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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Mars Attacks (1998)

This one’s really weird. It makes fun of all those 1950s science fiction films, showing many of the common tropes and stock characters, but turning them into gags. There's a lot of graphic violence portrayed in a comedic style in this movie which was kind of a new phenomenon at the time it came out, at least for a major Hollywood scifi.

*****SPOILERS: The attached unauthorized trailer contains spoilers and graphic violence.*****

The gags in this film will make you laugh, but they’ll also erode your empathy and moral compass, so watch at your own risk.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #space #spaceship #UFO #UAP #1950s #Helicopters #military #hair #1990s #hand #dog

accessible description:

Video opens with a new-age woman holding a crystal sitting on top of a car wearing new-age attire, and overlooking a huge crowd of people off in the distance who are gathered around a landing pad out in the middle of the desert. A sign says Welcome To Earth, there are a couple of news reporters giving on-the-spot news reports. The woman reporter is carrying a little chihuahua, a flying saucer comes down, it's landing gear extends and it sets down, then a big long ramp unrolls, there's a red carpet waiting for the aliens to come out, then cut to the president looking at his TV Set as an alien comes out of the spaceship, the alien talks in an alien language and a geeky guy translates it with some goofy machine, everybody smiles when the translation says “We Come in Peace”, then a hippie releases a dove and the dove flies overhead and the alien shoots down the dove with a laser, frying it to a crisp. Then the aliens start shooting all of the people and the soldiers who are in 1950s style jeeps and tanks. Quick cut to a guy in a Las Vegas casino who says “whoa”, one of the soldiers runs towards the alien carrying a gun and yelling, one of the reporters runs across and falls on the ground, crawls over to the other reporter, and they reach out to grab each other's hands, the camera shows the woman reaching and grabbing the guy's hand, then an alien fires a laser and cut back to the woman with the guy’s hand but the rest of the reporter is missing, it's just his hand cut off at the wrist. the woman drops the hand in shock then the little chihuahua quickly walks up and grabs the hand by a finger and drags it away, and only a skeleton of the reporter remains because he got shot by the alien. The aliens gather up some things and fly away and the new-age woman sits on top of her car in shock overlooking a scorched empty desert with no people left.

***** THIS VIDEO CLIP CONTAINS SPOILERS AND GRAPHIC VIOLENCE *****

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Mars Attacks (1998)

This one’s really weird. It makes fun of all those 1950s science fiction films, showing many of the common tropes and stock characters, but turning them into gags. There's a lot of graphic violence portrayed in a comedic style in this movie which was kind of a new phenomenon at the time it came out, at least for a major Hollywood scifi.

The gags in this film will make you laugh, but they’ll also erode your empathy and moral compass, so watch at your own risk.

SPOILERS: The attached unauthorized trailer contains spoilers.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #space #spaceship #UFO #UAP #1950s #Helicopters #military #hair #1990s #hand #dog

accessible description:

Video opens with a new-age woman holding a crystal sitting on top of a car wearing new-age attire, and overlooking a huge crowd of people off in the distance who are gathered around a landing pad out in the middle of the desert. A sign says Welcome To Earth, there are a couple of news reporters giving on-the-spot news reports. The woman reporter is carrying a little chihuahua, a flying saucer comes down, it's landing gear extends and it sets down, then a big long ramp unrolls, there's a red carpet waiting for the aliens to come out, then cut to the president looking at his TV Set as an alien comes out of the spaceship, the alien talks in an alien language and a geeky guy translates it with some goofy machine, everybody smiles when the translation says “We Come in Peace”, then a hippie releases a dove and the dove flies overhead and the alien shoots down the dove with a laser, frying it to a crisp. Then the aliens start shooting all of the people and the soldiers who are in 1950s style jeeps and tanks. Quick cut to a guy in a Las Vegas casino who says “whoa”, one of the soldiers runs towards the alien carrying a gun and yelling, one of the reporters runs across and falls on the ground, crawls over to the other reporter, and they reach out to grab each other's hands, the camera shows the woman reaching and grabbing the guy's hand, then an alien fires a laser and cut back to the woman with the guy’s hand but the rest of the reporter is missing, it's just his hand cut off at the wrist. the woman drops the hand in shock then the little chihuahua quickly walks up and grabs the hand by a finger and drags it away, and only a skeleton of the reporter remains because he got shot by the alien. The aliens gather up some things and fly away and the new-age woman sits on top of her car in shock overlooking a scorched empty desert with no people left.

***** THIS VIDEO CLIP CONTAINS SPOILERS AND GRAPHIC VIOLENCE *****

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Dark Star (1974)

This started out as a college film, which was actually pretty good quality for a college film, but then some movie exec found out about it and got the rights to it and added a bunch of material to bring it up to a feature length film. Then a distributor got hold of it and put it in theaters. So, it was it was a nice college film but a really lousy commercial release.

