Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies of the 20th Century!!! Part 2 No. 93 - 87

 

 I received this issue of Remind, or what Alison calls "my old people magazine," which ranks the top 100 Science Fiction movies of the 20th century.

Remind does have many pop culture stories, focusing primarily on the 1950s through the 1990s, although there are some references to earlier decades. Each issue focuses on different topics, such as country music, westerns, where are they now issues, and much more  I enjoy it, as I love pop history. They also have puzzles and a monthly guide as to what's on TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

I thought it would be fun to see the movies on the list in reverse order and see what I thought of them. The magazine's ranking of the movies is not mine.  

I won't go into detailed reviews, but I will share the IMDb ranking and my own on a 1 to 10 scale.

94)

The Blob

Year: 1958  IMDb: 6.3 Tom: 6  Had I seen before?   Yes  Service found on: Max

Not too bad, but kinda cheesy (blobby?). A growing blob threatens a small town, slowly rolling towards threatening more and more citizens. Only a small group of teenagers try to wake everybody to the menace, led by a young, intrepid Steve McQueen (not looking too much as a teen at 28 years old). One of the most popular themes in these kinds of movies is to have the alien defeated by something otherwise common. This dates back to at least H. G. Well's book The War of the Worlds.

92)

Enemy Mine

Year: 1985  IMDb: 6.8 Tom: 6  Had I seen before?   Yes  Service found on: Prime Rental

A war between an alien race and humans results in one of each being isolated on a remote planet. The two sworn enemies find themselves trapped with each other, and over time, their initial hostilities are replaced with grudging respect and interdependence and, gradually, a devoted friendship. I try very hard to ignore that the human, Dennis Quaid, has become a Trump supporter, but in the spirit of the movie, I do my best to look past it. Louis Gossett Jr. is amazing as the alien.

91)

Things to Come

Year: 1936  IMDb: 6.6 Tom: 7 Had I seen before?   No  Service found on: Prime 

I am a great fan of H. G. Wells, especially when I was younger. This movie is prophetic in parts, but like any movie set in the future, it doesn't always hit the mark. Its predictions are even more impressive when you consider that they were originally written in 1933 and predicted the effects of World War II, atomic weapons, pandemics, and more. It is dated but enjoyable.

90)

Akira

Year: 1988  IMDb: 8.0 Tom: 8 Had I seen before? Yes  Service found on: Hulu

I had the privilege of seeing this at an Atlanta movie theatre when it first came to the United States. Although I am not a hater of anime, I am not a superfan, but this movie is the exception that proves the rule. It is an awesome story set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where young teens are experimented on to disastrous results.

89)

Cocoon

Year: 1985 IMDb: 6.7 Tom: 9 Had I seen before? Yes  Service found on: Library Rental

Trying to find this movie slowed my progress considerably. It's not available on any streaming service, and getting a digital copy to own or rent is impossible. I requested it from my library, and it took a week or so to locate it, but they finally located a copy for me. Remember that - don't forget about your friendly local public library!

This film is a great favorite of mine. Elderly men find that bathing in a pool near their nursing home has rejuvenating properties—they now feel young and energetic. 
They share the pool with alien cocoon entities. They gradually meet and befriend the aliens shepherding the cocoons.

To me, this movie is extra special in that the seniors are given the opportunity to travel to the alien's home planet and live forever. In virtually every other movie I've seen, those offered eternal life would turn it down. Spoiler alert!  - in this movie, it's different!

Another interesting anecdote is that one of the senior citizens, Wiford Brimley, was just 49 years when the movie was filmed!

Don Ameche (winning Best Supporting Actor), Hume Cronyn, Wilford Brimley

88) 

They Live

Year: 1988 IMDb: 7.2 Tom: 9 Had I seen before? Yes  Service found on: Peacock

Another all-time favorite of mine! I am a big fan of director John Carpenter, and this is one of his best! Set in the near future, the movie shows a world where the gap between rich and poor has increased (talk about prophetic!), and one of the downtrodden, Roddy Piper (of wrestling fame), finds a pair of glasses that allow him to see the world as it really is. And yes, most of the rich are actually alien invaders! Or, well, frankly, many of the Republicans. John Carpenter made clear that this movie was an extension of what was happening under Reaganism.

And guess what? Minus the aliens, that's about what's happened!

