Be Excellent To Each Other

Fine-ass biotches and Gentlemen, I invite you to join me in an experiment.

In a moment I'm going to skin up then watch Chronicles of Riddick, wot is a science fiction film set in outer space, unless I'm very much mistaken.

Upon viewing this, I've pretty much run out of stuff set in space tow watch, so far as I can tell. Everything from 2001 to Space Truckers (or whatever it was called, the bloody thing) I have rented and watched over the last couple of decades.

What's the plan, Goatboy?

Hi, thanks for asking. Right, the plan is you tell me the names of space films. Don't bother with Star Wars, Aliens or Starship Troopers, I've seen them lot, and a lot besides. But just sugegst anything you think it is possible I might not have seen. Oh, actually, the last Star Trek film, the one which was apparently utter shit. I didn't bother with that one.

But yeah list films and provide a description for me and others if they are even a bit obscure, and I'll see if there's still stuff out there for me to watch, or I'll have to move onto the rom-coms.

Yeah, Nemesis was complete shite. An interestingly boring film, as it clearly had what was on script cool scenes (armoured Warthog-stylee chase, murderous intriguie, space battle, angry face-offs, Wrath-of-Khanisms) and yet managed to make everyone of these incomprehensibly boring.

Hum. Space stuff you haven't seen, eh...?

Babylon 5: In the Beginning (the only good TV movie, which is a big space-war film basically. Not bad at all.)
Silent Running - (Bruce Dern! In space! With plants!)
The Last Starfighter - (Tron! In space! With cool spinny ship!)
Enemy Mine - (Human and alien whose races are at war stranded on hostile planet, forced to work together. Ace.)
Explorers - (Not quite a space movie, but the last third is in space. Joe Dante nostalgia scifi family movie. With Robert Picardo and Dick Miller.)
Galaxy Quest - (Actually a lot of fun. Alan Rickman is supoib in this as the sarcastic Shakespearan ham.)
Solaris - (Immeasurably slow but interesting philosophical Tartovsky sci-fi flick. No space battles.)

Um, that's all I can think of off hand.

Sunshine is great. Danny Boyle's Sci Fi, people have to fix the sun, coz it is broken. Really tense. Great cast (Ah Scarecrow!!!), looks pretty, sounds pretty, and keeps you on your toes.

The Fountain is one of my favourite films, and a third of it takes place in space. Not really a Sci Fi in any traditional sense though. You should probably just watch it.

GATTACA doesn't really take place in space, but is about somebody trying to be an astronaut.

I assume you have seen "Pitch Black", the film what Chronicles of Riddick is a sequel too. I preferred Pitch Black by quite a bit.

Bab5: A handful of random TV episodes failed to ignite my flame
Silent Running - there's one for the list, cheers.
Last Starfighter - check, nostalia at it's finest.
Enemy Mine - picking this up on DVD soon.
Explorers - huh?
Galaxy Quest - seen it, good fun
Solaris - both versions are good. The Clooney vehicle remake was very nicely done, I thought.
Sunshine - tried it, didn't like it, not sure why. Probably because I am a bit bored of 'tension' space films. This is why I liked new Galactica, the space setting was normal to many of the characters. I could jsut enjoy it without worrying about it offing people left, right and centre.
Fountain - good stuff
Gattaca - seen it and no, it's not a space film. Was one of Law's least worst films though, but then I'd say that about Sky Captain as well.

/edit yeah PB was the dog's bollocks, and Butcher Bay was a fine, fine game for my old XBox, got me through a horrible November when I first moved to Cardiff. Well, that and Half-Life 2 which it stood shoulder-to-shoulder with. I totally ignored Doom 3 and Stranger's Wrath due to Butcher Bay. It's being remade for the 360, too.

Achievement Unlocked: Did something badass.

There's few games that have BB's ability to not piss me off with anything tiresome at all. I'm comfortable with all of it.

Fair so. It's dated a fair bit, but it was an interesting show. This TV movie in particular is worth watching though, because it's basically one big space war. A good 4/5 TV movie.



It's a Joe Dante film, he did Gremlins 1 & 2, Matinee, The Howling and others. It's got River Phoenix, Ethan Hawke and other kid. Basically a sci-fi fan kid starts having dreams where he's flying over this big circuit board. He gets his techy friend to build it and it turns out to generate a flying anti-gravity bubble. More diagram circuit board dreams occur. Plans are made. Hilarity and adventure in space ensues. It's far from perfect and the idea behind the aliens is better in concept than action, but the entire thing leaves me with a stupid grin for some reason.

Sunshine is great until

Supanova with James Spader, before he got all old and chubbed up. Wasn't the worst film ever.

Have you seen Serenity yet? Serenity's great, go watch Serenity. Serenity!



And also Errol from 15 Storeys High:



I did like Sunshine a lot -- and it gets double-ace points for having the keyboard player from D:Ream as its science advisor.

But only once you've watched all of Firefly, natch.

On the flip side, here's some to avoid:

Lost in Space
Mission to Mars
Event Horizon

Event Horizon?

Actually, skinning up and watching Event Horizon is probably a terrible idea.

Event Horizon one to avoid? No, just no you are actually and measurably wrong.

Being measurably wrong is actually referred to as the "Myoptika Scale"

But it has that weird looking chick from Party of Five with the really weird voice!

My point exactly. I quite like the film itself.

Then I take back everything I ever said about you.

Wall-e spends a good portion of time in space.

That's a lot to take back - are you sure?

