A few years ago I started a feature in which I compiled a list of 99 sci-fi films that everyone must see (thus the title of this article) and would every other week post an article making the case for why I felt that they should be in fact seen. Well for one reason or another, this petered out and stopped. But 2023 is the year of resurrection! And so yet another long-dead feature will see new life in the form of actually completing what I started. Hurrah! Below you will find the original article and the complete list with links to the previously published articles. A new entry will come every other Friday beginning January 13th (you know, for good luck). As always your thoughts are appreciated. Let me know if you agree with the list. Did I miss anything? (Keeping in mind this is a list of 20th-century films.)  NOTE: all movies with a review are linked in bold. Enjoy! -PMC

I love science fiction. A simple perusal of this site and you could pick that up pretty quickly. And science fiction movies in particular are my favorite way of mine to pass the time. So I decided to do a feature on this site about the 10 best sci-fi movies of the 20th century. That list soon became 20. Then 30. Then 40 – 50 – 75 and finally, when I reached 99 I stopped. I could have kept going but…

I soon realized that there were just too many great (and not-so-great) films out there and to narrow it down to a top 10 was all but impossible. And ranking them for that matter was just as ridiculous. Sure we all have our favorites but saying one is the best or even better just seemed, well, silly.

So I changed tracks. I’d start with the notion that all of these films have merit and are for one reason or another worth watching. In fact, must be watched. Seriously, your life will be better if you do.

Okay, here’s the deal. I have published my list right down there at the bottom (pretty impressive, eh?), and every other week I will go through the list one at a time and give my pitch on why that film is a “must-see” and important to the genre and just a damn fine way to spend an hour or two with a beer and a bowl of popcorn.

What It Is Not

A countdown. As I said this is not a list to rank these movies, the numbers are for organizational purposes only and should not be taken as one is better than another. All are great for their own reasons (which is actually the point of this exercise). Also, this will not be a review site. There are a ton of real honest-to-god movie reviewers out there who can and do a better job at reviewing films than I do. Which segues us into…

What It Is

One fan to another giving my reasons for why you should take the time to watch great movies. Or maybe you’re not a fan and I can convince you to give a particular film a shot. Now keep in mind not all of these films are “classics” or even good in a conventional sense, of course obviously, some are just out-and-out brilliant and are considered classics or “cult favorites”, but all of them I think are important and have redeeming qualities and are worthy of your time.

So join me each fortnight and I’ll try to convince you why each film on that list over there deserves your time and deserves to be seen. And if you’re not careful you might just enjoy yourself too.

The List