Deeply Enjoyable Under-the-Radar Science Fiction Movies That Will Blow Your Mind

foreign

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movies this time around I've got some

more science fiction movie

recommendations some of them are hidden

gems some of them are older films you

might have forgotten about some of my

Classics that you might want to revisit

and check out again so let's get started

this first one started out as a TV

series of sorts

on MTV in the early 1990s that ran from

1991 to 1995 as a part of MTV's liquid

television show which was mind-blowingly

good I remember watching liquid

television which was shown late at night

on SBS

one of our national broadcasters here

and liquid televisions different

segments

where mind-blowing good in this one Eon

flux it was created by a korean-american

animated called Peter Chung and it was

mind-blowing it was incredibly Dynamic

it did a lot a real lot of show rather

than until the dialogue was minimal but

the graphic design and the look of it

was something extraordinary it hit that

sweet spot in the late 80s and the early

90s when cyberpunk was a big thing and

the people who like subepang really

liked it in fact I was one of them I was

a sub I found I read all the books of

Ray Gibson and Sterling and Peck cadigan

and everything I could get that was

cyberpunk somewhere better than others

but Ian flux the series was definitely

in that sweet spot

she was a kind of lanky gymnastic

Assassin come dominatrix just part of

the world between two surviving cities

one of which is called Monica and the

other one's called this

was a spy infiltrator going up against a

guy called Trevor good child

and not always succeeding sometimes he

even died in fact in the early episodes

the old flux died but she was incredibly

popular with the suits and so Peter

Chung and the team made her a regular

part of it and actually named her after

the title they had created for the

series Eon flux and in 1995 Karen kasama

directed an interesting version of it

starring Charlize Theron

this one Eon flux the movie a lot

different from the original Source work

but still I kind of like it it's got a

killer cast in the first starter it's

got Charlies around playing on Flux Of

course it's got Martin soccercus playing

Trevor good child it's got Johnny Lee

Miller in there as well it's got Sophie

Akinator playing one of the other

infiltrators who is really groovy

because she has hands instead of feet it

has Pete posthoff weight and for as a

big Dormer did it so the casters killer

and it's pure kinetic action it doesn't

make a lot of sense you don't engage

with the characters very much but it's

got a groovy look and a groovy Style

and I think this is the movie that

really showed a lot of people that

Charlize Theron could carry an action

film on her own but she's done many

times since of course yeah Mad Max Fury

Road an atomic blonde and yeah it's got

that early 2000s look about it but I

kind of like it I don't think it's the

best science fiction movie since things

to come I think it's a bit of fun and

sometimes you just want Meathead action

you just want lots of Sound and Fury

signifying nothing and you know flux

covers that and if you can also get the

disc of the original MTV episodes of Ian

flux the animation on them is crisp the

show not till aesthetic where the

graphics tell the story rather than the

dialogue is something extraordinary and

it was groundbreaking at the time and it

still has a lot to offer right now so

check that out as well this one's based

on an anime a 1982 anime written by

katsuhiro otomo and it is one of the

classics of anime it is incredibly

influential film on Creative people ever

since it came out in 1988 it's cyberpunk

it's iconic and it is Akira which is

truly a masterpiece of not only anime

but science fiction Cinema as well

it's got a bit of a backstory in 1988

the entire city of Tokyo explodes and

people think it's a nuclear blast so it

starts a World War but in 2018 Neo Tokyo

the the resurrected Tokyo is going again

and uh two guys one called Canada and

the other one called tetsuo uh Rogue

bark is traveling through the streets of

Neo Tokyo the only problem is tetsuro is

an espa is an incredibly powerful

telekinetic Talent who may well be as

powerful as the legendary Akira who was

the person who created the explosion

that destroyed Tokyo even though

everybody thought it was a nuke and

slowly as tetsuo's power develops he

becomes more and more of a threat and

his bestie Canada has to go up against

him and try to stop him not only from

destroying near Tokyo but from dying and

from killing him there's this cloak

there's a kind of bromance between them

it's incredibly well done it's again

like the Aeon Flux anime it's incredibly

visually kinetic then of course you're

the iconic moment is the achilla slide

where I'm not sure I think it's Canada

or may well be did so slides the bike

he's riding sideways and that has been

