Occupation Movies Tag

Occupational Oriented Movies (Utenzi: Science Research)

*** My Favorite 14 Science Research oriented Movies ***

Absent Minded Professor (the 1961 Disney classic)


Fantastic Voyage (1966, based on a book by Issac Asimov it featured Rachel Welch in a wetsuit)


Colossus: the Forbin Project (1969, interesting movie about a computer that took over the world)


The Andromeda Strain (1971 movie based on the Crichton novel)


Young Frankenstein (1974, Mel Brooks--that says it all)


Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Indiana was a working archiologist so this qualifies)


Back to the Future (1985, A Time Machine in a... DeLorean?)


Project X (1987 Matthew Broderick movie dealing with animal experimentation)


Stargate (1994, more anthropologists at work)


Jurassic Park (1995, everyone knows this movie, especially lawyers!)


Outbreak (1995, very bad science but what can you expect from a movie based on 'The Hot Zone')


Independance Day (1996, the research part wasn't until near the end but it qualifies--and is a kick-ass movie)


Starship Troopers (1997, research on how to kill 'the bugs')


Spiderman 2 (2004, nuclear energy research in this great flick)


Science research is portrayed poorly at best in television and film. Perhaps the worst of the movies above in that regard is Outbreak but I liked it anyway. Just don't believe that you can derive antiserum in a few hours from a monkey--or that a 4 pound monkey can have enough blood to supply a whole friggin' town! Anyway, the movie got its title from a book by Robin Cook that was okay--but had no relationship to the movie at all--and the movie was actually based on a book, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, that wasn't very good, was supposed to be nonfiction but definitely wasn't and despite all that was an amazing read. Scary stuff!

And talking about amazing reads, if you've never read Jurassic Park--please do so. Despite it's extreme anti-science bias I still loved it and have probably read it at least 8 times since it was published--a long, long time ago. Crichton also wrote the book Andromeda Strain but that was back when I was a kid, long before even Jurassic Park.

Of the movies on this list, 6 of them are based on books (though Starship Troopers is only distantly related to the book) and one on a comic book. And I've read all of those. I need to spend more time outdoors!

Comments

Anonymous said…
there was a movie a while back about a mission to mars. I didn't see it, based SOLELY on the commercial, which had a bunch of the actors hovered around a computer screen, looking at a double helix, and one of them proclaims "that looks like HUMAN DNA!"

AAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!
utenzi said…
I saw that movie once my library got the DVD. It was sooooo bad. A great cast just wasted. Not even the special effects were that good. And logic? Why bother with bloody logic!
Anonymous said…
Actually, the science in Jurassic Park was pretty crap. Fun to see a movie about palaeontologists, though ;)
Anonymous said…
Hey! I followed you back to your blog from a comment you posted on mine. I'm gonna have to do a favorite movies entry on my blog. That was fun to read, esp since we're about the same age apparently. Anyway, my entry for science based movies (loosely) is Timeline. Okay, so it is really more history and sci-fi but it was a cool movie. The whole wormhole/can you "fax" a human thing was hilarious.
Anonymous said…
What was fictional in "The Hot Zone?" Because, um.....that book scared the poop outta me.
Anonymous said…
Looks like it's time for me to hit the library and the video store. LOL!
Lois Lane
Anonymous said…
I guess Weird Science wasn't really about science... oh well!
;-)
Anonymous said…
Timeline by Crichton is a good one to add to your list & the lead actor is good looking which is always a plus.
utenzi said…
I don't know if it was crap, Rizlablue, but there were holes in it. I remember the book better than the movie and Crichton usually gives a good account of technology--though I rarely agree with his editorial content.

Both Natalie and Cris mention Timeline but I never saw it. I read the book it was based on, another Crichton novel--and not one of his best. I'll have to check the movie out soon.

The Hot Zone was loosely based on incidents that did happen here in Virginia and verious places abroad but the description of the events and people were often highly embellished. And while Ebola is one of the more dangerous diseases we know of, Preston's accounts went beyond the actual scope of the disease. And as a person the guy's a bit self obesessed.
Anonymous said…
Timeline is one of the rare instances of the movie being far better than the book. Usually I prefer the book but not this time.

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