http://www.cinemaroll.com/tags/time bandits New posts about time bandits http://www.cinemaroll.com/Science-Fiction/Six-Campy-Scifi-Movies-You-Should-Watch-Again.181105 These five campy movies will entertain to no end! Supplement your DVD collection or have a friend buy them so you don't have to! Enjoy them today! That is to say throw stuff and make comments about what's going on on-screen.

1. Time Bandits (1981)

   
   
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   Written by Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin (former Monty Python member) Time Bandits is perhaps the most surreal and well casted "campy" science fiction movie of them all. Starring such actors as Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelly Duvall, and Ian Holm this movie is not lacking in any aspect except for seriousness. In fact I generally laugh all the way through this movie. Its pokes at various historical figures as well as the portrayal of a 'common' Western family make for a fun ride through and through. (And to think when I was younger it scared me batless! I wouldn't watch this movie for the world. And now? I laugh.)
   
   A young boy is dragged into the interspatial adventure with some dwarves who have made off with a map of time portals. This map allows them to navigate time through a series of doors that open at particular times. In pursuit of the map is the Evil One and the Supreme Being. Through the wall of a room and into time they go.
   
   I love this movie because of its off-the-wall humor and its somewhat surreal nature. I always laugh when I see Sean Connery (as Agamemnon) or Ian Holm (who plays Napolean) doing their scenes. We take them so seriously now and this offers a different side of their acting careers.

2. Back to the Future (1985)

   
   
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   I will actually address all three of the Back to the Future series here simply because they can be viewed as a single contiguous work (with bathroom and snack breaks of course). Robert Zemeckis, who directed the movies, is actually credited along side Bob Gale as a writer. The level ov involvement within the movies, that is the attention to detail and polish of the films makes them classic and able to be reviewed time and again.
   
   Basically if it's a conundrum that was hypothesized about with time travel it happens in these movies. The year is 1985 and Marty McFly witnesses the death of his friend and mentor Doc Brown at the beginning of the first movie. He takes the time machine that the doc invented and goes back in time to attempt to stop the death from happening. Unfortunately he winds up a tad bit farther back than he expect. 1955. He accidentally prevents his parents from meeting for the first time.
   
   The second movie concerns the future of McFly's family. His son is dated to be imprisoned for some crime and so Doc brings Marty forward in time to fix it. By accident someone manages to bring back an almanac from the future. The past begins to change and McFly and Doc Brown race to save not just Marty this time but the whole world.
   
   The third movie concerns the past. Doc Brown is accidentally taken into the past when the time machine is struck by lightning at the end of the second movie. Marty immediately receives a telegram from Doc Brown outlaying his where-abouts. In basic Doc is slated to die five days after he arrived. Marty approaches the 1955 version of Doc and they unearth the buried time machine and send Marty back.
   
   I love these movies. They are mind bending and extremely funny. I enjoy watching these quite often (when I have an available 6 hours to use). Of any of these movies in this review I would suggest these three the most. These are truly classic, a trilogy well done.

3. Galaxy Quest (1999)

   
   
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   In some ways I pity Tim Allen. The fact that he is stuck with Christmas movies and that he's been type-cast into that kind of role I find sad. It is movies like Galaxy Quest that I consider a highlight of his career. He plays Jason Nesmith who plays Captain Peter Quincy Taggart from a Star Trek rip off show that went off air in the 80's.
   
   Nesmith, and later his fellow actors, meet some aliens in distress at a Galaxy Quest convention. Nesmith takes it as an off acting job and winds up in deep interstellar space in the middle of a battle for the very survival of their species (the aliens, not Nesmith).
   
   Plenty of pot shots are taken at the old Star Trek series and movies and the characters are given depth that most lampoons simply do away with. This is guaranteed to please the hard core science fiction fan as well as the casual viewer. May you laugh. Lots.

4. The Last Starfighter (1984)

   
   
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   This movie is here because of its unintentional campiness. This is one of those movies that took itself entirely too seriously. Not only is it a poor ripoff of Star Wars but its also based on earth. It was one of the first movies to make extensive use of computer generated special effects. Because of this it looks like a video game (much like Tron).
   
   Basically a kid has too much time on his hands and he winds up getting a high score on an arcade game. The arcade game is actually a test for skill so that pilots can be found to fight against some generic bad guy who wields a generic bad-guy staff that goes KCHING when he pushes a button. Typical megalomaniac with a big head and delusions of grandeur. This typical bad-guy manages to make a deep strike on the fighter base that housed all of the Starfighters. And this kid is the only one left. Thus The Last Starfighter. Begin the epic journey.
   
   Because this movie is so campy it is hilarious fun just to watch without a thought towards what it stole from other movies or even why. There are quite a few classic moments as well. I watch this movie from time to time to remember and to laugh at how corny it is. Watch with a loved one or like minded friends. Yell commentary at the screen and throw stuff.

5. Lost in Space (1998)

   
   
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   Lost in Space was supposed to be serious. But it falls into the trap of taking itself seriously and turns into a campfest of fun. With the best bad-guy actor on staff (Gary Oldman of 5th Element fame) and an outstanding cast of good-guys this movie is campy but also well endowed when it comes to special effects.
   
   Earth has been polluted and the recycling technologies have come online too late. So the heads of state and military are building a warp gate to another habitable planet. Trouble is there's terrorists (Sedition by name) and they actually have to send the Robinson family plus change there to supervise the building of the other end of the gate. This entails years of cryogenic sleep and no real social life once they get there. But things don't happen so cleanly. And agent of Sedition sneaks on board and breaks some stuff and the ship begins to plummet into the sun. Someone gets the brilliant idea that because they can't get out of the sun's gravity well they should use the new and untested hyperdrive technology to go through the sun in a slingshot manuever. It works. And they're lost in space.
   
   This movie is campy but also a well done adaption of the show that aired on CBS for so many years. I watch this movie sometimes on the off chance I need a reminder of what original campy scifi looks like. This one is also good for a laugh.

6. Tron (1982)

   
   
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   And last but not least is Tron! One of the greatest science fiction films of all time! Not only is it visionary (in that nothing like it was produced before or after) but it also has charm and most importantly, camp.
   
   For those not familiar Tron is about a renegade computer watch-dog program called Tron. But this is a 'fight the power' kind of movie so Tron is the good guy. Well, one of them. The evil mainframe computer is at odds with almost all of the programmers that have spent any time coding programs that run on its hardware. One night one of the programmers, Flynn, is fiddling around one night with a matter rearranger that could teleport things like oranges and the mainframe zaps him with it and sucks him into the computer world.
   
   Tron was a revolution in computer graphics. When they rendered off the computer effects for certain elements they rendered in trillions upon trillions of colors and had to dumb the final ultra-high resolution images down into something that was usable on screen. This is one of my draws to this movie. The other of my draws to this movie is that it is an original concept in the science fiction universe that hasn't been attempted since. The story is solid as are the characters and there is plenty of room for laughter as well.

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