Here are some sample clips from the film which illustrate the pacing problems that the film has. Apparently the college version was even slower paced than this theatrical release. It got released on VHS about a decade later and actually had quite a few sales/rentals and now people are calling it a cult classic.

It's funny to watch with a lot of geek humor, if you’ve got the time.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #independent #film #movie #space #spaceship #collegefilm #NoHelicopters #military #hair #1970s #BeachBall

accessible description:

Open with a computer screen that says “To scout ship Dark Star, Galactic sector”; Cut to an image guy in a uniform who is shown on a black and white video screen talking to the camera, there are real-to-real computer storage units in the background; then cut to a space scene with the Dark Star ship slowly moving past the camera and then moving towards a planet; then cut to a guy laying on some patio furniture in a small room, he is wearing huge sunglasses as if he's getting a suntan and another guy comes into the room dragging a big heavy metal door which he places up against an opening; then cut to a guy standing in a dark room with some blurry special effects in the background and a giant beach ball drops from the ceiling down onto the floor and starts making some alien noises and the guy talks to the beach ball; then cut to the beach ball again and a guy hanging in an air duct of some sort then cut to a sign that says emergency airlock interior door; then cut to a sign that says caution laser, then the beach ball forces open a door where the laser is; then cut to some guys with long 1970s hair sitting around playing cards and talking about intelligent life; then cut to an image of a planet slowly getting larger and a ship is approaching the planet and a guy says “There she is.”

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Forever Young (1992)

This is a romance drama / sci-fi written and produced by Jeffrey Abrams (JJ Abrams). It's basically a Rip Van Winkle story about a guy in 1939 who ends up volunteering for some advanced cryogenic experiment, gets frozen, and wakes up in 1992.

The story manages to avoid most of those hackneyed anachronistic encounters of a guy who's misplaced in time; it really sticks to the romance, emotions, and characters, and this guy's quest to find his old friends from 1939. The film has the feel of a Spielberg film, particularly ET, which was produced a decade earlier. It’s sentimental, almost sappy. It's commercial -- very much so -- and tries to appeal to multiple demographics. Jerrald Goldsmith, who scored Logan’s Run (which was last week’s Film of the Week), created the exceptional score for this movie, and overall it’s a well produced film. Some of the plot points seemed forced and unrealistic, placed in the story simply to create tension, not uncommon for a Hollywood film.

With Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis in the lead roles, the acting is world class, although neither of those actors completely disappear into their roles. Elijah Wood also has a major role and gives a great performance as the ten-year-old son of Curtis’ character. Isabel_Glasser plays Gibson’s character’s love interest, but oddly doesn’t get as much screen time as the other leads.

There's only one black character in the film (Joe Morton), a researcher who was portrayed as antagonistic and in this story was unable to figure out the design of the cryogenic apparatus that was created by a white character (George Wendt) fifty years earlier. This type of depiction of black characters was typical of films produced prior to the Rodney King beating and LA riots which broke out just as initial filming for this film was wrapping up. Other than that, I saw no other significant bias or racial stereotypes.

As far as technology, there wasn’t much, basically just the cryro-chamber, which had a steam-punk design that was out of place for the pre-war time period.

Overall the film is worth watching, just don’t expect much in terms of science fiction gadgetry, aliens, spaceships, etc.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #physics #B25 #helicopter #military #warehouse #1990s #Buford

accessible description:

movie poster with Mel Gibson’s face covering most of the poster and a small image of Gibson and Isabel Glasser embracing and kissing.

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Logan’s Run (1976)

The 1976 science fiction movie "Logan's Run" explores timeless themes of individualism versus collectivism through the lens of a utopian society where citizens are encouraged to prioritize pleasure over responsibility.

Director Michael Anderson creates a believable world featuring sleek architecture, intricate underground subways, and flashy laser guns. Throughout the film, characters confront ethical questions about sacrifice, morality, and mortality while embracing values like selflessness and altruism in their quest for survival. These ideas still resonate today because they speak to core issues of human identity formation and societal evolution that have persisted across centuries.

In conclusion, the visually stunning cinematography and groundbreaking visual effects combine with thought-provoking subject matter make "Logan's Run" a standalone work worth revisiting repeatedly. Its enduring value lies in challenging audiences to consider how far we should go in pursuit of happiness and longevity while respecting the dignity of every person along the way. Although some may dismiss "Logan's Run" due to perceived datedness or lackluster acting performances, the film remains culturally relevant for anyone interested in exploring intergenerational conflicts and the consequences of scientific progress run amok.

Enjoy your journey back in time!

(This review was written by Model: oasst-sft-6-llama-30b.)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #physics #thirty #utopia #distopia #technology #AI #Box

accessible description:

an animated gif video of a robot from the movie named “Box”. He is metalic silver that has an android-looking top and a boxy bottom and torso. His arms are spread out and he is moving them and opening and closing his hands over and over...

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Logan’s Run (1976)

The 1976 science fiction movie "Logan's Run" explores timeless themes of individualism versus collectivism through the lens of a utopian society where citizens are encouraged to prioritize pleasure over responsibility.

