1970'/early 80's science fiction films

[Endicott]

I've been meaning to see Saturn 3 for some time, mostly because it's directed by Stanley Donen.

It's been on TV sometime in the last few months. I thought of it yesterday but didn't post it because it is fucking shite. God knows what the rest of you are thinking. I suppose you could watch it as a comedy, that might work. Or in a 'so bad it's good' type way.

[great_badir]

Coma (1978)

Much cop?

Yep.  Great film.  And Michael Douglas is brilliant in it.  Classic ending too.

Look at the credits of the Saturn 3 remake poster.

Pretty sure that's a fake.  Unless both Lucas and Jolie are keeping VERY quiet.

Have to agree with Endicott - Saturn 3 is awful.  The Mystery Science Theater treatment would have improved it no end.

Very good shout on Fantastic Planet.  Amazing film.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one is going to nominate the abominable teenage wank fantasy of Heavy Metal...

[Blumf]

It's been on TV sometime in the last few months. I thought of it yesterday but didn't post it because it is fucking shite.

Explain yourself!!

Seriously, I just don't see what people hate about it. It may not be cinematic perfection, but it's no where near crap either.

[Blumf]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one is going to nominate the abominable teenage wank fantasy of Heavy Metal...

I love it because it is exactly that. Won't claim it to be a great film though, just great fun. The South Park tribute to it was pretty good too.

Best opening sequence though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMPe3wF9jQ

[great_badir]

The South Park tribute to it was pretty good too.

Better than the film.  Seriously.

(in my opinion)

Having said that, it IS a hundred times better than the sequel.

Gerald Potterton did some great stuff, it's just a shame that most of it gets overlooked and Heavy Metal is what he's mostly remembered for.

[Brundle-Fly]

I went to see The Humanoid in 1979 purely because Jaws and Anya out of The Spy Who Loved Me were in it.  Pound shop Star Wars.





Jesus, there's a whole website dedicated to it.

http://www.golobthehumanoid.com

[Delete Delete Delete]

I have a fondness for City Beneath The Sea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNH_q0qXSHw

Good if you like Thunderbird style miniatures and shonky effects. I laugh every time I see a massive stack of gold bricks wobbling.

[Ignatius_S]

Battle Beyond The Stars was a poor Star Wars rip-off IIRC...

Only if you haven't seen The Magnificent Seven or The Seven Samurai – Robert Vaughan even plays his character from the former, essentially.

....The Flash Gordon film was also a bit al over the place, rather like the Star Trek film there's a sense they weren't sure what they were trying to do with it (homage to the original serials? Star Wars rip-off? thoughtful SF? comedy piss-take?) Wasn't there supposed to be a sequel?...

Definite homage to the film and radio serials. Yes, there was meant to be a sequel but Jones (according to the actor and Mike Hodges) fell out with De Laurentiis .

[Frazer]

The first Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake is brilliant, great cast[nb]Fucking Spock's in it![/nb] but what really makes it stand out for me is the incredible sense of paranoia right from the start.

[Endicott]

Explain yourself!!

I could cheat and look this stuff up but I won't. (I did look up their DOB).

Kirk Douglas (64) in a relationship with Farrah Fawcett (33) and from memory she has some kind of never met another man deal going on, or something. If that in itself isn't a recipe for a turd, but anyway, the dialog is almost as wooden as the acting. Even Harvey Keitel, basically the only one of the three I would normally like, acts like a tree stump. I recall he speaks with a silly accent, too. And the robot! It's just not very well done.

Seriously, I just don't see what people hate about it. It may not be cinematic perfection, but it's no where near crap either.

You are forcing me to accept that perhaps it's just not quite my cup of tea. Which is possible, I may be approaching this with prejudice aforethought. I have no wish to ruin your enjoyment of this, but I would never recommend it to anyone.

[Blumf]

Kirk Douglas (64) in a relationship with Farrah Fawcett (33) and from memory she has some kind of never met another man deal going on, or something. If that in itself isn't a recipe for a turd, but anyway, the dialog is almost as wooden as the acting. Even Harvey Keitel, basically the only one of the three I would normally like, acts like a tree stump. I recall he speaks with a silly accent, too. And the robot! It's just not very well done.

Well the relationship isn't outside of real life examples (e.g. Kirk's kid and that Welsh bird), that's just you being squeamish (fair enough in this case, you big gerontophobic). Dialogue is okay, by sci-fi standards at least. I'll give you Keitel being naff, I think that's the worst pert of the film for me. However, name me one better robot bad guy (proper robot, not human walking stiffly) from any film of this period!

You are forcing me to accept that perhaps it's just not quite my cup of tea. Which is possible, I may be approaching this with prejudice aforethought. I have no wish to ruin your enjoyment of this, but I would never recommend it to anyone.

Don't worry, I'll enjoy it regardless, just lost as to why people hate it. I can see not caring for it, but the hate seems unearned.

