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Off the beaten path scifi movies

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dk

MemberTrilobiteMarch 28, 201715719 Views87 Replies
Off the beaten path scifi movies

What are your top 5 or 10 scifi movies you like that may not be well known? I am trying to get ideas since I have fallen way behind in movie watching. For instance, BigDave and ninXeno426 recommended Ex Machina and I watched and enjoyed it. I can only think of three at the moment but feel free to list your favourites.

1. Equilibrium

2. THX 1138 (early Lucas pre Star Wars)

3. Overdrawn at the Memory Bank MST3K edition (funny riffage and not a terrible movie on its own)

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dk
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I forgot to mention Them.

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Raido
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Moon--great little piece with Sam Rockwell.

I love THX 1138--nice to see a fellow fan.

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ninXeno426
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Of course thumbs up on Ex Machina!Some i dig that are a little obscure are:1. A Scanner Darkly:2.Pandorum:3.Air(i think I've mentioned that one)4.Moon.     5.Dredd(think i mentioned this one too)I'll come back with more,I gotta list 

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dk
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My dad gave me a ton of DVDs when he had to move and didn't have space to keep them. Moon might be in there. That is where I found Equilibrium.

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ninXeno426
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Lol just noticed I wasn't the only one to mention Moon 

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dk
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I will have to rummage through those dvds again. There are almost 300 and many of them are not for me or I have them already.

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ninXeno426
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Gattaca is another.Dark City.Predestination.Event Horizon.Demon Seed.Mimic.

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ninXeno426
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The Arrival(not to be confused with Arrival)Repo men(not to be confused with Repo Man)

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dk
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I am finally watching Arrival tonight on Prime!

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ninXeno426
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Damn!!!So jealous!Tell me how it was when you're done 

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dk
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I will. Most forum members will roll their eyes and say You only saw it NOW?

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ninXeno426
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Your not alone lol.Actually i saw some one ripping it on one of the Life threads.

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dk
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We are entitled to our opinions. If I'm feeling it, I'm going to watch and judge for myself. It's all good and I went OT on my own thread. How is that for setting an example?

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ninXeno426
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It happens lol.Back on topic.The Signal(2007)

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Apex_Predator
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Impostor with the guy that comes out in the CSI show

Want some candy?

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JazzHands
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Event Horizon, Cube

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Lone
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I love THEM, it's a classic!

BUG [1970's movie with Bradford Dillman creating hybrid cockroaches, still scares the s**t out of me!]

Planet of The Vampires [worth watching for the similarities to both A L I EN and PROMETHEUS!]

It Came From Outer Space

DARK STAR [Surfing in space, beach ball alien, the knife trick, from these humble beginnings A L I E N was born!]

DEAD AND BURIED [1981 O'Bannon and Shussett wrote the screenplay, Stan Winston created the make-up effects!]

Doomwatch

Quatermass and The Pit

Invasion of The Bodysnatchers~ [the original version and Philip Kaufman's 1978 version with Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy!]

Things To Come

METROPOLIS

It! The Terror From Beyond Space

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

The Thing From Another World

John Carpenters The Thing [totally awesome practical effects!]

Forbidden Planet [with Robby the greatest robot ever!]

The Day The Earth Stood Still [Original version, not the Keanu Reeves remake!]

Scanners, The Brood, Videodrome, Shivers, Rabid, eXistenZ [I'm a fan of David Cronenberg!]

Leviathan [A L I E N underwater clone, but pretty good!]

Slipstream [starring Mark Hamill, as the baddie, and Bill Paxton]

SILENT RUNNING

OUTLAND

Prophecy

Don't Look Now [great horror film, one of my all time favourites, directed by the wonderful Nic Roeg!]

The Andromeda Strain

Phase IV

The Omega Man

Soylent Green

SOLARIS [1972 Tarkovsky original]

A Boy And His Dog

Farenheit 451

La Jettee

Alphaville

Barbarella

SPACEHUNTER: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone

SOLDIER

Will add more as I remember them....

 

THE LONE GUNWOMAN

"Let The Cosmic Incubation Begin" ~ H.R. Giger

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airshaft_surprise
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The Illustrated Man(sort of sci-fi), Fiend without a Face(very old)

The Cars that Ate Paris(Kind of pre-Mad Max type of movie where the cars takeover a tiny town of paris in Australia), Oblivion(its similar to Moon).

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Mr. Nostromo
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JazzHands, I liked Cube, though I never went back for the sequels. 

Did anyone ever see an old weirdly called 'Hardware'? I think it was Clive Owens first flick 

also, I love Dark City though it's a hard genre to pin to

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dk
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nin- OT a bit.

Arrival is solid. There is a twist near the end and not how I expected. It violates a couple scifi rules for me but they work well specifically for this movie. It is even a bit of a tear jerker. Anything else would be spoils.

