Blade Runner

I was putting together a Top Ten list of my all-time favorite movies the other day--I know, I'm silly.

Anyway, surprisingly, Blade Runner made the top of the list.

Now, to explain my rationale behind the decision, I'll give you a few details about the movie. Blade Runner was a sci-fi movie made in 1982. It stared Harrison Ford. The movie was based on a Philip K. Dick novel--if I'm not mistaken the title of the book was "Do androids dream of electric sheep?"

The movie itself had a pretty simple premise. In the future, clones were made to work as slaves in various trades. They only had a 4 year lifespan. 4 clones figured out they were clones and were going to expire. They decided to track down their maker to reverse the expiration date. Harrison Ford's job was to track down the rogue clones and kill them because that's just what you do when clones are being naughty.

Anyway, I'll spare you the details of the all the plot twists and whatnot. Suffice it to say, I liked the movie, which brings me to the point about the movie that I liked.

There are 3 types of sci-fi movies:

1. Really really really bad sci-fi movies...ridiculous plots....nauseating dialog...stupid gadgetry...bad special effects...and I'm sorry to say this, but Star Trek falls into this category.

2. Good sci-fi movies that result in negative consequences...classic dialog...good special effects...clever plots...however, 10 years later, some bonehead is still wearing the the storm trooper costume, going to conventions and speaking the "language" of one of the characters. Again, Star Trek still falls into this category, but then again, so does Star Wars. Sorry, nerds.

3. And finally, really good sci-fi movies. They come and go. The only time you ever hear about them is when people say, "yep, that was a good movie," but there aren't any spin-offs or sequels. The movie simply stands on it's own and exists as an inspiring work of art. This is something that rarely if ever happens in the sci-fi genre--Blade Runner is the best example I can think of. It has all the components of a really good movie--Alien and Aliens were also good.

Actually, Aliens is the rare example of a sequel being better than the original.

I put these movies up there with Casablanca or Roman Holiday.