87)

eXistenZ

Year: 1999 IMDb: 6.8 Tom: 4 Had I seen before? No  Service found on: You Tube

I had to watch this on YouTube in 10-minute segments. It didn't help make this movie any better. As big as a fan I am of John Carpenter, I am apparently the opposite with director David Cronenberg. I guess I'm just not a big fan of random guts and body parts. This has something to do with the otherwise talented Jennifer Jason Leigh leading Jude Law through one of her reality game simulations. A huge mess that made little sense to me.

I hate to end this on a down movie, but it did include some gems like Cocoon and They Live.

Next edition!  - more of one of my least favorite directors, and another Trump-loving actor. But then it gets better - I promise!

Nobody Moves!

 

It's hard to say that Hilary lost when she won the popular vote by about three million. Nevertheless, because of the antiquated antics of the electoral college, the most disgusting man in America ruined American History and assumed the American Presidency.

In that campaign, Ms. Clinton spent an inordinate amount of time trying to woo "disaffected Republicans." Yes, many of them were disgusted by Trump and initially supported other Republicans. They sounded pretty adamant against him. But in the end, 99.9% of them came back home to roost, held their noses, and voted for the orange conman.  

In my own sphere, I had a co-worker who did not like Trump, would participate in my anti-Trump rants, and voted for another very conservative candidate in the primary. I had no idea until much later that he voted for the narcissistic racist in the general election. It was a great shock, and I did not react well. I felt my whole world built on people being rational crumble. After that, we never talked about politics.

Hilary Clinton wasted a lot of time and energy trying to win over the unwinnable and needed to spend more time trying to recapture the otherwise nonpolitical Bernie voter. In my opinion, these were the voters who could be won over, those who did not traditionally vote or always vote Democratic.

In 2020, when four years of the incompetent fraudster should have convinced many in the conservative base of how bad he was, there still was great resistance to switching. I did not talk to my co-worker about it, but I knew he had a Trump sign in the cabinet in his office. Biden won decisively, thanks to a large turnout, overcoming Trump winning more votes than he did in 2016.  

In the present. Kamala Harris has made a big deal out of winning over disaffected Republicans. I'm not sure how that's going to go. At least this time, she has a plethora of Republican figures supporting her, including the VERY CONSERVATIVE Cheneys, military generals, and most of Trump's cabinet; if you worked with him, you knew he was a POS.

How will that work this time? There is some hope she will gain more ground than Hillary Clinton did — the anecdotal evidence leans that way. Fortunately, that is not the only thing Harris is doing. She is appealing to the Democratic base and Independents as well. As an independent progressive, I am way fired up in a way that even exceeds my disdain for TRUMP/VANCE/PROJECT 2025. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is the best choice I could imagine for Vice President. 

In my own sphere, looking back on the last nine years we've lived with the sour reality that so many blindly support a fascist, I'm thinking hard if I know personally of even one person who had supported him who has since changed their mind.

Granted, I live in a 90% Trump county. It's not socially acceptable, or even safe, to publicly express opposition to him. But people know where I'm at and how I feel. You think at least one person could slip me word that they are now off the Trump reservation. But I've never heard that, not in nine long years.

Do you know anybody who was once for Trump but now disavows him? You don't need to name names. Just let me know - is there any hope? Is there anyone you know who moved out of the fascist darkness?

I really want to know.

Back to Political Basics

 

It's a strange season.

Many of you have already voted. It's difficult to know how much persuasion is warranted. Some of you have already voted for the future of American democracy. Some of you have already made the biggest mistake of your life.

In my personal world, I have seen little change or movement. For nine years, the lines have remained relatively solid. Nothing has been more discouraging and disappointing to me than my failure to persuade a single, solitary soul.  

So, enough about the monstrous shortcomings of the orange conman. None of you who are enthralled with him are willing to peek behind the curtain. The only thing left is to pray that the quirks of the Electoral College and the crafty manipulations of those who don't believe in democracy leave us with an unthinkable situation.

Once again, let me list the positions that are most important to me and who I feel will help the most. This will be brief, and it is important to note that I am picking those who represent it best, even if they are not the ideal.

1) Climate change/global warming is happening now, not just in the future. We need to do everything in our power to mitigate and slow the damage that is already underway. HARRIS/WALZ is the team to slow this.  

2) This country should have universal health care, ideally a single-payer plan. HARRIS/WALZ may only get there partially, but they'll make more progress than the other side (who are more likely to increase the cost and reduce the number covered).

3) The increasing gap between the wealthy and the working class needs to be reversed. HARRIS/WALZ have policies that will help close that gap, and start to reverse 40+ years of Reaganomics greed is good philosophy.

4) Public resources, such as public schools and libraries, need to be cherished and financed. HARRIS/WALZ will support and strengthen them.

