#28 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

directed by 

Richard Fleischer

screenplay by 

Earl Felton

I have no idea when I first saw this. I might have been only four or five and I loved it. Every other time I watched it I loved it, as well. At first, the obvious star was Captain Nemo's ship-sinking submarine, the Nautilus (and maybe the squid). As I got older, James Mason as the enigmatic Captain Nemo came to the fore. Peter Lorre and Kirk Douglas (!!) as the comic relief, I always found funny, Douglas' song is goofy, but it works in keeping him comical. When Hallie and I belonged to the Disney Movie club for a little bit, it was one of the first movies I bought on Blu-ray.

We're going to keep it - Mason is still one of the great screen villains and Kirk Douglas is still, well, Kirk Douglas (as is Peter Lorre), but overall, the movie just isn't quite great as my memories make it.

Jules Verne's novels always defeated me because they're filled with long dull sections and the movie mimics that. There's an undersea harvesting scene, turtle-catching, a tour of the Nautilus and an explanation of its power source. It may not take up a lot of the film, but it sure feels like it does.

The action set pieces are still exciting. Douglas and Lorre being chased by natives and, of course, the squid attack are good boys-adventure fun. Coupled with the cool design of the Nautilus, all jagged and goggle-eyed, they're a large reason the movie remains enjoyable, if not as great as my memory wants it to be.

Leading man-era James Mason is the perfect decoction of unamused contempt for world and its conceits. When Nemo speaks dismissively of Ned's (Kirk Douglas) concerns for the sailors on the ship the Nautilus sinks it's chilling. There were few actors who be as cold and heartless sounding as Mason could. Eddie Izzard did a routine where God sounded like James Mason and it makes perfect sense. That Mason is also stunning with his short beard and white-streaked hair doesn't hurt.

A wild part of 20,000 Leagues is Nemo's motivation and goal. When torture at the hands of the English failed to uncover his secrets, his wife and children were killed and he was imprisoned. He and other prisoners escaped and set out to strike a blow against the colonialist empires of the world. That's a pretty radical premise for a Disney movie, especially in 1954.

verdict: as I said, a keeper

James Mason

#26/#27 - 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

directed by 

Stanley Kubrick

screenplay by

Stanley Kubrick

Arthur C. Clarke

2010 (1984)

directed by Peter Hyams

screenplay by Peter Hyams

We just rewatched these a few months ago so felt no need to do so again. They're both keepers. 2001 is the story Kubrick wanted to tell; one focused on aesthetics, design, and special effects. There's a veneer of intellectual depth that hides a paucity of story, and nonetheless, I've come to like it. Better than almost any other sci-fi movie, it gets at the vast, emptiness and loneliness of space and the strangeness of any real aliens we might meet. The design work is absolutely brilliant and all these decades later the effects still look realistic. Though the main actor on screen, Keir Dullea isn't real star - the real stars are Daniel Richter as Moonwatcher, the main monkey man, and Douglas Rain as the voice of the computer, HAL 9000.

2010 is the story Arthur C. Clarke, writer of both movies' underlying stories, wanted to tell; a tale of the endless possibilities for humanity among the stars, of the need, and possibility, of humanity uniting to avoid destroying itself, and the nuts and bolts of space travel. Again, it's a movie I like a lot. Not being directed by Kubrick, it's a much more human and emotional movie. Roy Scheider, Bob Balaban, and John Lithgow are all great as the American crew, and Helen Mirren and Elya Baskin are equally good as Soviet crew members. I find the anti-war, peacenik stuff overdone and dated, but the sentiment is noble. It's the hard science-fiction stuff I love best in the movie. The portrayal of the Soviet ship Leonov and its arrival and flight is the sort of real science I'd like to see more often on the screen.

verdict: both keepers

   Daniel Richter                            -        Natasha Shneider and Roy Scheider

#11 The 6th Day

The 6th Day (2000)

directed by

  Roger Spottiswoode

written by 

Cormac Wibberley & Marianne Wibberley

We only got this and watched it recently so we (really, me) felt no need to watch it again. I think it's barely passable, but it's the sort of sci-fi movie Hallie digs, so we're keeping it. If there's time travel, multiple dimensions, or cloning, Hallie's all in. If you really want a story with cloning, go find a copy of Clifford Simak's "Goodnight, Mr. James."

Verdict: keeper

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sarah Wynter