A perfect geek meme for me

I admit it.

I've been a little too quick to jump on certain meme bandwagons, but this one that I came across on Pharyngula is too good to pass up. It's Scalzi's list of the most influential SF movies of all time, and I'm supposed to put the ones I've seen in bold. I would actually quibble about several of these movies, but that would be fodder for another post. In the meantime, here we go (with occasional comments by me):

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (I loved this movie)
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 (a highly overrated film, IMHO)
Contact (also highly overrated)
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
The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2)
The Matrix
Metropolis
On the Beach
Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
Robocop
Sleeper
Solaris (1972 version)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (the best Trek film, perhaps the best Trek, period)
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 (OK, but also overrated)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2001: A Space Odyssey
La Voyage Dans la Lune
War of the Worlds (1953 version)

Hmmm. 38/50, or 76%. Not a bad geek score. It may even have been 39, because, thanks to my mother's love of old Flash Gordon serials, I may well have seen the one listed above. I just don't remember for sure.

Comments

  1. I only saw 28 of them, barely over half, so I guess I'm not a SF geek. Damn. I have several hundred fanzines from the 70s and 80s if that helps my score.

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  2. Lots of people seem to be comnplaining about Contact as being overrated. I had been unaware that it was rated in the first place.

    It's an odd list, though.

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  3. Brazil counts as SF? Wow, I would never have classified it that way. I guess I have not thought about negative utopia type stories as being SF. So what about 1984 or Fahrenheit 51 or Brave New World, are they considered SF too? (Please note that I am really ignorant about this stuff so this question is real and not sarcastic/rhetorical.)

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  4. anna, Brazil have a destinct dystopian feel, but it is generally regarded as science fiction (as a side note, I wonder which version Scalzi includes - as far as I remember there are three different versions). Nineteen Eighty-Four and Fahrenheit 451 are regarded as classic dystopian science fiction works.

    Orac, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is indeed overrated, but I think Scalzi is correct in regarding it as one of the most influential movies.
    I've only seen 30 of the movies, but some of it has to do with the fact that old science fiction movies can be rather hard to get hold of in Denmark (Contact I've just never gotten around to watching).

    The top movies (quality wise) on that list are in my opinion Alien, Aliens, Blade Runner, Brazil and Delicatessen. The worst movies are E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Robocop and Tron.

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  5. Your mother has actually seen 41 of the movies on the list along with many, many other SciFi's not listed beginning with the silent movie period. I actually have some of the old Flash Gordon serials in case you want to see them next time you're home.

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  6. Too bad Matrix 2 and 3 were much poorer than 1. ET is pretty overrated; 12 monkeys underrated. War of the Worlds and "Bodysnatchers": glad you picked the right version! I might squeeze in Time Bandits. Maybe, Maybe Journey to the Center of the Earth.

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  7. Indeed, it's an odd list. But as for the count: I've seen 41 of them. The exact same ones as Orac, oddly, plus Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and On the Beach.

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  8. I am looking around at all the people who are posting this meme and NOBODY has seen Tarkovsky's Solaris! Unbeilavable!

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  9. I stole your meme, and scored 32 out of 50. I also added my favourites to the list.

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