Sci-fi flicks you might have missed

[matt3o]

Why are Enemy Mine, Starman and Gattaca on the list? I thought those were popular Hollywood movies. (good movies, but definitely well known)

Completely subjective methodology.

[mr_a500]

What about THX 1138

[IvanIvanovich]

Here are some for consideration...
Assault Girls (Avalon sequel)
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Cherry 2000
Code 46
Crawlspace
Cyborg Girl
Cypher
Dante 01
Eden Log
Encrypt
Event Horizon
Extracted
John Dies at the End
Immortel - Ad Vitam
Iron Sky
La cité des enfants perdus
Lifeforce
M.A.R.K. 13
My Science Project
Nemesis
Natural City
Omega Doom
Paranoia One point O
Renaissance
Screamers
Southland Tales
Space Battleship Yamato
Strange Days
Tetsuo (Iron Man, Body Hammer, Bullet Man)
The Man From Earth
The Puppet Masters
Thirteenth Floor
THX1138
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Сталкер

Sorry for the long list. These are often films I would recommend to people and some of my favorites, though it is pretty light on the B films which I mostly kept off for now. I would also agree eXistenz is really generally not well known. Even some of my friends that actually like sci-fi didn't know it until I played it for them.

[mr_a500]

That's one hell of a list. I only know 6 or 7 of those.

Strange Days was good. Event Horizon was awesome visually, but the story didn't quite work.

[Ducky Nordic]

Charlton Heston classics

Soylent green
Omega man

[nathanscribe]

Zardoz is great, for all the best reasons

As for Silent Running, the attentive amongst us may notice that some of the special effect model shots were re-used in the original Battlestar Galactica series. BTW, I'd add Battlestar Galactica (original) to the list, if series are allowed. I think my favourite character is the girl whose only job is to say "launch when ready" a lot.

I thought Moon was acceptable but not great; Dante 01 was pure pretentious badly-conceived guff from start to finish; Logan's Run is pure win.

How about:

Eden Log
Primer (only one effect shot, but I think time travel counts as sci-fi)
Solaris (the Tarkovsky one)
Paprika
Metropolis (Fritz Lang - so many people still have only heard of it but never seen it. It's great. Get the re-cut extended one)
Monsters (more of a road movie, OK rather than great)
Videodrome
Scanners
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (kind of weird x-over fantasy/fairytale/sci-fi in a Lynch type way. In stop-motion)
Hardware
if monster movies count, try Big Man Japan
have we got Soylent Green, the original Planet of the Apes (full set of 5 films, though the last one can be safely ignored), Omega Man..?
erm
erm
hahahaha, Repo: The Genetic Opera (watch at your peril)

I've seen a few that fall into the 'interesting but not great' category, and sadly most of the names I've forgotten. There was one I saw recently that was a black and white animation, really high contrast, set in a dystopian future Paris. Was very stylish, if hard on the eyes, but the story was weak, dialogue was terrible, and it fell flat - tried too hard to be achingly cool. I forget the name.

[IvanIvanovich]

Sounds like you're describing Renaissance. Not sure which version you saw, but the English dub is definitely not as good as far as voice acting in my opinion. The original French voice cast seemed to be a lot more enthusiastic about it.
I'd also like to suggest Chrysalis and Le Dernier Combat.

[Ducky Nordic]

1984

...the movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/?ref_=sr_1

[Ducky Nordic]

...ah and

The Cube (first one)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123755/?ref_=sr_2

[pasph]

Fahrenheit 451
Solaris (obviously the Tarkovsky one)
Sleeper
maybe the first Rollerball

[nathanscribe]

Sounds like you're describing Renaissance.

Yep! That's the one. Seemed like an exercise in style>content. Stark contrast was hard to get used to.

[Findecanor]

Excellent and eccentric yet a bit cheesy movie. In Zardoz the eternals also had internet (tabernacle) . 1974 movie so before any kind of internet was known to common man.

Naww. I would rather say that the Tabernacle was their mainframe.

[Ducky Nordic]

Excellent and eccentric yet a bit cheesy movie. In Zardoz the eternals also had internet (tabernacle) . 1974 movie so before any kind of internet was known to common man.

Naww. I would rather say that the Tabernacle was their mainframe.

Sure but they could wirelessly access it and make instant (google )search on the database. Anyhoo, its been few years since ive seen this so might not be 100% on point with details. Good movie

[Vierax]

Sort of necessary to see Firefly for that one.

Really? Never saw this series....but enjoyed the movie anyway, because it had some great (black) humor inside, which isnt very common for that kind of movies.

Yeah you have to watch Firefly before really appreciate Serenity (and hate The Fox). The director/scenarist Joss Whedon is known for his great sense of humour in tragic scenario for example His most known work is the TV series BTVS/Angel. Before that, he made the scenario of the animation SF movie called Titan A.E. and lastly he directed The Avengers.


I don't know for the rest of Europe but the film “Dark City” with Rufus Sewell and Kiefer Sutherland is pretty unknown in France.

If you count animation movies in the list, japanese one are by far the most creative since the 70's.

[matt3o]

Dark City is a sci-cult. I consider it pretty famous but I might be wrong.

[Vierax]

For me too but the fame depends of the degree of knowledge in a specific domain, the access of information and the cultural policy of every country. As you said, a list is very subjective.

in anime there is Memories (by Otomo Katsuhiro and Satoshi Kon) : the short "Magnetic Rose" is a masterpiece.
The extra fun "Roujin Z" a.k.a. our future
"The Place Promised in Our Early Days" and "Voices of a Distant Star" by Makoto Shinkai
"Mizu No Kotoba" and "Pale Cocoon" the early works of the Rikka Studio

[pyro]

Just saw Strange Days the other day, great movie! I think
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
They Live (1988)
deserve a place on the list, too.

[Halvar]

"Ghost in the Shell" is probably too popular for this list...

I also liked the original animated "Æon Flux" short series.

[Vierax]

Yesterday, I watched Moon and I agree that it's not a masterpiece but it's still a pleasure to see Sam Rockwell
I watched Woody Allen's SF movie called Sleeper too

[mauri]

Sort of necessary to see Firefly for that one.

Really? Never saw this series....but enjoyed the movie anyway, because it had some great (black) humor inside, which isnt very common for that kind of movies.

Yeah you have to watch Firefly before really appreciate Serenity (and hate The Fox). The director/scenarist Joss Whedon is known for his great sense of humour in tragic scenario for example His most known work is the TV series BTVS/Angel. Before that, he made the scenario of the animation SF movie called Titan A.E. and lastly he directed The Avengers.


I don't know for the rest of Europe but the film “Dark City” with Rufus Sewell and Kiefer Sutherland is pretty unknown in France.

If you count animation movies in the list, japanese one are by far the most creative since the 70's.

You'd be better off not watching the series and not seeing half the characters getting killed :'(

[mauri]

I liked Push (2009), Daybreakers and Priest they all do have a few famous actors but I don't have any memory of them being in cinemas or even dvd

[Findecanor]

I bought Priest on DVD last Saturday; have not seen it yet.

[TacticalCoder]

@IvanIvanovich: what a list

The ones I know in your list are indeed very good so I'm definitely gonna check a few others.

"La cite des enfants perdus" / "The City of Lost Children" is a good steampunk sci-fi movie (even if Wikipedia says it predates common use of the term 'Steampunk').

[Vierax]

What a shame, I didn't watch this masterpiece from one of the few interesting french director (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, "Alien : Resurrection" "Amélie Poulain"… always with the great actor Dominique Pinon )

I love this thread !