Best sci-fi movies?

[Martin Alvito]

For me, The Fifth Element, Star Trek: First Contact

Good pickups right there. First Contact was the one TNG film that I really enjoyed. Arguably, The Best of Both Worlds is as good a Star Trek film as any, even though it was small screen.

I never saw the movie. Was it as good as the book?

I'd say yes, but YMMV. It's a very faithful and well done adaptation that snips out a good chunk of the techno stuff. (Think the Jurassic Park film without the deviations from the story.) If you really geeked out on some of that stuff, you may be a little disappointed. But for my money, it adapts that book about as well as you could have done in the early '70s, and far better than you're likely to do it today.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Some all-time classics:
The first two Alien movies, the first two Terminator movies, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, and Brazil were already mentioned. Predator (1987) is Arnold Schwarzenegger and director John McTiernan (Die Hard; The Hunt for Red October) and a tanker-truck of testosterone (also a rare onscreen appearance by writer-director Shane Black). It's sometimes hard to tell how much of this film is tongue-in-cheek, but I think that's part of its charm. Truly a classic of the macho Summer action film genre.

A Paul Verhoeven Mini Film Festival:
Robocop (1987)
Total Recall (1990)
Starship Troopers (1997)
Robocop was Verhoeven's peak, and is a movie that deserves to be on an "all-time best" list. If you're only going to watch one, it must be that one; if you're going to watch more than one, make it the feature. One of the highlights is Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker, one of my all-time favorite movie villains. I could never take Smith seriously as a suburban dad, he'll always be Clarence Boddicker to me.

A John Carpenter Mini Film Festival
Escape from New York (1981)
The Thing (1982)
They Live (1988)
You could easily do a full, 24-hour John Carpenter Film Festival, but I'm restricting us to his science fiction. Also, Kurt Russell is far-and-away the most underrated movie star of the '80s and early '90s. He's having a little bit of career renaissance lately, and James Gunn cast him in Guardians of the Galaxy II. If you want to watch just one of these, I'd say The Thing but other people can surely make cases for either of the other two.

A David Cronenberg Mini Film Festival
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Fly (1986)
The Fly is the one you want here, if you only want to watch one, but the other two are cult classics and have their devoted fans (I'm a Videodrome guy, myself). Again, a full-length Cronenberg festival would be totally worth it, imo, and his more recent, less "Cronenbergian"* films are totally worth checking out.

And some recent favorites:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, dir. Michel Gondry.
Children of Men (2006) Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, dir. Alfonso Cuaron.
WALL-E (2008) A bunch of voice actors I'd never heard of, dir. Andrew Stanton.
Moon (2009) Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, dir. Duncan Jones.
Monsters (2010) Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, dir. Gareth Edwards.
Her (2013) Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, dir. Spike Jonez.
Guardians of the Galaxy Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, dir. James Gunn.




* If you've seen Cronenberg, you know what I mean by that. If you haven't, I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.

 

[Lexicus]

I remember really enjoying Brazil though it's been a while since I saw it. Starship Troopers and Children of Men are also fantastic movies (the one Futurama episode that parodies Starship Troopers is probably better than the movie though).

Another one that doesn't look like it's been mentioned is The Truman Show. I enjoyed that one a lot.

 

[Kyriakos]

Truman Show isn't scifi, though (it could be done with current tech). And Jim Carrey must be the worst jerk among known US actors

 

[Lexicus]

http://www.scifimoviepage.com/truman.html

It's on this science fiction movie page and a bunch of other Google results list it as science fiction.

 

[sophie]

Metropolis

 

[Lillefix]

Truman Show isn't scifi, though (it could be done with current tech). And Jim Carrey must be the worst jerk among known US actors

I disagree. I think it's scifi. And I firmly believe this movie is inspired by Time out of Joint by Philip K. Dick. I read that book without knowing anything about it and I felt they had lifted entire scenes from that book. Good movie and book btw.

I also have a soft spot for Ghosts of Mars by John Carpernter. It look cheap, but there is something about the atmosphere that intrigues me.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Since my favorites, being Solaris and Metropolis, have already been mentioned I will just add a few animated Sci-Fi movies I thought were beyond brilliant:

Memories (Memorizu)
Neo Tokyo
Robot Carnival (Robotto Kanibaru)
The Fantastic Planet (Le Planete Sauvage)

There are also some series that will complete blow you away:

Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Serial Experiments: Lain
Space Dandy
Ghost Hound
Astro Boy

Honorable film mentions:

Beyond the black Rainbow
A Scanner Darkly
Under the Skin
12 Monkeys

 

[Kyriakos]

^ Le Planete Sauvage is indeed a classic 70s animated film. Very good (and brutal).

 

[onejayhawk]

I never saw the movie. Was it as good as the book?

Of course not. Don't be greedy. It was Crichton's best book. Since he wrote Jurassic Park, that's saying something.

Face/Off
Soylent Green (ick)
Star Trek 2,4,6,8,10
Star Wars 3,4,5,7
Serenity
V for Vendetta

I won't bother listing Marvel and DC movies, excepting V. Half the Bond movies are science fiction.

