what are your thoughts/opinions on these old sci fi movies?

[scotpens]

I pretty much agree with Christopher on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Logan's Run. Logan's Run, in particular, has an interesting concept but weak execution. As for the sets and effects, the miniature domed city looks surprisingly fake and the Dallas shopping mall locations look like a shopping mall.

Westworld (1973): Lots of fun on a modest budget.

Battle Beyond the Stars: See Westworld.

Space Raiders: Never heard of it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

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

10 years in the business as a manager. We had a large inventory, no way I could know them all.

When I was a kid we didn't have HBO, because it didn't exist yet. I was 13 the year it launched,

 

[Starkers]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Logan's Run
old Westworld movie
Battle Beyond the Stars
Space Raiders

Close Encounters is a film I've seen only once. Can't say it made a huge impression on me.

Logan's Run is an odd one. As others have said the first half is great, but it peters out towards the end. I think the stuff in the city is great, and Logan is a great adversary. Back in the day I was a fan of the TV series, which I realise in hindsight probably wasn't very good, but at least it had more of a story outside of the city than the film did.

Westworld is a decent film. Is very much a film of two halves again, but both are interesting. In particular the final act turns out to be quite the harbinger for The Terminator as Richard Benjamin is hunted by Brynner's remorseless killing machine. There's more than a little of Arnie in there (or maybe it's fairer to say there's more than a little Brynner in the T-800)

Battle Beyond the Stars. Ah you have to love it don't you. So many fond memories of this, but haven't seen it in ages. Amazing how many shots turned up in other films. I still get annoyed when Peppard and Vaughn die! All this plus John Boy and Sybil Danning's quote for the ages

Space Raiders. Doesn't ring a bell, but suspect maybe I rented it back in the day. Ice Pirates made more of an impression on me.

 

[Tosk]

It's better than Rise of Skywalker.

You could step over that bar with little effort.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Love it, except for the ending.
Logan's Run. Never really been able to fully appreciate it.
Westworld. Like it, generally. I'm distracted by James Brolin's future-resemblance to Christian Bale in it.
Battle Beyond the Stars. Eh.
Space Raiders. Not seen.

 

[Christopher]

Since most of us haven't seen Space Raiders, I checked, and it turns out that it's available for free on ShoutFactoryTV.com and YouTube.

 

[Relayer1]

I was going to drop in here just to be the lone poster that hates Close Encounters, but I'm surprised to find I'm not !

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I had the Giant Size Marvel Tresury Edition of Close Encounters, and if I'm remembering correctly, it had at least one scene in it that didn't show up until the Special Edition a few years later; and that was the scene where Bob Balaban (sp) talks about the coordinates being longitude and latitude and the scientists break into the office to steal the globe and roll it down the hallway.

 

[Admiral2]

If memory serves, Harlan Ellison famously hated it. But he was the first RETURN TO OZ champoin.

Harlan Ellison was a DICK. If he hated CE, that just elevates it in my eyes.

 

[Admiral2]

I had the Giant Size Marvel Tresury Edition of Close Encounters, and if I'm remembering correctly, it had at least one scene in it that didn't show up until the Special Edition a few years later; and that was the scene where Bob Balaban (sp) talks about the coordinates being longitude and latitude and the scientists break into the office to steal the globe and roll it down the hallway.

That's my second favorite scene.

 

[dupersuper]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: slow build up but what a pay off
Logan's Run: cool premise, got weird fast
old Westworld movie: also rather slow, but interesting
Battle Beyond the Stars: haven't seen it
Space Raiders: haven't seen it

I like the three of these that I've seen.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Battle Beyond The Stars is the only one I saw in the theater.

A fairly not-cheesy Roger Corman movie (at least compared to most of his work ).

Nothing against the other movies, they were all good films IMO. I'm not sure I ever saw Space Raiders, though it might be worth finding.

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure I ever saw Space Raiders, though it might be worth finding.

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[Ar-Pharazon]

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Thanks. No, I looked it up earlier, read the plot. It looks to have had a limited blu-ray release around 2015.

I may pick up a copy if it isn't too overpriced, just out of curiosity. I like physical media whenever possible and my DVD shelves have no shortage of cheesy and just plain bad movies.

