New Great Sci-Fi Film

[yakers]

Just saw a most interesting sci-fi film, on the level of the best I have seen. Sleep Dealer ( Video review: 'Sleep Dealer' - Los Angeles Times ) is written with a 'voice' similar to Philip K Dick, one of my favorite writers and one I thought difficult to match. It does not have the special effects of Star Wars or the characters of Firefly but the technology elements of a William Gibson story.
Even more interesting the film is in Spanish with English subtitles. I think I have only seen US and Japanese sci-fi movies so this is an interesting element in itself. Hope a lot of people see this one so I can get into some good discussions. I was disappointed that there were only a few people in the theatre, hope this one doesn't slip away like Serenity.

 

[FinallyRetired]

Thanks, looks interesting. The theme reminds me of Chaplin's Modern Times.

 

[socca]

Thanks for the tip. Like many geeks, I'm fond of sci-fi. The film isn't available from Netflix on DVD yet, but it's listed in their database so it should be available one of these days.

 

[dex]

I like scifi films also. This one reminds me of Metropolis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(film)

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of good scifi films out there. By scifi, I mean writers who are knowledgeable about science and the potential implications for society.
Take Soylent Green. When it was written (the book; not the movie) the issues it raised were new and based on science.
Soylent Green - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Too much of what passes for scifi these days is someone throwing a space ship or alien into a detective or rescue story. I do notice that some foreign films do take more chances with their story lines than USA films.

 

[Amethyst]

Bladerunner is my #1 favorite science fiction movie of all time and one of the few movies I've watched more than once (I've probably seen it half a dozen times).

I'm also fond of anime; unfortunately, husband does not care for it at all. But he loved the "rogue robots" scenes in Wall-E, which owes a lot to anime.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Bladerunner is my #1 favorite science fiction movie of all time and one of the few movies I've watched more than once (I've probably seen it half a dozen times).

I'm also fond of anime; unfortunately, husband does not care for it at all. But he loved the "rogue robots" scenes in Wall-E, which owes a lot to anime.

Hey yeah! Bladerunner was great. Boy I watch it all the time on reruns. Great acting. Well ok maybe not "great" but its really really good

 

[bssc]

Looks interesting. Most PKD films can be mindblowing. Besides Bladerunner, his stories were made into Total Recall, Scanner Darkly and Minority Report.

 

[deserat]

Bladerunner is awesome and one of my favorite all-time movies - and the story/book by Dick of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was good, too. I had watched the director's cut, but the original cut is better. The overlaying of the "Maltese Falcon-like" narration really makes for a better movie. The film is so dark and the dialogue sparse, that without the narration one gets lost and can't quite catch the philosophical questions that are inherent in the movie.

I agree that good sci-fi needs to have a sound basis in the science - what I find fascinating in Heinlein's book "Stormship Troopers" is that the depictions in that book are coming closer and closer to reality - I love the remote monitoring sensors and executive screen of everyone on the battlefield - did you see the development of the exoskin material that could be used by soldiers? Also, the developments in remote monitoring and the ability to send the information where it needs to go has gotten a lot better.

I'd love to see the Richard K. Morgan books made into a movie or two. Also, Neal Stephenson and his trilogies are odd books and are interesting as well - he's moved into the historical fiction genre, but is relating it to scientific developments/ideas.

Minority Report was awesome, too.

To the OP - thanks for the suggestion - maybe I'll try and listen to the Spanish and hang on translating

 

[Nords]

I'd love to see the Richard K. Morgan books made into a movie or two.

Whoa. It'd be hard to see how a movie could surpass the nightmares that Morgan's books have delivered...

 

[mickeyd]

Thanks for the heads up for the movie Sleep Dealer. I have not heard of it, but when it arrives at the Cine-mark I will be glad to pay $1 on senior citizen day and take it in. If I miss it there, I'll make sure that the local library adds it to their DVD collection when it comes out.