Fantasy and Scifi Movies

by Christy Nicholas

I don’t claim that this is a comprehensive list, but it’s a list of those I’ve watched and enjoyed.

Fantasy, SF and Historical movies

• 1984
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• 300 (Spartans make a stand against the Persions)
• 9
• A Clockwork Orange
• A Man for All Seasons – About Thomas More, who dared to say No to Henry VIII.
• Across the Universe
• Akira
• Aladdin
• Alexander the Great – Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer
• Alice in Wonderland (any incarnation)
• Alien Nation
• Alien/Prometheus franchise
• All the Mornings of the World – Gerard Depardieu – a sad story of a cellist in Provence, France
• Amadeus – Funny/tragic account of Mozart’s life
• Amazon Women on the Moon
• Anne of a Thousand Days – Richard Burton as Henry VIII, story of Anne Boleyn
• Army of Darkness
• Avatar
• Back to the Future franchise
• Barbarella
• Batman franchise
• Battlestar Galactica
• Beau Brummell (James Purefoy, who was Marc Anthony in the above Rome, plays the man who turns the Prince Regent from a fop to a dandy, both fashions of the time)
• Becoming Jane (life of Jane Austen)
• Bedazzled
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• Beetlejuice
• Being John Malcovich
• Beowulf movies – Beowulf (1999, 2007), Beowulf and Grendel, Grendel, 13^th Warrior
• Bicentennial Man
• Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
• Blade
• Blade Runner
• Boudicca – Alex Kingston, Dr. Corday from ER – a Celtic Queen who sacked London in Roman times
• Brave
• Brave New World
• Braveheart – Mel Gibson in 12^th century Scotland
• Brazil
• Bridge to Terabithia
• Bruce Almighty
• Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century
• Canterbury Ghost
• Cats & Dogs
• Charlotte’s Web
• Charly
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• City of Ember
• Clash of the Titans
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Cloud Atlas
• Cocoon
• Conan the Barbarian
• Constantine
• Contact
• Coraline
• Corpse Bride
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Cube
• Dangerous Beauty – courtesans in 15^th Century Venice, a true story
• Death Becomes Her
• Demolition Man
• District 9
• Divergent
• Dogma
• Doolittle
• Strangelove
• Dracula
• Dragonheart
• Dragonslayer
• Dreamscape
• Dune
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Edward Scissorhands
• Elizabeth – Queen Elizabeth I first days in power
• Emma (a Jane Austen book)
• Ender’s Game
• Enemy Mine
• Eragon
• Escape from New York
• Escape to Witch Mountain
• ET
• Excalibur – King Arthur story
• Fahrenheit 451
• Fantasia
• Field of Dreams
• Fire in the Sky
• First Knight – Sean Connery/Richard Gere/Julia Ormond – King Arthur tale, lots of Hollywood on this one
• Flash Gordon
• Flatliners
• Forbidden Planet
• Frankenstein
• Frozen
• Galaxy Quest
• Gattaca
• Ghost
• Ghost in the Shell
• Ghostbusters! (Who you gonna call?)
• Gladiator – Russell Crowe, Roman Empire
• Godzilla franchise
• Goonies
• Groundhog Day
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Harry Potter – all of them.
• Heavy Metal
• Hellboy
• Henry V – Kenneth Brannagh is the English King who wins at Agincourt against the French
• Herbie the Love Bug (many movies)
• Hercules
• High Spirits –
• Highlander – the entire franchise, except the second movie DOES NOT EXIST
• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Hocus Pocus
• Hook
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• How to Train your Dragon
• I Am Legend
• I, Robot
• Immortal Beloved (Gary Oldman as Beethoven)
• Inception
• Inception
• Independence Day
• Innerspace
• Interstellar
• Interview with a Vampire series
• Into the West – a couple young tinker (gypsy) boys find a mystical white horse
• Ivanhoe – set in 12^th England, about crusaders returning from the wars
• John Carter
• Journey to the Center of the Earth
• Jumanji
• Jurassic Park
• Kama Sutra (Indian love story)
• Kat e& Leopold
• King Arthur Movies –Sword in the Stone, Camelot, Excalibur, First Knight, King Arthur
• King Kong movies – (1933, 1962, 1976, 2005
• Kingdom of Heaven – Orlando Bloom – About the Crusades, and fall of Jerusalem to the Muslims
• Kingsmen
• Knights of Badassdom
• Krull
• Labyrinth
• Lady Jane – about Jane Grey, who was queen for a few days before Mary took over (daughter of Henry VIII)
• Ladyhawke – Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick, set in medieval times, with magic and revenge.
• Lara Croft
• Last Action Hero
• Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day-Lewis plays a white man raised by Indians after the French/Indian wars)
• Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Life of Pi
• Lilo & Stitch
• Logan’s Run
• Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit – Many incarnations, not just Peter Jackson’s series. Animations with Ralph Bakshi, etc.
• Lucy
• Mad Max
• Mannequin
• Mary Poppins
• Mary, Queen of Scots – about Elizabeth I’s cousin, unhappy in love.
• Memoirs of a Geisha – set in Japan before WWII
• Men in Black
• Metropolis
• Michael – John Travolta is an angel
• Minority Report
• Mists of Avalon – miniseries about King Arthur times, mostly from the female/pagan viewpoint
