SCI-FI September!
 

If you can remember back to last year and the Cult Labs unforgettable Noir November event (It'll be back this year :nod:). Well we are also having Sci-Fi September.

Review all the sci-fi films you want here, join in discussions, lambaste the Inspector for cut and pasting his old reviews, whatever you fancy!?

Just enjoy what we hope will be a great Sci-Fi September.

mines a large lambast and repost please hold the ice
 

Invaders from Mars (1953)

Directed by William Cameron Menzies, what drives this story so well is the paranoia and fear of its central character little Jimmy Hunt as David MacLean ,while all the stupid adults go stumbling around the sand dunes getting sucked down and lobotomised. David is the only one smart enough to believe his own eyes and know the truth,while gradually the more important towns folk are being recruited into the Martian army. Its not until some one from the Dept of Health ,Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter) starts to believe David that eventually we get some action from the adult populace. Again its David who takes the initiative and tries to contact the police to no avail and the local astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz) . Also when ever David is confronted by some sort of a authority like the prison cell (seemed a bit harsh putting a little boy in the slammer) or the entrance to the police station,Menzies exploits Davids fear by making the sets seem more increasingly larger than reality,just to make the kids journey even more fraught with danger.In fact its quite a relief to the viewer when David is finally believed and then we can get on with killing them darn Martians. Again Menzies makes the Marian's huge hulk like creatures,larger than life and twice as ugly,apart from the lead Martian who is just a head and tentacles in a gold fish bowl. Invaders from Mars gets a little talky in the mid section,especially the British version as the distributor wanted some re-edits and allot more information about the invaders. Invaders is a firm favourite of mine,mixing good old scientific twaddle with a good dose of martian action towards the end. Influence on many films later on ,I especially think Dead And Buried shares similar themes of paranoia and people not being what they appear to be.Highly Recommended.

How weird... I watched the '53 version of Invaders from Mars yesterday too!

Along with The Man from Planet X and First Men in the Moon.

http://primer.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=3e6f677848 http://zardoz.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=eb6f55a49f http://primer.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=004340e985

I watched a Star Trek TNG episode last night does that count?
I love these themed months, I don't have a whole load of Sci-Fi on disc but there is a fair bit of it on all of the VoD services I subscribe to so I'll make up for lost time when I get home tonight :)

well its going to be star trek month for me, but will try to get some more sci fi in

I've knocked up a quick list of films which I'm interested in watching this month for the theme. Some I've never seen, some I haven't seen for a long time and would love to catch up with.

Serenity (2005)
Barbarella (1968)
Pacific Rim (2013)
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
Logan’s Run (1976)
Westworld (1973)
Dark City (1998)
Quatermass and the Pit (1968)
Akira (1988)
Predator (1987)
Under the Skin (2013)
Starship Troopers (1997)
Contact (1997)
District 9 (2009)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
AI Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Back to the Future (1985)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Fly (1986)
Children of Men (2006)
Solaris (1972)
Stalker (1979)
The Matrix (1999)
ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Metropolis (1927)
Brazil (1985)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Some great stuff there, Justin. :nod:

Just remember! Review and discuss them, don't just watch and list them folks. :thankingyou:

ordered this with any luck it will turn up before the end of the month

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

revised review
 

The Blob (1988)

Ever since John Carpenters The Thing,every monster or alien substance pretty much ooozes,mutates,slimes and just basically does nasty things to the human anatomy,The Blob being no different,dissolves bodies,and slimes it's way around Arborville, California.Throw in a government conspiracy about biological warfare experiments and you get a rather entertaining remake of a rather entertaining original monster flick from the 50's.Of course audience back in the 80's just wanted to see the next gory special effects movie,in an era chock full of em. From the start where the tramp finds the meteor,the blob makes a bee line for his hand,unfortunately not even chopping his hand with an axe can not get rid of the slimey bugger. Unfortunately for the tramp even when he was rescued and taken to the hospital by bad boy Kevin Dillon as Brian Flagg , cheerleader Shawnee Smith as Meg Penny and high school jock Donovan Leitch as Paul Taylor,the Blob manages to dissolve the tramp in halve and turn Paul into triffle. Limbs are severed bodies are dissolved and flesh is melted in what could be seen as a classier and more well made Troma styled movie.You gotta love any film that has Ricky Paull Goldin as Scott Jeske take Erika Eleniak as Vicki De Soto to some sort of lovers lane where Scott tries to get his hand down her blouse ( check out the chat up line " nice blouse" ) only for Vicki to turn into some blobbly style Thing and end any amorous feelings Scott may have had for Vicki. Director Chuck Russell of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors fame is competent workman like director but the true star of the film is The Blob whether shooting out of sinks or just eating phone booths that get in its path,The Blob is an enjoyable 80's example of high school teens vs er Blob,make a cool double bill with Larry Cohen (Director) The Stuff. Highly entertaining stuff,there was also a lot of similarities to Phantoms which came out a year later.

