ueno_station54 vs. 100 Greatest Sci-Fi Classics

[ueno_station54]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83324

I've had this stupid boxset for years (which is actually two different 50 movie boxsets stuck together) and I think its finally time to make my way through it. I doubt I'll actually keep this up but hopefully making it a whole thing will keep me motivated to some extent. Basically going to pick a number between 1-98 (yes there's actually only 98 films, what a ripoff) via RNG and watch it, give a little review hopefully (I suspect a lot of these will have nothing worth talking about) and place them on this incredibly scuffed MS Paint tier list:

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83325

There's no "S" tier because, lets be honest, there will not be an S-tier film in this set and since I'm expecting a large influx of F-tier films I've added the Super F tier to split those up a bit.

So yeah, I'll be starting the first film shortly after I post this and that film is War of the Robots from 1978 starring Antonio Sabato.

[ueno_station54]

Current tier list:
https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=86847

Review directory:
War of the Robots (1978) (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2262209#post2262209)
The Astral Factor (1976) (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2262209#post2262209)
Snowbeast (1977)
(https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2262209#post2262209)First Spaceship on Venus (1960) (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2263765#post2263765)

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
Fugitive Alien (1986)
Killers from Space (1954)

[The Rodent]

Think I might keep an eye on this thread :D

[Citizen Rules]

Think I might keep an eye on this thread :DMe too:shifty:

[Chypmunk]

Best of luck, the RNG picked a real cracker to start with :D

[Captain Terror]

I predict that 90% of these will be terrible, and 95% of them will end up on my watchlist.

*grabs popcorn*

[ynwtf]

The thread title alone deserves its own like. Great setup and I'm kinda looking forward to seeing how this plays out :)

[Wyldesyde19]

I’m just here for Barbarella. Not the movie, the woman.

[ueno_station54]

Film #1
War of the Robots

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83329


Basic plot goes aliens kidnap a scientist and his assistant who have found out how to create life from scratch and a group of space cops chase them down.

I really couldn't have asked for a better first film. This is exactly what comes to mind when you think of cheapo sci-fi crap. Big grey consoles with blinking lights and video screens, people with bad wigs wearing a track suit with a big waist belt, laser guns that don't actually shoot anything, you love to see it. That being said, the film kind of pulls this stuff off pretty well. The sets are generally a bit bigger than I would have thought and have some cool design ideas like a giant glowing orb in the middle of one room or details on the walls to make them look a bit more convincingly like steel. The costumes range from funny bad to legitimately sick like the main crew's space suits which are bright blue or orange and look like leather or the scientist just straight up wearing a wizard cloak. There's even some cool lighting effects here and there and the music is so rad. These really light feeling synths mixed with militaristic marching rhythms. So sick.

Most of the film I was thinking "this is one or two hype moments away from being a classic" and spoilers we don't really get that. Like there's enough little moments to keep the film fun and moving along but the last act drops the ball pretty heavily. A lot of it is this really drawn out space dogfight that just has no energy to it whatsoever. That and the fight scenes prior to that they just forgot to add sound effects to lmao. I'm not taking points away for this even though its a huge problem but the framing is disastrous and the reason I'm not taking away points for it is because I'm like 80% sure its mostly because it was cropped. It looks like they pan-and-scanned a fullscreen transfer to make it widescreen again. I expected better from you *checks notes* Mill Creek Entertainment... nevermind. Overall I still like it but just doesn't quite capitalize on its potential.


https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83330

Cool, we're off to an alright start. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get to the next one. Speaking of the next one, the random number generator has been engaged and our next film will be The Astral Factor from 1976 featuring Robert Foxworth (I don't know who that is but the box gives you that info to get you hyped).

[SpelingError]

Nice new thread 👍

I'll be following along.

[Captain Terror]

*adds War of the Robots to watchlist

[Wyldesyde19]

I fully expect The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy to appear. Don’t let me down.

[Captain Terror]

the framing is disastrous and the reason I'm not taking away points for it is because I'm like 80% sure its mostly because it was cropped. It looks like they pan-and-scanned a fullscreen transfer to make it widescreen again. I expected better from you *checks notes* Mill Creek Entertainment... nevermind.

My dad has the Mill Creek "Warriors" set. I'm the only member of the family that's willing to sit through any of the films with him, so on Father's Day or birthdays I'll watch one with him and they're all wretched. Like they were dug out of a landfill somewhere. One time we got about 20 minutes into one when we both called out "Wait- this is in color??" It was so washed-out it was basically monochrome. Fun times.

