The Sci-Fi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from Alien to Zardoz

Chris Barsanti

sept 2014 · Visible Ink Press

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From the trashy to the epic, from the classics to today's blockbusters, this cinefile’s guidebook reviews nearly 1,000 of the biggest, baddest, and brightest from every age and genre of cinematic science fiction!

Once upon a time, science fiction was only in the future. It was the stuff of drive-ins and cheap double-bills. Then, with the ever-increasing rush of new, society-altering technologies, science fiction pushed its way to the present, and it busted out of the genre ghetto of science fiction and barged its way into the mainstream. What used to be mere fantasy (trips to the moon? Wristwatch radios? Supercomputers capable of learning?) are now everyday reality.

Whether nostalgic for the future or fast-forwarding to the present, The Sci-Fi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from Alien to Zardoz covers the broad and widening range of science-fiction movies. You’ll find more than just Star Wars, Star Trek, and Transformers, with reviews on many overlooked and under-appreciated gems and genres, such as ...

• Monsters! Pacific Rim, Godzilla, The Thing, Creature from the Black Lagoon

• Superheroes: Thor, Iron Man, X-Men, The Amazing Spider-man, Superman

• Dystopias: THX 1138, 1984, The Hunger Games

• Avant-garde masterpieces: Solaris, 2001, Brazil, The Man Who Fell to Earth

• Time travel: 12 Monkeys, The Time Machine, Time Bandits, Back to the Future

• Post-apocalyptic action: The Road Warrior, I Am Legend, Terminator Salvation

• Comedy: Dark Star, Mars Attacks!, Dr. Strangelove, The Adventures of Buckaroo

• Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Mystery Science Theater 3000

• Aliens! The Day the Earth Stood Still, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Contact,

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Signs

• Mad scientists! Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Abominable Dr. Phibes

• Shoot-em-ups: Aliens, Universal Soldier, Starship Troopers

• What the...?: Battlefield Earth, Prayer of the Rollerboys, Repo: The Genetic Opera, Tank Girl, The 10th Victim

• Animation: WALL-E, Akira, Ghost in the Shell

• Small budgets, big ideas: Donnie Darko, Primer, Sound of My Voice, Computer Chess

• Neglected greats: Things to Come, Children of Men

• Epics: Metropolis, Blade Runner, Cloud Atlas

• and many, many more categories and movies!!

In addition to the nearly one thousand science fiction film reviews, this guide includes fascinating and fun Top-10 lists and sidebars that are designed to lead fans to similar titles they might not have known about. The Sci-Fi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from Alien to Zardoz will help ensure that you will never again have to worry about what to watch next. Useful both as a handy resource or a fun romp through the film world of science fiction. It also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness.

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Chris Barsanti is the author of Filmology: A Movie-a-Day Guide to the Movies You Need to Know (2010) and the Eyes Wide Open annual film guide series. A member of New York Film Critics Online and the Online Film Critics Society, he is a regular film reviewer for Film Journal International, PopMatters, and Film Racket. He has also written for numerous other publications, including The Barnes & Noble Review, The Chicago Tribune, Playboy, Publishers Weekly, The Millions, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Chicago Reader. Barsanti earned his Master’s in journalism from Northwestern University and works in publishing. He cried the first time he saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and thinks anybody who didn’t has a heart of stone. He resides in New York.