"Aliens" : Some nice effects, but actually kind've a crap film.

So many cargo pants in Steel Magnolias.

coulda done with a few more chestbursters imo

I think that one had at least two too many.

are we talking about Dolly Parton y/n

Olympia Dukakis

ok i've started the special edition of aliens (life intervened) and am struck by details that seem lifted right out of "gateway" by frederik pohl.. the family doing "exploring" and getting excited that they've struck it rich by discovering an unknown alien artifact; our hero getting a flunkie job at the spaceport in the cargo bay; the "company" which controls everything; kids running around

it's all scene-setting for the militarized reboot of the main action obv but still

Hm that is a v interesting point of influence, and one that might enhance my liking for Aliens...

ok i've started the special edition of aliens (life intervened) and am struck by details that seem lifted right out of "gateway" by frederik pohl.. the family doing "exploring" and getting excited that they've struck it rich by discovering an unknown alien artifact; our hero getting a flunkie job at the spaceport in the cargo bay; the "company" which controls everything; kids running around

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, May 25, 2012 3:13 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

super true... which reminds me to reread those books, i really like the just scraping by vibe of them, felt new for scifi

added to (very long) reading list, thanks!

its pure scifi so if thats not your thing it might not be yhour thing.

i can dig it

in case you were wondering i mean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-OYKd8SVrI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6oSCng12xQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXxs4vE4-oA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyX_xwh2yPY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMJwtMvesWA

working class scifi is kind of a boring norm by now i think

not if you're watching ALIEN

I strongly disagree; 30+ years later and it still ain't.

no-one's done it better. Battlestar came close but Alien still does the best job of making every aspect of the 'working-class-ness" of the ship tangible and real.

what else counts

i'm not saying "working class scifi" from the 70s/80s isn't great, but at this point "lived in" "gritty" sci-fi environments are sorta ... yawn

for example give me the shiny banal apple store dystopia of minority report or gattaca over the burning trashcans and smudged faces of children of men anyday

sure, but i think it's a mistake to equate burning trashcans and smudged faces with working class sci-fi. star wars, for instance, inspired alien and clearly presents an clunky, industrial, lived-in future - but i'd hardly call its overall sensibility, story and setting "working class". of the major characters, luke is the only one who clearly comes from a working-class background (probably han too, but it's hard to say) and we see only a little of that before he's whisked off across the galaxy to battle dark lords and rescue princesses. other than the disposable stormtroopers, we rarely see anybody actually working for a living in the original trilogy.

repo men is pretty working-class (and distinctly class-conscious), but it's also a train wreck.

I would say Dark Star is good working class sci-fi. Plus it's great.

I should specify that I'm talking about space opera, or thereabouts, I guess. The deliberate juxtaposition of the highest and most optimistic dreams of post-war spaceflight contrasted with the far more-realistic earthbound workaday concerns of actual people doing actual unglamorous schlub work in those environments of hardshelled tubs floating about in low-grav.

In film, this never would have been possible to portray were it not for the changes in the Hollywood studio system of the late 60s/early 70s.

This kinda stuff has been in fiction since before the war, but I don't think it ever elevated to multimillion dollar 35mm until like 35-40 years ago. Flicks like 2001 made spaceflight far more realistic, stuff like Silent Running and Dark Star brought it to the enlisted level, if you will.

yeah and red dwarf and mst3k too but now that everything in sci fi is super gritty and unglamorous i wouldn't mind seeing a new look

i would rather see john carter on mars than another gritty 00s sci fi movie

i would rather see a thoughtful depiction of actual working lives in a visionary far-future context than either "grit" or idealized fantasy

like "wall-e"

lol, yeah, sure

Pluto Nash

"moon"

weird to use minority report as an example of a shiny future as one thing that movie really got right was interleaving the futuristic buildings/tech with older houses, neighbourhoods etc, it def felt way more lived in than most scifi these days

"Moon" was dead-on; we are shown the day-to-day dreariness of a workaday stiff doing wage drudgery.

I separate this from, say, Sunshine, which was a scientific crew

there were tonal problems with the future in minority report -- the whole thing would have been much better as a backdrop to back to the future 2 where the incessant product placement and concept car futurism would have worked for rather than against the movie.

serenity is working class sci fi but i did not like that film at all; haven't seen the TV series.

moon is awesome and a perfect example of this.

serenity is dire

moon was tedious and predictable, occasionally beautiful

district 9 showed the weariness of a workaday stiff

war of the worlds had a deadbeat dad

the road dude was just a doctor

late great you can show yerself to the door at any time

Huh, when did Tombot leave, I didn't know he was still around in 2009.

tombot is still around now isn't he?

Well, holy fuck.

moon wasnt that great imho

On film 4 right now. I guess it's the director's cut, there's stuff I've never seen before - Newt's family discovering the derelict!

Might switch over to hot tub time machine in half an hour though.

Gorman sticking a cigar in his mouth the moment he wakes up might be the best shot in this.

I mean Apone. Sorry Apone.

http://i.imgur.com/0Mh6G.jpg