Filed under The 59 Sci-Fi Movie Challenge

The 59 Sci Fi Challenge: #4 The Time Machine (1960)

Dave is partaking in a death-defying one man high-stakes challenge that involves him watching movies. This is it.

Time Machine 1960 Rod Taylor

"I can't believe I travelled 800,000 years into the future and forgot my toothbrush"

H.G. Wells’ classic novel, brought to life with all the panash and hi-tech wizardry that 1960 has to offer. What’s not to love? Not much really. Double negatives aside, what I’m trying to say is, I liked it.

The Time Machine is the story of an inventor who invents a time machine. He then uses it to travel through time. Plot summary: check.

The Time Machine has some genuinely cool stuff in it. I like that the machine demands the user to sit in one spot and watch time move around him, rather than just quantum leaping from start to finish as we’ve come to expect. Watching time go past at the speed of a Benny Hill sketch is sort of hilarious, and with the use of stop-motion, an impressive and time-staking effect. Pun, of course, intended.

Speaking of effects, there are a lot of cool visuals going on in The Time Machine, clearly earning it its Visual Effects Oscar. The stop motion and model work is great for the most part, but a lot has dated, and dated badly. The volcanic magma streaming past London streetcars looks more like a kid spilling jam on his favourite toy car than anything. And don’t you dare question why there’s a volcano in London. But it’s all so kitsch and charming, you can’t help but admire the work that must have gone into it. Continue reading

Tagged , , ,

The 59 Sci Fi Challenge: #3 Gattaca (1997)

Dave is partaking in a death-defying one man high-stakes challenge that involves him watching movies. This is it.

Gattaca Ethan Hawke Andrew Niccol Uma Therman Jude Law

1997 features several times on the 101 sci fi films list, which statistically makes it one of the book’s favourite years for scifi. Starship Troopers, Open Your Eyes, Men in Black and The Fifth Element I had all seen, but one film of 1997 has eluded me for the last 15 years (yes, 15 years, I know, I remember the Spice Girls as if it were yesterday aswell).

Gattaca, for those who don’t know, is set in a dystopian (some might say utopian) future ruled by gene manipulation. Genetic advances have allowed for babies to be born free of disease, defects or even negative personality traits. DNA profiling is widespread, allowing potential employers or law enforcement to see every detail of your physical and mental performance. Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , ,

The 59 Sci-Fi Challenge: #2 Slaughterhouse Five (1972)

Dave is undertaking a challenge. This is it.

Slaughterhouse Billy Pilgrim Tralfamadore Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse Five is an absolute mindfuck of a film. I still don’t think I quite understood what it was all about, but I’ll do my best to make sense of it.

Slaughterhouse Five opens on Billy Pilgrim (played really strangely and brilliantly by Michael Sacks, who I had never heard of either), typing a letter to the editor of a magazine. We see as he types that he has a problem: he is unintentionally time-travelling throughout moments in his life, past, present and future. From there, the disjointed narrative structure kicks in and we start to be propelled (often very suddenly and unexpectedly) through various points in Billy’s life, primarily his time in WWII Germany and post-war America. It’s a fascinating and useful device, allowing for random moments from Billy’s future and past to deepen our understanding of him as a character. It allows for some pretty nice fades and scene juxtapositions, but on the downside can feel a bit disorienting at times. Continue reading

Tagged , , , ,

The 59 Sci-fi Challenge: #1 Akira (1988)

Akira movie 1988

See here for full details on the 59 sci-fi movie challenge.

So I finally saw Akira. It’s quite a strange, cool, trippy sci-fi movie.

It cleverly tackles subjects like the corruption of power and the nature of the universe and evolution effortlessly, while throwing up colourful and lasting images and characters. The animation is sublime and looked great with its bluray makeover, the voice-acting is passionate and the score is weirdly and unsettlingly experimental in a way that perfectly compliments the mad visuals.

The setting of New Tokyo, built from the ashes of World War III, is beautifully realised and conveys a heavy sense of dread, that probably rang even truer for this film’s post-cold war release. The Han Solo of the piece, Kaneda, has more than enough charm and cool and is the perfect foil to the maligned Tetsuo, whose fall from grace is charted roughly a million times better in two hours than, say, Anakin Skywalker’s six-hour long laugh-fest of a fall. Continue reading

Tagged , , , ,

The 59 Sci-fi movies I must see before I die this year

At Christmas, I received a present of a book from the owner of this blog. It was the 101 sci-fi films one must see before one dies.

Flicking through the list, I realised how few I’d seen and wondered what the hell I’ve been doing with my life. How have I seen Weekend at Bernie’s three times, but I’ve never once seen Brazil or Logan’s Run?

So I’ve decided to set myself a challenge. There are 59 films on this list that I haven’t seen. So I am going to attempt to watch them all before I die this year, along with everyone else in the fiery inferno. I’m hoping the Aztecs will give us until New Year’s Eve. Continue reading

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 110 other followers