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SCIENCE FICTION IN SEPTEMBER

UPDATES: Fall is finally here! My movie reviews and Star Trek articles are being listed (much to my surprise) at the iMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. My work at VHS Rewind was removed by the administrator, but much of it is still available here.

I’ve been getting “privacy complaints” from YouTube with regard to a video I posted about my history with Geno Cuddy and Mark Jeacoma. I don’t understand the “privacy” aspect of the complaint since this is my experience.

Science Fiction SEPTEMBER, 2026:

It’s interesting that nearly half of the movie is told in flash-forward from the perspective of Vincent Price’s character, François, the brother of scientist André Delambre (Al David Hedison). The Fly was a rare genre movie (science fiction/horror) shot in CinemaScope and Deluxe Color. Most Fox horror (and western) titles were shot in the black & white equivalent RegalScope. The disembodied meow of Dandelo still disturbs me. Interesting poster art.
THE FLY, 1958

After The Fly, the ’60s are ubiquitous with drive-ins, giant insects, and kaiju. It wasn’t until 1968 that filmmakers embraced ideas from science fiction writers again. This time, on a grander scale. This is a movie that still leaves me with questions. Watching it again with my daughter, I saw something I had never seen before. That of the monolith and the idea of God. This is a story with five chapters.

Creation. Evolution. Innovation. Destruction. Re-birth.

The monolith is there every time. This might actually be Kubrick’s most personal statement. It was a movie captured by the young when older people turned their backs.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, 1968

So … Dark Star, John Carpenter’s first feature-length movie (adapted with the financing of Jack Harris), written with Dan O’ Bannon. Everybody who worked on this movie became legends in the ’80s and ’90s.
This movie is insanely fun, equal parts parody of 2001, THX-1138, and Forbidden Planet, as well as a progenitor/inspiration for Alien, The Matrix, and Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And it all comes from a little-known “OSCAR®,” winner (for best live action short) named John Carpenter.
Interesting footnote: Started as a student film at USC, Jack Harris was so impressed, he financed additional footage to make a feature-length movie.
It’s sad that movies will never be made like this ever again.
DARK STAR, 1974

An eclectic career of bizarre turns and evasions, Harlan Ellison was one of the greatest writers of our times. Procrastinator and prognosticator, he never shied away from calling out the bullshit, and he antagonized people it seemed for fun. Actor L.Q. Jones adapted Ellison’s novella. This was a film Ellison loved up until the ending and the final line, which he felt was a punchline the movie didn’t need.

Don Johnson is a young nomad named Vic who, along with his female-tracking, psychic dog, Blood (an incredible performance from Brady Bunch dog, Tiger), roams the countryside looking for food (and the aforementioned women). Vic is led into a honey-trap by an underground matriarchal despot where he is procured for his sperm. This is a brilliant satire about a plausible future.
A BOY AND HIS DOG, 1975

Spielberg had a certain magic.

I think of four movies when I think of Spielberg: Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., and this movie. He could’ve quit while he was ahead, never made another movie as long as he lived, and he would’ve been considered a genius, wunderkind. This is a movie that spans generations. This is a movie my daughter has always loved.

Over the years, there has been one point of contention: Roy Neary. Neary is flawed. He abandons his family, and his responsibilities to go traveling through the cosmos with aliens. As his wife, Ronnie (Teri Garr) is a caricature; the stereotype of the nagging, humorless housewife, similar to a part she played earlier in the year with Oh God! Always a wonderful actress and a beautiful comedienne.

Still, this is a gorgeous movie about communication through music, and John Williams deserves at least half of the credit (as with Jaws) for the movie’s success. This movie is a beautiful thing.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, 1977-1980

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981), Altered States (1981), John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982).

David Lawler, Sept. 25, 2026