Andrew Klavan ranks sci-fi films, calling Back to the Future (1985), Alien (Ridley Scott), and Close Encounters (Spielberg) "S" films for their bold concepts and cultural impact. Planet of the Apes (1968) earns an "A," while The Terminator (Cameron) and Predator (McTiernan) are praised for originality, though sequels fall short. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) gets a "D" for dullness, but 12 Monkeys (Gilliam) scores high for Brad Pitt’s performance despite Bruce Willis’s lead. The episode suggests sci-fi thrives in film over prose due to stronger visual storytelling, blending sharp critiques with iconic analysis. [Automatically generated summary]
It's starring Glenn Powell, a remake of the old Schwarzenegger film based on a Richard Bachmann book who turned out to be Stephen King.
I read it as a reader for Columbia Pictures.
I read what I thought was a Richard Bachmann book and I said this is second rate Stephen King, but it turned out to be first rate Stephen King because it was Stephen King.
This will be directed by Edward Wright who did Sean of the Dead and Baby Driver.
And to celebrate this, we're going to do a ranking of science fiction films.
Now I didn't pick these films, so don't tell me I left something out.
I blame Tom.
He's the producer and he picked these films and I'll give you his address and where you can key his car, where he parks his car at night and all that.
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So we start with Back to the Future, 1985.
Director Robert Zemekis, an excellent director when he's on his game.
Back to the Future is excellent, and I think that is a superior film, an S film.
I think that, you know, maybe not the sequels, but I think Back to the Future really holds up and its kind of weird Oedipal energy and its idea of this kind of kid going back and sort of just as the culture is turning, going back into the culture and changing the future.
It's one of the few films that gets time travel right because time travel can't be gotten right because it's impossible.
You can't make it make sense.
So it kind of throws sense to the wind and just makes it really convincing.
Like that film, Alien director Ridley Scott, one of my favorite horror films, one of my favorite science fiction films, definitely an S. Really scary.
That first one, the budget must be 20 bucks.
They have nothing to work with and they just make it absolutely sing.
It's really good.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
You really pick some good films here.
I hate to give everything an S.
I love Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
It's obviously Steven Spielberg.
I think it's an S picture, straight down the line, an actual classic.
It's really about art.
It's about the artist who gets an idea in his head and has to bring it out.
And that's really the underlying theme of the movie, but it's done as an alien film because it's Steven Spielberg and the guy has the sensibility of a child.
Planet of the Apes.
This is the original one, 1968.
Franklin J. Schaffner, written by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling.
I forgot Serling wrote that one.
Great Charlton Heston film.
I give it an A.
I think it's dated a little bit, but it's classic.
You know, it's iconic.
I don't know.
It's an A to an S because it's classic.
Geez, these are such good films.
I feel like I'm just going to be like a snake.
But it's a really good movie.
And of course, the ending is famous and terrific.
The Terminator, James Cameron, I think it's almost a perfect film.
I think it is almost a perfect film.
An original idea.
Every line in it, the script is so spare that every line in it is memorable and quotable again and again.
People always like sequels to things.
They always say, well, yeah, but the sequel was better.
No, it's always where the story begins.
You get the best stuff.
The Matrix by what were then the Wachowski brothers.
I guess now they think of themselves as the Wachowski Sisters.
But is The Matrix an S film?
I give it like an A to slash S.
It's an S because it's iconic, that the idea is so smashing, so fantastic.
When you watch it, it's not the best-made film in the sense that the script is slow, you know, but it's still an amazing movie.
It's just an iconic film.
These are films that I think belong in any list of top-notch films.
So we're starting out with really good stuff.
Here, thank God.
Here's the 2001 Space Odyssey director Stanley Kubrick.
I give it a D.
It is one of the dullest, most pretentious movies ever made.
Everybody loves it because it's dull and pretentious, but it's dull and pretentious.
And did I mention that it's dull and also pretentious?
Iconic Films Worth Watching00:05:36
It really is.
It makes no sense.