copied and homage tons of times by other

things right up into including

nope Jordan Peel's most recent movie in

fact at the moment JB Hi-Fi had a buy

one get one free Blu-ray and 4K sale

which is kind of Christmas for

Australian cinephiles and one of the

things I'm getting in that Hall

is the 4K of a killer because I think

it's that important a movie it's a movie

I really like it's a movie I'm kind of

rediscovering my love of cyberpunk in a

lot of ways and this movie is part of

that and even though the tech isn't

quite as slick as our modern technology

it's got a kind of retro credibility

which I like and I like the idea of

people going up against corporations

that's an idea that's becoming

increasingly attractive to many of us

these days but Akira is definitely one

that you should have on your list

and it's um they haven't really watched

it for a while

but the moment the 4K comes in my bums

on the seat the remotes in my hand and

I'm going to enjoy it again and of the

movies I've got on order and there

aren't that many because I didn't have a

lot of money

but of the movies I've got on order

that's the one I am really really

looking forward to now while we're on

the subject of Japan Japan is a country

which has a long history of disasters

both natural and man-made

and there's a very famous novel called

Nihon jimbotsu Japan sinks which was

incredibly popular at the time and it

has been made into several different

movies but this one from the 1990s

Japan sinks

is one that I recommend it's an Epic

movie the special effects are good for

their time the characters matter it's

got that kind of sadness and that

knowledge of history that really

beds down the characters and and their

plot basically the the title says or

Japan's slowly you're sinking into the

ocean and the population of Japan has to

have a diaspora and they have to travel

to other lands and like many other

cultures including Australian indigenous

cultures

the connection Japanese people have to

the land is quite psychologically and

spiritually important to them and the

loss of that is is something that's felt

as a tragedy by everybody and of course

it will be to pretty much anyone but

this one really works it's got a big

ensemble cast as you can see from there

but Nikon giboto is worth checking out

it is one of those things kind of like

the otokoa sorayo movie series it's one

of those

pieces of art that gives you a glimpse

about how Japanese people see themselves

and when a country gives you that gift

and shares the way they see the world

and the way they see themselves it's a

gift that sometimes you can't ignore

is worth checking out you really should

find a copy of that whether it's online

or on physical media

and definitely check it out it runs 134

minutes so it's not a particularly short

movie

but it's well worth finding and

just experiencing

of course any movie or successful is

that in any intellectual property as

successful as that has got to have a

past tution this one came what I'm

trying to find the Year this one came

out but

doesn't really matter this is a parody

of that I think it came out in the early

2000s

the world sinks except Japan

which is basically every country in the

world sinks and all the political

leaders and all of the celebrities from

all around the world end up doing

jobs in Japan the way first generation

markets do in many many cultures

it's a past station there you get uh a

Schwarzenegger kind of a thing you get a

George Bush kind of character it's

broadly satirical in that uniquely

Japanese way

which I like and uh that cover pretty

much says it all as well

it's uh it's funny I even with the

cultural barriers that are between me

and enjoying a film that's specifically

aimed at people with a Japanese cultural

background

the jokes are still funny the the comedy

is very broad it's totally silly but I

think it may well be Japan

dealing with a movie like Nihon Chu

botsu and exercising the blues that you

get from watching that and from reading

the original novel and so satire is

sometimes the pressure valve that you

need to release the pressure

of something as heavy and something is

melancholy as Japan sings now these two

I think around chuvi incredibly low

budget incredibly sharply written

science fiction

one's a sequel to the other this one

stars from people you might have rather

media like William Katz and John

Billingsley

and Amanda Peterson and Richard real

and a star is a man called David Lee

Smith who's got one of the most generic

names for an actor but he's a pretty

good actor

it's based on a story by Jerome Bixby

Matt from Earth

which is just basically a group of

University Professor friends get

together for a weekend and one of them

is leaving town

and they kind of have some philosophical

discussions about the nature of humanity

the nature of History the nature of

culture

and one of the characters John Allman

posits the idea of somebody who was

