ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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This is "hard science fiction" with an attitude. In a mining colony on a moon of Jupiter, the sheriff's name is Connery . . . Sean Connery . . . and he's licensed to kill those hired gun slingers who want to kill him right back when he finds out Peter Boyle is getting rich selling rot-gut narcotics to the hard workin' boys.

This is a slick film with plenty of action and nice special effects — and if you ain't seen it, ya better get outta town by sundown, 'cause round these parts we don't cotton to yo kind!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Enjoy the trailer for this rare action/sci-fi adventure in space. This was Gary Cooper's favorite science fiction movie, but he refused to say why. All he replied when asked if he liked it was . . .

"Yep."
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____________________ Outland (1981) Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Krel]

That was it's nickname when it came out, High Moon. I remember reading a few years ago, that they were going to make an SF version of "High Noon", named..."High Moon". Thankfully, it got no further than the SF remake of "The Searchers", or the "Have Space Suit, Will Travel" movie, that was to be set in current times, and involve a Apollo Moon Suit won in a contest.

David.

[scotpens]

Outland is fairly entertaining if you don't think too hard about actual science or logic. As one YouTuber commented: "The company running the colony encouraging workers to take drugs that would eventually make them go nuts? Not in a universe where it costs millions of dollars to get a single person into Earth orbit, much less as far from here as Jupiter. Workers would be highly skilled, well-trained, and far from expendable."

And furthermore, there are two misspellings right in the OPENING TITLES!

[Gord Green]

As it was with "old English" in the future spelling will be opshinale!

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production,
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~ One of the few movies to be released theatrically with the "Megasound" sound system format. Megasound was a movie theater sound system created by "Warner Brothers" in the early 1980s. Selected soundtrack events with lots of low-frequency content (thuds, crashes, explosions, et cetera) were directed to these speakers at very high volume, creating a visceral effect intended to thrill the audience.

Note from me: I remember a sound system similar to this being used to enhanced Earthquake (1974), Midway (1976), and the theatrical release of both Battlestar Galactic and Buck Rogers (both in 1978). It shook the theater you were sitting in and the ones on either side!

~ Sean Connery lost a major extended cameo role in "Chariots of Fire (1981)" because this movie went over schedule.

Note from me: "Major cameo" sounds like an oxymoron.

~ The original title was "Io", but Hyams was persuaded to change the title by an executive from the Ladd Company following a demonstration on random people, which showed that many would read the title as "number 10" instead.

Note from me: Well, I guess if they'd made a sequel they could call it "11".

~ One of several space/science fiction/fantasy movies of writer-director Peter Hyams - the others being Timecop (1994), Capricorn One (1977), End of Days (1999), Stay Tuned (1992), 2010 (1984), and The Relic (1997).

Note from me: Timecop and 2010 are pretty good movies. End of Days is entertaining and disturbing. I'm not familiar with Stay Tuned and The Relic.

~ Five years after this movie was released, Frances Sternhagen (Dr. Lazarus) joined the cast of Cheers (1982), as the mother of Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger, who played Tarlow in this movie).

Note from me: Well, I'll be darned. I never made the connection.

________Outland (1981) Retrospective / Review


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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GREAT MOVIES FROM THE 1980s!

The 1980s turned out to be a sort of 2nd Golden Age of Science Fiction. This movie is an example. Here's why.
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After the first two Star Wars movies, Hollywood was still reeling from the realization the science fiction was Big Bucks, but they hadn't figured out yet that they didn't all need to have serious stories, they just needed to be seriously well done!

Outland was a serious story . . . but only fairly well done. But the year 1981 did produce several very entertaining movies — some serious, some comical, and some that were fantasy rather then science fiction.

These links lead to some examples, such as —

Escape From New York

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

Looker

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Scanners

Time Bandits,

Caveman
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What movies do you remember from 1980, and which ones were your favorites?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)