ETA: Aaaand, ordered from a favorite ebay seller for $19.

 

[vandevere]

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.

It also had Morgan Woodward as one of the characters who was brought in to defend the planet...

 

[MacLeod]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Logan's Run
old Westworld movie
Battle Beyond the Stars
Space Raiders

The only one of those that I haven't seen nor heard of is Space Raiders, and it's been years if not decades since I watched Westworld or Logan's run, and it's been a good number of years like 5+ since I watched either BBTS and Close Encounters.

If I was channel hopping and they were on I might watch them but I don't think I woud actively seek them out not because I think they are bad movies just that I've seen some of them enough times that I have to be in the mood for them.

I could know doubt thing of other 70's or 80's movies that I've only seen a couple of times that I would rather catch again to sometimes bask in how cheesy some them are.

 

[Timewalker]

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

Close Encounters... saw it in the theatre when it was first released.

That was the second SF/F movie I recall with Teri Garr playing the whiny wife whose husband gets "contacted" by some mysterious being/force he's adamant is there, she can't perceive it, so she thinks he's nuts and leaves him (the other one is "Oh, God!").

I still get a chuckle when Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is talking to one of the scientists about the Devil's Tower and he says, "I have one like it in my living room." The thing about that movie is that everyone who was "contacted"/had their "close encounter" had a compulsion to reconstruct the Devil's Tower or play those five musical notes.

Neary's reconstruction started out as mashed potatoes in his supper dish, but ended up as a huge sculpture made of various odds and ends including the neighbor lady's chicken wire.

The aliens themselves, though? Dumb-looking.


It was years between getting the Logan's Run book and finally seeing the movie. I was 13, the movie was only playing at the drive-in, and there was no way my family would have let me go.

When I finally did get to see the movie on TV, it turned out to be both like and unlike the book. The basic themes are the same, but the rest is quite different. The movie's rationale for the domed city is a refuge from nuclear war, whereas the novel's rationale for Last Day is population control. Novel Last Day is at age 21, whereas the movie is at age 30. Most people on Earth live in domed cities scattered around the world, connected via the maze car network, and the people who leave the cities are the misfits who prefer life in the wilderness (or they're Runners... and I'm not going to spoil what the novels - plural; this is actually a trilogy - say about Sanctuary).

I haven't seen the other movies listed.

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

Sorry, I don't do paywalls.

I pretty much agree with Christopher on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Logan's Run. Logan's Run, in particular, has an interesting concept but weak execution. As for the sets and effects, the miniature domed city looks surprisingly fake and the Dallas shopping mall locations look like a shopping mall.

It was hardly intended to look like anything else. Even for the characters it's a public place leading to shops, businesses, and entertainment venues.

 

[kirk55555]

The only one of those I've seen is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I consider it the worst Spielberg movie I've seen, and quite possibly the most boring film I've ever seen. It is so slow it almost makes 2001 A Space Odyssey seem like it has good pacing (almost), and at least that movie has the stuff with Dave/HAL, which doesn't save that movie but its something. Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the other hand doesn't have a single thing that makes it worth watching. If you've seen someone parody the mashed potato scene, and you probably have, then you've seen literally the only scene that is even slightly memorable.

 

[Mojochi]

That was the second SF/F movie I recall with Teri Garr playing the whiny wife whose husband gets "contacted" by some mysterious being/force he's adamant is there, she can't perceive it, so she thinks he's nuts and leaves him (the other one is "Oh, God!").

Teri Garr got typecast HARD as the whiny wife/mom for a loooong time. Oh God!, Close Encounters, Tootsie, Mr. Mom, Let It Ride (Also with Dreyfus) Probably some I'm forgetting. All through the 80s it was like her goddamn calling card. She owned it. It's kind of a shame really.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the other hand doesn't have a single thing that makes it worth watching. If you've seen someone parody the mashed potato scene, and you probably have, then you've seen literally the only scene that is even slightly memorable.

Dude, toys come to life. A child is abducted by aliens. There's like a police chase. They climb Devil's Tower & get gassed by the military. There's plenty of it that's memorable. Whether that makes it objectively good is debatable lol

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.