thousands of years old and what they

would experience and what they would

learn and what they would be in the past

and as the conversation develops

it becomes fairly obvious that John

Oldman is indeed someone from Neolithic

times who has lived through the entirety

of recorded human history

and has been a crucial part of it at

several different occasions it's an

incredibly Great Brain experiment this

one who runs a tight 87 minutes

but it raises some really interesting

issues and talks to belief systems that

have developed over thousands of years

and challenges them but it doesn't

challenge them in a mean-spirited way

so we've got that then we've got mail

from Earth Holocene which is a sequel to

it filmed uh more than a decade later

this is all original by the way which is

kind of cool but this is a story of John

Holman who is starting to age because of

uh environmental pollution and the

impacts of environmental pollution

and he um with some friends has to kind

of deal with that

it was setting up future sequels which

probably won't happen but again these

two

have a lot more ideas in them and a lot

more challenging science fictional

Concepts in them

there are many many more famous movies

and I like that I like the low keyness

of it of them both I like the ideas in

them and I like the revelation of who

John Oldman is and exactly what he is

um which is which develops in a natural

way the actors are all giving their a

game to this small movie

which I think may have been crowdfunded

the first one

but either way they are movies you can

definitely enjoy and if you're into the

kind of ideas aspect of Science Fiction

which of course many of you are

rather than just the pew pew zoom zoom

you got to enjoy these movies and I

recommend them highly I don't think

they're as good as they would have been

with more resources put to them but

again sometimes it's the idea that

carries the movie and and the passion of

the actors rather than the resources

that are able to be put into the

production

this one I just put in the last minute

because I picked it up for a buck it's

not growing up science fiction at all

but it's a lot of fun and it's got a lot

of interesting people in it and it was

made by Robert Rodriguez all three of

them Spy Kids buckets to the island of

Lost streams and Spy Kids 3 game Over

Now made by Robert Rodriguez who uses

the available computer Technologies in

an interesting way they're kids movies

they're a lot of fun and they've got all

sorts of people that have Danny Trejo

turns up as Uncle machete

and you get

um Steve Buscemi turns up in there you

also get Ricardo Montalban lots and lots

of really good actors who come in and do

some nice work with it who else is in

the Holland Taylor's in their Mike Judge

Christopher McDonald yeah it's just a

lot of fun to watch the Spy Kids movies

and the people who were watching these

as kids are now adults and they've got a

nostalgic love of them but I picked

three movies on disc up for a buck and

they're on individual discs they didn't

cheap out of it

but I kind of like the Spy Kids movies I

remember watching them when they first

came out and enjoying them at a certain

level I like the visual imagination

that's used

in these movies but they're all science

fiction yes the parents are spies and

the kids end up getting a whole bunch of

spy gadgets but the ideas are there and

it's a lot of fun to just sit back and

enjoy at a at a kind of kid level

movies like these recommend them because

they're fun you can watch them with kids

you're not going to worry about boobs

you're not going to worry about too much

violence and they do have a great visual

imagination Pedro modva

the skin I live in with uh Antonio

Banderas

this one is creepy body horror science

fiction a doctor called Robert legard

played by Antonio Banderas

has kind of been living a functions his

wife died and was burned in a car

accident and he is a very gifted surgeon

with a lot of skills who creates a

replacement for his wife in a very

creepy and unusual way this is first

level of body horror it's it's a strong

sexual violence sexual scenes violence

and coarse language

if you haven't seen the skin I live in

it's worth checking out I'm not going to

tell you any more about it because that

would be too much spoilers

but it's creepy as and banduras is

really good in it and if you haven't

seen it you definitely should

it's um it's disturbing isn't it odd the

disturbing is entertaining for some of

us but that's the way things go that's

why David Cronenberg had a career this

one's a little kind of low budget

Japanese movie from earlier the 21st

century which is put out by chameleon

films

summertime machine Blues is a bunch of

uh students are in a science fiction

Club in a school who end up going into

different time loops there there they

are there and there are all sorts of

little bits in detail like why where's

the remote control for the air

