John Scalzi's The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies just came out and one of the chapters is "The Canon: 50 science fiction films to see before you die". There has been, of course, plenty of debate about John's choices, but it's also a great chance for a meme! Ones I've seen in bold:
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!
- Akira
- Alien
- Aliens
- Alphaville
- Back to the Future
- Blade Runner
- Brazil
- Bride of Frankenstein
- Brother From Another Planet
- A Clockwork Orange
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Contact
- The Damned
- Destination Moon
- The Day The Earth Stood Still
- Delicatessen
- Escape From New York
- ET: The Extraterrestrial
- Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
- The Fly (1985 version)
- Forbidden Planet
- Ghost in the Shell
- Gojira/Godzilla
- The Incredibles
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
- Jurassic Park
- Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior
- The Matrix
- Metropolis
- On the Beach
- Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
- Robocop
- Sleeper
- Solaris (1972 version)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
- The Stepford Wives
- Superman
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day
- The Thing From Another World
- Things to Come
- Tron
- 12 Monkeys
- 28 Days Later
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- La Voyage Dans la Lune
- War of the Worlds (1953 version)
34 out of 50, if you're keeping score at home. Not that it's a contest. Unless I'm winning.
