Have to admit I haven’t seen the American Solaris, but Tarkovsky’s strikes me as flawed brilliance. The first half, with the endless footage of motorways (some sort of a corrective to 2001’s stargate?) and unhappy astronauts staring into ponds, is heavy going. If you get through that, the trashed space station littered with random white goods, and of course Natalya Bondarchuk floating in zero-g, and her ongoing self-annihilations, do it for me every time.
-Battlefield Earth (2000) – Oh, so bad it’s good.
-Dark Star (1974) – Because when I first saw it I nearly wet myself with laughter
-Planet of the Apes (1968) – Real existential terror
-Silent Running (1972) – Tearjerkers are good, sometimes
-The Thing (1982) – Real existential terror, #2
-War of the Worlds – but neither of these: the Jeff Wayne musical version (I just grew up with this on the gramophone).
Zardoz (1973) – Just Very Enjoyable in all sorts of ways
What they don’t have:
The Host (2006)
What I’d like to see (adaptations)
Peter F. Hamilton – Mindstar Rising
James Blish – Black Easter: Or Faust Aleph-Null
Iain M Banks – Consider Phlebas
David Jenkins:”Let’s try to start the biggest fight on the internet possible”
Adam Lee Davies: “But how?” “I know, let’s put out a list of Best Sci Fi films and put only bad movies on it!”
Paul Fairclough: “But if we do that, no-one will take it seriously enough to get angry!”
Tom Huddleston: “Ok, we’ll throw in Empire and 2001 and Blade Runner at the end.”
Paul: “No way, we HAVE to leave out Blade Runner–we’re British film critics, we don’t like any movie thet LOOKS good, they’ll be on to us instantly.”
David: “Ok, so we leave out Blade Runner but…Oh oh oh, guys, I’ve got it! Here we go: We leave Alien in, but at number TWO right AFTER The Abyss, which is just Alien underwater by the guy who directed fucking Titanic”
Did I miss something, or is ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ not on the list? No ‘Logan’s Run’ either? Let’s see – ‘Existenz’? ‘Gattaca’? ‘Strange Days’? ‘Alphaville’? Or are we in the realms of ‘only rockets, zap-guns, robots and aliens need apply’?
Soderbergh’s ‘Solaris’ is not a patch on Tarkovsky’s (it’s too rushed, and too literal-minded), though both are eclipsed by the book IMO.
Dudes, you got us both right and wrong. Yes, we did come up with the list while down the pub, but we also thought that pumping out the same old list that we’ve all seen – in some incarnation or other – a million times before would bore the pants off everyone, so decided to mix it up a bit. Is there really anything else you need to know about ‘Blade Runner’ – or ‘Tron’? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we put aside our sci-fi qualms and all sat down and watched ‘Solarbabies’ together..?
P.S. We did include ‘Battlefield Earth’ but our legal eagle refused to let us print anything that contained any reference to the Sc*ent*logists…
the m john harrison blog 
… which says that the Soderburgh Solaris is better than Tarkovsky’s. Words fail me. If only the same was true of TO film critics.
I have to say I blinked a bit at that.
julianr: Leave it. They’re not worth it.
Have to admit I haven’t seen the American Solaris, but Tarkovsky’s strikes me as flawed brilliance. The first half, with the endless footage of motorways (some sort of a corrective to 2001’s stargate?) and unhappy astronauts staring into ponds, is heavy going. If you get through that, the trashed space station littered with random white goods, and of course Natalya Bondarchuk floating in zero-g, and her ongoing self-annihilations, do it for me every time.
Pretty well-written-up list. I go for:
-Battlefield Earth (2000) – Oh, so bad it’s good.
-Dark Star (1974) – Because when I first saw it I nearly wet myself with laughter
-Planet of the Apes (1968) – Real existential terror
-Silent Running (1972) – Tearjerkers are good, sometimes
-The Thing (1982) – Real existential terror, #2
-War of the Worlds – but neither of these: the Jeff Wayne musical version (I just grew up with this on the gramophone).
Zardoz (1973) – Just Very Enjoyable in all sorts of ways
What they don’t have:
The Host (2006)
What I’d like to see (adaptations)
Peter F. Hamilton – Mindstar Rising
James Blish – Black Easter: Or Faust Aleph-Null
Iain M Banks – Consider Phlebas
What a weird list. It looks like it was created by throwing dice and refering to the IMDB.
MM: agree on Zardoz. There’s nothing better than Sean Connery running about in orange underpants delivering lines like, “stay within my aura!”
I think Dark City is more essential than some of the films on that list.
David Jenkins:”Let’s try to start the biggest fight on the internet possible”
Adam Lee Davies: “But how?” “I know, let’s put out a list of Best Sci Fi films and put only bad movies on it!”
Paul Fairclough: “But if we do that, no-one will take it seriously enough to get angry!”
Tom Huddleston: “Ok, we’ll throw in Empire and 2001 and Blade Runner at the end.”
Paul: “No way, we HAVE to leave out Blade Runner–we’re British film critics, we don’t like any movie thet LOOKS good, they’ll be on to us instantly.”
David: “Ok, so we leave out Blade Runner but…Oh oh oh, guys, I’ve got it! Here we go: We leave Alien in, but at number TWO right AFTER The Abyss, which is just Alien underwater by the guy who directed fucking Titanic”
Adam: “Oh my god, the dorks’ll be apoplectic!”
Paul: “Awesome.”
Tom: “Awesome.”
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Did I miss something, or is ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ not on the list? No ‘Logan’s Run’ either? Let’s see – ‘Existenz’? ‘Gattaca’? ‘Strange Days’? ‘Alphaville’? Or are we in the realms of ‘only rockets, zap-guns, robots and aliens need apply’?
Soderbergh’s ‘Solaris’ is not a patch on Tarkovsky’s (it’s too rushed, and too literal-minded), though both are eclipsed by the book IMO.
Wot? No Godzilla?
Dudes, you got us both right and wrong. Yes, we did come up with the list while down the pub, but we also thought that pumping out the same old list that we’ve all seen – in some incarnation or other – a million times before would bore the pants off everyone, so decided to mix it up a bit. Is there really anything else you need to know about ‘Blade Runner’ – or ‘Tron’? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we put aside our sci-fi qualms and all sat down and watched ‘Solarbabies’ together..?
P.S. We did include ‘Battlefield Earth’ but our legal eagle refused to let us print anything that contained any reference to the Sc*ent*logists…