Ten Classic Sci-Fi Films

Star Wars (the original trilogy) - Sci-fi at its best. A space opera that brought childhood back into the movie theaters. Sure, the acting in Star Wars: A New Hope, might have been creaky and the dialogue horrible. But the movie(s) captured the sense of primitive awe and thrill in all of the best mythologies.

Blade Runner (1982) - Ridley Scott's Blade Runner is a sheer masterpiece of style and imagery. Outside of the original Star Wars films, no other movie captures a world as completely detailed and realized as this one. Though the film was marred with various screen versions that either truncated the film or added an unnecessary narration, Scott's vision, adapted from the Philip K. Dick story, still holds up. A timeless classic.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978) - Like most of Spielberg's early films, CET3 spins a tale of childhood wonder and awe in all things extraterrestrial (a theme he would revisit again with E.T.). CET3 imagines what would happen if aliens came out of hiding and made contact (hence the film's title). The film ends with a spectacular sky show when the aliens finally reveal themselves.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) - Released during the height of the 1960s flower power movement, Stanley Kubrick's entry into sci-fi territory addresses spiritual themes and features a coda that brings new meaning to "tripping the light fantastic."

Alien/Aliens (1979/1986) - Ridley Scott's original Alien took horror conventions and put them in outer space. (The film's tagline was: "In space, no one can hear you scream.") With space creatures designed by famed surrealist H.R. Giger, Alien was a no-hold's barred thriller that took sci-fi in entirely new directions. James Cameron's 1986 follow-up took one of the characters from the original, Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley, and turned her into an action hero. Where Alien was a chiller, Aliens became a thrill-a-minute rollercoaster ride with a cast of memorable characters and a theme of female-empowerment that survived throughout the franchise's various incarnations.

War of the Worlds (1953 version) - Nothing against Steven Spielberg, but his 2005 adaptation of H.G. Wells' sci-fi classic of the same name doesn't hold a candle to George Pal's 1953 original screen version. Sure, the CGI affects are creaky (those damn wires!), but this film version has a charm all its own. The editing and pacing, more than anything, makes this movie move like clockwork.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - This 1951 sci-fi classic starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, in spite of its antiquated innocence and naivete, still packs a punch and has a timeless message that is still much needed in today's crazy world. Hmm, maybe that's why Hollywood has signed up for a sequel with Keanu Reeves.

The Terminator (1984) - James Cameron's 1984 time travel classic is a genre-bending (sci fi, thriller, romance) thrill-a-minute, and boasts one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous catch phrases ("I'll be back."). But it's the tender love story between time traveler Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) and Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) that is the real heart and soul of this film.

Thing From Another Planet/The Thing (1951/1982) - Both the Howard Hawks original and the John Carpenter remake are classics in their own rights. The B&W 1951 version is requisitely spooky in all the right ways, with a stunning sequence when the Thing (James Arness) breaks into the compound, only to be set aflame by the men holed up there. Carpenter's version takes the same theme and kicks it up a notch, exploring themes of distrust and paranoia that are still chilling more than twenty years later.

Brazil (1985) - Terry Gilliam's sci-fi classic, parts Blade Runner, parts 1984, is a dystopian nightmare that also happens to be pretty funny. Starring Jonathan Pryce as a milquetoast civil servant who finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare after trying to correct an administrative error, Brazil, like Blade Runner, faced interference from studio executives who wanted a happy ending, but the director stuck to his guns and managed to get his version released in theaters. Thank goodness for that.