Close Encounters of the Third Kind Logan's Run old Westworld movie Battle Beyond the Stars Space Raiders me, personally and as a sci fi movie watcher i really cant stand Third Encounters. cant stand both the movie and Richard dreyfus in the movie. The only time i can stand Richard dreyfus is in Jaws and Mr Holland's Opus
Of the ones you listed above, the only ones I've seen were Close Encounters and Battle Beyond the Stars. I love Close Encounters, but I didn't always. I think it was kind of over my head when I was a kid, and I didn't connect with it in the way I was connecting with the original Star Wars movies or TNG on television. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I finally revisited the film (in the form of the Director's Cut), and fell in love with it. Battle Beyond the Stars is kind of meh; it's Roger Corman cashing in on Star Wars by doing The Magnificent Seven... IN SPAAAAAAAACE! At this point it's probably more noteworthy for being a stepping stone in the careers of the late James Horner and director James Cameron (who was in charge of the film's special effects).
Close Encounters: I liked it as a kid, but when I revisited it as an adult, I found it a startlingly mindless story, all sentiment and no sense. The only things going for it are the production values, particularly the music and visual effects. Logan's Run: Starts out strong but falls apart. Deeply flawed with a nonsensical ending. I reviewed it on my Patreon (for $5/mo members): https://www.patreon.com/posts/review-logans-46736700 Westworld: Dunno. I probably saw it on TV as a kid, but I haven't seen it since. Battle Beyond the Stars: Last time I saw it, I liked it better than I expected. It's weak in a lot of ways, but it has cool concepts and worldbuilding, the effects are fairly impressive for its era and budget, and it's kind of a seminal 1980s sci-fi movie in some ways. I reviewed it and other older movies in this post on my free blog: https://www.patreon.com/posts/review-logans-46736700 Space Raiders: I don't think I've seen it.
Close Encounters- Love it, Logan's Run- It was fun with some interesting visuals Battle Beyond the Stars-Low rent Star Wars Space Raiders-Never heard of it. And thanks for making me feel ancient. 70's and 80's movies are now old.
The old Westworld movie is a odd one as it seems to be a movie of just two acts. The first act being the build up, and the second the attack and that’s it.
Close Encounters--- love it. Somewhat uneven pacing but grandly beautiful, open-ended story. Logan's Run--cheesy sci-fi fun. A fun, campy experience. Original Westworld movie--very creative idea, but very campy and plods along. Fun idea, great casting, but otherwise mediocre. Battle Beyond the Stars--campy and dumb, shoe-string budget Star Wars. Amusing in parts but entirely unremarkable. Never saw Space Raiders.
I didn’t really get into CET3K until the end when they actually make contact with the aliens. Now that’s some epic shit right there. No bad guys, no violence…just music. “It’s the first day of school, fellas.” Logan’s Run was a major part of my childhood. And not just because of Jenny Agutter. I just thought it was the most awesome thing I’d ever seen. I used to draw the cityscape all the time when I was a kid. 70’s cheese, to be sure…but glorious, unafraid, unashamed 70’s cheese. And, come on, it had Michael York. How much more cool can ya get? My favorite part of Battle Beyond the Stars was, of course, Robert Vaughn. He basically played THE SAME CHARACTER he played in The Magnificent Seven. Hell, most of his lines were even the same! How awesome is THAT?
