Read - Part 1, Part 2, Part 4
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If you've been following along you'll know that I'm not really agreeing with the Rotten Tomatoes list of 100 Best Reviewed Sci Fi Films. There seem to be a lot of high minded films in the list that I am honestly surprised to see. You would think that essentially a list made up purely by popularity would skew to the modern and mainstream rather than classic or foreign. So what does that say about the average reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes? Or maybe its just me being the weirdo here. Either way, let's get on with the show...
#49 - District B13 (2006)
The plot involves a futuristic France where the worst ghettos have been walled off from the rest of society, their schools shut down, and the police force evacuated. The people in power simply want to ignore the plight of the disenfranchised, but this becomes difficult to do when the most notorious gang, led by the wild-eyed Taha (Bibi Naceri), gets its hands on a nuclear warhead and proceeds to demand a 20-million-Euro ransom, with the city of Paris as its hostage. Enter Damien (Raffaelli), a one-man police strike force, who has 24 hours to disarm the missile. To help him navigate the war zone of District B13, he springs a vigilante antihero, Leito (Belle), from jail. Leito has personal reasons for taking down the crime lord: Taha has turned Leito's adolescent sister into his junkie pet. As the ultra-athletic duo go up against Taha's gangster army, they repeatedly (and conveniently) lose their guns, and are forced to improvise, thrashing goons with steering wheels, cinder blocks, and their foreheads.
While the action looks great here, a French friend of mine who saw this a year or two ago says that it it a crap story. That said, the freestyle urban running, and the fighting look pretty sweet.
#48 - Serenity (2005)
I really enjoyed this film, although the story still worked better as a series. I understand why it didn't do very well at the box office.
#47 - Donnie Darko (2001)
An excellent film all around.
#46 - Delicatessen (1991)
After years of working successfully in commercials and music videos, French directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet make a splashing feature-film debut, DELICATESSEN, a hysterical exercise in style. Scripted by comic book writer and frequent Caro and Jeunet collaborator Gilles Adrien, the story follows a sweet-natured clown, Louison (Dominique Pinon), who moves into a run down apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor and falls in love with the butcher's daughter, Julie Clapet (Marie-Laure Dougnac). When it turns out that Julie's father (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) is actually butchering human beings and selling the meat to the carnivorous tenants of the building, Julie must decide if she will remain loyal to her father's business or expose the truth in order to save Louison from being the next victim. Taking place entirely inside, underneath, and on the roof of the delicatessen, the film uses an old pipe that runs throughout the building as a channel of communication for its characters.
This sounds pretty clearly like a horror film, not a sci fi. I don't know... is it really good?
#45 - A Clockwork Orange (1971)
A little of the old Ultra violence never hurt no one... Classic.
#44 - 12 Monkeys (1995)
This would be in the latter half of my personal top 10. Great film.
#43 - Re-Animator (1985)
Herbert West (Jeffery Combs) has found the secret to eternal life--or so he thinks. West needs fresh cadavers to continue his experiments in the re-animation of dead tissue, so he enlists the help of young medical student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) to steal bodies from the local morgue. Despite all the warning signs of failure, the eccentric West's research continues. The results are crazed zombies that roam the streets, severed heads that talk, murder, madness, and chaos, all in the name of science, of course.
While technically I have seen this film, its been such a long time that I don't remember it really much at all. Once again this is a film I would place squarely in the horror category.
#42 - 2046 (2005)
Director Wong Kar-Wai's style reaches its fullest expression in his stunning film 2046. Picture-perfect period sets and costuming, finely wrought atmosphere, languid shots, glamorous cigarette smoke, amber lamplight, and allusions to film noir. 2046 is a meditation on memory, eroticism, love, loss, and longing which surpasses the director's beautiful, widely acclaimed IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000) in terms of formal ambition and visual sumptuousness. With its intriguing, layered structure, the film follows the adventures of Chow Wo Man (Tony Leung), a womanizer who is writing a science fiction novel about a future year in which all memories are suspended. The film shuttles between the BLADE RUNNER-like world of Chow's futuristic novel (complete with androids and other metaphors of emotional disconnection) and late-'60s Hong Kong--where Chow writes from a hotel room, and engages in relationships with a series of beautiful, complex women (including the luminous trio of Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and Faye Wong). The film also journeys to Singapore and through the increasingly mysterious corridors of the protagonist's memory.
The trailer definitely made this film look beautiful. I would very much like to see this film.
#41 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Kirk at his finest. This is probably the best performance we'll ever see from Shatner. Good stuff.
