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All science fiction is fantasy. Look at Slaughterhouse-Five. A man travels through time for no explained reason. Fantasy. Definitely. But time travel is a science fiction trope. Conveniently classify as science fiction and move on.
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Granted, but its still annoying when Netflix includes things like Futurama and The Secret of Nymh in the Sci-Fi & Fantasy category. They are, but they don't necessarily belong next to Donnie Darko and Metropolis.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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You know, I had never seen the first trilogy of Star Wars until recently. I already knew all about tontons, x-wings and generally most of what went on in the movies by virtue of being in the nerd culture. I gotta say, after watching all three I just was not impressed. If not for the various and repeated jokes over the years that pull from tiny unimportant lines I wouldn't remember anything from the movies, not a bit. When your tv weighs one hundred pounds, and your family is considered to be well off because you have VCR I can understand some obsession with rewatching it but it just didn't age well in my opinion. Oh, and as a person who has practiced in a weapon martial art there is no reason for those lightsaber battles to so slow and boring, granted modern technology is why the newer movies have better fight scenes but you don't wire fighting to sword fight.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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Star Wars was a product of the time, for the most part. What else was there to compete with it? For people that watched it when they were children, it left an indelible impression. Back then, there was really only Star Wars or Star Trek.
But they are still entertaining movies. Some of my kids favorite movies are the original Star Wars. They can barely sit through the new ones. But they do love Indiana Jones better (except for the new one).
Posts: 1204 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I think the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies just strike a chord with young imaginations. Kids love them more because it's often their introduction to a wider world of the fantastic.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Aside from the mine car sequence, I'm really not that big a fan of Temple of Doom to be honest. I figure I just include all of them, are it's just the Indiana Jones duo in my book. If I'm going to remove one, then I might as well remove the other.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Recently I found in my public library a DVD of one of my all-time favorite movies, The Final Countdown, about the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz, being transported back in time to December 6, 1941--the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor--and the ship is near Hawaii. Should they intervene, and change history? One of the most thrilling scenes to me is when a couple of Japanese Zeroes have just sunk a private yacht, and are coming back around to strafe the survivors in the water, and the captain tells the pilots of the U.S. fighters on the scene to "Splash the Zeroes!" Then the F-14 Tomcats--which had swivel wings--swivel their wings back into combat mode, like they're saying "Here we come Zeroes, this time we mean business!"--and dive down on the Zeroes on afterburners. The movie came out back in 1980, but it is still really good. Stars include Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, and James Farentino. The music score is quite good, too.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Yeah, I overall agree with Steve. I think that some individual scenes in Crystal Skull are actually better than anything in Temple of Doom, but both movies are not even remotely good.
Also, I'm of the opinion that, although the Sean Connery/Harrison Ford chemistry is pretty entertaining, Last Crusade is overall not a very good movie, either.
Raiders is the only one that would ever make it anywhere near a favorite movies list of mine.
Tangent: For those that are interested, RedLetterMedia's Plinkett has reviewed Crystal Skull (and, by association, the entire Indiana Jones franchise) and made some interesting observations. You can see it here. For those unfamiliar, this is the guy who did the Star Wars prequel reviews. His reviews are long and his sense of humor is macabre.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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You're testing a very bad memory here, but a somewhat recent film that I thought was superbly acted was -
The Lookout Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with Jeff Daniels, Mathew Goode, and Isla Fisher.
Stunning performance all round, I thought these were all Oscar worthy performances.
In something a little newer, but more obscure, Hesher again with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This is dark comedy, with language that would make a sailor blush, but it is a somewhat spiritual film, and the young star Devin Brochu certainly showed tremendous potential as an actor.
Of course, The Lord of the Ringstrilogy still stands the test of time very well.
Posts: 803 | Registered: May 2006
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There's clearly a reason why Gordon-Levitt is being cast in everything nowadays. The first adult role that I saw him in was Brick and while I had mixed feelings about the movie overall, he stood out as stupendous. What did you think of 50/50?
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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