83331

[ueno_station54]

My dad has the Mill Creek "Warriors" set. I'm the only member of the family that's willing to sit through any of the films with him, so on Father's Day or birthdays I'll watch one with him and they're all wretched. Like they were dug out of a landfill somewhere. One time we got about 20 minutes into one when we both called out "Wait- this is in color??" It was so washed-out it was basically monochrome. Fun times.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83331
Spoilers: I'm pretty sure there's going to be a surprising amount of overlap between the sci-fi and warriors sets.

[jiraffejustin]

War of the Robots poster is dope. "People liked Star Wars, we can be like Star Wars but with more C-3POs"

[pahaK]

These sound exactly like the films I'd imagine if someone mentions great sci-fi classics.

[Flicker]

The costumes range from funny bad to legitimately sick like the main crew's space suits which are bright blue or orange and look like leather or the scientist just straight up wearing a wizard cloak.
I'd have loved a couple of screenshots for stuff like this (and space guns and space ships and space robots, etc... I have a huge love for cheap old school space designs).

[ueno_station54]

Film #2
The Astral Factor

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83424

INT. Home for the Criminally Insane
Two prisoners sit in opposing cells.
Prisoner A
*Begins phasing out of reality*

Prisoner B
Hey what are you doing? I'll kick your a**.

Prisoner A
*Telepathically beats Prisoner B's a** with his own mattress, then leaves*

Now this is how you open a film.

So from here on out we have an invisible killer who is strangling a bunch of actresses and its kind of just a cop movie.

I don't have a ton to say about like the technical aspects of the film. To the surprise of no one this transfer is from a completely unrestored copy of the film and there's some wild **** going on visually as a result that I don't have the know-how to explain but once you get past all that its a surprisingly competently shot film. Not much going on in terms of design elements but it looks pretty good. Well, it did at one point probably. Anyway, here's a list of wacky things that happen (spoilers ofc):

-For whatever reason the opening scene is shot with TV cameras and the rest is on film.

-The cops track down the killer (like 25 minutes in) so he turns invisible and hurls innumerable vases at them.

-Cop's wife bakes him a cake that doesn't work, I don't know how to describe it further.

-They didn't know how to end a dialogue scene so they decided to have one of the cops drop his food out of the car window, stop the car, pick it up, hop back in and keep eating, end scene.

-Killer reverse DDTs a cop off a boat.

-Killer, despite being able to turn invisible, carries out one of his murders wearing a scuba suit. He evades police by taking the suit off but we've already seen him turn invisible with clothes on before??

-Killer is thwarted by either an electrified stairwell or gunshot, it is unclear, and he is then launched into the cosmos or something??

Other than like 15-20 minutes of exposition and setup early on that's pretty dull its a fun movie. The character dynamics are kinda cute, the wacky moments of course, and when its not doing wacky things its still like watchable. I like it.



https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83425

Can't complain so far. Let's see if our next film, Snowbeast from 1977 featuring Bo Svenson can continue that trend.

[Captain Terror]

Can't complain so far. Let's see if our next film, Snowbeast from 1977 featuring Bo Svenson can continue that trend.

Now we're talkin'! :up:
(Expect more snow than beast, is all I'll say)

[ueno_station54]

Now we're talkin'! :up:
(Expect more snow than beast, is all I'll say)
ouu festive!

[xSookieStackhouse]

this one always my fav sci fi movie
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0a/71/d2/0a71d2950ec67fbc36f9dcea6781f525.jpg

[Chypmunk]

A 'C' for War Of The Robots is probably higher than I expected, be interesting to see what, if anything, makes it into 'D', 'F' or 'SF'. Sadly I've not run across either The Astral Factor or Snowbeast yet.

[ueno_station54]

A 'C' for War Of The Robots is probably higher than I expected, be interesting to see what, if anything, makes it into 'D', 'F' or 'SF'. Sadly I've not run across either The Astral Factor or Snowbeast yet.
War of the Robots had A tier potential and just dropped the ball at the finish line lmao. Oh what could have been.

[ueno_station54]

Film #3
Snowbeast
https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83511

Jaws at a ski resort. Unfortunately they took the cowards route and made the monster a yeti instead of a land shark.

What surprised me the most about Snowbeast was how much of a "real" movie it is (even more surprising since it was made for TV). Like its certainly made on the cheap and it shows but like, it has real actors and the characters have actual arcs and things going on outside of the current situation and its shot pretty professionally for the most part, especially the skiing scenes which honestly look pretty great. The POV shots maybe get a bit tired after awhile but it still never looks bad.