Director Michael Anderson creates a believable world featuring sleek architecture, intricate underground subways, and flashy laser guns. Throughout the film, characters confront ethical questions about sacrifice, morality, and mortality while embracing values like selflessness and altruism in their quest for survival. These ideas still resonate today because they speak to core issues of human identity formation and societal evolution that have persisted across centuries.

In conclusion, the visually stunning cinematography and groundbreaking visual effects combine with thought-provoking subject matter make "Logan's Run" a standalone work worth revisiting repeatedly. Its enduring value lies in challenging audiences to consider how far we should go in pursuit of happiness and longevity while respecting the dignity of every person along the way. Although some may dismiss "Logan's Run" due to perceived datedness or lackluster acting performances, the film remains culturally relevant for anyone interested in exploring intergenerational conflicts and the consequences of scientific progress run amok.

Enjoy your journey back in time!

(This review was written by Model: oasst-sft-6-llama-30b.)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #physics #thirty #utopia #distopia #technology #AI #Box

accessible description:

an animated gif video of a robot from the movie named “Box”. He is metalic silver that has a android-looking top and a boxy bottom. His arms are spread out and he is moving them and opening and closing his hands over and over...

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Logan’s Run (1976)

The 1976 science fiction movie "Logan's Run" explores timeless themes of individualism versus collectivism through the lens of a utopian society where citizens are encouraged to prioritize pleasure over responsibility.

Director Michael Anderson creates a believable world featuring sleek architecture, intricate underground subways, and flashy laser guns. Throughout the film, characters confront ethical questions about sacrifice, morality, and mortality while embracing values like selflessness and altruism in their quest for survival. These ideas still resonate today because they speak to core issues of human identity formation and societal evolution that have persisted across centuries.

In conclusion, the visually stunning cinematography and groundbreaking visual effects combine with thought-provoking subject matter make "Logan's Run" a standalone work worth revisiting repeatedly. Its enduring value lies in challenging audiences to consider how far we should go in pursuit of happiness and longevity while respecting the dignity of every person along the way. Although some may dismiss "Logan's Run" due to perceived datedness or lackluster acting performances, the film remains culturally relevant for anyone interested in exploring intergenerational conflicts and the consequences of scientific progress run amok.
Enjoy your journey back in time!

(This review was written by Model: oasst-sft-6-llama-30b.)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #physics #thirty #utopia #distopia #technology #AI #Box

accessible description:

an animated gif video of a robot from the movie named “Box”. He is metalic silver that has a android-looking top and a boxy bottom. His arms are spread out and he is moving them and opening and closing his hands over and over...

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Logan’s Run (1976)

The 1976 science fiction movie "Logan's Run" explores timeless themes of individualism versus collectivism through the lens of a utopian society where citizens are encouraged to prioritize pleasure over responsibility.

Director Michael Anderson creates a believable world featuring sleek architecture, intricate underground subways, and flashy laser guns. Throughout the film, characters confront ethical questions about sacrifice, morality, and mortality while embracing values like selflessness and altruism in their quest for survival. These ideas still resonate today because they speak to core issues of human identity formation and societal evolution that have persisted across centuries.

In conclusion, the visually stunning cinematography and groundbreaking visual effects combine with thought-provoking subject matter make "Logan's Run" a standalone work worth revisiting repeatedly. Its enduring value lies in challenging audiences to consider how far we should go in pursuit of happiness and longevity while respecting the dignity of every person along the way. Although some may dismiss "Logan's Run" due to perceived datedness or lackluster acting performances, the film remains culturally relevant for anyone interested in exploring intergenerational conflicts and the consequences of scientific progress run amok.
Enjoy your journey back in time!

(This review was written by Model: oasst-sft-6-llama-30b.)

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #physics #thirty #utopia #distopia #technology #AI #Box

accessible description:

an animated gif video of a robot from the movie named “Box”. He is metalic silver that has a android-looking top and a boxy bottom. His arms are spread out and he is moving them and opening and closing his hands over and over...

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The Black Hole (2006)

The Black Hole is a made-for-TV movie that was produced for the Sci-Fi channel. It was produced by Nu Image Films and by Equity Pictures Medienfonds GmbH and directed by Tibor Takács. It stars Judd Nelson and Kristy Swanson, who do an adequate job for a TV movie.

In the movie, something goes wrong at a particle accelerator facility in St. Louis and a black hole begins to form. What seems like a typical disaster film eventually goes off the rails and becomes totally unbelievable, even for a sci-fi. Being a TV movie, its production quality is lacking.

It’s ironic and inappropriate that all of the characters in this 21st-Century film are white. And this from a company named “Equity Pictures”; it makes you wonder what was behind the decision to go with an all-white cast of characters.

