I thought I'd shout out some sci-fi recommendations for all my readers as that is the purpose of this site, to promote films people may never have seen or heard of. The following list contains 10 science fiction films that I don't think are represented enough and should be seen by more than just a few people. Please read the list and enjoy.STARCHASER: LEGEND OF ORIN (1985)
To capitalize on the popularity of Star Wars in the mid 80s, studios, big and independent, tried a whole host of ways to make money off the back of George Lucas. Roger Corman tried it with Battle Beyond The Stars, Italian horror director Luigi Cozzi gave it a blast with his flamboyant Starcrash in 1978 and the classic 80s sci-fi The Last Starfighter tried to copy it's plot of young man recruited to battle an evil intergalactic empire, but one film pretty much took star wars, changed some of the plot and animated it. That film is Starchaser: Legend Of Orin. What this film did though was come off as original and very very entertaining. It follows a boy named Orin (Luke Skywalker) who is made to mine by an evil overlord Zygon (Darth Vader) and is watched over by his henchmen (Storm Troopers). He is given a magical Sword hilt that produces a blade (Light-sabre), he manages to escape the mine, leaving a beautiful girl behind (princess Leia). Outside the mine he joins up with a pirate (Han Solo) and a robot (C3PO) and together they battle against the evil empire and take down the despotic Zygon. See it's almost all Star Wars. It is actually a fun film with brilliant animation and it was the first animated film to be made in 3D. It's definitely worth tracking down if you've never seen it. SOLARBABIES (1986)
A Year before they co-starred in the classic vampire film, The Lost Boys, Jason Patric and Jami Gertz joined Lukas Hass, Adrian Pasdar, James Le Gross and Richard Jordan in this post apocalyptic fantasy about a group of teens held in a mass orphanage in a world devoid of Water, watched over by the evil (is there any other) E-Police. Our little group of kids discover this glowing orb called Bodahi, that has magical powers and leads them on a mission from the orphanage to find water and save the world, all while being chased by the E-Police. This was one of the coolest films for me as a kid, it was post apocalyptic and the protagonists went around on roller-skates. They film is never going to win any awards but it's definitely a fun film to watch on a rainy day. There's some pretty decent performances and Adrian Pasdar's character is pretty cool, he's a bit like the panda kid from Thunderdome. Much like the above Starchaser, I think this is long out of print but if you can get hold of a copy then you should. D.A.R.Y.L (1985)
Now here's a film I never tire of. This film came out around the same time as films like Flight OF The Navigator, Explorers and Last Starfighter and follows the exploits of tiny robot boy Daryl. The film opens with Daryl being taken from where he was created by the man who built him but something happens and he winds up in an orphanage. He's chosen by Michael Mckean and Mary Beth Hurt to live with them but there's someone tracking him and soon he's on the run again. This is a great little film with a top notch performance from young Barrett Oliver (Neverending Story) as the titular character and he's wonderfully supported by both McKean and Hurt as well as Josef Sommer. The film is brilliant directed by Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove) and has a very nice message behind the film, no matter who you are or what you are, family is the most important thing.
It's a very sweet film. Incidentally D.A.R.Y.L is an acronym for Data Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform. This is available on dvd from Paramount pictures.
NO BLADE OF GRASS (1970)
No Blade Of Grass is a 1970 British/American Sci-fi film about a virus that only attacks wheat and grain and this has caused the U.K to descend into riots and chaos. Architect John and his family decided to leave the big city and head for scottland while trying to avoid roving gangs of bikers and renegade military. This film was a big surprise when I finally saw it. It's a very well produced film directed by Cornel Wilde (Beach Red 1968) and starring Nigel Davenport. The performances are all pretty good and they all seem to have a stiff upper lip British sensibility about them. There's even a very early role for Wendy Richards (Eastenders). The depiction of britain gone mad is one of pure terror and it's almost documentary in style. There are some scenes of violence but in a land that's descended into chaos, this I pretty much a given. When I first saw it, it reminded me of the stuff the BBC made in the 70s and early 80 like Survivors or Day Of The Triffids. The scary thing about the film though is that this could possibly happen and that's what makes it an unnerving watch at times. This is high recommendation and while it's available on dvd it's only available through Warner Bros Archives but it's remastered and uncut. NO ESCAPE (1994)
I first heard about No Escape about 13 years ago when I was bought a VHS copy of it as a present. It follows Ray Liotta's former soldier incarcerated for murdering his superior officer in the near future. He's managed to escape from every prison he's been sent to and is finally dropped into the hands of Michael Lerner who plops him onto an island where two warring tribes of prisoners are. Liotta has to choose which side to take and find a way of escaping and island where there is...NO ESCAPE. This film is awesome from the get go. Liotta is top notch as Robbins who finds he's more suited to the peaceful way of life under the eye of the kindly Father played by Lance Henrickson than under the dictator ship of the evil Marek played by Stuart Wilson. It's kind of like a violent, futuristic adult version of Lord Of The Flies and is directed well by Martin Campbell a year before he made Golden Eye. I had never heard of this prior to owning the DVD but i've seen it many many times now it's a still one I enjoy immensely. This is available from Pathe entertainment but is out of print at the moment.