When Captain Terror said it was "more snow than beast", they weren't lying but it skewed my expectations. I was then expecting long, drawn out dialogue scenes to pad the runtime but the film is actually quite focused and although you really do almost never see the beast it always feels present. I wouldn't say its paced badly as it doesn't waste any time getting to the premise and it never really takes any lengthy detours from it but the film does still feel a hair too long and putting a bit of money into at least one of the kills would have been appreciated instead of the freeze frame-fade to red they did every time (though I did actually quite enjoy the beasts attack on the rec centre). It's consistently fine throughout but its just kind of dry and needed some bigger moments sprinkled in.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83512

Bit of a step down but this has still been a painless experience so far. Let's see if that holds up after our next film "First Spaceship on Venus" from 1960 featuring Yoko Tani.

[Captain Terror]

For a long time my brain merged Snowbeast with The Capture of Bigfoot. I think I taped them both around the same time and they have a similar aesthetic. So I'd always have to pause and remind myself which one was the "good one". (It was Snowbeast)
If Capture of Bigfoot taught us anything, it's that sometimes not showing the monster is a better idea.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/432a2870efe4a333bb23c90a8af62753/3970a9b200bef3a8-7d/s500x750/778f1e091d760c376a4d187fe5eca02d4383a139.gifv
https://64.media.tumblr.com/10cee2ebc7f28f58d6d46a6c1d12e984/b5e04315ad5e6042-84/s500x750/5eb372f1ad86272bf7022737fffefbbaa57786ef.gifv

I can recommend Capture of Bigfoot, however, if you're in the mood for a cheez fest.

[ueno_station54]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/432a2870efe4a333bb23c90a8af62753/3970a9b200bef3a8-7d/s500x750/778f1e091d760c376a4d187fe5eca02d4383a139.gifv
https://64.media.tumblr.com/10cee2ebc7f28f58d6d46a6c1d12e984/b5e04315ad5e6042-84/s500x750/5eb372f1ad86272bf7022737fffefbbaa57786ef.gifv

I can recommend Capture of Bigfoot, however, if you're in the mood for a cheez fest.
omg the way you can see where the top and bottom of the costume meet. I'm obsessed <3

[ueno_station54]

Film #4
First Spaceship on Venus
https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83541


A spacecraft crashes on earth with an alien message of unknown intent on board. I forget how but its determined to have come from Venus and a crew is put together for an expedition to the planet.

So this is originally a Polish film that was cut down (13 minutes) and dubbed into English and the way it was cut down is just insane. Instead of just taking out whole scenes (they may have also done that idk) they'd cut a second or two out of the middle of a shot, usually during a pan or trucking shot to instantly go from point A to point B. Its a shame because the camera work is quite nice when I interpolate the missing footage in my brain. Its also a shame because the movie kinda rules, especially once they get to the titular planet.

So many cool design choices. The poster doesn't lie about the spaceship, look at that beauty! There's a cute little robot assistant that's just a box with treads with a dome on top that has buttons and lights that make it look like a face. Classic robo-friend design I'm obsessed <3. On Venus they find these tiny little spider robots that bounce like 4 feet in the air at all times and apparently they're just audio recorders lmao. I don't know why but it rules. They eventually find ruins of the Venutian civilization and the buildings all look like those sculptures in Beetlejuice. Later they get attacked my sentient ooze and it throws a rock at them! Just so many rad ideas.

On top of the design elements the film also has all your favourite basic filmmaking tricks that you just love to see. Crossfades, reverse footage, miniatures, all the good **** and its all used pretty effectively, epsecially the crossfades which they use to add a ton of additional atmosphere to the, well, atmosphere and really sells the set as being alien. The characters are nothing to write home about but the film gets surprisingly dark at the end and I did find myself caring a bit for the characters in peril.

Honestly, I could see the original Polish version of the film being an easy A tier and maybe I'm overlooking some issues in the film because it has that excuse but I definitely can't look past the weird editing choices present in this cut.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83542

I'm kind of in shock with how much I enjoyed that film and I'm looking for that original cut ASAP. Next film is "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet" from 1965 featuring Basil Rathbone.

[jiraffejustin]

OG version is on cinemageddon if you have access to that

[ueno_station54]

OG version is on cinemageddon if you have access to that
Just found it on Kanopy <3

[Chypmunk]

I'd agree that First Spaceship On Venus is surprisingly enjoyable.
Never got round to Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet myself but maybe Voyage To The Planet Of Prehistoric Women will be in the set somewhere?

