I was so excited to see it in the theaters when it came out that I cut school, and was incredibly disappointed. Only now, roughly 35 years later can I even sit through parts of it and appreciate it for what it is rather than what I wanted it to be. I still don’t see it as a very good adaptation of probably the best SF novel ever (the whole voice-command guns were just super silly).
I agree. I actually prefer the low-budget-y SyFy series to the film. I am a big fan of David Lynch but he should should stick to:
Not things that require Plotlines and Continuity and whatnot.
Plus, Monsters from the ID - inspired the Id Monster in the original D&D Monster manual (even the creature illustration was effectively the same).
Stop calling me Shirley.
I could probably add a bunch of the early SF to it as well - the original Godzilla for instance.
I think I need to add TRON as well.
On my list of all-time worst movies. I don’t know how I sat through so much of it, but I finally gave up on it when Lynch had the emperor and his generals taking a spin class via video link.
Mmmm, ok let’s do this:
Stalker
2001
Blade Runner
Alien
La Jetee
Brazil
Close Encounters
Primer
The Arrival
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Her
Wings of Honneamise
AI
Clockwork Orange
Gattaca
No Alphaville? I’m surprised, Juan.
No competition between those two. Alphaville is a charming mess, but la Jetee is a masterpiece and better, imho, than the 12 Monkeys remake.
I really enjoyed the particular sensibilities that Gilliam brought to Le Jette’s concept. I love Brazil, but I think that Monkeys is a better Science Fiction piece (and “cleaner”) than Brazil. Brazil is much higher for me on a different list.
Le Jette is always a bit too ponderous for me (to make it on this list)…
I haven’t see la Jetee, so now I have to. For me, 12 Monkeys is a great SF film, certainly in my top 10.
La Jetee is worth watching, but I agree it’s really slow going. Wouldn’t knock 12 Monkeys off my personal list.
It is definitely worth it. It is a great film.
12 Monkeys just didn’t do it for me, and it’s far too easy to skip over for me. It just doesn’t click with me at all, not sure why?
Probably just taste. Gilliam is a wonderful filmmaker, but he is also very hit or miss with me.
yeah, I’ve both loved his movies, and bounced off hard.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Arrival
- The Iron Giant
- Gravity
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- The Abyss
- Galaxy Quest
- Primer
- Ex Machina
- Moon
- The Empire Strikes Back
- The Martian
- Serenity
- Dune
- Brazil
If you didn’t include Arrival… be ashamed of yourself.
Haven’t seen it
No Shame in my game. A bit pretentious. Renner. It was OK.
I’m ok with a little pretension in my sci-fi. And it did about the best job I’ve ever seen of presenting actually alien beings.