I don’t recommend this one at all.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #physics #TV #shocking #race #blm

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The Black Hole (2006)

The Black Hole is a made-for-TV movie that was produced for the Sci-Fi channel. It was produced by Nu Image Films and by Equity Pictures Medienfonds GmbH and directed by Tibor Takács. It stars Judd Nelson and Kristy Swanson, who do an adequate job for a TV movie.

In the movie, something goes wrong at a particle accelerator facility in St. Louis and a black hole begins to form. What seems like a typical disaster film eventually goes off the rails and becomes totally unbelievable, even for a sci-fi. Being a TV movie, its production quality is lacking.

It’s ironic and inappropriate that all of the characters in this 21st-Century film are white. And this from a company named “Equity Pictures”; it makes you wonder what was behind the decision to go with an all-white cast of characters.

I don’t recommend this one at all.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #physics #TV #shocking #race #blm

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Space-Men (1957)
(aka, Assignment: Outer Space)

This is an Italian-made sci-fi by Antonio Margheriti, who was a very prolific filmmaker. He was able to produce a lot of low-budget films very quickly, including this one which was his first film. I think most of the voice actors (who dubbed the English version) were actually pretty good in this film given the material. And there was a ton of special effects in this one, too.

This film seems to have a lot more science fact errors in it then the typical 50s science fiction film. I’ve put a few in this unauthorized trailer –- convert hydrogen into oxygen to make air; going to Globular Cluster M12 in a chemical rocket, rocket engines at “full RPM”; and of course lots of sounds in space. At one point they are at Mars and they get a call from HQ saying, “Hey, while your out there, stop by Venus, too.” (paraphrased)

I think the title of this film, “Space-Men” comes from a line in the movie about a woman who is on the spaceship (I’ve included it in the trailer). The English-dubbed version of the film that was released in the US had the title, “Assignment: Outer Space”.

For a low budget film, they really put a lot of effort into the props and special effects and sets. Actually, some of the sets are pretty well designed and the special effects were not bad for a low-budget 50s sci-fi. (It was actually shot in 1960, but it’s basically a 50s sci-fi.)

If you've never seen an Italian sci-fi this one’s a classic.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #50s #Italy #rocket #blastoff #M12 #solarsystem #RPM #neohydrozine #dubbed

Accessible video description:
Old faded color film; A guy in a control tower talking about a space mission to the Globular Cluster M12, then a rocket blasts off with the movie’s opening title, Assignment: Outer Space and shows the surface of a planet and it shows the rocket again and it shows a guy in zero-g trying to maneuver and it shows some people in space near a space ship and then it shows the guy in a spacesuit floating through the void of space and a hose being hooked up to the back of a rocket that is floating in space then a guy playing around with a bunch of oscilloscopes and other guys floating around through space and a fiery meteor, not a meteorite, goes buzzing by; then some guy in a cockpit says he doesn't know what's going on; then another guy wants to commit suicide by jumping off of the spaceship and he jumps out and it shows a fake dummy falling down to the surface of Mars as the guy screams when he’s falling in space; and some other guys talk about going down to get the guy and they go down and pick him up and he's still alive for some reason; and then back to the guy who is in zero-g pretending to be floating around he's actually walking on the ground but he's moving very slowly and acting like he's floating but it actually looks pretty real considering; then the guy and some other people are standing around talking about some destructive thing; then there's a rocket that's trying to land at “full RPMs” (closed captioning says “four RPMs”) and the rocket lands but it tips over a little bit, 9 degrees and it sounds like a tree falling; then a man and a woman are talking about going 90,000 mph; then a guy's talking about the next solar system revolution; then a woman in a cockpit wearing a helmet says that they're very close now; then a man is talking to a woman who's in some sort of laboratory with plants that are turning hydrogen into oxygen; then a guy in a spaceship is talking about the Earth turning into boiling mud; then several astronauts in a cockpit and a guy’s talking about 16 gammas when he meant to say 16 G's; then there's an atomic spaceship with chemical exhaust coming out the back of it; then a bad actor talking about crashing into a Mars satellite; then a guy in a cockpit with a woman, the guys says nobody knows what they're talking about; then a man walks into a room and it shows him looking at a person's legs under a table but you can’t see the person and the person walks out and turns out that it's a woman astronaut, which apparently is shocking in 1950s; then a man is coming out of a suspended hibernation tank in a spaceship, cut to an o-scope and cut back to the guy standing up very slowly out of his hibernation tank; then it shows a rocket separating from its first stage and then the second stage separating from it and the surface of some planet; then a guy in a spacesuit is floating through space very slowly with fake stars in the background and all of the stars are blinking dim and bright synchronously; fade to black.

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The Twilight Zone: The Brain Center at Whipple's (1964)

Several Twilight Zone episodes dealt with machines coming to life or taking over or messing things up. In this one the protagonist is a heartless company president who lays off a bunch of workers at his factory and replaces them with computers.