https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/att..._poster_01.jpg

Nemesis (1992)

In the year 2027 a cyborg LA policeman is hunted down by humans and other cyborgs. There are other parts to the story but i can't be arsed with them. Why? Because Nemesis is basically an ass kicking action movie where plot gets in the way of mayhem and bloodshed.

Albert Pyun, a director of spectacular cheese fests, delivers a fast moving, violent romp that only slows to show German star Olivier Gruner's ass or former Dallas girl Deborah Shelton's wonky boob job. From the fifth minute onwards Nemesis is carnage all the way, hell even Gruner's dog is killed, as Gruner slays a whole host of C-grade video stars including Brion James, Thom Matthews and direct to video stalwart Tim Thomerson. Also look out for Thomas Jane in an early role and naked throughout. You'll wince as Shelton knees him in the bollocks.

Channeling everything from The Terminator to Robocop and featuring more gun play than The Matrix, Nemesis has great location work throughout and is one of the slickest, maddest, coolest pieces of trash cinema about.

I much prefer this version over the original.

When artist/photographer Robert Longo met William Gibson at a party, they discovered they had similar interests. Both were fascinated with the way the world was changing. While the advances of technology were improving civilisation for the better, it was having a different effect on society. People were becoming more alienated, as they now possessed the means to retreat into a world of their making.

Gibson and Longo decided to explore what would be the conclusion of this advanced form of mankind. They would take one of Gibson’s short stories (Johnny Mnemonic, as it was the most straightforward) and expand it to showcase a world wrought with zaibatsus, pollution, and a new disease (a new form of cancer caused by mobile technology’s radiation). The plan was simple – they were going to make a modest $1.5 million dark comedy. The low-budget guaranteed low-risk and made it easy to secure funding. At least that was the idea. As they shipped their pitch across Hollywood, no studio bit. However, it was not for the reason they expected.

Back in the mid-nineties, Hollywood realised that the internet was going to a big deal. Originally thought of as something of value only to the military and computer scientists, the world wide web was now accessible to almost everyone that wanted it. Forums and videogames soon started popping up online, ready for use by a hungry young audience. Hollywood spotted a new demographic and thus began their love affair for everything cyberpunk.

Cyberpunk, in a way, was the perfect genre. It had all that gee-whizz technology that was new and exciting. It touched on themes that were relevant back then as they are now. And it was dark, cynical and dangerous – just the way the young crowd wanted it. How could Hollywood lose money on that package?

And yet, cyberpunk didn’t take off in cinema like it did in literature or video-games (with the exception of Japanese anime). Brett Leonard’s The Lawnmower Man and John Flynn’s Brainscan did okay-ish business. But, Leonard’s Virtuosity was a box-office failure and Iain Softley’s Hackers was commercial disaster. Despite all the marketing and cool accompanying soundtracks by Juno Reactor and other electronic musicians, cyberpunk wasn’t taking off. Hollywood was not giving up, though. It was just going to have to bring out the big guns. Or, as it turns out, the very big gun came to them.

Gibson, the father of cyberpunk, was astonished when Sony turned down their low-budget pitch in favour of a $25 million adaptation. Gibson and Longo now had the funds to fully realise their world. Keanu Reeves, now a superstar after Speed, was very interested in working with Gibson and Longo. Sony had the support of Gibson - Johnny Mnemonic was going to be the cyberpunk film and audiences were going to have to pay attention to this one. It looked like a win-win situation for everyone.

Only, it wasn’t. Gibson and Longo discovered that while $25 million buys a lot of sets, it also means that, in order to get its money back, the film would have to appeal to a wider audience than they originally intended. The studio forced the filmmakers to include extra action sequences and special effects gimmicks. Much to their eventual displeasure, these action beats clashed horribly with the offbeat setting of the story. This is a story that has a former Navy dolphin addicted to heroin as one of the greatest brain hackers, after all.

