Dangling Conversations

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Loose Canon

Posted 18 Oct, 2005 at 17:01 by matt in /MovingPictures | Permanent link

John Scalzi's latest book's been released on this continent: The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies. Among other things, he gives a list of what he considers to be The Canon: 50 sci-fi must-sees. As such things do, this has transmongrified into a blogthing: bold the ones you've seen.

The ones in bold, I've seen and remember; the italics indicate movies that I'm pretty sure I've seen, but was young enough at the time that I don't really remember them. (Except for Escape from NY; I've watched one of the Escape movies, but have no idea which and don't particularly care.)

So that makes 10 definite and 8 probables: not such a great score. It's made worse when you realise that some of the list entries actually represent multiple movies -- I've seen 12 Monkeys, for instance, but never watched La Jetée, upon which it's based. Moreover, many of these are movies that I have no desire to see at all. I've at least hard of 90% of them, which I guess is something.

(And yes, I've really never seen Jurassic Park. Or E.T. The former was mostly a reaction to over-hype; the latter, well, maybe I should see it someday. I did read the novelization when I was a kid; does that count?

Comments (9 comments so far)
My list has a total count of 30. A surprising number of these I've only seen in the last couple of years. Just for the record, the ones I've seen are: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension! Akira Alien Aliens Alphaville Back to the Future Blade Runner Brazil Bride of Frankenstein Brother From Another Planet A Clockwork Orange Close Encounters of the Third Kind Contact The Damned Destination Moon The Day The Earth Stood Still Delicatessen Escape From New York ET: The Extraterrestrial Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial) The Fly (1985 version) Forbidden Planet Ghost in the Shell Gojira/Godzilla The Incredibles Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version) Jurassic Park Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior The Matrix Metropolis On the Beach Planet of the Apes (1968 version) Robocop Sleeper Solaris (1972 version) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back The Stepford Wives Superman Terminator 2: Judgement Day The Thing From Another World Things to Come Tron 12 Monkeys 28 Days Later 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 2001: A Space Odyssey La Voyage Dans la Lune War of the Worlds (1953 version)
Posted 2005/10/19 03:39:12 by Blue
Sorry... forgot that I needed break or list tags as well...

My list has a total count of 30. A surprising number of these I've only seen in the last couple of years. Just for the record, the ones I've seen are:

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!
Akira
Alien
Aliens
Alphaville
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Brazil
Bride of Frankenstein
Brother From Another Planet
A Clockwork Orange
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contact
The Damned
Destination Moon
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Delicatessen
Escape From New York
ET: The Extraterrestrial
Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
The Fly (1985 version)
Forbidden Planet
Ghost in the Shell
Gojira/Godzilla
The Incredibles
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
Jurassic Park
Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior
The Matrix
Metropolis
On the Beach
Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
Robocop
Sleeper
Solaris (1972 version)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
The Stepford Wives
Superman
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Thing From Another World
Things to Come
Tron
12 Monkeys
28 Days Later
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2001: A Space Odyssey
La Voyage Dans la Lune
War of the Worlds (1953 version)

Posted 2005/10/19 03:43:02 by Blue
I land at 28 - I'm not going to bother rewriting the whole list. Take Blue, but remove Bride of Frankenstein, The Fly, The Stepford Wives (p.s. Blue - you do know he's talking the 1975 version and not 2004, right?), 28 Days Later, 20000 Leagues Under The Sea and War of the Worlds. Add Contact, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Delicatessen, and Godzilla. Of the ones I haven't seen, Brazil has been on my "I'll get around to it eventually" list for about eight years now, but there aren't any others that I really have a hankering to run out and see.
Posted 2005/10/20 06:59:54 by RobRoy
I'm only at 13
Back to the Future, Blade Runner (because people couldn't believe I hadn't seen it), A Clockwork Orange (for English class years ago), ET: The Extraterrestrial (the first movie I can remember, at a drive-in), The Incredibles, Jurassic Park, The Matrix, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (my dad was a big Star Trek fan), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Tron (with my entire class back in first year), 12 Monkeys
Either I need to watch more movies...or I'm doing just fine. You decide :)
Posted 2005/10/20 08:36:53 by Wendy
Drat. This makes me the resident movie-whore. And yes Duncan... realize he means the old one... not the more modern (simply called Stepford I believe... and yes... I've seen it too).
Posted 2005/10/20 15:47:41 by Blue
Haha!
Okay, I'm just shy of Blue:

+Brazil

-Bride of Frankenstein

-Tron

I blame this all on my not having cable and therefore watching Elwie Yost on Saturday Night at the Movies on TVO, and would gladly do so again, if I could. (If that's not a banner to wave at Blue, I don't know what is!)

Posted 2005/10/20 18:12:05 by Kael
Let's not forget a wasted childhood watching the old CBC Sunday Morning movie. Ah... Tim Horton's donuts and Sunday morning movies... I guess my childhood has some fond memories after all. ;)
Posted 2005/10/20 18:21:39 by Blue
I thought we all watched Contact once in Auburn...
Posted 2005/10/23 09:01:01 by sclark223
That might have been before my time. I'm reasonably sure I've never seen the movie, although I've read an extended debate about it between online film critics once.
Posted 2005/10/23 20:37:24 by Matt
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