During the late 50s and early 60s there was a Liddite surge in response to computers that had begun to replace mechanical and electromechanical tabulating machines. The old tabulating machines required a lot of manual labor to operate and maintain them. The new computers were replacing a lot of workers, so some people were upset about it. (Of course all those jobs working with the tabulating machines would never have existed if those machines hadn't replaced the human computers and tabulators who did the calculating in the 19th century.)

Computers began to ship in larger quantities in the early 60s because they started to use transistors which reduced the costs significantly compared to the vacuum tube models.

If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, I highly recommend a revisit of this episode with its timely narrative.

Accessible video description:

A man is watching a film with a company president talking about how a new computer is going to save the company a lot of money, the company president is a bald-headed guy with glasses wearing a suit, he is writing on a chalkboard, the man watching the film is sitting near the projector; then the guy who was in the film is now talking to the man who was viewing the film and asking him for his critique; cut to a guy who picks up a metal bar and starts hitting a computer causing sparks to fly and the bald-headed man grabs a gun and shoots at the guy hitting the computer; then a guy in a lab coat talks to the president about how bad it is now that nobody is working at the company and how empty it is and then the guy in the lab coat walks out; cut to the end title Twilight Zone.

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #management #labor #strike #computer #IBM #IBM1401 #severance #RobbyRobot #robot #luddite #neoluddite

(fair use clips from the episode)

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Found in Time (2012)

If you like big Hollywood blockbuster McMovies you’ll probably want to skip this one. I guarantee that you have never seen anything like this before. I don’t even know if this is science fiction or not.

The less you know going into it, the better it will be.

Written, produced and directed by Arthur Vincie.

You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it.

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #charm #timeTravel #time #vendor #helmet

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Chain Reaction (1996)

Some researchers discover a super-duper energy source and end up getting chased around by bad guys from the fossil fuel industry or the defense industry. This seems to me like it's a propaganda film trying to fool people into thinking that they shouldn't develop alternate energy sources for fear of being persecuted for doing so. (In real life, researchers who develop breakthrough energy tech are actually highly esteemed.)

The movie was made in the mid-90s but the cinematographic techniques are from about 10-20 years before that time. It consists of mostly tropes and stock characters, as you can see in the trailer.

It’s quite sexist in the way it treats the character played by Rachel Weisz. (This was her first major movie role.) She plays a physicist while Keanu Reeves plays a machinist, but his character is the dominant one, while Weisz’s character is portrayed as weak and vulnerable. This treatment of female characters was common in the 20th century and can still be seen in films today.

The acting is pretty well done and very watchable given the material, but they get most of the science facts wrong. I've included some of them in this unauthorized trailer, for example, hydrogen doesn't burn bright orange like that, of course. And they also conflate the chemical burning of hydrogen with nuclear fusion throughout the film. So yeah, a lot of mistakes in this one.

That underground explosion at the beginning of this trailer was not in the actual final cut of the film, but it was included as an end-credit bonus.

Even though this film is just a bunch of stock characters and trite plot elements, the acting is mostly well done and some of the special effects are really pretty impressive. And the sound engineering is top-notch.

If you can keep the propaganda element of the film in perspective and keep in mind the contemporary context of the sexist nature of movies from that period, the film is watchable and even entertaining at some points.

Accessible description of video:

Opening title says “Produced and released by 20th Century Fox” followed by a very large underground nuclear explosion causing a surface collapse; then showing scenes of an Industrial area with Smoke Stacks with smoke flowing into the air; then a guy talking to an audience about hydrogen and water, the scene cuts back and forth between the guy and Keanu Reeves packing something up into his backpack, the guy continues talking and Reeves rides away on a motorcycle with his backpack, then the guy ignites some butane/propane producing an orange flame and he says that it's hydrogen; then cut to a night scene with bad guys with a remote control device that has a gas meter and when it reaches a point he pushes the button to make an explosion happen; there’s a big explosion that starts off as a chemical gas explosion throughout an industrial building then somehow it morphs into a nuclear blast, the blast wave slowly expands out throughout a very wide area in the city as Keanu Reeves on a motorcycle tries to outrun the blast wave and he lays down the bike and slides behind a berm with vehicles and debris flying above him; then some cops are interviewing Reeves and Rachel Weisz; then cut to Morgan Freeman walking through a warehouse/parking garage and meets Keanu and Rachel; then cut to Reese running through a crowded city at night with tense music playing, cops are trying to catch him; then Reeves grabs a pipe and shoves it into some big gear mechanism that stops the gears from moving which stops a drawbridge from moving; Rachel Weisz, in her first big movie role, is pacing in a train station prominently carrying a train ticket that says “save up to 70%” and she briefly talks with a conductor; then fade to a scene with Weisz and Reeves walking through a museum and they meet Morgan Freeman who is smoking a big cigar; then cut to a meeting of the Senate select committee on intelligence with Morgan Freeman talking to a politician who is complaining about money; then Keanu and Rachel are running and Keanu tells Rachel to get into an air boat that has a flat bottom and a big airplane propeller on the back of it, it spins in circles and then heads off across a frozen lake and a helicopter chases it and catches up to it; then cut to title graphic that says, “Chain Reaction” while the letters get big and turn into a scene of an industrial area; fade out.

