Wow, you won't watch anything old, then call it 'derivative' when it's the basis of current references? You don't know what words mean, do you?NSGrendel said:
The Movie Nerd Bible: Part I
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
You're actually suggesting that we watch the sequels to Planet of the Apes? The second one was alright, but the others? Gah, why? Those are awful.
I've seen more of the newer films. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is an obvious omission as is Young Frankenstein. Nerds also like comedy.
Other essential science fiction films would be Silent Running, The Day the Earth Stood Still, La Jetée, A Clockwork Orange, The Time Machine (1960), The Day The Earth Caught Fire.
Other essential science fiction films would be Silent Running, The Day the Earth Stood Still, La Jetée, A Clockwork Orange, The Time Machine (1960), The Day The Earth Caught Fire.
Can't help but feel that this also needs a companion piece on film serials and TV series. Flash Gordon, Star Trek, The Prisoner, UFO and so on.
Movie nerd movies? Nerd movies? Screw that.
With the exception of a few you listed, everyone should see these films. Screw tagging on that nerd label.
I've seen quite a bit of those films, altough I haven't seen Soylent Green so I'll look forward to that. I just watched Magnolia after the recommendation in a previous vid, and while I love PT ANderson I see it as his weakest film. Kinda dissapointed. Lots of good starting points but too bloated overall. Tom Cruise almost made me shed a tear, so theres that at least.
I'm kinda dissapointed you didn't include some more asian influences like Kurosawa, but other than that it's a great starting point. I'm particularly pleased at the inclusion of the Harryhausen movies, which sadly don't get too much exposure anymore. I absolutely loved them as a kid, watched Sindbad all the time, sad to see them slowly fade away. Tried to get my young cousin into them, he probably didn't even watch the DVD...young, culturless basta...oh wait.
Actually why isn't Wizard of Oz in there? That's sort of nerdy, isn't it? Actually it doesn't matter if it's nerdy or not, it should be on the list.
While I'm at it put 7 Samurai/Rashomon/Hidden Fortress, Jungle Book/Snow White in there.
With the exception of a few you listed, everyone should see these films. Screw tagging on that nerd label.
I've seen quite a bit of those films, altough I haven't seen Soylent Green so I'll look forward to that. I just watched Magnolia after the recommendation in a previous vid, and while I love PT ANderson I see it as his weakest film. Kinda dissapointed. Lots of good starting points but too bloated overall. Tom Cruise almost made me shed a tear, so theres that at least.
I'm kinda dissapointed you didn't include some more asian influences like Kurosawa, but other than that it's a great starting point. I'm particularly pleased at the inclusion of the Harryhausen movies, which sadly don't get too much exposure anymore. I absolutely loved them as a kid, watched Sindbad all the time, sad to see them slowly fade away. Tried to get my young cousin into them, he probably didn't even watch the DVD...young, culturless basta...oh wait.
Actually why isn't Wizard of Oz in there? That's sort of nerdy, isn't it? Actually it doesn't matter if it's nerdy or not, it should be on the list.
While I'm at it put 7 Samurai/Rashomon/Hidden Fortress, Jungle Book/Snow White in there.
Jaws was hugely influential for the emerging horror/ blockbuster genre. The use of music to create suspense, the shots, the simple setting that turns out to haunt everyone in their personal life after watching the movie. I myself don't think the movie is that good, but it really was influential. Highest grossing film of all time at that time if I recall correctly. Took horror movies and made them into a blockbuster exerience for everyone and their poor, impressionable kids to enjoy (for better or worse). The formula in this movie is copied so often still to this day that most horror movies become moot because you can already guess when and how the evil baddy is going to come.albino boo said:
I'd just like to point out that the reason so many people didn't get the Blade Runner reference is because the movie is just gods awful. When the director can put out multiple versions of the movie that change the whole message, it's not in any way a good movie. I could understand a single directors cut that changes things, cause sometimes studios like to screw your movie, but no, there are so many versions of Blade Runner that there is no way you can claim it was good with any credibility.
Cue everyone calling me a heretic.
Cue everyone calling me a heretic.
I don't even know how you can start to make a list like this. When your talking about films that are referenced or compared to it's hard to not include things like the Evil Dead series, poltergeist or even ghostbusters (the original). I mean seriously there are just too many movies that have had a huge influence. After Star wars things get insane, forget about just having 3, I'd break it down into 10 year periods post star wars pretty much. 1978-1988, 1989,1999 and 2000 till now. I guess you could say anything that happened in the past 10 years is too recent to be referenced and end your series at 2000.
As for the list so far I've seen everything on the list at least once and most multiple times. My wife and I reference many of the movies in fact on occasion in our conversations (It's full of stars, Soilent Green is ***** (mainly because of the funny way my wife spoiled it for her sister) are probably the most common.).