Can't you say that about quite a lot of Spielberg though? lol. I mean I love his movies more than most, but even I can recognize the sappiness over substance in most of it. I will give CET3K some credit though for much of its story being subtext, about a guy in existential crisis, even before the aliens

I'm not going to come in here & defend it much, even though I still enjoy Close Encounters. Pretty much all the criticisms about it are valid. Even Spielberg cops to some of it now. Overall, it is in hindsight one truly disconcerting narrative about aliens brainwashing a guy into abandoning his family, & a slant that implies we should be not only cool with that, but excited about it. Still, a lot of what was done in that picture was revolutionary filmmaking. Between it & Star Wars that same year, sci-fi was flipped on its ear

In fact, it's interesting we're also talking about Logan's Run from a year earlier. I feel like that movie would've gotten much more acclaim over the years, had it not been dwarfed a year later, by having been done in a style that in the coming months would look like it was a decade old, when the entire genre was remade in the Lucas/Spielberg mold

I always find Dreyfus annoying as well. I did like him in Always with Holly Hunter- I thought that one worked.

Now that imho is the worst Spielberg movie ever

 

[Christopher]

Can't you say that about quite a lot of Spielberg though? lol.

Yes, and that's why there isn't really a lot of Spielberg's pre-1990 fantasy ouevre that I like much, aside from Indiana Jones. I despised E.T. when I saw it. I actually resented that Spielberg's directorial skill and John Williams's music manipulated me into shedding tears when the hideous alien puppet died, even though I didn't buy into the story or characters at all on an intellectual level and found the whole thing risible.

My best friend in college loved E.T. and thought it perfectly captured the worldview of a child, but I never understood that. To me, it seemed more like an adult's sanitized, idealized fantasy of childhood, with no reality or sincerity to it. My idea of a film that captures the worldview of a child is more along the lines of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Still, a lot of what was done in that picture was revolutionary filmmaking. Between it & Star Wars that same year, sci-fi was flipped on its ear

For better and for worse, yes. Lucas and Spielberg ushered in an era where the spectacle, technical sophistication, and crowd-pleasing excitement of SF/fantasy filmmaking rose to new heights, but often at the expense of intelligence and substance.

 

[Mojochi]

Cinema moves in waves & Lucas/Spielberg's era was certainly not the 1st to push substance to the background behind sentimentality & spectacle. IMHO that ship was bound to sail with/without them. I doubt John Williams' overtly thematic scores would even have become as prominent then, without that move in style. (Just like we're moving away from it musically now) Many forget that one of his 1st scores in that vein was 1972's The Poseidon Adventure. The shift toward that dynamic was already in motion really, & people were ready to eat it up when Lucas/Spielberg swooped in. They just amped it up to the max.

Idealized fantasy was Spielberg's whole schtick mostly, & for what he did there, I think he was doing it really well, but certainly it's not for everyone, least of all high art fans. If you want a more realistic child worldview, Stand By Me grabs it pretty good from a Stephen King tale imho

I tend to think that him actually being able to make any viewer feel emotions for that hideously terrifying alien puppet (lol) is a sign of some true mastery of craft. Story? Nope we're not taking home much of that, but still... It's not an art solely about story imho. Cinema is primarily an audio/visual artform. So much so that some guys like Kubrick don't even make stories. That guy almost exclusively made cinematic concept art, off of a single notion, like "Indoctrination" as the whole point behind Full Metal Jacket. There's no story there, just exploring that concept, on a living canvas.

That's one way to use the artform, another is to be a story forum, & yet another is to engage the audience in sensory spectacle. That they all compete in the same market is almost a tragedy really. It erroneously creates the impression that a filmmaker is required to be balancing all 3 in degrees of some kind. It's true that they can choose to, but I like to give some berth when judging that part of it, because it's always fluctuating, & if you fight it, you just end up looking like Scorcese griping about Marvel movies

The theater of a motion picture can be a painting, a novel, or a rollercoaster... or any combination thereof imho. It truly does possess the ability to be as much or as little of any & every artform ever known to man, & it's our culture that determines which rises to the top.