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #energy #fusion #theTanks #shrimpoluminescence #helicopters #70percent

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Chain Reaction (1996)

Some researchers discover a super-duper energy source and end up getting chased around by bad guys from the fossil fuel industry or the defense industry. This seems to me like it's a propaganda film trying to fool people into thinking that they shouldn't develop alternate energy sources for fear of being persecuted for doing so. (In real life, researchers who develop breakthrough energy tech are actually highly esteemed.)

The movie was made in the mid-90s but the cinematographic techniques are from about 10-20 years before that time. It consists of mostly troupes and stock characters, as you can see in the trailer.

It’s quite sexist in the way it treats the character played by Rachel Weisz. (This was her first major movie role.) She plays a physicist while Keanu Reeves plays a machinist, but his character is the dominant one, while Weisz’s character is portrayed as weak and vulnerable. This treatment of female characters was common in the 20th century and can still be seen in films today.

The acting is pretty well done and very watchable given the material, but they get most of the science facts wrong. I've included some of them in this unauthorized trailer, for example, hydrogen doesn't burn bright orange like that, of course. And they also conflate the chemical burning of hydrogen with nuclear fusion throughout the film. So yeah, a lot of mistakes in this one.

That underground explosion at the beginning of this trailer was not in the actual final cut of the film, but it was included as an end-credit bonus.

Even though this film is just a bunch of stock characters and trite plot elements, the acting is mostly well done and some of the special effects are really pretty impressive. And the sound engineering is top-notch.

If you can keep the propaganda element of the film in perspective and keep in mind the contemporary context of the sexist nature of movies from that period, the film is watchable and even entertaining at some points.

Accessible description of video:

Opening title says “Produced and released by 20th Century Fox” followed by a very large underground nuclear explosion causing a surface collapse; then showing scenes of an Industrial area with Smoke Stacks with smoke flowing into the air; then a guy talking to an audience about hydrogen and water, the scene cuts back and forth between the guy and Keanu Reeves packing something up into his backpack, the guy continues talking and Reeves rides away on a motorcycle with his backpack, then the guy ignites some butane/propane producing an orange flame and he says that it's hydrogen; then cut to a night scene with bad guys with a remote control device that has a gas meter and when it reaches a point he pushes the button to make an explosion happen; there’s a big explosion that starts off as a chemical gas explosion throughout an industrial building then somehow it morphs into a nuclear blast, the blast wave slowly expands out throughout a very wide area in the city as Keanu Reeves on a motorcycle tries to outrun the blast wave and he lays down the bike and slides behind a berm with vehicles and debris flying above him; then some cops are interviewing Reeves and Rachel Weisz; then cut to Morgan Freeman walking through a warehouse/parking garage and meets Keanu and Rachel; then cut to Reese running through a crowded city at night with tense music playing, cops are trying to catch him; then Reeves grabs a pipe and shoves it into some big gear mechanism that stops the gears from moving which stops a drawbridge from moving; Rachel Weisz, in her first big movie role, is pacing in a train station prominently carrying a train ticket that says “save up to 70%” and she briefly talks with a conductor; then fade to a scene with Weisz and Reeves walking through a museum and they meet Morgan Freeman who is smoking a big cigar; then cut to a meeting of the Senate select committee on intelligence with Morgan Freeman talking to a politician who is complaining about money; then Keanu and Rachel are running and Keanu tells Rachel to get into an air boat that has a flat bottom and a big airplane propeller on the back of it, it spins in circles and then heads off across a frozen lake and a helicopter chases it and catches up to it; then cut to title graphic that says, “Chain Reaction” while the letters get big and turn into a scene of an industrial area; fade out.

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #energy #fusion #theTanks #shrimpoluminescence #helicopters #70percent

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

THX 1138 (1971)

Starting out as a student project, this film was George Lucas's first. Apparently Warner Brothers thought it was good enough and decided to back it. Francis Ford Coppola who was already seeing a lot of success by that time also joined the project to help produce.

The film didn’t get many rave reviews when it was first released, but when Lucas went on to make Star Wars just six years later, THX 1138 enjoyed a significant bump in its esteem.

One of the features of the dystopian world depicted in this film is a drug to suppress everyone’s emotions. This is an idea loosely borrowed from A Brave New World, except in Huxley’s story the controlling drug is a happy pill not an emotion-suppression pill. This same idea of a society with suppressed emotions has been used from time to time in science fiction, more recently by the film Equals (2015).

It’s been released in several different cuts (some parts of the original release were censored by Warner Bros). Generally, I’d say the longer cuts are probably closer Lucas’ vision.

There was a director's cut released in 2004 by Lucas himself which is a true director's cut, however if you watch that one you'll be looking at his vision in 2004, and may not be what he would have done 1971 as director’s cut.

