Overlooked ’80s Sci-Fi Flicks, Recalled by Wired Readers

I wasn't aware that Terminator, Empire Strikes Back and Aliens were "overlooked" in any definition of the word but still, there are a few on this list that I've never seen as well as a couple I've never heard.

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/overlooked-80s-sci-fi-flicks-recalled-by-wired-readers/2">Overlooked ’80s Sci-Fi Flicks, Recalled by Wired Readers
Above: The Lathe of Heaven (1980)
Looker (1981)
Tron (1982)
The Thing (1982)
Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
The Terminator (1984)
The Ice Pirates (1984)
The Brother From Another Planet (1984)
The Last Starfighter (1984)
Dune (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Trancers (1985)
Enemy Mine (1985)
Back to the Future (1985)
Aliens (1986)
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Tenkû no Shiro Rapyuta (aka Castle in the Sky) (1986)
Akira (1988)
Miracle Mile (1988)
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
The Abyss (1989)

More sci-fi movie lists from Wired:
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/gallery-reader-sci-fi-2/">Best Sci-Fi Flicks of the ’60s, ’70s, According to You
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/reader-sci-fi-flicks/">Your Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks, From Metropolis Through the ’50s
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/09/scifi-flicks-2/">Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time — Star Wars and After

What are we teaching kids these days?

I compiled the other lists... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_%28film%29">Stalker (1979) looks interesting.

Best Sci-Fi Flicks of the ’60s, ’70s, According to You
La Jetée (1962)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
The President’s Analyst (1967)
Barbarella (1968)
Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
The Omega Man (1971)
THX 1138 (1971)
Night of the Lepus (1972)
Westworld (1973)
La Planète Sauvage (The Fantastic Planet) (1973)
Sleeper (1973)
Dark Star (1974)
Flesh Gordon (1974)
Killdozer (1975)
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Death Race 2000 (1975)

Your Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks, From Metropolis Through the ’50s
Metropolis (1927)
Things to Come (1936)
Destination Moon (1950)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The War of the Worlds (1953)
Invaders From Mars (1953)
Gojira, aka Godzilla (1954)
This Island Earth (1955)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
The Blob (1958)
The Fly (1958)

Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time — Star Wars and After
Star Wars (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Capricorn One (1978)
Alien (1979)
Stalker (1979)
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Outland (1981)
Road Warrior (1981)
E.T. (1982)
Blade Runner (1982)
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Liquid Sky (1982)
2010 (1984)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
The Hidden (1987)
Robocop (1987)
Spaceballs (1987)
Terminator II (1990)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Starship Troopers (1997)
Gattaca (1997)
The Matrix (1999)
The Iron Giant (1999)
Children of Men (2006)

The Tunnel with Richard Dix. TCM played it earlier this year and I found it was a great film, definitely "overlooked" :D

And though it may not be overlooked, I really liked "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". That was a fun, pulp-scifi movie :)

Any movie made since then is merely a pale imitation.

narf.

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTA1NTc2MTQwODVeQTJeQWpwZ15BbWU2MDkwODE0Nw@@._V1._CR0,0,450,450_SS90_.jpg

I read the novel years before that film was made so I'm familiar with the controversial changes but all-in-all, I enjoyed it.

as it was just a poorly done movie.

No way in hell that story could be told properly in feature film length. It requires either the mini series format or a LOTR three parter.

It really should have been a 6-8 hour miniseries or 2-3 movies.

and being familiar with the novel, I guess I was able to fill in the blanks. I suppose it must have been fairly incomprehensible to anyone who hadn't read the book. I remember my gf being completely lost. Those who saw it in its original run might remember the single page glossary the studio hastily threw together to have handed out to patrons.

I think the miniseries had the better narrative; the film the better visuals.

Lathe of Heaven was the god awful worse. Couldn't follow it's convoluted plot for anything

is one of my favorite sci-fi movies and has held up remarkably well, considering all the effects are pre-digital. It came out the same summer as ET, though, which is probably why it got overlooked at the time.

I remember my boss saw it in LA, long before it was playing in the sticks, and he said he really hated it, except for the moment in the bathroom where Sam is shaking Mr. Helpmann... the lone dick joke in the movie, IIRC.

When I saw it in the theatre a few weeks later, it simply blew me away.

Came out in 1984. Really fun sci-fi horror flick.

Miracle Mile is a big indie favorite of mine. I only know one other person that liked the ending to that film. It's still really worth a look.

It was appropriate for the story presented :)

And now you know two people that liked the ending :P

Not sure.

Krull?

The Glave, right?

F*#&ing love it!!

Stand-up video game not a cartridge.

Back to the Future, Star Wars episode 6, Terminator (not huge, but became huge down on video & spawned several sequels), Brazil, Aliens, Bill & Ted.

Scanners

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081455/

Aliens

Brazil

The Thing

Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Looker

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Enemy Mine

Dune

The Terminator

Above: The Lathe of Heaven (1980)
Looker (1981)
Tron (1982)
The Thing (1982)
Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
The Terminator (1984)
The Ice Pirates (1984)
The Brother From Another Planet (1984)
The Last Starfighter (1984)
Dune (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Trancers (1985)
Enemy Mine (1985)
Back to the Future (1985)
Aliens (1986)
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Tenkû no Shiro Rapyuta (aka Castle in the Sky) (1986)
Akira (1988)
Miracle Mile (1988)
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
The Abyss (1989)

It definitely did not get the fan attention it deserved.

It won at least 1 award. Lou Gossett Jr. got Best Actor, and definitely deserved it. I don't remember if it won anything else. It must have.

Harry Dean Stanton and Fred Ward.


Tikki

"Ordinary fucking people, I hate 'em."

No one's even heard of any of these movies! :rofl:

:-)

Every time I hear about late 50's/early 60's pregnancy drugs and the complications they caused women, I can't help but think of this movie, lol.

in their respective years...A couple of them like Jedi and Aliens are probably in the top 10-15 highest grossers of the DECADE(!)

And I thought the final FINAL verdict of "Dune" was that it was a craptacular bastardization of the book...to my knowledge that verdict has never changed among the sci-fi crowd...

I guess for the upcoming generation teen generation who has never given a thought to some of these, they could possibly be called 'overlooked', but anyone who was alive and in the theaters in the 80s knows they are anything but...

Is there some portion of the known galaxy that "overlooked" any of the Star Wars movies?!

Wired posted their favorite sci-fi films but missed off a load of very popular and/or significant films from the list. The general response to their list was .

This (and the first two of the Wired.com links in the OP) are made up of the reader's responses to Wired's own lists.

that flat-out doesn't belong...i saw it as a kid in the theater, and i'm not saying i didn't like it, but there have been much better "star wars" parodies before and after...IMO "Galaxy Quest" does a MUCH better job of spoofing its target genre now than spaceballs did when it was fresh...