Science Fiction
Science fiction as a genre of film making has been an element of the cinema experience since the earliest days of the motion picture industry. These films have explored a great range of unique topics, including many that cannot be readily presented in other genre. Science fiction films have been used to explore sensitive social and political issues, while often providing an entertaining story for the more casual viewer. Today, science fiction films are in the forefront of new special effects technology, and the audience has become accustomed to displays of realistic aliens, space battles, energy weapons, faster than light travel, and distant worlds.
This genre has produced many memorable films, as well as a number that can be considered mediocre or even among the worst examples of film production. It took many decades, and the efforts of talented teams of film producers, for the science fiction film genre to be taken seriously as an art form by many critics. The very best of these films may be scrolled below, or for Sci-Fi TV Series, select the green 'Televison Shows' heading on left, and then the 'TV Sci-Fi' option.
Planet of the Apes: 5 Movie Collector's Edition (Blu-ray) (1967)
5.7/10
Director: Franklin J Schaffner, Ted Post, Don Taylor, J Lee Thompson
Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, Jame...
Multiple-disc box set includes: Planet of the Apes Beneath the Planet of the Apes Escape From the Planet of the Apes Conquest of the Planet of the Ape... Read more
Planet of the Apes (1967)
5.7/10
Director: Franklin J Schaffner
Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, Jame...
The original, classic sci-fi film based on Pierre Boulle's novel "Monkey Planet" stars Charlton Heston as Taylor, an astronaut who ends up stranded on... Read more
Seconds (Blu-Ray) (1966)
7.7/10
Director: John Frankenheimer
Starring: John Randolph, Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, Will Geer
Rock Hudson is a revelation in this sinister, science-fiction-inflected dispatch from the fractured 1960s. "Seconds", directed by John Frankenheimer,... Read more
Seconds (1966)
7.7/10
Director: John Frankenheimer
Starring: Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer
Rock Hudson is a revelation in this sinister, science-fiction-inflected dispatch from the fractured 1960s. "Seconds", directed by John Frankenheimer,... Read more
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
7.3/10
Director: Francois Truffaut
Starring: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack
In a future society all books are destroyed, so that hope for humanity resides in those few outcasts who have committed them to memory. Based on Ray B... Read more
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
6.8/10
Director: Richard Fleischer
Starring: Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O'Brien, Donald Pleasence
Tremendously entertaining story of medical team reduced to microscopic size, then injected inside human body. Marvellous special effects and set des... Read more
Planet of Blood / Journey to the Seventh Planet (1966)
Director: Curtis Harrington, Sidney Pink
Starring: John Agar, Dennis Hopper, Basil Rathbone, John Saxon, Greta Thyssen, Ann Smyrner
A sci-fi classic double feature. "Planet of Blood" (1966) Aka 'Queen of Blood' - An outer space rescue mission finds a green-skinned woman in a Martia... Read more
The 10th Victim (1965)
6.6/10
Director: Elio Petri
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli
In the 21st Century, where a human vs. human "Big Hunt" is used as an alternative to war, a veteran huntress agrees to kill a "victim" to get a major... Read more
Doctor Who: The Time Meddler (1965)
8.7/10
Starring: William Hartnell, Peter Purves, Maureen O'Brien, Peter Butterworth
A fantastically entertaining classic 'Doctor Who' that sees the Doctor drawn to a mysterious monastery on the eve of the Battle of Hastings. It's Engl... Read more
The City Under the Sea (1965)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Starring: David Tomlinson, Tab Hunter, Vincent Price, Susan Hart
Aka 'War-Gods of the Deep'. Edgar Allan Poe's poem is translated to film by director Jacques Tourneur in his last production. Vincent Price, ruler of... Read more