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Favorite "Obscure" Sci-Fi Movies?

Vger23

Vice Admiral
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What are your favorite sci-fi movies that are lesser-known / lesser- appreciated /non-blockbusters?

Here's a short list of mine:

Gattaca
Logan's Run
Oblivion
Forbidden Planet
Primer
Serenity
Sunshine
Cube
Solaris (both versions)
 
Borrowing from both previous lists:

Logan's Run (young Jenny Agutter.....phwoaaarrrr)

Forbidden Planet (a movie that does not need to be remade)

Oblivion

Serenity (plays much better on the small screen)

The Last Starfighter

And now some other personal faves:



The Black Hole (a guilty pleasure, to be sure)

Dune (either the 1984 theatrical or extended, and the 2000 sci-fi production)

Children of Dune (nice blending of both Dune Messiah and Children of Dune)

Outland (easily could fit into the Alien universe)
 
Gattica
Both Dunes
The Last Starfighter
Logan's Run
Star Trek, Insurrec-...no, wait...wrong list...
Nemesis...huh?...Wait!, goddamn it!!!...how did that?...sorry, trouble with my Droid!
 
Ooh yeah the Black Hole! I just love the music and the opening scenes.

Aye. John Barry's score is beautiful. The opening theme calls to mind a sort of 1950's-esque sci-fi motif....and the theme with the Palomino scanning the hull of the Cygnus is a reuse of the opening theme, but with some really good adventure motif added on.

The film itself started out interestingly enough, but has one of the most cringeworthy lines in all of sci-fi history.

Dr.Kate McRae: USS Cyngus. Their mission to search for habitable life in outer space....same as ours.

and the second most cringeworthy line:

Lt. Charlie Pizer: hmm...maybe Reinhardt lied. Maybe there are some survivors still alive. (it calls to mind the old schoolyard joke: A plane crash lands, killing half the passengers...where did they bury the survivors?)


But, overall, it is still a fun movie to watch. It was done in the same effort of need as Star Trek The Motion Picture. (film companies now needed their Star Wars). Maximillian Schell is clearly the main presence of the film. (He hates the movie, btw). Also, I consider the robot, Maximillian, to be King of the Cylons! :)


HIjol, you might wanna have your droid's motivator looked at. I think it's a bad one. :D
 
What are your favorite sci-fi movies that are lesser-known / lesser- appreciated /non-blockbusters?

Here's a short list of mine:

Gattaca
Logan's Run
Oblivion
Forbidden Planet
Primer
Serenity
Sunshine
Cube
Solaris (both versions)

How do you quantify Forbidden Planet as "lesser known/lesser appreciated"?
 
To speak for myself: it's not really that I'd classify Forbidden Planet as obscure by any means. Probably just not so heavily spoken of, but certainly not obscure...at least among those from our majority genereation. (It might be obscure to the current generation...and I don't say that as a slight.) I mean, sometimes, folk forget that the sci fi movies/shows of the 1960's and beyond owe much to Forbidden Planet. :)
 
I mean, sometimes, folk forget that the sci fi movies/shows of the 1960's and beyond owe much to Forbidden Planet. :)

Warren Stevens was in it, who appeared in a guest role in an obscure show of the 1960s known as "Star Trek", about actors and other entertainers going on USO shows during WWII.
 
I would classify forbidden planet as obscure to the general public but extremely well known to fans of the genre.

And it's already been remade. As a TV show called Star Trek. ;)
 
Gotta say, some of those mentioned I don't find obscure at all. Forbidden Planet, Logan's Run, Dune, those were major movies back then. They're classics of the genre, or of film in general. Being old isn't the same as being obscure.

I do have some really obscure favorites, though.

The Green Slime
Robot Jox
Titan A.E.
The Fountain
Heavy Metal
Battle Royale
eXistenZ
Time Masters (Les Maîtres du temps)
 
I mean, sometimes, folk forget that the sci fi movies/shows of the 1960's and beyond owe much to Forbidden Planet. :)

Warren Stevens was in it, who appeared in a guest role in an obscure show of the 1960s known as "Star Trek", about actors and other entertainers going on USO shows during WWII.

Did I gaffe somewhere? I don't always go online to reasearch stuff when I'm simply trying to make a quick post. My memory is not what it used to be. :)
 
(playing along...)

Forbidden Planet
This Island Earth
Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun
La Jetee
Screamers
Buckaroo Banzai
The Brother From Another Planet
Impostor
Cube
Paprika
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Memories (Magnetic Rose, Stink Bomb, Cannon Fodder)

...but I refuse to acknowledge Dune is obscure :)
 
The Monster That Challenged The World is probably my favorite giant animal/atomic monster movie from the fifties, but it's never mentioned in the same breath as THEM! or The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

Timecrimes is a really clever Spanish-language time travel thriller, which for some reason has never received a North American Blu-Ray release.

I love the American remake of Solaris, which died at the box office and hasn't recieved the Blu-Ray treatment in the U.S., either, despite looking terrific.

Supernova isn't a good movie by any means, but I just saw the new Blu-Ray recently thanks to work, and it's not the twelve care pile-up its reputation would suggest (just a two or three car pile-up). It's too bad Walter Hill hasn't gotten the chance to recut it.
 
Silent Running (1972)
Last Dinosaur (1977)
Time Machine (1978 version)
Killdozer(1974) [long before Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive]
 
What are your favorite sci-fi movies that are lesser-known / lesser- appreciated /non-blockbusters?

Gattaca
Logan's Run
[...]
Forbidden Planet
[...]
Solaris (both versions)

I'm sorry, are you really calling this movies "obscure"?!? "Obscure" like, I don't know, Robojox or Moon 44?

You have a quite broad definition of "obscure"!
 
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