[Endicott]

Well the relationship isn't outside of real life examples (e.g. Kirk's kid and that Welsh bird), that's just you being squeamish (fair enough in this case, you big gerontophobic).

Ha! I should have been more specific. I've got no problems with another of Donen's screen couples, Cary Grant (59) and Audrey Hepburn (34)[nb]fuck me I'm amazed to find Charade is by the same director. Well I'll be blowed[/nb]. It's because it's Douglas. I can't really explain it.

Dialogue is okay, by sci-fi standards at least. I'll give you Keitel being naff, I think that's the worst pert of the film for me. However, name me one better robot bad guy (proper robot, not human walking stiffly) from any film of this period!

Shan't! (or can't, eh? ed.)[nb]the skeletal form of the Terminator is only 4 years away.[/nb][nb]why does it have to be a bad guy? The Silent Running dudes are fucking brilliant![/nb]

[great_badir]

Even Harvey Keitel, basically the only one of the three I would normally like, acts like a tree stump. I recall he speaks with a silly accent, too. And the robot! It's just not very well done.

He was completely dubbed over by another actor, a la Sam Jones in Flash Gordon.  An English one to boot.


No one has mentioned Spielberg's Close Encounters yet - mostly schmaltz free, a great acting turn from Francois Truffaut, and the only American made aliens/UFO film I can think of where the US government KNOWS the aliens are coming and ISN'T trying to blow the living alien shit out of them.

[kidsick5000]

I have a fondness for City Beneath The Sea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNH_q0qXSHw

Good if you like Thunderbird style miniatures and shonky effects. I laugh every time I see a massive stack of gold bricks wobbling.

I want to see the rest of that. The set design is fantastic. I mean, who wouldn't want their office designed like the set of a chat show - and seemingly open air on a rooftop. Then spend 5 mins havent a " do it/ don't want to" coversation with the president. Then meet a former colleague and both of you act like spurned lovers.

Guest starring SUGAR RAY ROBINSON?!?

Irwin Allen, you spoil us

Very worth watching this little Acorn Antiques style exchange between the general and the woman in red
http://youtu.be/F5-RMxhmQDA?t=2m10s

[mothman]

Wow, never even heard of City Beneath The Sea. The first thing that comes to mind is, while they obviously ripped off Star Trek's uniform designs, it looks like the uniform design worn by Stuart Whitman was then itself ripped off for (Star Trek:) Enterprise... And, 1971? It's newer than Colossus: The Forbin Project but looks even more dated. Another success for the Nothing Happened Culturally After 1962 wing of Hollywood, obviously.

[Mr_Simnock]

 Just watched a trailer for City beneath the Sea on You tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcA7KUa3n_M) and I'm surprised it was from 1971, three years after 2001. It can be forgiven a bit though as it turns out it was only released theatrically in the UK. It was originally intended to be a TV series for NBC (or whoever would take it up) but this idea failed so eventually after a couple years was turned into a TV film of the week hence the cheap look of it all. Here is a clip of the unsold pilot - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5-RMxhmQDA.  Quick note about 2001, when watching it for the first time on a big TV via Blu Ray I was very much aware when some of the back drops to some scenes were just paintings which thus removed a lot of the suspension of disbelief element of watching a film. Quite a few older films relying on special effect can be shown up badly via Blu ray so god knows how some will cope with the obvious to come 4K renditions.

[monkfromhavana]

I used to watch a lot on VHS when I lived in Japan. Phase IV was good, the guy out of Howard's Way and about 30 mins of close-up ant footage.

I was always a fan of Outland, even though it's at the shittier, action end of the spectrum. I like the grimy dullness of it.

[monkfromhavana]

I went to see The Humanoid in 1979 purely because Jaws and Anya out of The Spy Who Loved Me were in it.  Pound shop Star Wars.


Jesus, there's a whole website dedicated to it.

http://www.golobthehumanoid.com

Probably the worst film I have ever seen, but also strangely captivating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8MozKS9MmY

[Rev Arthur Belling]

Ooooh it's been many years since I've seen Dark Star. Thanks for jogging my memory.  Surf's up!

[Blumf]

Quick note about 2001, when watching it for the first time on a big TV via Blu Ray I was very much aware when some of the back drops to some scenes were just paintings which thus removed a lot of the suspension of disbelief element of watching a film. Quite a few older films relying on special effect can be shown up badly via Blu ray so god knows how some will cope with the obvious to come 4K renditions.

Had the same problem when I went to a showing of 2001 on an Imax screen[nb]The intermission was a godsend on those horrible, steep row seats[/nb]. It's a real shame as the SFX were, and still are, amazingly good overall, and the few bits where it doesn't survive our new HD world are perfectly excusable but, like you say, tend to pull you out of the film.

[Mr_Simnock]

Ooooh it's been many years since I've seen Dark Star. Thanks for jogging my memory.  Surf's up!

