SHITE SCI FI

[Matt]

I remember Peter being excellent in the 'Kane and Abel' miniseries (with Sam Neill).

[Captain Russ]

One that I never saw as a kid, and had only ever heard about (as I lived and breathed Indiana Jones and Star Wars back then) was The Last Starfighter.

I remember getting a Boston Pops cd from my dad when I was little dude and heard the theme to it and thought it was pretty fantastic. But of course, I never got around to seeing it. I think at that point, Batman, Han and Robocop were my bros for life.

I hear it is not exactly good, but it is one I kinda wish I had seen as a kid. I wonder what Kid Ica-Russ would've thought.

[Matt]

By the way, I think that Brett Leonard wins this thread.
'The Lawnmower Man'
'Virtuosity'
'Hideaway'
'Highlander: The Source'.

They aren't merely terrible, they're INCOMPETENTLY made.

[Captain Russ]

He has quite the list of failures there.

And that's just a handful.

And he has had work AFTER The fucking Source?

He must give amazing blowjobs to the executives on down to the gaffer.

[Matt]

One that I never saw as a kid, and had only ever heard about (as I lived and breathed Indiana Jones and Star Wars back then) was The Last Starfighter.

I remember getting a Boston Pops cd from my dad when I was little dude and heard the theme to it and thought it was pretty fantastic. But of course, I never got around to seeing it. I think at that point, Batman, Han and Robocop were my bros for life.

I hear it is not exactly good, but it is one I kinda wish I had seen as a kid. I wonder what Kid Ica-Russ would've thought.

I saw that one in the theaters. I liked it a lot back then, but a recent re-watch a few years ago took a of of the lustre off of it. The script needs work, especially in the Earth scenes; they're really flat and lack the necessary oomph that they should have had. The space scenes are, for the most part, pretty thrilling...just be aware that the computer generated special effects are really dated.

[Captain Russ]

In all honesty, I WANT dated effects.

Homespun stuff will always be special. No amount of advanced techniques and technology for rendering will change that fact.

The old model work is still incredibly impressive when you look at the films of twenty or thirty years ago.

Sounds like it doesn't quite belong here though.

Or it just might. I'll have to seek it out.

[Matt]

It's an entertaining film, and Robert Preston is GREAT in his small but important role as Centauri. He looked like he was having a lot of fun.

Be aware: blu-ray is very unforgiving of this film. All of the flaws, especially in the makeup effects, really shine through.

[Captain Russ]

Here's one that belongs here, but for fun reasons of being 1) batshit insane, 2) somehow making us believe a ball of fur with oddly-placed mouthholes would turn into a thresher of human parts and 3) having Arnie Grape in one of the sequels.

I am of course talking about Critters.

All that it was ever missing was time travel. It had everything: bad comedy, gremlin-like creatures with the appetite of William Taft, and horror/sci-fi staples. Critters is a cauldron of crazy ideas, some of them too ambitious to be pulled off, and some just so fucking half-baked you wonder what they were thinking in the first place.

And the art for the film? Always the first thing I saw at Blockbuster when I went to the sci-fi/horror section. Oddly, it always freaked me out the most, of all the warped things on display (Opera, Dead Alive, Scanners, that fucking flying cloud-skull thing on the Return of the Living Dead 2 poster).

Nowadays, all I hear is the little furball saying "Problem?"





Granted, this franchise may have started out as strictly horror, but with the sequels they got increasingly ridiculous in their sci-fi cheesery.

[Captain Russ]

It's an entertaining film, and Robert Preston is GREAT in his small but important role as Centauri. He looked like he was having a lot of fun.

Be aware: blu-ray is very unforgiving of this film. All of the flaws, especially in the makeup effects, really shine through.

I'll look for a DVD then. Hopefully with a really bad transfer.

I abhor the destruction blu-ray has wrought on Robocop. And I won't stand for it.

[Matt]

'Steel Dawn' - Patrick Swayze in a cheesy post-apocalytic world! Yeah!

[Captain Russ]

Isn't that sort of like Mad Max but with swords and shit?

(Obviously never saw it)

I'd actually say Mad Max sort of belongs here, if only because there are a lot of odd pacing issues in the first film, hamming/yelling/yelling about ham disguised as acting (I'm looking at you, Toecutter), and a pretty subdued Gibson performance. And no one here is disputing the fact that it did lead to one of the greatest car carnage extravaganzas ever put on film, just that it has bad parts, but also endearing and entertaining moments.

Yep.

Mad Max is in the Shite Sci-Fi thread. DEAL WITH IT

[BillyG]

All children love The Last Starfighter. A dude gets into a space battle thanks to his leet asteroids skills?! YEEEEEEEEEEEES

[Timothy225]

Solarbabies - oh, man, oh, Manaschevitz is that flick a stinkeroo. Post-apocalyptic future (like 99% of the flicks in this thread), water is in short supply (hello, Ice Pirates), and a heroic band of orphans (led by a pre-Lost Boys Jason Patric and Jami Gertz, along with 21 Jump Street's own Peter DeLuise and the acting fury that is Lukas Haas) fight for freedom wherever there is trouble and take it to the man... on rollerskates. ROLLERSKATES!!!!

They've even got a fucking Loc-Nar in this!

[Captain Russ]

Oh my god.

NOW THAT'S WHAT THIS THREAD IS ALL ABOUT

YEAAAAAAAAH TIM

[Matt]

Isn't that sort of like Mad Max but with swords and shit?

(Obviously never saw it)

I'd actually say Mad Max sort of belongs here, if only because there are a lot of odd pacing issues in the first film, hamming/yelling/yelling about ham disguised as acting (I'm looking at you, Toecutter), and a pretty subdued Gibson performance. And no one here is disputing the fact that it did lead to one of the greatest car carnage extravaganzas ever put on film, just that it has bad parts, but also endearing and entertaining moments.

Yep.

Mad Max is in the Shite Sci-Fi thread. DEAL WITH IT

Toecutter isn't as bad when you listen to him with his actual voice/Australian accent. The dubbed voice for American audiences is way, way, WAAAAY over the top with a hamminess that simply isn't there originally. Same thing with Johnny, Goose, and Fifi (especially Fifi)...whoever directed the voice actors for the American dub should be shot.

That being said, I don't think it's a Shite film at all. It's a low-budget, valiant first effort, with a lot more technical skill behind the camera than a lot of higher-budget films.