• Monsters, Inc.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (silliness and fun)
• Monty Python’s Meaning of Life
• Brown (Judi Dench plays Queen Victoria, depressed after the death of her husband)
• Naked Lunch
• Nanny McPhee
• Night at the Museum
• Night of the Comet
• Pacific Rim
• Pan’s Labyrinth
• Paul
• Pete’s Dragon
• Phenomenon – John Travolta gets hit on the head
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Planet of the Apes franchise
• Practical Magic
• Predator
• Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth)
• Princess Bride (a requirement!)
• Princess Caraboo (exotic girl found in Edwardian England)
• Princess Mononoke
• Queen Margot (16^th century Catholic marries protestant prince)
• Quills (about the Marquis de Sade, with Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix and Geoffrey Rush)
• Ratatouille
• Reign of Fire
• Rob Roy (Liam Neeson – historical character in the 17^th Scottish highlands)
• Robocop
• Sense and Sensibility (another Jane Austen)
• Serenity (Firefly)
• Shakespeare in Love (Gwyneth Paltrow) – Fun in life meets art
• Short Circuit
• Shrek
• Snow White and the Huntsman
• Solaris
• Something Wicked This Way Comes
• Somewhere in Time
• Song of the Sea
• Soylent Green
• Spiderman franchise
• Star Trek Franchise
• Star Wars – the entire franchise, despite not wanting the first trilogy to exist
• Stardust
• Stargate
• STarman
• Starship Troopers
• Stepford Wives
• Stuart Little
• Superman (yes, any of them, I suppose)
• Tangled
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Terminator Franchise
• Tess of the D’Urbevilles (depressing story set in England in 19^th)
• The Abyss
• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8^th Dimension
• The Agony and the Ecstasy – Michelangelo = Charlton Heston, with Rex Harrison as the Pope
• The Andromeda Strain
• The Andromeda Strain
• The Black Cauldron
• The Blood of Heroes
• The Cell
• The Chronicles of Narnia – whole franchise (more than just the recent incarnations)
• The Chronicles of Riddick
• The Count de Monte Cristo – Not really historical, but based in 17^th France, and a well-done movie
• The Craft
• The Crow
• The Dark Crystal
• The Day After Tomorrow
• The Emperor’s New Groove
• The Evil Dead
• The Fifth Element
• The Fly
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muire
• The Ghost and the Darkness
• The Golden Child
• The Golden Compass
• The Green Mile
• The Hunger Games
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• The Indian in the Cupboard
• The Island of Dr. Moreau
• The King’s Whore (Timothy Dalton) – gritty and violent, but very well done
• The Last Starfighter
• The Last Unicorn
• The Last Witch Hunter
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• The Lion in Winter – my favorite – Katherine Hepburn/Peter O’Toole/Anthony Hopkins – Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, parents of Richard the Lionheart, play political games with their children as pawns
• The Little Mermaid
• The Little Prince
• The Lovely Bones
• The Madness of King George (the king that lost the US)
• The Matrix Franchise
• The Messenger – Joan of Arc
• The Name of the Rose (Sean Connery, Christian Slater) – A 12^th century monk tries to solve a murder mystery
• The Neverending Story
• The Nightmare before Christmas
• The Prophecy (creepy Christopher Walken, with Viggo Mortensen as the devil)
• The Purple Rose of Cairo
• The Queen (Helen Mirrim, about Elizabeth II during Princess Diana’s death)
• The Rescuers
• The Room
• The Running Man
• The Secret Garden
• The Secret of Kells – a delightful animated movie about the Book of Kells, an exquisite illuminated gospel from the 8^th century – the kids would probably love this, too. Some scary bits (mean Vikings).
• The Secret of NIMH
• The Secret of Roan Inish – a movie about Selkies, mystical creatures that are seals in the water, but humans on land.
• The Seventh Seal
• The Seventh Seal
• The Stand
• The Sword in the Stone
• The Time Machine
• The Time Traveler’s Wife
• The Truman Show
• The Village
• The War of the Worlds
• The Water Horse
• The Wind that Shakes the Barley – Also Ireland’s revolution
• The Wizard of Oz
• The X Files
• Thirteenth Warrior – Antonio Banderas is a Muslim who goes and helps Beowulf kill the dragon
• Thor/Ironman/Avengers
• THX 1138
• Time and Again
• Time Bandits
• Time Bandits
• Titan A.E.
• Total Recall
• Toy Story
• Toys
• Tremors
• Tron
• Troy – Has Peter O’Toole, Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom – flashy but interesting.
• Twelve Monkeys
• Twilight Zone Movie
• Up
• Valmont (Annette Benning, Colin Firth, 18^th century French nobles playing games)
• Vampire Hunter D
• Van Helsing
• Vercingetorix (Druids – UK title) – Christopher Lambert, about Celts vs. Romans
• Victoria and Albert – about Queen Victoria’s life
• Videodrome
• Waking Ned Devine – an old man wins the lottery – and promptly dies. His friends try to collect his winnings. Hilarious.
• Wall-E
• Wargames
• Weird Science
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit
• Willow – very early Val Kilmer
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
• Witches of Eastwick
• Wizards – Ralph Bakshi!
• Xanadu
• X-Men
• Your Highness
• Zardoz (beware – Sean Connery in a leather strap thong!)