#40 - THX 1138 (1971)
Not a bad film, but it always seemed to get more credit than I thought it was due...
#39 - The Fly (1986)
Horror / sci fi never looked as creepy gross and good as Jeff Golblum the Brundlefly. Do you want a muffin?
#38 - Time Bandits (1982)
I wonder if this is my favorite Terry Gilliam film... maybe so. This is a fantastic film.
#37 - Them! (1954)
Atomic radiation once again manages to transform tiny harmless creatures into gigantic holy terrors. Probably the best of the '50s phenomenon, this top-notch thriller witnesses an invasion of giant ants using the sewer systems of Los Angeles like a vast ant farm. Academy Award Nominations: Best Special Effects.
I've seen other creature movies from the time, I'm just not sure if I've seen this one...
#36 - Blade Runner (1982)
Once again I totally don't understand this list. #36?! I mean 36?! Are you serious!? Easily top 10, probably top 5. This is a masterpiece.
#35 - Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
ugh... I've still got a bad taste in my mouth from that damn #36 on Blade Runner... OK First Contact. Yes decent film. I would probably move it a bit back on the list though.
#34 - Forbidden Planet (1956)
Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST is transformed in this landmark science-fiction film. Spacemen travel to a planet ruled by Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), who has built a kingdom with his daughter and obedient robot Robby. The good doctor is plagued by his mad quest for knowledge through his "brain booster" machine, and by Freudian "monsters from the id" as his daughter discovers other men and learns to kiss.
Yup, its another for the embarrassed to have not seen it list... Not that I really would expect to love the film, but it is really a classic.
#33 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Great film. Also a good excuse to play with your mashed potatoes.
#32 - The Matrix (1999)
The very first dvd I bought. This is a fantastic film.
#31 - The Invisible Man (1933)
With THE INVISIBLE MAN (the first film in a series), James Whale (FRANKENSTEIN) provides another stylish, blackly comic entry in the popular Universal horror cycle of the 1930s. When a mysterious man, face wrapped in bandages and wearing dark goggles, arrives in a small English village one snowy night, things start to go awry. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains), a chemist who has discovered an invisibility formula, wants desperately to find the antidote, but a side effect of the drug is driving him insane. Becoming gradually more unhinged, Griffin strips off his nose, bandages, and clothes before the stunned villagers and sets about terrorizing the countryside. When he progresses from mayhem to murder, Griffin's beloved Flora (Gloria Stuart) and colleague Dr. Kemp (William Harrigan) work with police to try to capture the elusive Invisible Man. It is a race against time to stop Griffin's plans to make the world "grovel" at his feet. Watch for the stunning special effects during the snowy climax to this gripping, atmospheric horror classic.
I just don't remember this film. Everyone know the iconic image of Claude Raines, but I can't recall if I've seen the actual film before. I definitely should.
#30 - The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Finally a classic I have seen. This is an excellent cautionary tale.
#29 - Ghostbusters (1984)
One of my favorite films, although I think I usually think of it as an action/comedy.
#28 - Men In Black (1997)
Get jiggy with it. Maybe the best buddy cop movie ever.
#27 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
This is another top 10 for me.
#26 - Young Frankenstein (1974)
very funny. If you haven't seen this please do.
#25 - Gojira (1954)
This is the original Japanese version of what we know as Godzilla. Personally I never had any problem with the addition of Raymond Burr though. That said, this is a fine film all around.
Well kids, that brings us once again to the end. Down to 25 more. Can you guess whats left on the list??? I already peaked and have to say I am not all that impressed... And it looks like I'm back to 7 unseen films from this batch of 25. Maybe, hopefully I'll do better in the next and final round. What are you guys thinking about the list? Is it as weird as I'm thinking it is???
Well until next time, have a good one. Later :)
-
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If you've been following along you'll know that I'm not really agreeing with the Rotten Tomatoes list of 100 Best Reviewed Sci Fi Films. There seem to be a lot of high minded films in the list that I am honestly surprised to see. You would think that essentially a list made up purely by popularity would skew to the modern and mainstream rather than classic or foreign. So what does that say about the average reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes? Or maybe its just me being the weirdo here. Either way, let's get on with the show...