Close Encounters: I first saw this when I was about seven and it scared the hell out of me (especially Barry's abduction. I still tend to skip over it) yet I watched all of it, and found new things to appreciate every time I've watched it since. Logan's Run: It underwhelmed me. Westworld: The original movie is better than most of Michael Chricton's books that I've read. He should have stuck to screenwriting full time. Battle Beyond the Stars: Enjoyable shit. Space Raiders: Just shit. EDIT: The OP needs a Dreyfuss infusion stat! I prescribe The Goodbye Girl and Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Saw both the original 1977 version of CET3K and the 1980 'Special Edition' when they came out. (The last one on a double bill with 'The Black Stallion'.) Yeah, the Mothership rising over the back of Devil's Tower makes no sense, but, damn, is it cool looking. (As an aside - my father's friend from basic training and the Air Force went to High School with Richard Dreyfuss. I've seen the yearbook photos that prove it.) Logan's Run - a movie that starts off good, but kinda falls apart once they leave the domed city. Having now read the book (thanks to my local library) and watched videos on YouTube about the various 'Logan's Run' that never were, I'd like to see a remake or mini-series on HBOMax or some other streaming service that incorporates some of the ideas from the novel and various screenplays. Battle Beyond the Stars - a sci-fi version of The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven. Good, cheesy fun, with Sybil Danning threatening to explode out of her costume, and early FX work by a young James Cameron and Bill Paxton. Westworld - A good idea directed in a flat, TV style. It is a bit of nice subversion that the nerdy Richard Benjamin character is the hero/survivor of the movie and not James Brolin, as you would expect. Yul Brenner is a prototype Terminator for the last third of the movie, relentlessly stalking Richard Benjamin through Delos. What struck me upon a recent re-watch was that the last third or so of the movie, once James Brolin is shot, is almost completely without dialogue. Except for a brief exchange with a Delos technician, who's quickly shot dead, the only sounds are Richard Benjamin's heavy breathing and Yul Brenner's footsteps. Space Raiders - If it's the movie I'm thinking of it reuses a lot of the footage from Battle Beyond the Stars, as a way to recoup Roger Corman's investment.
This was especially what I liked about CE3K, and coincidentally also what I like about ST:TMP, Contact, and the 4th season of Discovery. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy a good space shoot 'em up, but there's something to be said for an optimistic story about making new discoveries.
Except those others are stories about the scientific pursuit of discovery. CE3K is a movie about blind, irrational faith, about a man having an essentially spiritual vision and being compelled to abandon his family to pursue it, like a prophet having a religious awakening. I don't remember the details that well, but I recall finding even the scientist Lacombe to be driven more by sentiment and faith than scientific thinking. After all, CE3K was based on the UFO lore of the era, and UFO believers are essentially a religious cult. It's the same psychology as religious and supernatural belief, just adopting the concepts of the Space Age and the imagery of science fiction. I dunno, I guess there's nothing intrinsically invalid about a story of a person having a religious vision and pursuing it to the exclusion of all else, but I don't find that a particularly optimistic story, nor do I consider it to be about discovery, because Roy is acting more out of an implanted compulsion than voluntary curiosity.
Not seen any of them in years but enjoyed close encounters, logans run recall enjoying it (jenny aguter )
also battle beyond the stars or space raiders, remember watching whichever one had john boy Walton in it when hospitalised in the early 90s, was naff but thoroughly enjoyable as an escape from the hospital ward
wow. guess im one of the few that has seen Space Raiders back in the day. Im surprised the rest of you folk claim you never heard of it or seen it. really? it would be on HBO and VHS rentals back then. It was one of those lesser known movies like Sea Gypsies and super fuzz
Last time I saw it was on tubi. I was bored and looking for something to watch and was fuzzy about the plot when I saw the title. I was five minutes in before I realized A) I've seen it more than once and B) I hated it every time.
Loved it, but don't find it particularly re-watchable. As a pilot, I love the ATC scenes in the ARTCC with the airliners having their UFO near-misses. Great movie. Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett! Very much in the 70's era vein along with stuff like Saturn 3 and The Omega Man. Strangely prophetic in that there is a function on their computers which is essentially Tinder, decades before its time! A fun, scary classic. Saw it as a kid and couldn't watch Yul Brenner in anything for years after. Scared the bejeebers out of me. A guilty pleasure. One of the many B-movie knockoffs trying to cash in on the popularity of SW. That said, this was one of the better efforts. Basically "The Magnificent Seven" or "Seven Samurai" in space, with some memorable performances. The only starship ever designed with a set of tits. George Peppard as 'Space Cowboy'. Robert Vaughn as a burnt out mercenary killer. John Saxon as the evil space overlord. And Sybil Danning competing with Nell (the starship) for best bosom. Memorable soundtrack. Some of the fx footage was later recycled in other movies. I still have problems seeing Richard Thomas as anyone but John-boy Walton, but in this case it worked because his character was basically John-boy in space. Missed this one. I always find Dreyfus annoying as well. I did like him in Always with Holly Hunter- I thought that one worked.
nerys Myk you gotta be lying if you say ou were a video store clerk and never heard of them. You never had HBO when you were a little kid in the 1980s? at all? come on
Here's a link to a tribute video from Battle Beyond the Stars, featuring the main theme by James Horner. Love the whiskey dispenser in Space Cowboy's belt. It's better than Rise of Skywalker.