The result was a film that neither party was happy with it. Critics and cinema-goers were of the same opinion too. Johnny Mnemonic just about broke even in the box-office. The reviews were pretty damning too, although most were just cheap gags at Keanu Reeves’s expense (“Reeves gives up part of his brain to store data… snark, snark”). Even Roger Ebert didn’t pay too much attention, forgetting that Reeves’s character was transferring sensitive data that couldn’t be uploaded online.

In fairness to Ebert, it’s very possible that he grew board with the film. Johnny Mnemonic is a tonal mess of a film. It awkwardly shuffles from trying to be a John Woo thriller, a Blade Runner-esque noir, or a sci-fi comedy. It doesn’t succeed too well at either genre. Furthermore, while the idea of cyberspace was probably hot shit back when the story was published in 1981, it was comical in the already internet savvy world of 1995. The internet was back then just as we know it today – a collection of web pages that can be accessed by entering a web address, rather than wandering the streets of a metaverse.

And yet, I still like the film a lot. There are intriguing ideas in Johnny Mnemonic, such as our dependence on media and technology. While it may have got the internet itself wrong, MMORPGs and the new VR helmets owe a debt to Gibson and Longo’s efforts. Plus, contrary to what the critics thought at the time, Reeves is quite good in the role. He effortlessly captures the selfish but likable nature of Johnny, and seems quite comfortable in stepping aside to allow Dina Meyer’s Jane (replacing the more iconic Molly Millions of the story) to be the action hero. Reeves becomes increasingly hilarious as he grows more exasperated with the events occurring around him (you’ll never forget his ROOM SERVICE monologue). If it wasn’t for Dolph Lundgren’s completely insane appearance as a mass-murdering cyber-preacher, Reeves would have the most unhinged performance in the film.

1995 would prove to be Hollywood’s last year at trying to do cyberpunk. It certainly left its influence though. Computer espionage and hacking became and still is a viable plot device for many thrillers today. Corporate dominance and government surveillance still make up the base structure for many stories. And in 1999, the Wachowskis would evolve the genre when they unleashed The Matrix into cinemas. The Matrix achieved what most of Hollywood gave up trying in the years previous.

And it’s a shame, because we have still yet to see a true adaptation of Gibson’s work. Over the years, there have been frequent attempts to turn his debut novel, Neuromancer, into a film but it always falls apart. Cyberpunk is starting to become more relevant again thanks to video games such as the Deus Ex series and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, so maybe Hollywood will decide to have another go.

There is one perfect almost-adaptation of Johnny Mnemonic. One that captures the neon dystopia human nature of Gibson’s work, and ties it into a plot involving memory chips carrying explosive secrets. But, I’ll leave it at that for now. Maybe I’ll review it over the next few Strange Days.

A Boy and His Dog (1975)
 

A Boy and His Dog (1975)

Directed by L.Q. Jones,who has had a major career as a character actor,and will be familiar to horror movie fans from 1982's The Beast Within as Sheriff Bill Pool.Adapted from Harlan Ellison's short story from 1969 called A Boy and his Dog.Set in the post apocalyptic world,which doesn't look to dissimilar to Mad Max 2,where you have bands of killers scouring the wasteland looking for food and there only entertainment being old porno movies which will cost you the price of a can of food to watch.Don Johnson as Vic is a randy young man who with the help of Tim McIntire doing the voice of Blood,finds young women to rape to satisfy his raging hormones.Vic and Blood are telepathically linked together,which means they are able to talk to each other.Vic is a simple minded and under educated boy where as Blood is an highly educated dog who knows pretty much everything about politics and history(how he gained this knowledge is never revealed,we just take it on board that Blood is much more intelligent than his human counter part). What sells the film and makes it work is the relationship between Don Johnson and Blood,and allot of this is down to the voice acting of Tim McIntire,who manages to convey the thought process of the dog you see on screen and what he his thinking.It could so easily of turned into a Disney talking dog movie (saying that I do enjoy those Shaggy Dog movies) but with a young Don Johnson in an early film role,he plays it really well and you do get this feeling that these two characters are actually interacting with each other. I grant you that A Boy and His Dog (1975) is a very much a film that has its detractors.I remember catching it on BBC 2 back in 1980's and being pretty blown away by its uniqueness and some rather witty dialogue between Vic and Blood.That said the story itself is very misogynistic,particularly the ending where Bloods last line summons up the duo's opinion of women.

Blood: Well, I'd certainly say she had marvelous judgment, Albert, if not particularly good taste.

I just watched the trailer and it looks like fun, has Henry Rollins in a cameo and the soundtrack list is fantastic! I might watch it despite your great review! Or I might hunt out my Strange Days DVD and watch that instead.