J

 

[civvver]

I totally forgot about The Thing. That movie is awesome. They made another one by the same name in 2011, which I thought was a remake but it's actually a sequel and pretty good. Not as good as the original.

I also like the Stargate movie lol. Kurt Russell ftw.

 

[Kyriakos]

Not seeing how super-hero movies are sci-fi

Might as well name Sharknado as scifi (as in the tags ).

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Star Trek 2,4,6,8,10

I thnk you pushed that whole "even numbers" thing just a little bit too far there...

 

[sophie]

Truman Show isn't scifi, though (it could be done with current tech). And Jim Carrey must be the worst jerk among known US actors

Of course it's sci-fi. The fact that it came out in 1998, before The Bachelor, before Survivor, before Big Brother, and before the broader reality shows that essentially follow one person's life as they grow up like Teen Mom, Dance Moms (to a lesser extent with eg Maddie), and all of the Real Housewives spin-offs only makes it that much more incredible. The movie basically takes The Real World and follows it to its logical conclusion. That's classic sci-fi.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I totally forgot about The Thing. That movie is awesome. They made another one by the same name in 2011, which I thought was a remake but it's actually a sequel and pretty good. Not as good as the original.

I also like the Stargate movie lol. Kurt Russell ftw.

There's a Stargate remake on the way, sans Russell, afaik.

Not seeing how super-hero movies are sci-fi

Might as well name Sharknado as scifi (as in the tags ).

A man builds an AI-assisted suit of armor that lets him fly and fire energy bolts from his hands. Another man arrives from another planet and the combination of his extraterrestrial physiology and Earth's environment imbues him with superhuman abilities. A third man submits to an experiment to help his country fight a war, develops superhuman abilities, then is frozen in a block of ice, caught in 'suspended animation' for 65 years.

Stop me when I get to something that sounds like science fiction to you.

Another man (and soon, a woman) wear armored suits that enable them to shrink themselves to as small as subatomic size. A scientist experimenting with gamma radiation is accidentally mutated into a creature of almost total rage. Another scientist experimenting with extradimensional travel visits another plane of reality, along with his wife, her brother and their friend; all four are transformed in *ahem* fantastic ways as a result. And around the world, a new subspecies of homo sapiens begins to appear, each gifted (or, in some cases, cursed) with unusual abilities.

tl;dr You were kidding, right?

 

[EgonSpengler]

Some other underappreciated gems...

The Brother From Another Planet (1984) Joe Morton, dir. John Sayles (Lone Star). Also a very young David Strathairn.

The Hidden (1987) Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, dir. Jack Sholder (if you've never heard of him, it's because he basically didn't direct anything else worth watching, as far as I can tell ).

Alien Nation (1988) James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terrence Stamp, dir. Graham Baker (another one-hit wonder).

The Abyss (1989) Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, dir. James Cameron.

Strange Days (1995) Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Tom Sizemore, Juliette Lewis, and the under-rated Michael Wincott, dir. Kathryn Bigelow, and keep your eyes peeled for a couple of little-known actors William Fitchner and Vincent D'Onofrio.

Source Code (2011) Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright, dir. Duncan Jones.

 

[EgonSpengler]

- Blade Runner

Oh, hey. I forgot to mention Blade Runner. Brain cramp. That's definitely in my 'Top 10', maybe top 5.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Contact (1997) Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, William Fitchner, Tom Skerritt, and a 12-year-old Jena Malone, dir. Robert Zemeckis.

Hey, crap. Zemeckis. Has anyone mentioned Back to the Future yet?

 

[EgonSpengler]

By no means "best", but "underrated" is Cube (1997). A bunch of Canadians you might recognize from television, Nicole de Boer, David Hewlett, dir. Vincenzo Natali. At first glance, I thought this was another of those 'torture porn' movies about how many ways the filmmakers can think of to kill people - Final Destination, anything by Eli Roth, etc - which are not for me. I was assured this was not the case, and was pleasantly surprised.

Natali is supposedly working on Neuromancer now. As was pointed out in the books thread, though, people have been "working on Neuromancer" for 30 years now, so I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[Kyriakos]

There's a Stargate remake on the way, sans Russell, afaik.


A man builds an AI-assisted suit of armor that lets him fly and fire energy bolts from his hands. Another man arrives from another planet and the combination of his extraterrestrial physiology and Earth's environment imbues him with superhuman abilities. A third man submits to an experiment to help his country fight a war, develops superhuman abilities, then is frozen in a block of ice, caught in 'suspended animation' for 65 years.

Stop me when I get to something that sounds like science fiction to you.

Another man (and soon, a woman) wear armored suits that enable them to shrink themselves to as small as subatomic size. A scientist experimenting with gamma radiation is accidentally mutated into a creature of almost total rage. Another scientist experimenting with extradimensional travel visits another plane of reality, along with his wife, her brother and their friend; all four are transformed in *ahem* fantastic ways as a result. And around the world, a new subspecies of homo sapiens begins to appear, each gifted (or, in some cases, cursed) with unusual abilities.

tl;dr You were kidding, right?

Well, yes, but they are comic-based films. I wouldn't call 'Mars Attacks!" sci-fi either.