Movies like Logan's Run were a staple back in the day and to the person above who dissed the planet of the apes movies, they rocked, all of em did. The remake was awesome all by itself but the inside references to the previous movies just made it all that much better.
Another movie in 1977 that wasn't mentioned was close encounters of the third kind. Never a favorite of mine but could be considered influential as well (no star wars but still).
Once you hit the early 80's you have movies like ET, The Last Starfighter and of course TRON (Yeah for TRON 2.o). Actually Bladerunner was in 1982 as well (and I think one of the first great science fiction movies adapted from a book) so should be considered groundbreaking as well. Without doing a ton of research myself I would guess you could almost make a whole article on 1982!! It was just a few more years till Terminator came out and adaptations of books to movie (such as firestarter etc) became much more popular.
Looking back I think the 80's were probably the best for me as far as science fiction. You had your alien/s,terminator/t2 (t2 might have been early 90's), evil deads, predator bah just too many to mention. While there are some great movies post 1990 that are not sequels (the original matrix comes to mind right away) I think many of the movies are sequels or expansions of ideas already visited in previous movies.
Other then Close encounters which was not mentioned Solaris wasn't mentioned either in the 70's (pre Star wars I think) Mad max (think thats a bit after star wars and the first wasn't as great), and personally I think Death Race 2000 deserves a mention. It may not be referenced that often but it was ground breaking in it's own way especially for it's time. I know we often mention how many points people would be worth when driving around.....it can't just be us right?.........right?!!
As for the list so far I've seen everything on the list at least once and most multiple times. My wife and I reference many of the movies in fact on occasion in our conversations (It's full of stars, Soilent Green is ***** (mainly because of the funny way my wife spoiled it for her sister) are probably the most common.).
Movies like Logan's Run were a staple back in the day and to the person above who dissed the planet of the apes movies, they rocked, all of em did. The remake was awesome all by itself but the inside references to the previous movies just made it all that much better.
Another movie in 1977 that wasn't mentioned was close encounters of the third kind. Never a favorite of mine but could be considered influential as well (no star wars but still).
Once you hit the early 80's you have movies like ET, The Last Starfighter and of course TRON (Yeah for TRON 2.o). Actually Bladerunner was in 1982 as well (and I think one of the first great science fiction movies adapted from a book) so should be considered groundbreaking as well. Without doing a ton of research myself I would guess you could almost make a whole article on 1982!! It was just a few more years till Terminator came out and adaptations of books to movie (such as firestarter etc) became much more popular.
Looking back I think the 80's were probably the best for me as far as science fiction. You had your alien/s,terminator/t2 (t2 might have been early 90's), evil deads, predator bah just too many to mention. While there are some great movies post 1990 that are not sequels (the original matrix comes to mind right away) I think many of the movies are sequels or expansions of ideas already visited in previous movies.
Other then Close encounters which was not mentioned Solaris wasn't mentioned either in the 70's (pre Star wars I think) Mad max (think thats a bit after star wars and the first wasn't as great), and personally I think Death Race 2000 deserves a mention. It may not be referenced that often but it was ground breaking in it's own way especially for it's time. I know we often mention how many points people would be worth when driving around.....it can't just be us right?.........right?!!
Great list, Bob, but I feel obligated to point out that the Harryhausen film you absolutely have to catch isn't 7th Voyage of Sinbad but The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. That's the one with Tom Baker's awesome turn as the evil magician Koura (which directly led to him getting the role of the 4th Doctor Who) and the best swordfight of all time:
No love for Robinson Crusoe On Mars? 
I guess that movie is more of a footnote in history. A film that was much better and intelligent than it's cheesy sci-fi roots would have allowed. Still, I think the scene where the astronaut tries to have a conversation with his echo should be one of the more influential scenes in sci-fi cinema.
I guess that movie is more of a footnote in history. A film that was much better and intelligent than it's cheesy sci-fi roots would have allowed. Still, I think the scene where the astronaut tries to have a conversation with his echo should be one of the more influential scenes in sci-fi cinema.
I don't understand the appeal of the Harryhausen movies. I keep reading people telling me to watch them, but I just have no interest. Stop motion animation always looks like crap to me, even the little bits I've seen of the Harryhausen flicks. CGI looks fake, but stop motion looks like Gumby-vision.
Dammit it all! I was hoping to dedicate this summer to watching all the important/influential movies and reading more books, but now the summer is nearly over and I've barely even scratched the surface of the list!
As for this list, most of the movies are already on the list, but reading the article gave me such an overload thatI almost had my mind split in two!
As for this list, most of the movies are already on the list, but reading the article gave me such an overload thatI almost had my mind split in two!