[ueno_station54]

I'd agree that First Spaceship On Venus is surprisingly enjoyable.
Never got round to Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet myself but maybe Voyage To The Planet Of Prehistoric Women will be in the set somewhere?
Shh! Don't spoil it!

[Citizen Rules]

I'd agree that First Spaceship On Venus is surprisingly enjoyable.
Never got round to Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet myself but maybe Voyage To The Planet Of Prehistoric Women will be in the set somewhere?+for Mamie Van Doren in a sea shell bikini.

[PHOENIX74]

I was going to do something like this with one of those sci-fi box sets! You beat me to it. I'm hoping we at least see Robot Monster in there somewhere. The one I have has Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet on it too.

[ueno_station54]

Film #5
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=84287

Two in a row now about the first manned exploration of Venus and its proving to be a good setting because this is maybe on the same level as First Spaceship on Venus. Though very different in terms of tone (First Spaceship being quite dark and sombre and Voyage being very hopeful) both are shockingly classy despite themselves. Reminds me that at this time there was kind of bare minimum level of quality just based on how much more difficult it was to make a film and that people kind of needed to know what they were doing to some extent at least (can't wait for this boxset to prove me wrong down the line).

Anyway, to actually talk specifically about this film, that classiness I mentioned kicks in immediately as the opening credits roll over these beautiful paintings of alien plant-life with this really wonderful bit of brass-based score over it. It's so lovely. After that the film does take a minute to get going I will say. We get some pretty dry exposition that I admittedly kind of tuned out but at least we're starting already in orbit of Venus and we're not spending a ton of the runtime just getting there. I think the basic idea is that they picked up signs of potential "human" life on the planet on their radar and are going to check it out. The first team goes in off camera, runs into trouble, then we follow the backup crew as they try to both complete the mission and find the other crew.

After this point the film is just solidly entertaining and borderline impressive throughout. Apparently everyone's vision of what Venus is like is just really cool because that's the case with both this and First Spaceship. In this film they mix sets and real locations in a way that makes the planet feel a bit more alive and they cover a lot of different terrain that still always feels like the same planet. They go through rocky caverns, marshlands, underwater for a bit, and it all looks pretty good. On top of that the transfer for the most part looks nice. The colour is quite washed out but that might honestly be a boon as I think it actually added to the atmosphere a bit lol.

So I guess I should mention the actual sci-fi elements (and the prehistoric ones). Yeah there's just gd dinosaurs on Venus, don't worry about it. Guy even takes a picture with a brontosaurus. Cute scene. There's even a Kirk vs. Gorn type moment where the crew fight off a couple lizardmen but the smokey atmosphere of the swamp they're in actually makes it kind of cool despite exclusively looking like dudes in rubber suits stumbling about. For the sci-fi goodness the crew have a hover-car that's really dope, they get into a fight with a pterodactyl in it, it kind of rules. The other crew have this big, hulking robot walking around with them and its just unreasonably caked up for some reason. Just the fattest-assed robot ever built lmao.

The story at this point isn't super relevant, they're just exploring the planet the whole movie and I honestly love that. The crews meet up, they find some sculptures of human form and peace out, seemingly content with the discovery. After this there is a reveal of the human life on Venus and I'll just say its revealed exactly how you'd do it in like a real, artistically valid film. Honestly a really wonderful scene.

The only downside really is that you could really cut out a few characters' scenes entirely and the film would probably better. There's a woman in a ship in orbit of Venus that just communicates between the crews on Venus and people on a moon base and really her and the moon base could just go away and the film would work perfectly fine.

Yeah, overall pretty much exactly what I want in a movie. Sparse story, some decent atmosphere and vibes, a good amount of fun moments. Doesn't quite have what it takes to crack A tier but this will be a high bar for this project no doubt.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=84288

Next up is Fugitive Alien from 1986 featuring Tatsuya Azuma. Hoping for a bit of dumbass 80's action here.

[ueno_station54]

bringing this back after a bit of a sudden hiatus <3

Film #6
Fugitive Alien

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=86833

Earth is being attacked by an alien army. We follow Ken, one of the alien soldiers who has gone rogue after accidentally killing one of his own, and the crew of humans who saved him from certain peril. After that I kind of lost the plot but there's a valid reason for that.

So this is an interesting film to have to watch for this little project because its actually not a standalone film. This is actually part one of a compilation film, condensing the events of a 70's tv series into two feature length films. If you ever had an anime phase I'm sure you're familiar with the concept. Obviously, only watching this first part is an issue on its own but the way its been condensed (and I'm speculating here having not seen the original series) is not doing it any favours as I suspect its cutting out fun scenes because they weren't strictly pushing the plot forward.