conditioner it's hot in the summer but

nobody can find the remote control for

the air conditioner and why do things

keep charging around and what's

happening there and why do I see my

friend over there when he's standing

next to me

it's a lot of fun and it's a plays with

time Loops in a really interesting way

and in a way that's kind of sweet it

plays almost like a live-action anime TV

series in a way but I kind of like it

the characters are engaging

the time travel aspect is done very well

with very very very few

special effects shots

but a really tight script which brought

you from the start and just pay

attention to every little detail because

there'll be a payoff of those details

later in the movie I like it a lot it's

sweet it's fun it's in a kind of special

kind of the Japanese equivalent of

annealing Comedy almost and it worked

for me I bought it on spec

and I like it a lot you pick it up from

chameleon films

put a lot of Japanese stuff on this

video so maybe it's time to do something

else Andre tarkovsky let's do a couple

of tarkovsky Solaris if you've seen the

Remake this Stephen Soderberg did with

George Clooney you've got to check out

the Original Gangster Solaris I prefer

it to the George Clooney version based

on the novel by stanislaw Lim who was a

great polish science fiction author

Solaris is about a space station

orbiting a planet called Solaris which

is a living planet and a cosmonaut

called Chris arrives to investigate a

series of mysterious and bizarre

occurrences among the crew what he

discovers a supernatural phenomena which

cause repressed and hoarding memories to

take on physical form including that of

his late wife starts out on Earth and

then goes to Solaris it does a lot with

very few special effects but yeah

there's a lot of extras on this one I

picked up this copy in Scotland oddly

enough in 2004. in Inverness at a

borders Bookshop in Inverness that shows

you how long ago it was

um I went a bit with middle-aged geek

girl and one of the moves I picked up

because it was there she I won and I was

allowed to pick up four DVDs so I picked

up Solaris because I wasn't sure I could

get a copy in Australia which I couldn't

at the time but yeah it blew my mind

when I watched it uh Steven soderberg's

version less so I think it's the 90s

movie but I think it's as good as the

original

and yeah it's a masterpiece of Science

Fiction this one and if you haven't seen

it you really should I don't know where

the Criterion have done a version of

this yet but if they haven't they should

have

and it's one you should watch then of

course the other one is a sea of

tarkovsky's the movie which may have

killed him

because he got an infection from the

poisonous swampy places where they

filmed this from based on a stragatsky

Brothers story

stalker it builds its mood crazily well

it's about a stalker who helps people go

into a Zone where an alien artifact has

fallen and where the relationship

between cause and effect

and the nature of reality breaks down

because of this alien artifact

and stalkers are people who could

navigate through those strangenesses

successfully and so the stalker is sent

in with these people to do an

investigation and things get deeply

weird this is a science fiction movie

that does not reward people who don't

pay close attention to it

the closer you look at it the more you

get from it it's a must I really

shouldn't watch these two again soon and

it's just got such a fantastic feel

about it and the way it creates its

world

through locations mostly but also

through the way it's filmed and the way

things happen

and the way the characters interact is

subtle very very powerful I I like this

one a lot it's a movie that I had to

watch two times to really thoroughly

understand

and I think I'm going to watch it a

third time just to bed down that

understanding into really appreciate it

movies like this I like better the older

I get the more experienced in watching

movies I get I'll get more out of them

with repeat viewings because of that

stalker and Solaris I think are ones

that are going to really pay off for me

for all of the hard work I've done

sitting on Mouse looking at screens it's

a really high recommend for me as is

Solaris in fact all of these ones are a

higher recommended if they are great

movies you're going to enjoy so that's

it for this time around

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Bell and just leaving me alone tell me

which of these movies you like

which one do you think I'm entitled

wrong about and which other movies that

aren't exactly the big ones would you

recommend for a list like this so on

that note look after yourselves watch

some good movies watch some bad movies

watch some science fiction movies that

kind of slipped off your radar but you

really liked the first time you saw them

and I'll catch you next time

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thank you