#49 - District B13 (2006)
The plot involves a futuristic France where the worst ghettos have been walled off from the rest of society, their schools shut down, and the police force evacuated. The people in power simply want to ignore the plight of the disenfranchised, but this becomes difficult to do when the most notorious gang, led by the wild-eyed Taha (Bibi Naceri), gets its hands on a nuclear warhead and proceeds to demand a 20-million-Euro ransom, with the city of Paris as its hostage. Enter Damien (Raffaelli), a one-man police strike force, who has 24 hours to disarm the missile. To help him navigate the war zone of District B13, he springs a vigilante antihero, Leito (Belle), from jail. Leito has personal reasons for taking down the crime lord: Taha has turned Leito's adolescent sister into his junkie pet. As the ultra-athletic duo go up against Taha's gangster army, they repeatedly (and conveniently) lose their guns, and are forced to improvise, thrashing goons with steering wheels, cinder blocks, and their foreheads.
While the action looks great here, a French friend of mine who saw this a year or two ago says that it it a crap story. That said, the freestyle urban running, and the fighting look pretty sweet.
#48 - Serenity (2005)
I really enjoyed this film, although the story still worked better as a series. I understand why it didn't do very well at the box office.
#47 - Donnie Darko (2001)
An excellent film all around.
#46 - Delicatessen (1991)
After years of working successfully in commercials and music videos, French directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet make a splashing feature-film debut, DELICATESSEN, a hysterical exercise in style. Scripted by comic book writer and frequent Caro and Jeunet collaborator Gilles Adrien, the story follows a sweet-natured clown, Louison (Dominique Pinon), who moves into a run down apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor and falls in love with the butcher's daughter, Julie Clapet (Marie-Laure Dougnac). When it turns out that Julie's father (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) is actually butchering human beings and selling the meat to the carnivorous tenants of the building, Julie must decide if she will remain loyal to her father's business or expose the truth in order to save Louison from being the next victim. Taking place entirely inside, underneath, and on the roof of the delicatessen, the film uses an old pipe that runs throughout the building as a channel of communication for its characters.
This sounds pretty clearly like a horror film, not a sci fi. I don't know... is it really good?
#45 - A Clockwork Orange (1971)
A little of the old Ultra violence never hurt no one... Classic.
#44 - 12 Monkeys (1995)
This would be in the latter half of my personal top 10. Great film.
#43 - Re-Animator (1985)
Herbert West (Jeffery Combs) has found the secret to eternal life--or so he thinks. West needs fresh cadavers to continue his experiments in the re-animation of dead tissue, so he enlists the help of young medical student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) to steal bodies from the local morgue. Despite all the warning signs of failure, the eccentric West's research continues. The results are crazed zombies that roam the streets, severed heads that talk, murder, madness, and chaos, all in the name of science, of course.
While technically I have seen this film, its been such a long time that I don't remember it really much at all. Once again this is a film I would place squarely in the horror category.
#42 - 2046 (2005)
Director Wong Kar-Wai's style reaches its fullest expression in his stunning film 2046. Picture-perfect period sets and costuming, finely wrought atmosphere, languid shots, glamorous cigarette smoke, amber lamplight, and allusions to film noir. 2046 is a meditation on memory, eroticism, love, loss, and longing which surpasses the director's beautiful, widely acclaimed IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000) in terms of formal ambition and visual sumptuousness. With its intriguing, layered structure, the film follows the adventures of Chow Wo Man (Tony Leung), a womanizer who is writing a science fiction novel about a future year in which all memories are suspended. The film shuttles between the BLADE RUNNER-like world of Chow's futuristic novel (complete with androids and other metaphors of emotional disconnection) and late-'60s Hong Kong--where Chow writes from a hotel room, and engages in relationships with a series of beautiful, complex women (including the luminous trio of Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and Faye Wong). The film also journeys to Singapore and through the increasingly mysterious corridors of the protagonist's memory.
The trailer definitely made this film look beautiful. I would very much like to see this film.
#41 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Kirk at his finest. This is probably the best performance we'll ever see from Shatner. Good stuff.
#40 - THX 1138 (1971)
Not a bad film, but it always seemed to get more credit than I thought it was due...
#39 - The Fly (1986)
Horror / sci fi never looked as creepy gross and good as Jeff Golblum the Brundlefly. Do you want a muffin?
#38 - Time Bandits (1982)
I wonder if this is my favorite Terry Gilliam film... maybe so. This is a fantastic film.
#37 - Them! (1954)
Atomic radiation once again manages to transform tiny harmless creatures into gigantic holy terrors. Probably the best of the '50s phenomenon, this top-notch thriller witnesses an invasion of giant ants using the sewer systems of Los Angeles like a vast ant farm. Academy Award Nominations: Best Special Effects.
I've seen other creature movies from the time, I'm just not sure if I've seen this one...
#36 - Blade Runner (1982)
Once again I totally don't understand this list. #36?! I mean 36?! Are you serious!? Easily top 10, probably top 5. This is a masterpiece.
