Top 100 sci-fi movies of the 70s - Page 2

46. Doctor Who (BBC TV Series)

The Jon Pertwee run: 1970-1974 / The Tom Baker run: 1974-1981

I am by no means an expert but if we're naming Sci-Fi TV shows, we've gotta mention the good Doctor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by duke fleed 

45) Buck Rogers In The 25th Century 1979 Daniel Haller.  Gil Gerard is Captain William "Buck" Rogers!  Buck arrives...500 years in the future to battle Pamela Hensley and the Draconian Empire...EEEEEEEEEEvil Doers who want Conquest of Earth!

let's not forget Erin Grey as Col WIlma Deering.  DAMN was she hot.

Other than Erin Grey in her skin tight suits, this is the only part of Buck Rogers I care to remember.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

let's not forget Erin Grey as Col WIlma Deering.  DAMN was she hot.

Yep.

Andy Bain, I agree that Erin Grey was so...enDeering, as Colonel Wilma!  However there were alot of attractive Guest Stars looking to...Buck, Rogers!  Actresses like...Pamela Hensley, Anne Lockhart, Markie Post, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dorothy Stratton, Ana Alicia, Pamela Susan Shoop, Judy Landers etc.  

47. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Taylor, 1971)

By the time the plague was contained, man was without pets. Of course, for man this was intolerable. I mean, he might kill his brother, but he could not kill his dog!

Of the original series, this is, after the original and Conquest, the best one, and compared to the first two takes a lighthearted direction without diminishing the philosophical impact of the film. And then the (great) ending happens.

Erin Grey?  Sure, she was fine.  Me, I was all about Pamela Hensley:

Even Dr. Heuer agrees on that score.

Deeba deeba deeba ... Tweeky ftw!

48.  Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973), dir. Denis Sanders

What's killing all the menfolk?  Sex with Bee Girls?  The hell you say!  According to IMDb, Nicholas Meyer was so horrified by this flick he tried to get his name taken off of it but like Roger Ebert and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, instead he wrote his way into legend!

Speaking of trademark 70s sound fx: Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh!

49.

TV Series 1974-1978

The show that taught me how to be a man,.,and pull off a leisure suit.

50. Land of the Lost (1974-76)

Essential Saturday morning for kids and stoners.

Despite its camp reputation, some well-regarded sci-fi writers, including some from the original Star Trek, wrote for the show. Respect due.

51) Ufo Robo Grendizer, Join Duke Fleed and friends as they battle the...EEEEEEEEvil Emperor Vega The Strong for dominion over Earth!  See the marvel that is...Grendizer as Go Nagai's finest super robot out duels Vega's endless ships, robot beasts and inept field commanders.  Grendizer is the tale of Duke Fleed.  On the eve of his wedding to the daughter of Vega The Strong, Duke's would be Father in law sends a devastating attack of Duke's home planet.  After stealing the...Grendizer, Duke crash lands on earth where he is adopted by a kindly scientist.  Eventually there is a base built under the farm of Danbei Makiba, and that farm becomes a proving ground for the now healthy Fleed in his super robot Grendizer against all that Vega The Strong has.  Eventually Duke is given a support team consisting of Makiba's daughter Hikaru, Duke's sister Maria Grace Fleed, and Koji Kobuto whom was the pilot of Mazinger in another Go Nagai Anime!  Duke's friends each get a support/attack ship capable of great destruction.

52) Space Battleship Yamato 1974 Yoshinobu Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto!  One of the most...Awe-Inspiring Space Opera's of any medium, as there have been...6 feature anime films, 1 live action, and a series that ran 3 seasons, plus a US version aka Star Blazers that is nearly as good.  Earth is besieged by Gamilon Planet Bombs.  The Earth Defense Force, using tech from a peacefull planet transforms the WWII Battleship Yamato into a space faring Battleship of the Earth Fleet!  Led by Captain Okita and his young officers, as they try to save earth.  Hurry Yamato/Star Force you have...1 year to save earth!