That scene where he has to talk bomb 20 out of blowing up is one of the finest in cinema. Every now and again you get five minutes of film that seem so so much more than the sum of its parts, nearest I can think of is the bit in Life of Brian where they are talking to him once he has fallen on the bloke who won't talk, and thats one of them. You can have the greatest sets and cgi on earth but dialogue will and always shall remain the glory of any film.



Also I love the bit early on where they ask a bomb to destroy a planet and it has this almost chirpy attitude towards doing it its fantastic. The film was made by students for fuck all but somehow it all still works..just (it is a bit ropey round the edges in a good way).

[mothman]

Damnation Alley. THE big summer SF movie for 1977 from 20th Century Fox. In a parallel universe. Watch the Trailer. Or if that doesn't put you off, the whole thing.

[zomgmouse]

That scene where he has to talk bomb 20 out of blowing up is one of the finest in cinema. Every now and again you get five minutes of film that seem so so much more than the sum of its parts, nearest I can think of is the bit in Life of Brian where they are talking to him once he has fallen on the bloke who won't talk, and thats one of them. You can have the greatest sets and cgi on earth but dialogue will and always shall remain the glory of any film.



Also I love the bit early on where they ask a bomb to destroy a planet and it has this almost chirpy attitude towards doing it its fantastic. The film was made by students for fuck all but somehow it all still works..just (it is a bit ropey round the edges in a good way).

The fact that Dan O'Bannon would go on to adapt the

Spoiler alert

beach ball

[close]

alien bit into Alien has got to be one of the best things ever.

[Famous Mortimer]

Horror Channel just showed 1978's Warlords Of Atlantis, which feels like a monster movie from the 50s. It's so oddly out of date.

[mothman]

There's one Hazy TV/Film Memory I've asked about before, but it's likely late 80s/early 90s so I won't trouble you with it here. But I do recall catching the tail end of something that's definitely from this era (I think - this was in the mid-80s, I recall), it had to do with Nazis (I think) being discovered living in a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean (obviously), decades afterthe war ended. Might have been one of them had a daughter the hero fell in love with, or something.

[kidsick5000]

There's one Hazy TV/Film Memory I've asked about before, but it's likely late 80s/early 90s so I won't trouble you with it here. But I do recall catching the tail end of something that's definitely from this era (I think - this was in the mid-80s, I recall), it had to do with Nazis (I think) being discovered living in a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean (obviously), decades afterthe war ended. Might have been one of them had a daughter the hero fell in love with, or something.

Goliath Awaits http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082461/

Damnation Alley. THE big summer SF movie for 1977 from 20th Century Fox. In a parallel universe. Watch the Trailer. Or if that doesn't put you off, the whole thing.

Is that another failed TV pilot? They really were banking on trucks in a desert being captivating. And why's George Parphard playing it so camp?

[mothman]

Excellent work, have some karma!

The Wikipedia page does say the final version diverges wildly from the source material and its author, Roger Zelazny didn't find out about it until after it was in cinemas and so couldn't have his name taken off. Perhaps Peppard had a chip on his shoulder regarding SF (his subsequent performance in Battle Beyond The Stars might bear this out) and so didn't take the job seriously. A bit ironic so both are among his last film credits and he saw out his twilight years in The A-Team...

[Mr_Simnock]

 While looking for rarely seen sci fi films for this thread I came across one called "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes". It's a lame Disney comedy but of interest is the third film in the trilogy called "The Strongest man in the World" as it features both Kurt Russell and Phil Silvers, I had no idea that they ever appeared together in film.
I also chanced upon an early David Cronenberg film 'Crimes of the Future', anyone seen it? It has a most bizarre plot according to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_of_the_Future), some of it a bit disturbing.



P.S Check out this fantastic poster for the 1970 film 'The Illustrated Man'

[Famous Mortimer]

There's a region-free US blu-ray of the largely forgotten Cronenberg film "Fast Company" which has complete versions of "Stereo" and "Crimes Of The Future" available as special features. I really like them both, even if they're both so cold that they make "Shivers" feel like a warm family comedy.

[great_badir]

While looking for rarely seen sci fi films for this thread I came across one called "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes". It's a lame Disney comedy but of interest is the third film in the trilogy called "The Strongest man in the World" as it features both Kurt Russell and Phil Silvers, I had no idea that they ever appeared together in film.
I also chanced upon an early David Cronenberg film 'Crimes of the Future', anyone seen it? It has a most bizarre plot according to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_of_the_Future), some of it a bit disturbing.



P.S Check out this fantastic poster for the 1970 film 'The Illustrated Man'

Kurt's Disney films are pretty shit to be honest, even compared with a lot of the other live action stuff they were churning out in the 70s.  But it got him a step on the ladder, so all's well...

I've not seen Crimes of the Future (or Fast Company, for that matter) for a long time, but I don't remember it being particularly brilliant - looks and feels every bit the el cheapo self marketing promo that it was.  And Fast Company is pretty terrible.

Illustrated Man is an interesting one - bags of potential and somewhere in there is a much better film trying to get out (a la Cronenberg's Nightbreed), but it never quite manages it.