#35 - Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
ugh... I've still got a bad taste in my mouth from that damn #36 on Blade Runner... OK First Contact. Yes decent film. I would probably move it a bit back on the list though.
#34 - Forbidden Planet (1956)
Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST is transformed in this landmark science-fiction film. Spacemen travel to a planet ruled by Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), who has built a kingdom with his daughter and obedient robot Robby. The good doctor is plagued by his mad quest for knowledge through his "brain booster" machine, and by Freudian "monsters from the id" as his daughter discovers other men and learns to kiss.
Yup, its another for the embarrassed to have not seen it list... Not that I really would expect to love the film, but it is really a classic.
#33 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Great film. Also a good excuse to play with your mashed potatoes.
#32 - The Matrix (1999)
The very first dvd I bought. This is a fantastic film.
#31 - The Invisible Man (1933)
With THE INVISIBLE MAN (the first film in a series), James Whale (FRANKENSTEIN) provides another stylish, blackly comic entry in the popular Universal horror cycle of the 1930s. When a mysterious man, face wrapped in bandages and wearing dark goggles, arrives in a small English village one snowy night, things start to go awry. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains), a chemist who has discovered an invisibility formula, wants desperately to find the antidote, but a side effect of the drug is driving him insane. Becoming gradually more unhinged, Griffin strips off his nose, bandages, and clothes before the stunned villagers and sets about terrorizing the countryside. When he progresses from mayhem to murder, Griffin's beloved Flora (Gloria Stuart) and colleague Dr. Kemp (William Harrigan) work with police to try to capture the elusive Invisible Man. It is a race against time to stop Griffin's plans to make the world "grovel" at his feet. Watch for the stunning special effects during the snowy climax to this gripping, atmospheric horror classic.
I just don't remember this film. Everyone know the iconic image of Claude Raines, but I can't recall if I've seen the actual film before. I definitely should.
#30 - The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Finally a classic I have seen. This is an excellent cautionary tale.
#29 - Ghostbusters (1984)
One of my favorite films, although I think I usually think of it as an action/comedy.
#28 - Men In Black (1997)
Get jiggy with it. Maybe the best buddy cop movie ever.
#27 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
This is another top 10 for me.
#26 - Young Frankenstein (1974)
very funny. If you haven't seen this please do.
#25 - Gojira (1954)
This is the original Japanese version of what we know as Godzilla. Personally I never had any problem with the addition of Raymond Burr though. That said, this is a fine film all around.
Well kids, that brings us once again to the end. Down to 25 more. Can you guess whats left on the list??? I already peaked and have to say I am not all that impressed... And it looks like I'm back to 7 unseen films from this batch of 25. Maybe, hopefully I'll do better in the next and final round. What are you guys thinking about the list? Is it as weird as I'm thinking it is???
Well until next time, have a good one. Later :)
-
3 comments:
Delicatessan is a great film. Very bizarre...probably the only film on the list that I've seen and you haven't. I can't believe that you left the fact that right after Blade Runner came First Contact. If I were you I would've made a bigger stink about that!!! It actually makes me question the entire list.
I'm not bad at reviewing a movie for what it should be - i.e. not reviewing a piece of eye-candy as a drama etc. But First Contact in no way, on no level, at anytime holds a candle to Blade Runner. In fact.. I would accuse the list of .... "Mr. Rotten Tomatoes Website, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
Yup that about sums it up.
oh here it is... check out what I just found:
Here's how the Sci-Fi Countdown works:
• Each critic from our discrete list gets one vote, all weighted equally.
• A movie must have 20 or more rated reviews to be considered.
• Reviews without ratings are not counted toward the results.
• Because reviews are continually added, manually and otherwise, we have a cutoff date at which new reviews are not counted. The current cut off date is 5/11/2007.
• We use a weighted formula (Bayesian) to account for variation in the number of reviews per movie. The winners are determined by the rankings, designated as the "adjusted score," after applying said formula:
(r ÷ (r+m)) × t + (m ÷ (r+m)) × a, with "r" representing the number of rated reviews, "m" the minimum number of reviews needed for a movie to qualify, "t" the Tomatometer score, and "a" the average Tomatometer of all the qualifying movies.
It's on the sidebar. I must've missed it before.
LINKED FROM HERE
That doesn't change that it's wrong. Wrong wrong wrong! Yes repeated in triplicate...that's how strongly I feel about it! Though... what were we talking about anyway? This is today and that was yesterday afterall.
Oh well. Just write something new, and I'll move my anger to that.
BvB
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