There are enough good SF films left (both legitimate and for the camp value) that this detour into TV land is a bit disappointing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard Dickson 

There are enough good SF films left (both legitimate and for the camp value) that this detour into TV land is a bit disappointing.

I agree but I'm on empty. If you've got some up your sleeve, then let's have 'em already.

I think TV shows are OK.  They're part of the scifi scene and there was a definite cross-current between the big and small screen.

Meanwhile, in 1972, this happened...

53.  The Thing with Two Heads (1972), dir. Lee Frost

Did this movie really happen?  It's hard to remember back without feeling like you hallucinated the whole thing.  Ray Milland is a rich dying racist who manages to get his head attached to the body of a wrongfully convicted death row inmate played by defensive tackle Roosevelt Greer.  Wacky fun ensues.  I wish I could say the racist changed his ways and both heads lived happily ever after but fate can be cruel, even for rich industrialists with an army of mad scientists.

54. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) d. Jim Sharman

The glorious fetish-ization of & ode to the classic science fiction & horror of yore.

55.  Meteor (1979), dir. Ronald Neame

Before Armageddon... before Deep Impact ... there was METEOR!  Universally loathed, this turkey about a meteor hurtling towards Earth which forces brave Americans and Soviets to band together to save it is credited with helping to destroy the great B movie house AIP. 

56. Phantom Of The Paradise (1974) d. Brian De Palma

This might be a stretch for some but I've always felt that the Phantom - draped in space-suit tight leather, steel, & Moog electronica - was an icon of weirdo 70s Sci-Fi, even if the film itself was primarily a horror fantasia.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

A handsome post, yt, but Supes is already in at #18.

DAMN IT!  I couldn't believe it hadn't been picked yet, which is to say it was.  I got a back up!  Editing now...

The Incredible Melting Man (1977)

it says "horror" but he was an astronaut that returned to earth.....

Deathsport 1978

w/ David Carradine

(I'm dating myself by saying that I saw this in a theater when it was released)

59. Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)

Classic Shatner, an ecological fable and a great "Nature on a Rampage" flick.

60. Food of the Gods (1976) d. Bert Gordon

Sure, Night of the Lupus had big rabbits, but FotG ups the stakes with giant wasps, rats, and a killer chicken! Not for animal lovers: they kill real rats.

Nature struck back in a huge way in the '70s.  Amen, brothers.

61. Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), dir. John Hough

Yes, it was a kiddie film but science fiction nonetheless!  Tony and Tia are aliens who need to the help of Eddie Albert and a Winnebago to get out of the clutches of evil Ray Milland and his henchman, the great Donald Pleasance, and find their way home.  I was obsessed with this movie as a kid. 

62. Sapphire & Steel (BBC TV Series 1979-1982)

Long before The X-Files, there was this serial about two extraterrestrial "Operatives" with mysterious powers who investigate bizarre metaphysical & interdimensional/time-warpy phenomena. Atmospheric & heady as hell, the show is worth noting for it's mind-blowingly disturbing final episode.

63. Quintet (1979) d. Robert Altman

A fascinating, confusing failure from Altman, I love it for being such an odd duck. Just don't ask me to explain the rules of the Quintet tournament.

No no NO! I knew someone was gonna offer Quintet! It is a TERRIBLE AWFUL EYE-GOUGING experience of a film. It's Altman's Batman & Robin. It's crushingly dull, bleak to the point of parody, incredibly cheap looking (the costumes look like they were stolen from a local high school), the screenplay lacks any awareness of basic story structure. & it appears to have been inexplicably filmed through valleys of vaseline. I'm sorry, it isn't a fascinating failure, it's just an outright failure of filmmaking. It makes Popeye look like Nashville. I fucking hate Quintet.

HATE IT!

We need some Doug McClure up in this bitch.

