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sashazur
Reviews
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997)
Sinks like a stone
This is one of the rare bad sci-fi movies that I actually stopped watching before it was over! The best thing can say about this film is that for the first 20 minutes or so, I didn't realize that I was watching a made-for-TV movie. The initial scenes seemed hokey, but the acting, sets and story were engaging enough, including an attack on a ship and the introduction of Dr. Arronax and his daughter.
But the film sprung a leak as soon as we get to the Nautilus, and the results of a small fx budget start to really stand out: uniforms that looked like my mom sewed them for the class play, tons of stock footage of the same coral reef going by the porthole endlessly, a night scene where I could swear they used lightbulbs to simulate stars in the sky, and finally (when I gave up watching), an incredibly silly and fake-looking sea monster.
The effects were not the only disappointment - nobody in this disaster at sea could act either. Please, watch the Disney version with James Mason and Kirk Douglas instead. Still silly, but well done.
Battaglie negli spazi stellari (1978)
Spectacularly bad
Where to begin? The clothes all look like they're from a 30's sci fi film, even though this was made in the 70s. The dubbing is terrible. The plot is almost totally incoherent; it centers around a hothead space captain who believes that he can make better decisions than computers, and therefore is always getting into trouble (though in this film, he's probably right considering that the main computer is called "The Wiz", no kidding!). The characters actions often don't make any sense, like one scene where two crew members die, but everyone else is happy for no good reason. The evil giant robot looks like something they made on purpose to make people laugh, but you're supposed to think it's scary. Throughout everything, the deadly earnest and serious tone of the acting and story just makes the whole experience more surreal and more funny. My favorite scenes: destroying the giant robot/computer, and the space command guys dealing with the reporters. This film is worth seeing with a bunch of friends, with or without any substances that may enhance one's sense of humor!
Idaho Transfer (1973)
Slow moving, but interesting, with a twist at the end
I wouldn't say this is one of the all-time great sci-fi films, but it does very well with what it has.
The time travel machine (and the reasons for using it) is more plausible than any other I've seen in movies or TV, and the story, though not fast moving, does keep you interested.
However, I was disappointed by the "Soylent Green" type revelation at the end; it wasn't in character with the rest of the film (though it was cool in a creepy kind of way... I know that if I had seen this movie when I was a kid, that last scene would have stuck with me forever, though I probably would have forgotten the rest!)