ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Bongpopete has only made 76 posts on All Sci-Fi, but he always had interesting things to say.

Below are three examples of Pete's contributions, including his humorous rant about Pepe from 20 Million Miles to Earth!
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20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

I didn't like the Ymir.

I hated that the Ymir kills a farmer's German Shepherd.

I HATED PEPE!!!!!!!!!!

For me, the best part is the ship crashing.

And the cause of basically ALL the trouble is PEPE!!

The War of the Worlds (1953)

One of the true GREAT scifi films!!!!!!!

Poor Ann Robinson....basically suffers a mental breakdown from right after her Uncle is killed till the end of the movie.

She is pretty much in shock from then on.

This movie shows the one thing that the Spielberg version doesn't (though it teases us with making us think it is about to) which is the opening battle between the military and the Martians.

No, this film isn't a movie version of the book and it only shares a few points with that novel . . . but divorced from the Welles story this film IS still probably the best movie dealing with an overt alien invasion where the subject matter is not handled with humor.


Battle Royale (20)0)



I love this movie.

I thought I would just leave it at that, but no . . . I will explain a bit more about what it is. HAS anyone else seen this?

'Battle Royale' came out in 2000 and was based on a best selling novel in Japan by the same name Batoru Rowaiaru.

The novel right at the outset makes it clear that this is an alternate timeline. WW2 in the Pacific was a draw for example.

The film doesn't make that point really clear, but obviously the events indicated at the beginning haven't happened and it appears to take place today..so . . . alternate Earth.

Very loosely the basic idea could be compared in some ways to Escape From New York and Lord of the Flies. As explained at the beginning of the movie, disaffected youth have become almost uncontrollable in schools, rejecting their parent's and country's cultural beliefs and frightening them.

The Japanese government establishes an act where once a year (in the book it is multiple classes) an entire class of school students are kidnapped (after having been chosen by lottery) and moved unconscious to an isolated location (in the film, an island) where they are made to fight to the last student (oh, and to the death btw).

After being told of what has happened to them, and they are given a bag with food and water and a weapon they are made to leave and begin. They have three days to accomplish the elimination of everyone of their classmates but one. At the end of three days, if there are more than one left or anyone who tried to opt out is left, all are killed by the detonation of a collar around their necks.

The story had the greatest potential for being turned into a gratuitous 'torture porn' flick . . . which is unfortunately what would happen if made by Hollywood.

However Battle Royale avoids this completely. There IS blood, but not the way Hollywood would revel in it.

The film is about high school students, and all the student cast were of that age when they made the film.

The film has been thought to be an allegory to many things, so you really need to come to that opinion on your own — though teenage angst, third world children soldiers, and reality tv are but a few.

Bottom line is, this is not a Hollywood film, and not an exploitation one either. I don't know if there is an official English dubbed version of this or if you simply have the subtitles. But don't let that stop you.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)