Let's try this list instead (movies)

[drwex]

Last time I found a list of "geek" movies and spent a lot of time snarking about how bad it was. OK, wiseguy, can you do better? Herewith an attempt. I freely admit this is slanted against horror and my knowledge of Anime is so bad I'm sure I've failed in that area. I'm also arbitrarily cutting off a lot of modern stuff because this is about geekdom, not current pop culture. I'm also favoring things I've seen because I know them. If I'm missing things you'll have to tell me about it.

1. Star Wars (original trilogy). Give yourself credit only if you saw all three.
2. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
3. Lord of the Rings (trilogy). Credit if you saw all three
4. Akira
5. Repo Man
6. Spaceballs
7. Ghostbusters
8. The Crow
9. Hellboy
10. Highlander (original)
11. Sneakers
12. Army of Darkness
13. Dune
14. Revenge of the Nerds
15. Buckaroo Banzai
16. Alien (trilogy). Credit for any two
17. Predator
18. Terminator (trilogy). Credit for any two
19. Total Recall
20. Metropolis (original)
21. Batman (many movies). Credit for the one with Heath Ledger and any one other.
22. RoboCop (original)
23. Ghost in the Shell
24. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
25. Tron (original)
26. The Princess Bride
27. The Matrix
28. Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
29. Blade Runner
30. 2001: A Space Odyssey
31. Marvel Universe (many movies). Credit for any two of (Iron Man 1, Thor 1, Captain America 1, Avengers 1). Bonus credit for Guardians of the Galaxy
32. Short Circuit
33. Planet of the Apes (original)
34. Rollerball, Death Race 2000, Barbarella - Credit for any 2 of the 3, but has to be without MST3K
35. The Incredibles - No capes!
36. WarGames
37. Dr. Strangelove
38. Fight Club
39. Memento
40. Logan's Run
41. The Dark Crystal
42. Conan the Barbarian
43. Labyrinth
44. Gremlins
45. Real Genius
46. Clockwork Orange
47. 12 Monkeys
48. Brazil
49. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
50. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
51. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
52. Day the Earth Stood Still, Flash Gordon (original), It Came from Outer Space, Forbidden Planet, Day of the Triffids, When Worlds Collide, Plan 9 from Outer Space - Credit for any 3 of these
53. Minority Report
54. Galaxy Quest
55. The Fifth Element
56. Jurassic Park
57. Underworld
58. Young Frankenstein
59. Time Bandits
60. Gattaca
61. Willow
62. The Last Starfighter
63. V for Vendetta
64. Run Lola Run
65. Mad Max (original or remake)
66. Gojira (1954 aka Godzilla)
67. The Fly (original or remake)
68. Dark Star
69. Space Battleship Yamato (1977, sometimes Space Cruiser Yamato)
70. Wizards (the Ralph Bakshi animated film)
71. Superman (the original)
72. Heavy Metal (the animated)
73. Jason and the Argonauts (or really any other Harryhausen film)
74. Men in Black
75. Face/Off
76. Pi
77. Pitch Black
78. X-Men (2000 original)
79. Donnie Darko
80. Serenity
81. Watchmen

Other candidates: Spiderman, District 9, A Scanner Darkly, Macross, The Philadelphia Experiment, Escape from New York, THX-1138, Andromeda Strain, Westworld, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Johnny Mnemonic, The Truman Show - should these be on the list? What else am I missing?

It feels weird to have 81 entries but I've sort of cobbled this together without a specific goal in mind.

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Good list.

I'd specify the original Rollerball, not the remake. For a bit of horror, I'd probably include some combination of The Shining, at least one classic Evil Dead movie, Cabin in the Woods (while it's recent, it's also a nod to the whole genre).

20. Metropolis (original)

Heh. "original" is kind of a difficult term to use with regard to this film, given that there are at least 4 releases I can think of - the one that was kicking around for most of the 20th century, the Morodor one, the partially-more-complete version in the late 1990's or maybe 2001, and the 'we're pretty sure this is as good as it gets' version from about 2010.

[drwex]

I did think about The Shining but it has not even a shred of sfnal nor geek elements so I ruled it out. Carrie, which was in the original list, at least had a fantastic element to its horror.

And yeah, I noted on the original list that I've seen Metropolis in a couple different versions. But by "original" I mean the 20th-century version that has entered the zeitgeist largely through use of its imagery elsewhere, not so much its "plot".

[aelf.livejournal.com]

The Shining has fantastic elements just like Carrie.

