Cult Sci-fi Favorites
MOVIES!, beginning at 7:25 a.m.
Whether you like future dystopias, alien invaders or space opera action in your sci-fi cinema, MOVIES! has you covered today with six classics, beginning with Logan’s Run (1976), based on William F. Nolan’s novel and set in a future society where population and resource-consumption is maintained by killing people who reach the age of 30. Michael York and Jenny Agutter star in this film that received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. After that, take a trip to another frightening future – the year 2022! – in the Charlton Heston-led Soylent Green (1973). Up next is the iconic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), headlined by Michael Rennie, a robot named Gort, and an eerie and influential musical score by Bernard Herrmann, one of the earliest film compositions to incorporate the otherworldly sound of a theremin, an instrument that would soon become almost an overused cliché in spacey and spooky movies. Lessfriendly extraterrestrial visitors are featured in the next two titles: The Day
Mars Invaded Earth (1962) and Invaders From Mars, director Tobe Hooper’s fun 1986 remake of the 1953 classic of the same name, starring Karen Black. Finally, there is producer Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), one of the more enjoyable of the many Star Wars wannabes that followed in the wake of that 1977 blockbuster. Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon and Saturn Award-winning Sybil Danning lead the cast of this film, which boasts a screenplay by future Oscar nominee John Sayles and a musical score by future Oscar winner James Horner. – Jeff Pfeiffer