10 Must See Movies for the Geek in You: a guest post by Cindy C Bennett + GIVEAWAY!

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When I read Cindy's fabulous Geek Girl (my review is here) I instantly had this idea for a guest post which totally discusses all the awesome movies mentioned in this book. What can I say? I'm a geek at heart.

Cindy graciously agreed and compiled this absolutely glorious list of  

10 Must See Movies for the Geek in You

So keep reading and then answer a question for a chance to win your own copy of Geek Girl!

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1.       Star Wars (all 6 episodes)

    This one seems a given, right? A movie series that has spanned 35 years, and spawned

   everything from multi-?? merchandise like toys and t-shirts to spin-off cartoons to a religion has

   to be the top geek-cred movie ever made. 

    Legos has even made a few bucks from the frenzy not only from their toys, but from the Legos

   Wars as well. Legos has an actual Legos Star Wars website. 

   Remember the Star Wars Concert Tour? Folks paid hundreds of dollars to watch a live orchestra

    (which would be very cool) to play songs from the movies while showing clips. Granted there was

a memorabilia display that went along with it. 

“Luke, I am your father,” has to be one of the most quoted geek lines (and usually in not-so-funny

circumstances). 

Five year olds today love the movies as much as their dads and grandpas. In the history of man, has there ever been a movie more fervently loved and discussed that the Star Wars series?
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2. Star Trek 

Star Trek may not be quite as overwhelmingly invasive as Star Wars, but it cannot be dismissed as one of the icons of geekdom. Trekkies, anyone? 

From the original series, which produced four additional series and an animated series, as well as eleven (count ‘em: 11!) movies, including the most recent release which brought all the young geeks who might be allowing Star Trek to slip from the consciousness back into the fold.

Many geeks feel they must choose one or the other of these two series, but for this geek, I’ve got room in my heart for both.

 

Those both seem obvious, so now I’m going to tell you the next 8 movies on my essential geek movie list, some of which may seem surprising.

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3. The Island 

An underrated, underappreciated sci-fi movie in my opinion. 

   This dystopian storyline gives us Lincoln Six Echo, a man living in a Utopian-seeming society, who feels the stirrings of unrest, the feeling that all is not well in Denmark.

  He discovers that his instincts are right, and escapes with Jordan Two Delta—the female clone who he loves illicitly—only to discover that they are clones, created for the purpose of providing body parts for their “sponsors,” the wealthy people who’ve had them created. And that is all the info any true geek would need to be stoked about this movie. 

Add to that the fact that it’s directed by Michael Bay who manages to create some of the best chase-and-then-blow-‘em-up scenes ever, and what more can any geek ask for in a movie?

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4. Eragon

Granted, the movie is not the best adaption of a book ever created, but it is not without its charms. 

Edward Speleers did a fantastic job of capturing the essence of Eragon, from his sense of innocent wonder to becoming a fierce warrior. Here you have a movie with a farm-boy-turned-warrior, a dragon, elves, dwarves, fairies, an evil King, a backstory involving corrupt dudes called The Forsworn, and creepy supernatural beings (Ra’zacs and Shades). 

I thought the movie was well done, particularly the depiction of Saphira. I’m genuinely surprised it didn’t do better in the theaters.

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5. Superman 

Any of the films excepting maybe Superman III.

“It’s a bird, it’s a plane…”  Superman first appeared on the scene in 1938 in comics, making blue spandex and red undies manly. 

   He didn’t show up on the small screen until 1951 and the big screen in 1978 in the flawless form of Christopher Reeve.

What geek doesn’t aspire to fly, withstand bullets, run faster than the eye can see, and have unlimited strength? Of course he has to have his weakness, Kryptonite, because any true geek knows that all superheroes have a weakness of some kind. 

 Superman is an eternal icon that will never grow old, and the movies are essential viewing for a well-rounded geek experience.

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6. Waterworld 

    Yup, I said Waterworld. 

  This is another underappreciated film, set in a post-apocalyptic world where global warming has finally come true and flooded the earth.

  The few remaining survivors have had to adapt—some of them physically, as in the case of the Mariner who has developed webbed feet and gills. 

  “Dirt-cheap” no longer has meaning as dirt is the most valuable commodity on this land of water. People have become hard and mostly unfeeling, watching out for number one; survival is the name of the game. 

The movie is the story of finding humanity once again, and finding dry land where a small group of survivors can repopulate the earth. 

Any movie with Kevin Costner as the tough guy, and Dennis Hopper as the corny-joke spouting bad guy can’t be all wrong. 