64.  The Land that Time Forgot (1975, Kevin Connor)

Quote:

Originally Posted by VTRan 

25. Rollerball (1975) d. Norman Jewison

 

 

 

Excellent choice.
 

65. Starcrash (1978) d. Luigi Cozzi

This would-be "special effects extravaganza" Star Wars cash-in is not, in any way, shape, or form, a "good" movie. But in the right frame of mind (drunk) it can be highly entertaining. Plus it has Joe Spinell as the eeeevil Count Zarth Arn and a sexy-as-fuck Caroline Munro in extremely revealing clothing. You could do worse.

Mister Falcon, Don't forget...Christopher Plummer is in Star Crash as well.  Also, Before he was a...Knight Rider,  Before he...Baywatched attractive life guards, Before he was...FURYous as Colonel Nick...David Hasselhoff's Star...Crashed into theaters near you!

Did someone say Doug McClure?

67. Coma (1978) dir. Michael Crichton

Excellent creepy-as-hell late 70s Sci-Fi/Horror from Crichton & Robin Cook. Bonus points go for the appearance of Lois Chiles in one of her few non-Moonraker roles.

68,  The Cat from Outer Space (1978), dir. Norman Tokar

Disney's foray into scifi yielded some flicks that have stood the test of time and others that, well, didn't quite get swept up in the remake bug.  The Cat from Outer Space was like Rain Man with an alien kitty, with the ever-lovable Ken Berry in the Tom Cruise role.  A++ if you watched it as a kid.

For your consideration:

Rabid (1977) d. David Cronenberg

An experimental medical procedures results in the patient becoming a blood-sucking freak, with every victim infected in this way becoming a rabid zombie. This results in urban chaos throughout the city when containment fails.

Body horror to be sure, but also a bit of science out of control. It's a stretch, but I think the film fits.

Agreed. Rabid fits. It's very much science fiction horror in the Mary Shelley tradition.

70.  Fantastic Planet (1973, Rene Laloux)

I was torn about Rabid and Shivers.  <3 all Cronenberg so, fair game.

71. Futureworld (1973), dir. Richard T. Heffron

The sequel to Westworld... yes, there was a sequel.  In a cautionary tale about the dangers of corporate manipulation, or maybe about robots and cloning, Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner are chased through the amusement park by clones of themselves!!!  Note that Yul Brynner's name is boxed in the credit block, but alas, just a cameo in a dream sequence. 

72. The Terminal Man (1974) dir. Mike Hodges

The implantation of a tiny computer in the brain of an epileptic man causes him to unknowingly become a mindlessly vicious killing machine for 3 minutes a day. A silly & heavily flawed yet curious slice of campy, self-serious 70s Sci-Fi, The Terminal Man happens to be one of Terrence Malick's all-time favorite movies.

73. Idaho Transfer (1973), dir. Peter Fonda

People on 'ludes should not direct.  On second thought, 'ludes for everyone!  This early '70s gem directed by none other than Peter Fonda ponders what might happen if Earth were on borrowed time and a bunch of scientists decided the answer was to send some young people into the future to figure things out, or fix it, or repopulate the Earth, or something.  It's like The Terminator without robots, but well worth the .99 VHS copy!

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla

75.  Yog, Monster From Space (1970), dir. Ishiro Honda

aka Space Amoeba!  This space amoeba crashes to Earth and invades the bodies of several giant mutations, wreaking havoc on a small South Pacific island the likes of which Japan hasn't seen in ... well, pretty intense crustacean combat, let me tell you.

76. Chariots of the Gods (1970)

I guess it depends on your opinion about alien astronauts visiting the Earth in times past as to whether this is considered "sci-fi" or not. But c'mon, let's be serious. 

The whole thing is up on Google:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-373807185570806915

Randolph Carter, I agree.  Moonraker is...Awesome!  I also include it in my...Top 5, of...007 films.

"Any higher, Mr. Bond, and my ears will pop!"  Count me in!