Sci-Fi's top 25 movies and TV of the past 25 years: 1. "The Matrix" (1999)

Indeed I have. And I enjoy it about as much as I enjoy Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is saying something. But I do personally prefer to watch John Carpenter's remake which, incidentally, is closer to the original novella, Who Goes There.

 

Calling Carpenter's The Thing a "remake" is like calling the 1931 Dracula a remake of the 1922 Nosferatu, or the 1932 Frankenstein a remake of the 1917 silent version. They're different adaptations of the same source material, not remakes.

 

The Thing is the scariest horror film I have ever seen. The way Carpenter builds suspense is masterful and something to be studied by all the hacks making "horror" movies now. When Kurt Russell is testing the blood of his friends to find out who is infected I'm on the edge of my seat even though I've seen it several times. The music, the actors, the ending. It's the perfect horror film only rivaled by the original Wicker Man and Night of the Living Dead in it's ability to unnerve me. As far as sci-fi horror goes only Alien is even close and I don't find that frightening. Awesome yes, but not frightening.

And I agree it's not a remake. It's a different, more faithful from all accounts, adaptation of the same source material.

 

The Thing is the scariest horror film I have ever seen.

Agreed.

The way Carpenter builds suspense is masterful and something to be studied by all the hacks making "horror" movies now. When Kurt Russell is testing the blood of his friends to find out who is infected I'm on the edge of my seat even though I've seen it several times.

Also agreed. Totally seconded.


It's the perfect horror film only rivaled by the original Wicker Man and Night of the Living Dead in it's ability to unnerve me.

Actually I don't find those films rival it. I find the Wicker Man COMPELLING, and intense and definately more than the sum of it's parts... but scary? Not like The Thing, not at all. It's scary like the Exorcist is scary, a more high-minded concept that creates intense discomfort.

Night of the Living Dead -- the original, that is -- I find interesting, but at the end of the day I wasn't all that scared.

But The Thing is still the only film that I am UNABLE to watch all the way through. The closest I remember coming to it relatively recently is "The Ring", but that film didn't match it either, and gets sloppy at the end whereas this film is solid all the way through by not trying to do something different with its concept that ultimately doesn't work so well.


As far as sci-fi horror goes only Alien is even close and I don't find that frightening. Awesome yes, but not frightening.

Also also agreed. The Thing, my friends, is king.

 

I'm not really a horror fan, but The Thing is excellent.

 

You're splitting hairs there...'different adaptations of the same source material' is ye remake.

 

Not sure I agree. I wouldn't consider Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring a remake of the 1978 cartoon movie.

Either way, I think The Thing > The Thing From Another World.

 

The original is a scifi satire; the Carpenter movie is a horror version.

 

I always thought of the original as horror. Yes, I realize it alludes to Cold War paranoia, but I wouldn't say it satirizes it. It's used for horror.

Frankly, I think John Carpenter's pulled off the whole "who's worse--the monster or us" thing a bit better. I don't mean to knock the original, but I truly think that the 1982 version stands alongside The Exorcist as one of the best, most unnerving horror films of all time.


Anyway, have you seen John Carpenter's The Thing?

 

Yes, I've seen it.

 

Well, come on. What did you think of it? Gore aside.

 

It's a good movie, but I have to say I can't put the gore aside. I've never liked horror based on gore...it's more fun to do it by suggestion. I preferred the first one, but I'm sure most people agree with you.

 

Understandable. It's only in recent years that I've become more desensitized and less squeamish. I can thank The Thing in part for that.

 

[image=http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070503/scifigallery/aliens_l.jpg]

9. ALIENS (1986)
Directed by James Cameron

Seven years after Ridley Scott's creepy, chest-thumping space thriller Alien, James Cameron instilled war-movie testosterone in the sequel, as Sigourney Weaver's Ripley leads a pack of gung-ho Marines to an inhospitable planet now swarming with vicious, acid-bleeding critters. Ripley was the first of a new breed of female action hero, one who can lead a team of frightened men and get the job done on her own terms. And for her efforts, Weaver not only became the first action heroine to strike box office gold, she landed a Best Actress Oscar nomination as well.

POP CULTURE LEGACY In the wake of Star Wars, outer-space folk were routinely depicted as quirky, fuzzy creatures. Look no further than Tatooine's infamous cantina. But Cameron ? building on Scott's lead ? set the cinematic standard for grotesque intergalactic creatures that could (and would) tear your lungs out.

THE BEST BIT While the first film took a less-is-more approach to revealing the gnarly beast, the sequel's queen alien gets her close-up, most memorably in the mano a mano climax. When the queen corners a young orphan, Ripley announces her arrival with Schwarzeneggerian brio: ''Get away from her, you bitch!'' ?Jeff Labrecque


All I have to say is ......













[face_alien_1] and

 

"Game over man, Game over!"

 

All I can say:

This movie is awesome! Definitely one of my all-time favorites, although it's completely different from the first one. But different in a good way.

 

I watched it again recently, and I was shocked how good it was. None of the action sequences had that set-piece feel to them, if you know what I mean - they made sense and fitted in with the story.

I had expected the movie to feel dated in some way, but it is still as great as ever.

 

Well, there is one way to make the action scenes feel goofy: Join the army. You don't clear buildings the way those Marines do if you want to live.

But as that's like 1/1,000,000 of the population, it doesn't matter

 

Greatest film of all time. Should be #1.

 

Awesome film. I loved Aliens since I was a young boy.

 

What?

It's a great movie, but it's not The Godfather or anything.

 

Godfather isn't a sci-fi movie.

 

It is not The Godfather. Thus making it the greatest film of all time.