OT: Capitals Cinema Club: TV and Movies

[kicksavedave]

some others that quickly come to mind in the smart SYFY genre....

Interstellar
Primer
Sunshine
Moon
Contact
Gattaca

I love Contact, because its one of the few movies that present aliens as neither little green men with triangular eyes, or aggressive lizards determined to eat us all. I wished the scene where Ellie meets her dad again and she figures out he's a download from her memory was longer, because IMO it was just so optimistic about what we may find when we finally discover other life - they dont want us to be scared when they meet us, kinda like we do. Granted the reality is we'll probably just find some bacteria somewhere boring.

 

[kicksavedave]

To start off, here's Chris Hadfield's take on a bunch of sci-fi. For Interstellar, he predominantly focused on the third act (where it's transitioned away from hard sci-fi to a softer take on what could happen inside of a black hole).

Thanks for this. Heh, Hadfield on Armageddon: "Its just atrocious". Yep! But those feels at the end when they save the world LOL

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

I consider “Smart SYFY’ it’s own very worthy sub-category in the SYFY genre.

The Martian was great for that.

Mission to Mars is another I like in that category. I think it’s criminally underrated on Rotten.

some others that quickly come to mind in the smart SYFY genre....


Interstellar
Primer
Sunshine
Moon
Contact
Gattaca

I really liked Arrival as well.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I really liked Arrival as well.

Agreed....thought of it after my post.

Ex Machina
Blade Runner
Inception

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Agreed....thought of it after my post.

Ex Machina
Blade Runner
Inception

I HATED Ex Machina. Easily one of my all-time least favorite movies. Not saying it doesn't belong in the genre you're describing but I loathed everything about it.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I HATED Ex Machina. Easily one of my all-time least favorite movies. Not saying it doesn't belong in the genre you're describing but I loathed everything about it.

funny, different strokes....

 

[tenken00]

I HATED Ex Machina. Easily one of my all-time least favorite movies. Not saying it doesn't belong in the genre you're describing but I loathed everything about it.

What about Annihilation?

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

What about Annihilation?

Never saw it, actually -- will add it to the list.

 

[tenken00]

Never saw it, actually -- will add it to the list.

Ah the reason I asked was because I also thought Ex Machina was overrated. I thought it was a decent movie, and had the greatest Oscar Isaac dance scene of all time up there next to JCVD in Kickboxer, but I didn't get into it like everyone in the public did. I did like Alex Garland's next movie Annihilation better even though it was a lot more polarizing than Ex Machina. But I gave it points for trying to be ambitious and tries to take risks in story-telling in a very common and long-used sci-fi theme. I thought the same of Arrival.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

What about Annihilation?

liked it, more action SF IMO, but I’m ok with it either way.




on Ex Machina.....I like it, was solid, but did not LOVE it....

Still quality smart SYFY IMO.

I wasn’t NOT entertained when I watched it. Not something I consider to have a ton of replay value though either.

 

[usiel]

this man gets it....

if you’re one of those people who can’t suspend disbelief in the moment, or can’t ignore some things that contradict physics (or other known scientific principles)....you’re just not going to enjoy what you’re watching.

part of why I love Expanse so much.....they actually recognize G-force is a thing with spaceships!

You rarely see futuristic SYFY deal with it beyond “magical” machinery that typically overrides the laws of physics lol....

when it starts to get absurdly blatant, then yeah....my eyes start rolling at points....but it doesn’t usually tank a movie for me when they go over the top.

Reminds me of my advanced creative writing class where maybe myself and one other guy would write some genre stuff and some of the other students just couldn't handle anything not grounded in Earth reality and no ability for suspension of belief was sort of interesting to see someone read something but if it was fantastical in either the fantasy/scifi sense.

 

[usiel]

Agreed....thought of it after my post.

Ex Machina
Blade Runner
Inception

Moon should probably be on the list. Really like Arrival. I liked Ex Machina because anything AI barring the whole frankenstein sci-fi trope that I'm incredibly tired of.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Moon should probably be on the list. Really like Arrival. I liked Ex Machina because anything AI barring the whole frankenstein sci-fi trope that I'm incredibly tired of.

it’s listed above.

 

[tenken00]

So I just watched Sinister after seeing a few articles on it being rated the #1 scariest movie based upon average heart beats per minute of an audience. It was pretty good, but I don't know about scariest movie. Then again, horror is so subjective (like comedy) and there are a lot classics on this list that I didn't find all that heart thumping either. Maybe I'm just too desensitized now.

'Sinister' is the Scariest Movie Ever – According to Science

 

[usiel]

it’s listed above.

Ooops I retract that and add Solaris?

Also thought Sunshine was bit underrated.

You guys might give me shit but Cloud Atlas ages well. Maybe I admire how hard a book adaptation is but even my Dad liked it (though I had to explain some things).

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

So I just watched Sinister after seeing a few articles on it being rated the #1 scariest movie based upon average heart beats per minute of an audience. It was pretty good, but I don't know about scariest movie. Then again, horror is so subjective (like comedy) and there are a lot classics on this list that I didn't find all that heart thumping either. Maybe I'm just too desensitized now.

'Sinister' is the Scariest Movie Ever – According to Science

That scene when they show the girl’s face in the closet in The Ring... not great! Not a big horror fan so I haven’t seen a bunch on this list.

 

[HeyMattyB]

LOL Alien and The Thing being back to back on that list reminds me that I'm due for my annual back-to-back screening of Alien and The Thing.

 

[tenken00]

That scene when they show the girl’s face in the closet in The Ring... not great! Not a big horror fan so I haven’t seen a bunch on this list.