5) My view, based on my faith, is that national borders mean nothing. God loves us all, and we should love all. There is no special relationship between God and any country. In that view, immigration means nothing. All jobs should have a living wage, and if Americans aren't willing to do them, then they are fair game for others to come in and do. Nobody deserves to be paid a wage they can't live on, regardless of where they come from. To be clear, nobody in politics represents this radical view. But I do think the HARRIS/WALZ will not focus on demonizing and dehumanizing immigrants.  

6) College costs need to be brought under control, and that means more federal and state involvement. HARRIS/WALZ will move us in that direction.  

There are many other issues I could address, but that is a start. I haven't addressed foreign policy, but rest assured, HARRIS/WALZ are the best. They won't abandon Ukraine, and although I'm not happy with how we're dealing with Israel's violence in Gaza, I do think Harris/Walz is more persuadable than the Orange Cheeto, who just wants Israel to "finish the job."

I can't think of a single issue where TRUMP/VANCE/PROJECT 2025 would be better for the country. Actually, all their positions would move us to an authoritarian fascist state.

But, apparently, some of you are perfectly happy with that.

And that scares the crap out of me.

Nine Years Into an American Nightmare

 I knew from the minute he rode down that escalator more than nine years ago - June 16th, 2015.

Really, I knew well before then. From the 80s on, I was aware that he represented the worst of America. His bankruptcies, his fraudulence, his racism, his misogyny - all was clear to anyone even paying half attention.

Descending (both physically and verbally) into the darkest corners of American racism and xenophobia, calling Mexicans criminals and rapists (talk about mirroring and projection!), I did not think this narcissistic buffoon would be no more than an extremist footnote on our body politic.

Boy, was I wrong.

A great swath of the American people disappointed me - again and again and again. Every day was a new low for this scamming blowhard, and every day, those who should know better overlooked it and stuck with him.

Thanks to our minority-enshrining Electoral College, Trump blustered his way into the White House. Having lost the popular vote by THREE MILLION meant nothing to him. It meant nothing to his supporters. I swear to you, had it happened the other way around, the Electoral College would have been shredded by now.

His President, by all measures, was a disaster. He inherited an excellent economy from Obama, and over the course of three years, he slowly ebbed it away. The Covid disaster covered up how much the economy was deteriorating before then. So some still get misty eyed for the return of the Obama economy.

We have been in a vicious cycle for the last forty-four years. Republicans destroy the economy, and then a Democrat has to come in to restore it (Clinton, Obama, Biden). And yet, polling indicates that a majority of people think Republicans are better at the economy. Ah, the enduring power of Reaganesque propaganda!

However, the economy is only one of Trump's problems. He has demonized and divided since Day One. And his lack of Covid response resulted in the needless death of hundreds of thousands of Americans. We had quantifiably the worst response to COVID-19 on the planet. He turned wearing masks and social distancing and vaccines into a political issue instead of community health care. Many of us simply stopped caring about each other. I'm not sure I'll ever get over many's warped, selfish response to Covid.  

He illegally did everything he could to steal an election and insert himself as a defacto dictator. You say that Vice President Pence is endangered by the mob I incited? As Trump said that day when told - "So what?"

It has been so hard. I live in a 90% Trump county. It is not comfortable to live here. You must be very careful who you speak to and how you speak. In person, I sometimes have a fierce temper when confronted by lunacy, so I have to be extra careful. Right or wrong, I have less hesitation when writing.

Every day has been wrenching. Every day, even now, I hope people around me, some of whom are otherwise decent, will wake up and say, "Tom, you've been right all along. Trump is a monster, and I'm no longer going to vote for him."

I see posts on social media that show former Trump supporters who no longer will back him. But in my own life? I don't know a single one. It has been a long, bitter wait to see any Trumpeteer I know return to the fold of Democracy.

It's so hard to accept. They don't want democracy—whether it's fascism, authoritarianism, or Christian nationalism—whatever they want to call what is, in essence, the same thing—they're all for it. And it is so hard to see the breakdown of the civic compact that is supposed to bind us all.

I just pray that this nightmare comes to an abrupt end on November 5th.

If it doesn't ... I'm not sure what to do. My heart and spirit will be broken.  

This is my most heartfelt message to the Trumpeteers in my life: Please wake up. Please return to the diversity and civic strength that are the best of America.

I can't take more sleepless nights.

P. S.  It is impossible to list in any one post all the rotten things Trump has done.  Please look at my label, Trumpocalypse, to get a fuller picture.  Or, just get your head out of the right-wing bubble.