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #bald #dystopia #the70s #youth #emotion #drugs #equals #BraveNewWorld

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Cocoon (1985)

Here's another first contact science fiction film. This one’s directed by Ron Howard. Many of the characters in this film are elderly people, who are played by long time veteran actors including Don Amiche who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in this film.

The actors who played the elderly people in this film we're all born very early in the 20th century with the exception Wilfred Brimley who often played characters who were older than he was. Brimley began his career as a stuntman and later as a character actor, but I'm not sure if he did his own stunts in this film or not.

One nice aspect of this film is that it has an original plot formed from elements of previous films, it's not a typical first-contact-with-aliens type of film. The special effects were well done also.

Young people may not have heard of this one and it could easily get lost in the backlist of a film catalog, so if you've never heard of this film you should check it out.

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #ET #extraterrestrial #firstcontact #youth #old #pool #aliens #Atlantis

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

The Twilight Zone, To Serve Man (1962)

A lot of people rate this episode as one of their favorite Twilight Zone episodes. It's about a first contact with an alien species that comes to Earth. I recently found out that this was based on a short story of the same name written by Damon Knight a dozen years earlier and it pretty much follows very closely to that story, accept in the short story the aliens are humanoid pigs while in the Twilight Zone episode they're just tall, 350-pound humanoids called Kanimits.

The Kanimits don’t talk like humans, they use a voice synthesizer. They promise the people of Earth that they will share their advanced technology with humans for the betterment of humanity. But people are skeptical and they give the alien representative a lie detector test which the alien passes.

This episode is highly recommended.

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Accessible video description:

a black and white video of one of the aliens who is seated with wires hooked up to him taking a lie detector test, the alien is dressed in a white robe and has a large, bald head with dark circles under his eyes, two humans are in the room operating the equipment which shows the needles of the chart recorder on a polygraph machine.

(fair use clip from the episode in which the alien demonstrates how to pass a polygraph test.)

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #ET #extraterrestrial #firstcontact #epicurian #UN #crypto #LostInTranslation #TruthBeTold

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

12 Monkeys (1995)

Magical realism and unrelenting dysphoria characterize this '90s time-travel sci-fi about a guy who tries to go back in time to help correct a massive pandemic that happened in the future. The attention to detail in this film is extraordinary. The writing, the acting, cinematography, the score, special effects, art design; everything in this film is so tight; very well done. Terry Gilliam deserves praise for his direction, for which he had great creative latitude during production. In fact it's so effective at creating a feeling of unease I think it requires a content warning for people who are under stress or who otherwise may be vulnerable to unsettling content. But there’s plenty of comedy for those who enjoy demented humor.

Brad Pitt had the most demanding role, I think, with lots of rapid dialogue playing an over-the-top delusional crazy guy. Bruce Willis, the main protagonist, also played a guy who is losing touch with reality. Madeleine Stowe, who plays a psychiatrist opposite Willis' character, is absolutely flawless. All the actors in this film did a very good job even in the minor rolls. I saw only one flawed bit performance in the whole film.

There were two societal phenomena happening when this film was produced in the 1990s – animal rights activism was at its height, and the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots had just occurred. Pitt’s character plays the leader of an eponymous underground animal rights group (Army of the Twelve Monkeys), which is apparently planning a horrendous act.

The film features a lot of black actors, which was unusual for films in the early 90s. I think filmmakers at the time were intentionally trying to correct for past racial bias in the film industry in the wake of the Rodney King beating. However, none of the black players in this film had major roles, only minor parts. None of the black players played any of the many scientists and doctors in the story, they played mostly cops, orderlies and such. I counted twelve credited black roles in the film, which I’m sure was a coincidence and the producers had no intent to denigrate. (ambiguous sarcasm)

The film presents overshadowing stereotypes of people who have mental illness, a trend that continues to this day in filmmaking. The single female protagonist is also stereotyped as a mostly weak and submissive character even though she plays a psychiatrist which should be an authority figure in this context. (In all fairness, her character evolves considerably.)

However, in spite of it’s gaffs on political correctness (which were common in the 1990s), I think it’s such a well made film that it’s well worth watching.

Accessible video description:

a man (Willis) in a hazmat suit in a winter environment stoops down near some equipment, a bear startles him and he panics. Cut to a closeup of the central arch in Fre Carnevale’s “The Ideal City” as a woman’s voice reads Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the camera slowly zooms out to show the full painting and an old white woman reading to a small group of people seated on folding chairs in Walters Art Museum, a subtitle says, “Baltimore April 1990”. A beeper goes off as a white brunette woman in a little black dress looks at her beeper message, stands up and fumbles as she awkwardly walks out. As she walks by a man wearing silver shoes, her shoes inexplicably turn from black to silver. Then Willis and Pitt are in a mental institution and a black man with a gray beard wearing formal attire talks about not being from outer space with goofy looks on his face. Cut to old black and white cartoons with crazy characters. Then a guard at a desk reads a newspaper with a man on stilts in the background changing lightbulbs in a hallway as Willis stumbles to an elevator, the guard tell him it’s not working, but the guard’s appearance subtly changes from one face to another, his newspaper’s headline says, “Bat Child Found in Cave” with a scary photo. then Willis and Stowe are in a car, Willis has sad expressions while Stowe has incredulous expressions. Fade to Pitt with long hair wearing dark clothes and a black stocking cap as he explains his theory of predictive neuro-analytics, he grabs his crotch in a funny gesture, tosses a globe to the floor and walks around the room making exaggerated gestures. then a small logo for the film appears and the camera slowly zooms in, it is red silhouettes of monkeys arranged in a circle with the title “Twelve Monkeys” over it.

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #TimeTravel #MentalIllness #animals #MagicalRealism #1990s #AnimalRights #shoes #iSeeDeadPeople #barn #Ignaz #PredictiveAnalytics #virus #pandemic #Baltimore
(fair use, unauthorized trailer)

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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

12 Monkeys (1995)

Magical realism and unrelenting dysphoria characterize this '90s time-travel sci-fi about a guy who tries to go back in time to help correct a massive pandemic that happened in the future. The attention to detail in this film is extraordinary. The writing, the acting, cinematography, the score, special effects, art design; everything in this film is so tight; very well done. Terry Gilliam deserves praise for his direction, for which he had great creative latitude during production. In fact it's so effective at creating a feeling of unease I think it requires a content warning for people who are under stress or who otherwise may be vulnerable to unsettling content. But there’s plenty of comedy for those who enjoy demented humor.

Brad Pitt had the most demanding role, I think, with lots of rapid dialogue playing an over-the-top delusional crazy guy. Bruce Willis, the main protagonist, also played a guy who is losing touch with reality. Madeleine Stowe, who plays a psychiatrist opposite Willis' character, is absolutely flawless. All the actors in this film did a very good job even in the minor rolls. I saw only one flawed bit performance in the whole film.

There were two societal phenomena happening when this film was produced in the 1990s – animal rights activism was at its height, and the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots had just occurred. Pitt’s character plays the leader of an eponymous underground animal rights group (Army of the Twelve Monkeys), which is apparently planning a horrendous act.

The film features a lot of black actors, which was unusual for films in the early 90s. I think filmmakers at the time were intentionally trying to correct for past racial bias in the film industry in the wake of the Rodney King beating. However, none of the black players in this film had major roles, only minor parts. None of the black players played any of the many scientists and doctors in the story, they played mostly cops, orderlies and such. I counted twelve credited black roles in the film, which I’m sure was a coincidence and the producers had no intent to denigrate. (ambiguous sarcasm)

The film presents overshadowing stereotypes of people who have mental illness, a trend that continues to this day in filmmaking. The single female protagonist is also stereotyped as a mostly weak and submissive character even though she plays a psychiatrist which should be an authority figure in this context. (In all fairness, her character evolves considerably.)

However, in spite of it’s gaffs on political correctness (which were common in the 1990s), I think it’s such a well made film that it’s well worth watching.

Accessible video description:

a man (Willis) in a hazmat suit in a winter environment stoops down near some equipment, a bear startles him and he panics. Cut to a closeup of the central arch in Fre Carnevale’s “The Ideal City” as a woman’s voice reads Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, as the camera slowly zooms out to show the full painting and an old white woman reading to a small group of people seated on folding chairs in Walters Art Museum, a subtitle says, “Baltimore April 1990”. A beeper goes off as a white brunette woman in a little black dress looks at her beeper message, stands up and fumbles as she awkwardly walks out. As she walks by a man wearing silver shoes, her shoes inexplicably turn from black to silver. Then Willis and Pitt are in a mental institution and a black man with a gray beard wearing formal attire talks about not being from outer space with goofy looks on his face. Cut to old black and white cartoons with crazy characters. Then a guard at a desk reads a newspaper with a man on stilts in the background changing lightbulbs in a hallway as Willis stumbles to an elevator, the guard tell him it’s not working, but the guard’s appearance subtly changes from one face to another, his newspaper’s headline says, “Bat Child Found in Cave” with a scary photo. then Willis and Stowe are in a car, Willis has sad expressions while Stowe has incredulous expressions. Fade to Pitt with long hair wearing dark clothes and a black stocking cap as he explains his theory of predictive neuro-analytics, he grabs his crotch in a funny gesture, tosses a globe to the floor and walks around the room making exaggerated gestures. then a small logo for the film appears and the camera slowly zooms in, it is red silhouettes of monkeys arranged in a circle with the title “Twelve Monkeys” over it.

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#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #film #movie #TimeTravel #MentalIllness #animals #MagicalRealism #1990s #AnimalRights #shoes #iSeeDeadPeople #barn #Ignaz #PredictiveAnalytics #virus #pandemic #Baltimore