But, I don't think horror movies are needed on a list like this, anymore than kung fu movies, even though most of my geek crowds have included The Shining and kung fu movies as background knowledge as much as Brazil and Princess Bride.

(You should clarify which Blade Runner though. :) )

[drwex]

I think as long as you can coherently argue a position on the question of whether or not Deckard is a replicant it doesn't matter which version(s) of the movie you have seen. Or if you can quote at least a reasonable chunk of the "Tears in the Rain" speech then it counts.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Regarding #52, I'm going to geek-size by pointing out you forgot Curse of the Demon.

And I think the only movie on that list I haven't seen is Dark Star.

[drwex]

So I cheated and augmented my memory by going over lists of movies when I was putting this entry together and I looked over a lot of movies that were contemporaneous with this group and I could have added a lot of others but none seemed to have the lasting elements that these all do.

[drwex]

Oh and Dark Star... I think you'd benefit from seeing it once but I doubt you'd be enamored enough to see it more than once.

[wotw]

I have seen and hated:

1. Alien (only one of the trilogy but it was so monumentally bad I think I should get credit for this).
2. Brazil
3. Donnie Darko
4. Time Bandits

I think I have seen but totally do not remember:

1. Revenge of the Nerds
2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
3. Young Frankenstein


I have seen, remember at least a bit, and not hated:

1. Monty Python and the Hold Grail
2. Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
4. Planet of the Apes (original)
5. Dr. Strangelove
6. A Clockwork Orange
7. Memento**
8. Fight Club**
9. Run Lola Run**
10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show**

Those with ** I liked a lot.

I don't believe I've seen any of the others.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Young Frankenstein

I highly recommend it, although it benefits from a viewer being familiar with the source material (particularly the 1931 movie).

[drwex]

You're certainly allowed to hate movies on this list. I'm not sure I picked movies I thought were "good" so much as they and their tropes are part of the geek culture I grew up in. For example, chest bursters and the phrase "take off and nuke it from orbit" are very much still in our casual lexicon, and they derive from the first two Aliens movies.

I don't believe I've seen any of the others.

Is that something you'd like to change? Certainly I can recommend things off this list I think you might like, based on your sample above. But conversely I'm quite certain you could put together a list of 80+ books you've read and thought were excellent I would likely have read only a small fraction of them. I'm not sure I'd want to change it, but it would be interesting.

[wotw]

I have seen and hated:

1. Alien (only one of the trilogy but it was so monumentally bad I think I should get credit for this).
2. Brazil
3. Donnie Darko
4. Time Bandits

I think I have seen but totally do not remember:

1. Revenge of the Nerds
2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
3. Young Frankenstein


I have seen, remember at least a bit, and not hated:

1. Monty Python and the Hold Grail
2. Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
4. Planet of the Apes (original)
5. Dr. Strangelove
6. A Clockwork Orange
7. Memento**
8. Fight Club**
9. Run Lola Run**
10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show**

Those with ** I liked a lot.

[unseelie.livejournal.com]

missed 1

[elfy.livejournal.com]

I have seen many, but still miss some.

What about Flight of the Navigator? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_the_Navigator
At 34 you could also add "The Juggers".

Also, I think you should make one point for "Any two/three movies by Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli" (My favourite is Nausicaä).

Maybe throwing in Demolition Man with RoboCop?

Also maybe: Conan/Red Sonja?

Aaaaalso "Fire and Ice" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Ice_(1983_film) and/or Lord of the Rings (animated movie) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(1978_film) and/or The Hobbiet animated movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(1977_film)

[drwex]

FotN is a fine movie but it's not part of the (my) geek zeitgeist. You're totally right on the Studio Ghibli miss but I think Mononoke is more popularly known.

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

Lain? Not a movie, so it maybe shouldn't be on this list; but it's definitely on my list of must-see for anime…

Maybe Liquid Sky?
Seconding the reccie for Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli


I'm pleasantly surprised at how many of these I've seen.

[drwex]

OMG someone else saw "Liquid Sky"? Totally awesome weirdshit and I so loved it, but something seen by so few is unlikely to be part of the geek cred. Repo Man was seen by virtually no one until it somehow hit cult status and then it... emerged.

If there are any you're curious about. I've seen them all :)

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

"Bonus Points" section for Liquid Sky and the like?


There was another suggestion that surfaced and then vanished - if it pops up again I'll add it. But, yeah, Bakshi and the ripples of shock in the theater from the final battle… I'd forgotten about that one.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

I've seen 64 of those 81.

[drwex]

If you're interested in any of the others let me know. I have seen them all.