I don’t know any geeks who don’t love to imagine the post-apocalyptic world. This movie just gives it to us in techni-color—and gives us the amazing live show of it at Universal Studios.

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7. The Terminator 

       There hadn’t been anything like the Terminator before its appearance on the big screen in 1984—a homicidal robot who looks like a former Mr. Olympia, and AI whose aim is to wipe out mankind. 

 There had been other films with similar ideas, of course, but this one took it to a violent new level, and gave us the overused but always appropriate phrase, “I’ll be back.” 

 Excepting the horrible mistake that was T3 (what is it with the third films? We should just skip them altogether), The Terminator series is a rocking, rolling, non-stop geek delight. 

When you add the excellent but cancelled far too soon series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to the mix you have a near perfect concoction of geek thrills.

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8. Minority Report 

     Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick (yes, that Philip K. Dick), this futuristic thriller gives us a big “what if.” 

   What if we thought we’d come up with technology that would tell us about crimes before they happened, so that we could stop the criminal, prosecute him on the possibility of the crime, and put him away, thereby stopping all crime? What if it were fallible, and one of the most law-abiding, law-enforcing men were accused?

   Okay, if you don’t find that a total geek premise, then you have no idea what a geek is all about.  

When you have a movie with car chases that go up the sides of buildings, and humanoid-type things that are kept against their will soaking in water to “foresee” the future, and the theme of what free will really means, you’ve got a geeks dream movie.

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9. Pretty in Pink 

       Another strange choice, I know, and a departure from all of the previous action films on my list. And honestly, you can swap this one with any Molly Ringwald movie from the eighties: Sixteen Candles or The Breakfast Club. 

These movies put girl geeks firmly into the realm of cool, where they were desired and fought over by the much desired, popular jock. 

 Molly Ringwald was the poster girl for geek girls everywhere who drooled over and longed for the school hunk (yes, hunk!) to not only notice her, but to fall head over heels for her and take her to the prom, all the while allowing her to retain her quirky individuality. After, that’s why he fell for her in the first place.

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10.       All the rest 

  (okay, these aren’t all of the rest of the essential geek movies, but 

it’s at least a good portion of them and ones I prefer): 

The Lord of the Rings (all versions), 

The Matrix (all), 

The Body Snatchers (1955 version), 

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 version), 

War of the Worlds (either version), 

Legend (1985),

I am Legend, 

The Outsiders, 

War Games,

Planet of the Apes (any, excluding the Mark Wahlberg version), 

Alien (all),

Serenity, 

Space Balls, 

Bladerunner,

Zombieland,

A Clockwork Orange, 

The Fly (either 1958 or 1986 version, but not The Fly II),

Labyrinth, 

Starship Troopers (though I prefer the cartoon series to the movies),

any superhero movie (of which we are being blissfully overrun this year and 

for the next couple of years), 

Harry Potter (all, particularly 1 and 7 part II), 

Pirates of the Caribbean (all),

Transformers (particularly the first one), 

Eagle Eye,

Inception,

Shutter Island,

The Black Hole,

Napoleon Dynamite, 

Revenge of the Nerds,

Back to the Future, 

Total Recall, 

The Last Starfighter, 

and anything else that gets your geek pulse pounding.

I will say that the movie industry has been good to the geek community, but that may be because who else will camp out for weeks to get in line for tickets, and spend hundreds of dollars on merchandise from said movie as an adult? 

Even if you’re not a geek, there’s a good chance that you will find yourself enjoying any number of “geek” movies. So, off to Netflix, Redbox, or Amazon you go to watch any of these amazing movies and up your geek quotient (and your geek cred) proportionally. 

Happy viewing!

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What an amazing list! Thanks so much, Cindy! I'm for one going to watch Pretty in Pink. I've never heard of this movie!

Find Cindy C. Bennett on her

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Giveaway

Right, you've seen that massive list made of awesome? :) 

Cedar Fort graciously agreed to provide a copy of Geek Girl to one winner!

Giveaway is open worldwide: If you live in US you will receive your choice of paperback/ecopy of Geek Girl, the rest of the world can win an ebook.

Mandatory entry: 

just add a movie or two for the geek in you to this list in the comments and leave your email. That's it! (we'll see how geeky you are now :)

Extra entries: 

+1 GFC or Networked Blogs follower

+1 spread the info about the giveaway through social media (Twitter, facebook, your blog, etc.)

Giveaway ends 25th of November 2011.

Good luck! 

P.S. just because I couldn't resist here is my addition to the list :)

No need to explain, I hope, why this is so perfect for the geek in you? The gadgets, the plot, the soundtrack. Pure perfection.

This one is old but classic. Love it!

Ciao!