No, I'm still checking. I think some of them still stand.

How's your javelin coming along?

I'll come out of retirement soon. I'm still letting my wrists recover from last time I played it.

Seen. I'd tend to mostly agree there, though all have something of merit. Didn't Mission To Arse have Trinity-Man Moss or whatever her name is in it? And didn't Val Kilmer die?

She's fit.

One hundred percent truth.

If you're mashed, that one with Lando Calrissian in is entertaining. If you're not, it's complete shit.

Not the worst, no. Although, it's notable mostly for being - bear with me here - the first Alan Smithee film that was credited to someone else, because everyone knows who Alan Smithee is now, so they had to start using another name. It was really directed by Walter Hill. Got me?

The imdb entry says a lot about it, although I'm not terrible au fait with who directed what and why it's significant. It's worth watching, albeit probably just once.

Event Horizon is great.

Briefly then: when a director wants to disown a movie, it has been a tradition in Hollywood in the past few decades to use "Alan Smithee" as a pseudonym. Probably the best example is David Lynch's 'Dune' movie - the TV and DVD 'extended edits' (not the cinematic release) are both credited to him. But it's also been used on a Hellraiser movie (Bloodlines) and a lot of obscure crap. Supernova is notable therefore because:


But! I quite liked it too! I thought it was loads better than Sunshine, for example. I'd pick Event Horizon over either though.

Oh, and according to a bloke in Scamstation earlier "Seen Dead Space? Aw, man, it's like Event Horizon the game! They went proper old school, got psychologists in to work out how best to put the shits - er, to scare you! It's looking well good."

Sub-thread request: Games That Are Like Space Films

Outland.

Sean Connery in space. Enough said.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082869/


Silent Running

Beautiful and sad. Little robots that waddle about. Space garden.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067756/


The Black Hole

Evil genius. Spooky android drones. Terrifying robot named Maximillian. A BLACK HOLE, argh!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078869/


2001: A Space Odyssey.

Epic masterpeice or the perfect solution to insomnia. The camps are divided, but one camp is dumb in the head-brain. The correct camp is the Epic masterpiece camp. This film deserves your undivided attention.

You've probably already seen it though.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/

I like sci fi lots me. So let's come up with a few great space films. Er..

Battle Beyond the Stars - Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven/Bugs Life in space but you probably know that anwyay.

Starcrash - okay so it's terrible but it's got the Hoff in it. And 'Red Monsters' (coloured dots on the screen)

Nightflyers - Not brilliant but a kind of interesting film. Some people go to a space ship to be its crew for some reason and things turn nasty because of an evil computer (hmm that sounds strangely familiar). Great soundtrack. Here's a few screenshots hid behind a spoiler tag.



The remake of Solaris is still pretty good.

Can't think of much more actually. That's a shame. I'm sure there's millions more.

Saturn 13 5. Harvey Keitel, Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett in space. Giant killer robot gets involved. Keitel's lines are all re-dubbed by someone else because the director didn't like his accent.

It's... not brilliant, but watchable. Scared me a bit when I was a kid.

Ooh Jesus, that properly scared the fuck out of me. So much so that even when I watch it as an adult, I'm scared on behalf of me as a child. Apart from the Douglas/Fawcett bits, which are far more terrifying now*.

* Also hope-giving.

Hope-giving indeed, heh

Glad it's not just me then anyway! Bik, the two things I remember scaring me lots are:

WHA?!

I own this on DVD because it is by far one of the most shit-your-pants scary movies I've ever seen. I'm not sure if it's Dr. Grant off that Jurassic Park or what, but it really scares me, and I'm not easily scareerrrragh! What was that?

"I must read threads fully before commenting. I must read threads fully before commenting. I must..."

Enough has been said already about the AWESOMENESS of Event Horizon (a high point of which was Joely Richardson getting several thousand gallons of blood dumped on her - don't prepare you for *that* at RADA, do they?), but how on earth can you dis the splendiferousness that is Joey In Space? As well as an awesome theme tune, it even has Gary Oldman in it.

Oh - talking of which, Goatboy - add "The Fifth Element" to your "to list" watch. It's sort of spacey. Although I'd find it hard to believe you hadn't already watched it.

AND HEATHER FUCKING GRAHAM.

Another vote for Sunshine here.
And Saturn 5, and Silent Running.
The Radio 4 adaptation of Solaris is much more excellent than the remade film, haven't seen the original.

Also, I started to watch the 'Space Travellers' (1991) MST3K episode the other night which looked promisingly bad until the file turned out to be corrupted.

This:
http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Travelers

Not to be confused with this:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140876/

Quiet, you! I've got King Kong to play through this week. Tremble with fear. Your gamerscore is going down!

Get Avatar: The Last Airbender while you're at it. Yours shall be a hollow victory.

*Points Myp in the direction of my recently played games*

*runs*

Like I said, a hollow victory.

Pff! I've been on holiday!

I bet Hitler went on holiday once, too.

Quiet you, and get the Mafia day started.

I wish I could. Still waiting on people.

METADATA$^%*%^£*£*6

What?

That is very, very funny.

And I see Jonarob has no answer. Truly, he is the token Nazi of BETEO.

Nein!

Does Fantastic Voyage fall within the parameters of this operation? It's set inside a human body (like X-Multiply ), and doesn't feature a whiff of space exploration, but I remember it being quite excellent.

There's a bit where the tiny wee spaceship gets stuck in the ear canal and brrrrrrrrrrrr.