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Top Ten Science Fiction Movie Actors

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

There are a number of Hollywood stars who seem to consistently make science fiction movies.   I don’t know if it is that they prefer this sort of script in general, or if they keep getting approached following success with an initial film.   Anyway, let’s proceed with the list! 10. Let’s start old school with Charleton […]

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MIND MELD POSTED: The Most Realistic (and the Most Ridiculous) Uses of Science in SciFi Film and TV

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

This new Mind Meld post is over at sfsignal.com, of course.   Be encouraged to go read all the responses over there and leave comments.   Here was my response: I haven’t watched a lot of recent TV shows, or seen every movie that’s come out. I’ll focus on some of the serious movies and TV shows […]

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Stupid Non-Science Fiction Science Fiction Movies

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

There is a class of movies that is supposed to be set in the contemporary, modern day, real world and aren’t supposed to be science fiction.   Technically not, anyway, and not marketed as such.   Or at least have elements so far beyond what can easily be done today, elements glossed over and not even questioned, […]

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Real Science in Movies? Dustin Hoffman, Hero for Real…

Monday, March 30th, 2009

He wouldn’t have been the person I’d predicted to do this, but I am thrilled: THE actor Dustin Hoffman is to spearhead an initiative to put real science into Hollywood science-fiction blockbusters. Hoffman, whose fortunes in sci-fi have ranged from the critically praised realism of Outbreak to the mocked killer squids of Sphere, will host […]

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Science and Science Fiction: The Moons of Mars in Watchmen

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

In the movie Watchmen, there is a scene that takes place on Mars and two large, round moons are visible in the sky.   Mars does have two moons, Phobos and Deimos, but they are not large, round moons.   Phobos and Deimos  are tiny, with an approximate diameters of 22km and 13km, respectively, and not exactly round. […]

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Science and Science Fiction: Humans as Batteries in The Matrix

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

The Matrix is a pretty cool movie, a modern classic with an interesting premise and innovative special effects.   I always had a problem with it, related to the premise.   Some spoilers may follow.   Here’s my problem scene: I’m not going to question the information about how much electricity or heat a human being can generate.   […]

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Movie Scenes with People Exposed to Vacuum

Monday, March 16th, 2009

I’m working on my seminar about science in the movies, and one of the concepts discussed will be what happens when you chuck someone out an airlock without a space suit.     We know what happens.   There was a poor guy who had an accident in a high-altitude chamber in the 1960s and lived to tell […]

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Using Movies to Teach Science

Friday, March 13th, 2009

This is a favorite topic of mine.   I love stories and I love science, and science fiction movies combine these. Unfortunately one or the other usually suffers from the combination.   Still, for the purposes of education, getting the science wrong can be as instructive as getting it right, if not more so. I have been […]

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Why Science Fiction Rules the World (but not enough!!!)

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

In many important ways, science fiction rules the world, but is regularly dismissed by the public at large. I’m going to use an expansive definition of science fiction, as opposed to my usually more rigid definition that demands some adherence to science, and open this up to speculative fiction in general and nearly all novel, […]

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Ten Science Fiction Movie Series that Sank

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

The inspiration for this post constitutes our first two entries: ‘Alien vs. Predator’ was ‘a pity,’ says Ridley  Scott A pity, yes.   What a pithy way of putting it. Alien (1) was a tour-de-force of science fiction horror.   Predator (2), although not as ground-breaking, was also an entertaining film with some originality and nice monster-building. Later […]

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