Last week I watched my 20th political drama, and this week, with Ender's Game, I watched my 20th alien invasion movie. So, out of those 20, here are my top 5 and my bottom 5, out of 2118 movies in my Flickchart at the time I wrote this.
Top 5
1. The World's End (2013, #222). This is also one of my top 5 films of 2013, and probably my favorite of the Cornetto Trilogy. A wildly funny take on the idea of an alien invasion.
2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, #259). Old horror movies can feel very dated, so I was surprised at how tense this movie was when I first watched it. It does a great job of building the suspense.
3. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, #320). This one does seem very dated, but I grew up on it and still really enjoy it. The characters are interesting and the story is a good one.
4. Mars Attacks! (1996, #460). Totally flips around the trope of well-meaning aliens that America gets way too aggressive about. Every time the aliens promise it'll be different and then just start gleefully shooting everyone for no reason, I start laughing.
5. Signs (2002, #709). Though this movie really does kind of fall apart once the aliens are seen, I think the build-up throughout creates a nice atmosphere and I enjoy the religious themes explored.
Bottom 5
5. Chicken Little (2005, #1740). A lame, unfunny attempt at retelling a kids' story.
4. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964, #1920). Not nearly ridiculous enough to enjoy on its own as a so-bad-it's-awesome movie. Thank goodness for MST3K.
3. Men in Black II (2002, #2004). I enjoy the first and third in this series, but this second one is painfully awful with absolutely no jokes that work.
2. Prince of Space (1959, #2089). This is probably unfairly low, as I seem to remember one or two unintentionally funny moments, but mostly I just remember it being boring and bad.
1. This Island Earth (1955, #2092). Also probably unfairly low, but the fact that I can hardly remember anything about it certainly doesn't speak in its favor.
How about you guys? What are your favorites and least favorites?
My favorite is the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and I recently loved film Attack the Block as well. Great article! Love the blog title lol
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