I also suggested using carbon nano materials but he decided to stick with the heavy metal alloys that don't seem to make much sense.
 
  • #173


Super cool, Stats. I absolutely loved Ironman, and am going to buy a copy as soon as it shows up in a store that I have access to. (Screw the $10 thing; I'll go up to $25 for that.) Maybe I'll get W to drive me into the city before she moves away at the end of the month. As much as I prefer to keep it Canuck, I'm in no position to argue with WalMart's prices.
I'd never heard of Robert Downey Jr. as anything other than some sort of bratty Hollywood troublemaker until the movie came out, but he absolutely nailed Tony Stark. It was a brilliant bit of casting. The script also conformed to the Marvel concept of some slapstick comedy done in a perfectly logical progression of events (eg: first test flight).
I just have to make sure that traveling to the city involves a lot of other activities, such as grocery shopping, picking someone up at the bus station, etc., or else the gasoline cost will exceed the savings over buying it here.
 
  • #174


I'm not too familiar with Iron Man, but wasn't Tony Stark supposed to be paralyzed? And what was the deal with that thing stuck in his heart? Was that from the comics? It looks like they changed the origin of the character to match the script, rather than following the Marvel comic conception. I still don't understand how he can fall out of the sky and crash into the ground and not have to be poured out of that metal suit of his. I also liked Downey's performance. I thought it was OK overall, but I'm kinda tired of so many super-hero comic movies lately.

Danger, have you seen 'Watchmen'? I really liked that comic book movie. The good guys aren't so good, and the bad guys aren't so bad. They've got more than cutesy character flaws to make them appear human. They operate on their own personal agendas, and not so much on stereotypical concepts of what is right/wrong. That made it interesting for me. Rorschach is my favorite character.

I'll be checking out 'District 9' soon. I'm glad some people have enjoyed it. That raises my hopes a little.
 
  • #175


I can't believe no one said this

doctor who!
 

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