Z.P.G: ZERO POPULATION GROWTH (1972)
This is a film I found out about by accident. I was watching a youtube video and some one was showing off their dvd collection and they showed a bootleg copy of this. The guy reviewing it was a trusted member of nerd herd of film collectors so I new he could recommend this film. Well I did a little searching and discovered that it had indeed been released on DVD by Legend films so I popped it in the shopping basket and two weeks later it arrived. I watched it and thought it was great. The film is set in the future where the world was over populated so a ban on procreation was put in order. 30 years later, Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin discover they're having a baby. This is a no no as having a nipper will result in the death penalty. The film is very down beat as the world is not just over populated but also highly polluted and on the verge of collapsing. Brainwashing and robot babies are put in place to squash anyone yearning to have a child. It's all very totalitarian. This is a grim movie about a subject matter that is quite a hard one to fathom. It's well directed by Michael Campus (The Mack) and has strong performances from both Reed and Chaplin. I recommend checking this out if you like films like Soylent Green and 1984. It's still available on R1 DVD at around £5.00 on Amazon. SLIPSTREAM (1989)
I Spent years trying to find a copy of this film on DVD and VHS and was given a copy for free by a customer one day, so I was pretty excited. I remember watching this film as very young child and only thing I could completely remember was Mark Hamil playing a seriously awesome battle scarred cop. So I stuck the film on. Slipstream is set in a future where natural disasters and pollution have devastated the earth and giant winds rules. The remaining population have taken to setting up communities with in canyons. These winds are called the Slipstreams. Matt Owens (Bill Paxton) kidnaps prisoner Byron (Bob Peck) out of the hands of police man Tasker (Mark Hamil) to claim the bounty for himself. Tasker and his partner pursue the two as they travel across the skies meeting different communities of people while forming a friendship. Although Byron is not what he seems but it actually an android. This great slice of genre pudding comes from the director of the original Tron, Steve Lisberger and has some brilliant performances from all involved, Mark Hamil especially as the relentless cop hot on their heals and some great production design. The special FX are pretty good too. This is one film that I really enjoyed watching it years later and is available on dvd from EIV for around £3.99. I do recommend this.
EPOCH (2001)
This TV movie from 2001 caught me by surprise when I came across it one night on the Sci-Fi channel. It had a well established cast of B-movie actors like David Keith (Batman '89), Brian Thompson (Cobra) Shannon Lee (Bruce's daughter), James Hong (Mother fucking Lo Pan), James Avery (uncle Phil) and Ryan O' Neal (The Driver), so I was instantly pulled it. It follows a team of researchers looking into the a giant monolith that has appeared in the middle of the Himalayas that sends out a signal that causes all kinds of disasters around the globe. It can sustain life and has it's own power and water but what is it what does it want. Scientist Kaiza Czaban and weapons expert Mason Rand are teamed together to find out what it is. Epoch was the highest rated TV movie premier in the history of the Sci-fi channel. It's an intelligently written sci-fi film that doesn't cop out at the end using religion which it could have done. There are some good performances from the cast, especially David Keith and the special FX are pretty good considering this was made on a TV movie budget. I recommend tracking this down for an interesting sci-fi film. It was successful enough to garner a sequel in 2003 with Epoch: Evolution with most of the cast returning. It's not bad but not as good as the first. The R1 DVD is still available at a low price. THE ARRIVAL (1996)
This might be a little more well known by the film buffs but it's still one that's not entirely on the radar of the average film watcher. The Arrival comes from David Twohy, the man who created Pitch Black and wrote films such as The Fugitve, Waterworld, G.I Jane and Warlock. Here he's written a very good film about a hidden alien invasion. Charlie Sheen stars as Zane Zaminsky, an astronomer discovers an alien signal from a distant star and when he presents his findings he's promtly fired. Eager to learn the source of the signal Zane set out on a quest to Mexico where he finds himself at the center of a secret alien invasion. This is a brilliantly written film from Twohy that takes it's cues from Hitchcock and other masters of suspense while bringing us a world of extraterestrial invaders and conspiracies. Charlie Sheen is brilliant as Zane, a role which is so far removed from his Chopper Harley character in Hot Shots that puts him firmly back into his serious side of acting which gave us standout performances in Platoon and Wall Street. The special FX are great and the suspense is almost constant. There's a lovely twist at the end as well. I highly recommend picking this film up. MOON 44 (1990)
This was another film I caught years ago while channel surfing. Moon 44 is directed by the man who has destroyed the earth more times than Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich is his name and this little slice of sci-fi was meant to be the 90s answer to Aliens, Blade Runner and Outland, but unfortunately failed to inspire the critics in 1990 which caused the film to flop. Don't let that deter you though, this is an exciting, action packed sci-fi film with a great cast that includes Michael Pare, Malcolm McDowell, Brian Thompson (making his second appearance on this list) and Emmerich's future writing and producing partner Dean Devlin, in a rare acting role. It has the same grimy, industrial aesthetics in it's production design as Alien and Outland but it's a fun romp from start to finish. It take place in the year 2038 when all of the earths natural resources are depleted and rival mining corporations fight of the minerals of the various moons. Pare is sent in to train a group of hardened criminals to fly space choppers to protect the mining facility from a rival companies robots and to prevent an all out war. I recommend checking this out as it's a very well made sci-fi film from the Independence Day director and can be bought pretty cheap as it's a public domain film.
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