To talk about what's actually on screen, this is an unfortunate tale as the Japanese pop 70's aesthetic it has is something I f**k with heavy. That early Kamen Rider vibe, love it. The opening scene had my expectations set high. Spaceships doing barrel rolls and flying into skyscrapers, laser battles, explosions, the exact lighting you're thinking of if you're familiar with the aforementioned aesthetic as well as music, just excellent stuff and it coasts on that for awhile as we get the expected exposition and character introductions and yada-yada but it really loses steam after these first couple scenes. Action at the beginning and at the end with nothing in the middle. This problem is expounded by the fact that the finale of this film was not meant to be a finale. Like it still has some fun bits here and there but this really feels like some act 2 shit, because it is some act 2 shit. Also, I had no idea why this scene was happening lmao. I think it was probably a whole episode of the show (which I assume was at least somewhat episodic in nature) dropped into what was previously streamlining the overarching plot. Just suddenly this other thing is happening and it barely feels like the same film. At least they dropped us a "to be continued" so we know what's up lol.



A real heart-breaker this one.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=86834

Next up (and hopefully sooner this time) is Killers from Space from 1954 featuring Peter Graves. Finally some 50's shit let's go!

[John W Constantine]

One poster alone can not fight an entire genre, unless it's Corax. Just saying.

[ueno_station54]

Film #7
Killers from Space

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=86845

Oh its this f**kin movie. The one with the aliens that are just dudes with giant eyeballs and eyebrows and oven mitts. I've seen images of this film for years but didn't know this was that until they showed up. A kind of famous one here and its fame is not deserved lmao.

Anyway, a plane crashes under mysterious circumstances during testing of an atomic bomb. One of the pilots miraculously survives and is in perfect condition other than a loss of memory of the event and a surgical scar that wasn't there before. Before long the man begins acting erratic and a plot starts i guess.

In all honesty this starts strong enough, detailing the steps of dropping an atomic bomb. This scene is like actually kind of interesting and a bit ominous. The plot then has to start which, on paper, isn't terrible either. It starts out with enough intrigue I suppose and it doesn't take too long to get going. Our main dude is doing some shifty things and we wonder why he is doing these things. Nothing crazy but its like, fine. Its doing the job. He's eventually captured, given a truth serum and he spills the beans that he's been mesmerized by aliens and commanded to do whatever he was doing in the first part of the film. The ensuing flashback to when he was abducted by the aliens is somehow the most boring part of the film? Like yes we all know the aliens look dumb as hell but omg this sequence is so long and so dry. Our guy gets trapped in a cave with giant bugs and lizards in this scene and its still terrible!! After this we never see the aliens again. The rest of the film is just the guy trying to cut the power to the area which will make the alien base explode for some reason. It is very not exciting.

Does this have cred as a "so bad its good" type thing? It really shouldn't if so. Having dumb looking aliens for one scene should not be enough for anyone to know what this film is. The best I can say about it is that despite being boring it wasn't that boring I guess.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=86846

We're sticking with 50's trash as our next film is The Incredible Petrified World from 1957 featuring John Carradine.

[Captain Terror]

This is actually part one of a compilation film, condensing the events of a 70's tv series into two feature length films. If you ever had an anime phase I'm sure you're familiar with the concept. Obviously, only watching this first part is an issue on its own but the way its been condensed (and I'm speculating here having not seen the original series) is not doing it any favours as I suspect its cutting out fun scenes because they weren't strictly pushing the plot forward.

Does the set include the second film at least? I mean, it probably wouldn't be any more coherent but it would at least give you some closure.

I've seen Time of the Apes, which is a similar beast. I don't know the name of the original series from which it's been edited but yeah, it's the same sort of thing. Our heroes will spend about 20 minutes dealing with some problem and then you gradually realize that we're no longer concerned with that problem. We've moved on to another problem, which will coincidentally also last about 20 minutes. The day I learned that it was a compilation of TV episodes was a big light bulb moment for me.

(When I say I've "seen" Time of the Apes, what I mean is that I rented it from the same store so often that I eventually just offered to buy the tape from them. The fact that they just gave it to me at no charge suggests that I was the only person renting this thing, which I did like twice a year. Good times. I've converted that tape to DVD since then.)

[ueno_station54]

Does the set include the second film at least? I mean, it probably wouldn't be any more coherent but it would at least give you some closure.
it does not. i'll never know if Ken defeats the Wolf Raiders </3

[John Dumbear]

Just found this thread and do enjoy the camp. In meaning, seeing four of these so far.


Looking forward...