It has that good scene at the end where he turns off the computer, but it's a snooze.
And it looks bad.
It's really bad.
I think Stanley Kubrick was good in his younger days when he made natural films.
And then when he got full of himself, he was a bore.
12 Monkeys.
I just watched this, re-watched it the other day by Terry Gillum.
Terry Gillam, a really entertaining director.
I think this is a good film.
I'll give it a B, which is high.
You know, I think I don't usually give so many things these top reviews.
But 12 Monkeys is a really entertaining plot, really well done.
Great performance by Brad Pitt.
It stars Bruce Willis, but Brad Pitt gives a fantastic performance as a crazy person.
And it's just an incredibly real.
Good plot twist, good writing, definitely solid B film.
The original Running Man, directed by Paul Michael Glazer.
I thought it was a C film.
I didn't think it was that great.
I didn't think the book was that great, to be honest with you, but the new one looks really good.
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Soylent Green by Richard Fleischer.
That's a B film.
It's good.
It's entertaining.
It has what I believe is Edward G. Robinson's last performance, one of the truly great actors of the golden age of Hollywood.
Just a fantastic natural performance.
And there he is with our friend Charlton Heston again.
And it's so full of stuff that resonates today.
And of course, the famous last line that I won't give away.
Independence Day by Roland Emmerich.
And that's a Will Smith vehicle.
It's a B film, very entertaining.
Lots of good moments, lots of fun, a good summer picture, a good popcorn film.
Metropolis by director Fritz Lang.
Everybody loves Metropolis.
It's kind of a classic.
Fritz Lang, a classic director.
He directed M, which is a great, great early film.
But Metropolis, I'd give it a B.
It's interesting.
It's entertaining.
You know, it's interesting to watch, but it's kind of slow now.
So it dates nothing lasts forever.
Predator by John McTiernan.
First of all, didn't like two people, two of the actors from Predator become governors?
So it was a great campaign film.
I like Predator a lot.
I'm going to give that an A because I just think it's a great plot, a great idea, really original idea.
They've never matched it.
You know, all the sequels stink.
That first one is really good, so I'll give it an A to a B. RoboCop by director Paul Verhoeven.
I liked Verhoeven.
I always liked his foreign films, The Fourth Man, I thought was a really good, weird film.
RoboCop, I like.
I'll give it a B.
It's interesting, different.
Minority Report by director Steven Spielberg.
I was talking on the show the other day about how I think Spielberg, somebody once called him the greatest second unit director of all time, that his action scenes are spectacular.
Minority Report has a wonderful action scene and escape scene in it that is just unparalleled.
Tom Cruise, it's a B movie.
It's good, but it doesn't quite hold together.
My theory about that film is that he liked a scene in LA Confidential so much that he put it in the movie and ruined it because it didn't fit in the movie and it made all the logic.
have to explain a lot of stuff away, but certainly that one scene is worth the entire picture.
Seconds.
Now there's a film nobody ever knows about by director John Frankenheimer starring Rock Hudson.
I think it's a horrific, interesting film.
It's a little slow now, so I won't give it an S. Maybe I'll give it a B, but it's a little slow, but it's really about assimilation, the great American topic.
It's about assimilation, and it's about a man who doesn't want to get old and wants to get a new identity and new body.
Has a horrific last scene, a last scene that you will never forget after you see it.
Contact Robert Zemekis again.
It's good.
I'll give it a C.
It's kind of forgettable.
It's based on the Carl Sagan novel.
It's very virtue signaling and righteous.
And, you know, it's okay.
It's C. You started out with a lot of S's there.
I thought I was going to be, it was going to be like going to Harvard, like all grade inflation.
But those are some really good films.
It's interesting.
You know, science fiction works better on film a lot of times than it does in prose.
And the reason is in prose, science fiction writers are very big about the big idea, but they're lousy with character.
Whereas in film, the characters have to work and they bring the big idea to life.
And so I think there are a lot more good science fiction movies than there are science fiction books.
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