The 16 most intelligent sci-fi films ever made

[Thomas Beshear]

Blade Runner should be there.

A Boy & His Dog was a good idea for a film -- based as it is on one of Harlan Ellison's best novellas -- but the low-budget filmmaking is pretty clunky (or at least that's my memory -- I haven't seen it in over 20 years, and perhaps should give it another chance).

I prefer the Vincent Price version of Omega Man, called The Last Man on Earth. (The source novel, I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson is a great book.)

The original Rollerball with James Caan is a well made, exciting thriller, but its speculation about how pro sports would crush individualism isn't borne out by what has happened over the 30-plus years since it was made. The opposite is pretty much the case: corporate sports thrives on the spectacle of the superstar -- Lebron James, anyone?
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Charles Albert 
  To: Pynchon Liste 
  Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2010 11:29 AM
  Subject: Re: The 16 most intelligent sci-fi films ever made


  Where's 

  A Boy & His Dog?

  Rollerball (The John Houseman version)

  Omega Man (The Anthony Zerbe version)

  How does Darko make it, but not Blade Runner?


  btw, has anyone else seen The History Boys?


  love,
  cfa




  On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 1:42 PM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:

    On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 12:39 PM, Dave Monroe
    <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
    > On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 12:30 PM, Thomas Beshear <tbeshear at insightbb.com> wrote:
    >> Most of the choices are good ones, but I can't get behind "The Fountain,"
    >> which was just a mess. Most happy to see "12 Monkeys" here. The source
    >> material, "La Jetee," is very fine, tho' it's a short, not a full-length
    >> feature.
    >
    > I'd cross off Donnie Darko, The Matrix + The Fountain immediately, @
    > LEAST have 12 Monkeys + La jatee share a spot, and shed Pi + Moon as
    > needed add (Tarkovksy's) Solaris (with Stalker waiting in the wings),
    > Planet of the Apes, A Clockwork Orange, Testament, maybe Silent
    > Running, but definitely Metropolis.  Off the top of my head ...


    Sunshine, does Repo Man count? The Andromeda Strain, even ...


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