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Topic:
Sci-Fi's top 25 movies and TV of the past 25 years: 1. "The Matrix" (1999)
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hansen
Registered:
Apr '03
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Date Posted:
9/14 4:45pm
Subject:
RE: Sci-Fi's top 25 movies and TV of the past 25 years: 3. "Blade Runner"
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On a purely visual level Blade Runner is an excellent one of a kind movie, but narratively I find it somewhat lacking. I honestly find it a bit too plodding and slow moving. Still a decent flick though...
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/27 3:25pm
Subject:
RE: Sci-Fi's top 25 movies and TV of the past 25 years: 3. "Blade Runner"
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2. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2003-Present)
Developed by Ronald D. Moore
"You remember the show, right? Lorne Greene in a shiny cape leading a band of well-coiffed thirtysomethings as they flee from extras in shiny suits? Glen A. Larson's original '70s Battlestar Galactica: not the worst by-product of the Star Wars juggernaut, but close. So one could view the unmitigated brilliance that is Sci Fi Channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica series two ways: (1) They had no place to go but up or (2) it's amazing they did so much with so little.
The core of the Galactica plot — the last human survivors of a catastrophic genocide are on the run from their attackers, the Cylons — carried a new resonance in the wake of 9/11. And in keeping with science fiction's grandest tradition, BSG tapped into the power of allegory to enrich its outer-space dogfights and military pomp with the gravity of issues like abortion, terrorism, stem-cell research, racism, even the war in Iraq. The dysfunctionally awesome cast gives it all the ring of authenticity: from Edward James Olmos' crusty warhorse Admiral Adama and Mary McDonnell's tender-as-nails President Roslin to Katee Sackhoff's bedeviled pilot Kara Thrace and Tricia Helfer's glacially threatening Cylon known only as Number Six. But the real MVPs of the ensemble are Michael Hogan, who plays Adama's boozy right-hand man Saul Tigh, and James Callis, who makes you feel for Gaius Baltar, the best, most conflicted villain on TV.
POP CULTURE LEGACY The damned thing won a Peabody award for its second season. It's proving what sci-fi fans have known for decades: Science fiction is as legitimate a vehicle for human drama as any other genre.
THE BEST BIT While any given episode of Galactica is better than 90 percent of what's on the air, the thrill of discovery makes the first season (including the miniseries) the way to go. —Marc Bernardin"
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Raven
Title:
SFF: Books and Comics Mangler
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/27 5:22pm
Subject:
RE: Sci-Fi's top 25 movies and TV of the past 25 years: 2. "Battlestar Galactica" (Not the Origin
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I'll definitely agree with that.
I disagree a little with where they've gone at times. I think that the Cylon threat has been defanged to too great an extent. Some things are a little wacky. But the acting, production values, overall plotline, and humanity in the show haven't even flagged. I still go into each episode worried that my favorite characters won't survive to the end of the episode, I'm still surprised by each new episode, and it's definitely one of the best things on TV.
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1. Seek enlightenment.
2. ???
3. Prophet.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
10/9 8:08pm
Subject:
RE: Sci-Fi's top 25 movies and TV of the past 25 years: 2. "Battlestar Galactica" (Not the Origin
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1. THE MATRIX (1999)
Directed by the Wachowski brothers
"Heading into 1999, there was one movie that was supposed to be the second coming. The culmination of an extended sci-fi moment that had helped hardwire the culture for mythic, stargazing escapism. By all rights, it should be sitting atop this list. But Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace turned out to be a case study in empty pop idolatry. Fortunately, there was a movie released the same year that was able to play that part, a film as unexpected, groundbreaking, and capture-the-imagination entertaining as the first Star Wars: The Matrix.
Written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski — a pair of hyper-erudite, super-shy comic-book writers-turned-filmmakers who became overnight cult icons for their trouble — The Matrix was one geeky gumbo of brainy mumbo jumbo; a multi-megabyte compression of mythological and theological ideas, Hong Kong action-film aesthetics, and videogame special effects. Somehow, it worked. Brilliantly. Keanu Reeves was Neo, a spiritually numb computer programmer who learns that not only is his life an illusory sham — the world as he knows it is a virtual-reality prison, created by sentient machines who had won an apocalyptic war against humanity — but that he is destined to become a hero-messiah. The Matrix crackled with late-'90s millennial angst and tech-boom delirium — a freaky-fun fable for a ghost-in- the-machine culture. Bottom line: The Matrix was just...whoa.
POP CULTURE LEGACY With its cutting-edge effects, balletic fight sequences, and leather-dusters-andblack- shades wardrobe, The Matrixredefined the look of Hollywood action. It sparked a moviegoing crush on Asian wire-fu (see: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and set the stage for our current moment of superhero pop and thoughtful science fiction (see: Battlestar Galactica, Lost). It also spawned two sequels that sucked. Nonetheless, The Matrix's accomplishment remains undiminished.
THE BEST BIT The moment that brought bullet time to the movies: Neo's rooftop gunfight with a nefarious Agent. Slow motion has never been so kinetic. —Jeff Jensen"
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