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dk
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JazzHands- I forgot about Cube. That was a sleeper hit for me. I didn't care for the sequel though.

Lone

Great list. I have seen some of those and heard of others.

All- thanks for giving me stuff to watch!

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dk
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I forgot They Live. Nice little Orwellianesque flick.

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dk
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Dang it- Planet of the Apes. Well, that is well known but pretty old!

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Deep Space
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Some good pics above - some repeats here but my 2 cents:

Moon (a good 'human' sci-fi)

A Scanner Darkly (crazy but moral, kind of, drug tale)

*Under the Skin (must see just for the creepiest death scene ever and, being honest, Scarlet Johansen . . .)

Ex Machina (when AI goes bad ;)  but not in a cliched way)

Sunshine (a nice, uneventful trip to the sun)

and, not really off radar but

12 Monkeys (time travel, Terry Gilliam strangeness, top stuff)

*this would be my top pick if you've not seen it.  Very dark.  Combines alien invasion/abduction, alien AI and aliens on motorbikes, gross out scenes and Glaswegian night life.    Random stuff but very well done imo.  I think if you're British it's possibly even more unnerving . . .

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dk
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Deep Space 12 Monkeys was great! I need to dust my dvd collection.

Under the Skin sounds interesting too. Thanks!

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Starlogger
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A Boy and His Dog

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Deep Space
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No worries dk :)

Im just gutted I've seen most if not all of those recommended above . . .

Hence why I can't wait for AC!

 

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Neomorph
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I've seen so many sci-fi films in the past, and I managed to find a few of these on the memory lane, some of which I still enjoy provided that I use my Nostalgia-Vision (TM)

- Saturn 3 

- Outland 

- Battle Beyond the Stars 

- Robot Jox 

- Innerspace 

- The Blob

Hey don't laugh! 

Sci-fi films are best enjoyed in grainy VHS screen quality on a fatass CRT TV imo (especially 80's space adventure films with lens flare, synth music, sometimes outrageous leather clothing, guy-in-a-suit monsters, stop motion and matte painting backgrounds.)

A huge 4k screen with a massive HT set-up is the 2nd best thing.

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Deep Space
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Like your style Neo :) 

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ninXeno426
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Thanks for the thumbs up on Arrival dk!Great lists!Under the Skin is on my must see too!

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ninXeno426
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Excellent list Lone!And I thought I was the only one who liked Soldier 

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Raido
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If any of you are into the "so bad it's good" thing, I recommend Starcrash. It's so stupid that it's awesome.

If that makes sense.

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dk
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"so bad it's good"

Movies like these are routine for MST3K.

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Tiwaz
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- Screamers

- Silent Running

- Enemy Mine

Man, I'm 44 and have seen so many movies. But can i remember them when needed? No! Balls!

- Brazil

-  A.I.

- Her

- Clockwork Orange

- The Abyss

- Moon 44

- Pitch Black

- Dune (1984)

- Contact 

Oops, only 5.... Oh well....

Eine Theorie die nicht auf Etwas solidem basiert ist für gewöhnlich nur Geschwätz.

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I.Raptus
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Yes @Jazzhands! definitely The Cube and Cube Zero (not the second one)

Deepstar Six (The Abyss' younger brother, but still a little gem)

The Divide (mainly because Michael Biehn is in it lol)

 

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Starlogger
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Ooh...almost forgot:

"Galaxy of Terror"!

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Davefried81
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Event Horizon was cool when i was a bit younger.  Arrival was pretty frigging awesome..and I have to throw it out there.. Interstellar was pretty dope

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dk
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Tiwaz No worries about more than 5!

I have a story about Pitch Black. I was leaving for military duty for 6 months and my family wanted a going away party for me- it was an emotional time. My daughter and I went to rent a movie (VHS) and our minds were on the changes about to occur. We wandered around and saw Pitch Black- never heard of it but we picked it up just to grab some kind of scifi movie. I had zero expectations and was just floored by the movie. I have three DVDs of it- just in case!

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Tiwaz
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@dk Nice one.

I watched Dune when it came to the cinemas, 1984. I was 11 back then an dragged my granny along. I was like "WOAH!", especially the sandworms. I wonder what my granny was thinking. Probly something like "WTF?!". XD

Eine Theorie die nicht auf Etwas solidem basiert ist für gewöhnlich nur Geschwätz.

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Regular Parrot
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Top Sci-Fi movies for me:

Close Encounters

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Original)

War of the Worlds (Original, Gene Barry version)

Sunshine

Flash Gordon (1980)

My Dad loved how Michael Rennie portrayed the alien visitor was in the Day the Earth Stood Still.

 

Today I have been dedicated to post on as many topics as possible until I pass out from drinking too many beers. 

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