Lol that scene was like in the first 5 minutes!

I wasn't a fan of horror either. I remember Event Horizon messed me up for awhile after watching it in the theaters as a kid. I dont think I was IDed back then (I remember watching Predator 2 with just a bunch of friends my age and not getting IDed at like age 10 lol!)

But the older I got the more I enjoy the entertainment of feeling spooked. Or I guess I was able to know better that its just a movie.. although I still hate clowns because of the original Poltergeist. I've watched a lot of J-horror and K-horror (Japanese + Korean) and they spook me more than Western versions of the same story. I dont know why, but little girls are scary and they are featured heavily in Asian horror.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Lol that scene was like in the first 5 minutes!

I wasn't a fan of horror either. I remember Event Horizon messed me up for awhile after watching it in the theaters as a kid. I dont think I was IDed back then (I remember watching Predator 2 with just a bunch of friends my age and not getting IDed at like age 10 lol!)

But the older I got the more I enjoy the entertainment of feeling spooked. Or I guess I was able to know better that its just a movie.. although I still hate clowns because of the original Poltergeist. I've watched a lot of J-horror and K-horror (Japanese + Korean) and they spook me more than Western versions of the same story. I dont know why, but little girls are scary and they are featured heavily in Asian horror.

Yeah, I know. I was with a girl friend in high school and she told me The Ring wasn't that bad. She first made me watch House on Haunted Hill which I hated and knew I would hate but of course I watched it any way (that scene in the basement when she has the old camera and every time she looks through it she seems them doing old operations messed me up good!) and then she told me that What Lies Beneath with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfieffer was a romcom... took me only a few minutes to realize she was full of shit on that one. Should have known by the third one with The Ring that the juice was not worth the squeeze

Event Horizon was a big f***ing YIKES for me. I watched it also in high school I think when I stayed at a friend's house and man that was tough to stomach. Some scenes from movies never leave your mind and the scene when they play the video of the old crew is one of them.

For me with horror it's more that I have limited time to watch stuff since life is so busy so when I do, I prefer not to shit my pants. And I'm 100% out on torture porn (Saw, Hostel, etc)

 

[tenken00]

Yeah, I know. I was with a girl friend in high school and she told me The Ring wasn't that bad. She first made me watch House on Haunted Hill which I hated and knew I would hate but of course I watched it any way (that scene in the basement when she has the old camera and every time she looks through it she seems them doing old operations messed me up good!) and then she told me that What Lies Beneath with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfieffer was a romcom... took me only a few minutes to realize she was full of shit on that one. Should have known by the third one with The Ring that the juice was not worth the squeeze

Event Horizon was a big f***ing YIKES for me. I watched it also in high school I think when I stayed at a friend's house and man that was tough to stomach. Some scenes from movies never leave your mind and the scene when they play the video of the old crew is one of them.

For me with horror it's more that I have limited time to watch stuff since life is so busy so when I do, I prefer not to shit my pants. And I'm 100% out on torture porn (Saw, Hostel, etc)

Lol that sounds like what I did with my ex... "Its not so bad, you might even like it!"

That scene in Hill House yes! When she looks in the camcorder and the doctors all of a sudden look up. And the recording in Event Horizon.

I'm like you in that I can't do torture porn either. Or anything really gory. Yuck. Give me a good psychological horror any day over graphic gore.

 

[HeyMattyB]

Lol that scene was like in the first 5 minutes!
I've watched a lot of J-horror and K-horror (Japanese + Korean) and they spook me more than Western versions of the same story. I dont know why, but little girls are scary and they are featured heavily in Asian horror.

Forever ago, Ju-On was playing in a local theater and I was doing a write-up on it for the DC alt weekly. So I was at home, at night, alone in my dark bedroom watching a VHS screener of of Ju-On. In the middle of the movie, one of my roommates came home--without me noticing--and immediately recognized what I was watching. So she snuck up the stairs and stood just outside my bedroom door and starting making the goddamned Onryo croaking/death-rattle noise and it scared the shit out of me and I screamed and she laughed and that's the story.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Ooops I retract that and add Solaris?

Also thought Sunshine was bit underrated.

You guys might give me shit but Cloud Atlas ages well. Maybe I admire how hard a book adaptation is but even my Dad liked it (though I had to explain some things).

Solaris is one of the few in this class I didn’t like that much....didn’t love the mind stuff...

Cloud Atlas was entertaining enough.....I know I’ve seen it at least twice.

getting back to more mainstream SYFY, but Supernova I really liked.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

LOL Alien and The Thing being back to back on that list reminds me that I'm due for my annual back-to-back screening of Alien and The Thing.

Alien, Aliens, The Thing.....I could stumble across those anytime any pickup at any point and still love them, add to that Star Trek 2, Star Trek First Contact...

 

[tenken00]

Forever ago, Ju-On was playing in a local theater and I was doing a write-up on it for the DC alt weekly. So I was at home, at night, alone in my dark bedroom watching a VHS screener of of Ju-On. In the middle of the movie, one of my roommates came home--without me noticing--and immediately recognized what I was watching. So she snuck up the stairs and stood just outside my bedroom door and starting making the goddamned Onryo croaking/death-rattle noise and it scared the shit out of me and I screamed and she laughed and that's the story.

Lol! That croaking gets you good after the first time you watch Ju-On.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I looooove horror....but the best horrors....I don’t need more than 1:4o in length unless it’s exceptional.

The Ring series.....meh.....first one solid....then it leaks oil badly.

Sinister was good. Love the Insidious/Annabelle world they’ve crafted with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga playing the Warren couple.....