It's definitely worth a gander, but if I was placed with choice of watching Strange Days ten times, or Johnny Mnemonic once, I'm picking Strange Days.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/1f0...37f-650-80.jpg

The anime film which famously inspired The Matrix. When the Wachowski's saw Ghost in the Shell they went to Joel Silver and told him they wanted to make this but "for real". However don't let your views of The Matrix put you off Ghost in the Shell, apart from the protagonists plugging into a neural network to communicate to each other there isn't a great deal of similarity.

I've known about Ghost... for many many years; I've enjoyed anime a great deal since my teen years but I always found this particular film to be a hard nut to crack. I've attempted to watch it a couple of times and failed, but in the spirit of Sci-Fi September I took another stab at it and while it's still pretty hard to follow I found it to be quite enjoyable after all.

The story is quite a simple one involving 'ghost-hacking' which is where you download your consciousness into a synthetic body (shell) to spy or collect information. The hacker, only known as The Puppet Master breaks into a top secret government facility and ghost-hacks a prototype android body which causes the android to develop AI and ponder the meaning of life.

The animation is of a very high standard and the direction is sublime, some very evocative scenes of the main characters driving around Tokyo are strangely soothing to watch.

It's not going to be every ones cup of tea, for such a simple story it's actually quite difficult to appreciate, but everything about the film is top class - it's worth a watch, but maybe not for anime newcomers.



The trailer in Japanese, but gives a good indication of the animation style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvBVDibOrgs

Love this film. Definitely one of the finest animes out there. But, do you know what I prefer? It's sequel, Innocence. That film is a head wrecker that raises a lot of questions about what humanity is.

Great to see the Sci-Fi September thread is off to a flyer. *

Keep up the great work chaps.

*All except Bizarre_Eye who actually came up with the idea in the first place that is.

I rather like the flawed Johnny Mnemonic. Strange Days is utterly fantastic though. It felt like a real experience at the cinema. The soundtrack album is well worth picking up too.

Hey! I've posted that I've watched 3 films (now 6 - will update my list later) and have been reading, liking and enjoying everyone's reviews. :mmph: ;)

We want words of wisdom and opinion from you though. :nod:

You'll find no wisdom here!

I'm more than happy to share my opinion or answer specific questions on anything I've watched though if asked. :nod:

Wouldn't mind your thoughts on First Men in the Moon, B_E.

It's a film i've never seen but the disc has been in my wishlist for eons.

I'll hopefully be able to jot some thoughts down later on... maybe for some of the others too. I'm going to settle in and re-watch Phase IV in a bit - a film I haven't seen for a good few years. One of the problems with writing reviews is that you have less time to actually watch films! ;)

You'll have plenty of time whilst watching Phase IV. You'll need something to stop you nodding off. ;)

Not a fave of mine. Too much microscope gazing and not enough mutant killer ant rampage.

Mars Attacks (1996)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D6dWwGMSh3I/hqdefault.jpg

Not really anywhere near as good as my rose tinted glasses led me to believe. Jack Nicholson was good in his 2 roles though.

The stand out part for me was the Martians killing everyone in sight while the translator machine was telling everybody "Don't run! We are your friends!" It's not one of Burton's best movies but it's fun to watch, especially due to the cast involved.

Same here

I think it's wonderful, one of my all time faves.

I have a Martian Ambassador figure which i picked up from one of the bargain stores soon after the film came out for a fiver. They go for silly money now.

Day the earth stood still.

One of the most well knowing and iconic b movies of the 50s. Go with a more scientific and realistic approach than most of the other films of the time also the alien is not some big headed monster bent on world domination and destruction but has come to warn and help us. Captures the paranoia of thetime . a true classic. 9.7/10

I don't think i've ever seen it.

I have seen the remake and it kinda put me off seeking out the original.

The remake is pretty unremarkable, but the original is fantastic Dem.

One of my favourite Sci-Fi films of all time.

Cool list. Although where's The Final Countdown?

Silent Running and Altered States are two others i've never seen. The UK dvd of Running appears to be 1:33:1 so that's out and Altered States is only available on dvd-r.

Sep 1st:

Invaders from Mars (1953)

http://primer.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=3e6f677848

1950s classic Cold-War era paranoia with a Martian twist as a young boy witnesses a strange vessel land outside one night and then everyone he know and loves starts acting strangely. A film I'd wanted to watch for a while but had never gotten around to, luckily Sci-Fi September came along to save the day as this is nicely paced, well acted with some fun effects work.

68/100


The Man from Planet X (1951)

http://zardoz.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=eb6f55a49f

While watching for a planet that may collide with earth, scientists stationed in Scotland are approached by a visitor from outer space. The film offers some interesting ideas in regards to the rogue planet and the alien visitor, an ambassador to our planet whose mission isn't entirely clear... and whether he comes in peace or whether he is here to enslave the human race. However, replace the alien aspect and transpose it a decade earlier and you have the makings of one of Universal's lower tier monster pictures, in terms of style and mood at times. Also, despite clocking in at just over an hour the story does fizzle out a bit towards the end. Still, worth a look for '50s sci-fi fans.

52/100


First Men in the Moon (1964)

http://primer.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=004340e985

Three for three in the first time viewing department, First Men in the Moon is based on a H G Wells story with added '60s-ness. The world is delighted when a space craft containing a crew made up of the world's astronauts /lands on the moon, they think for the first time. But the delight turns to shock when the astronauts discover an old British flag and a document declaring that the moon is taken for Queen Victoria proving that the astronauts were not the first men on the moon.

Unfortunately the pre-adventure of the men finding the British flag is phenomenal and gripping stuff, however the main adventure itself is a little more trying and not nearly as exciting as the opener unfortunately. Luckily, Nigel 'Quatermass' Kneale co-wrote the screenplay so the script is pretty sharp, albeit a little drawn out at times. Luckily (again) there are some nice Harryhausen visual effects to behold in the latter portions of the film too, so the film is definitely worth sticking with and an enjoyable watch overall.

59/100

I'm still yet to watch it!

Silent Running has a gorgeous Blu from Eureka (not sure if it's dual format??) in its intended aspect ratio and Altered States has a nice Blu from Warner in the US. Two more reasons to go Blu, Dem. ;)

Great stuff, B_E. Well worth the wait.

I can't remember if i've seen the original Invaders from Mars. Pretty sure i picked it up in a set with the remake and four others.

I charge £4 a word. You can wire the money to my Swiss bank account. ;)

The remake is another I need to check out. I may pick up the Final Cut Blu at some point if I can find it cheap enough.

I did enjoy it a great deal, I just don't think it's aged very well.
I'm trying to get my flatmate to watch Serenity with me later but I'm not having much luck :lol:

It's all negative equity at the moment though as you still owe thousands in fines for mentioning A**** *****r, T** **o and R**** ****** ******* ***w.

Sorry! :whip:

Sep 2nd:

Track of the Moonbeast (1976)

http://zardoz.a.ltrbxd.com/resized/f...g?k=4c0cfe509b

Professor "Johnny Longbow" Salina, a man who really knows his stews, introduces Paul Carlson to the practical-joking Kathy Nolan. Paul and Kathy seem to hit it off rather well but, during a meteor storm, a meteorite fragment strikes Paul, burying itself deep in his skull, which has the unpleasant side-effect of causing Paul to mutate into a giant reptilian monster at night and go on murderous rampages. It turns out that this sort of thing has happened before, when Professor Salina rediscovers ancient Native American paintings detailing a similar event many centuries ago. Kathy, however, still loves Paul, and tries to save him.

This falls somewhere in among all those terrible creature features and Werewolf knock-offs that the late '70s and '80s seemed to collect. Plus, I've long known to take film posters with a large silo of salt, however the monster depicted above looks damn intimidating and 'science-fictiony', especially when the reality is in fact a cross between the Creature from the Black Lagoon's uglier brother and a Silurian.

On the bright side, I've co-incidentally also knocked another film off of my Nightmare USA to watch list. ;)

41/100


The People Who Own the Dark (Último deseo’) (1976)

http://oblivion.a.ltrbxd.com/resized...g?k=eaff528878

A group of rich businessmen and military officers who are partying in an old castle are spared when a nuclear war ravages the earth. When they venture out into the nearest town to search for food and supplies, they find most of the residents blinded, and soon they discover the existence of a sinister group called The People Who Own The Dark.

A sort of Last Man on Earth meets *insert generic survival film here*, this one boasts Naschy being a lovable asshole (although remarkably he stays fully clothed throughout), doe-eyed socialites and post-apocalyptic gun-toting mayhem. The formula is pretty cut and dried and tried and tested, however it has 'something' about it and that coupled with the downbeat ending meant that this one was hovering around 7/10 territory before I settled on the below rating. I have a feeling that this is one that will improve with future re-watches though.

64/100