Fantasy, Scifi and Historical Movies I liked

This is NOT a comprehensive list, just a list of movies I’ve seen and enjoyed. If you have some to add, please do so in the comments!

I didn’t try to separate fantasy and scifi movies, as some are both. I tried to not delve too deeply into the horror stuff, mostly because I don’t watch much of it, but also because there are HUNDREDS of B movie horror flicks out there.

If there is one of a franchise or series, I just listed it once (i.e., Harry Potter, Star Trek, Hunger Games)

If there are lots of movies on a subject, I listed them in one line (King Arthur movies, Beowulf movies).

I’m sure I missed many. Please add as you see fit. I started doing descriptions, then gave up.

Also – so many kids movies and cartoons are fantasy! I added some of my favorites, but I know I missed lots. Talking animals alone make it fantasy, and Disney made LOTS! And I barely touched anime. Someone else can make that list.

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Fantasy, SF and Historical movies

· 1984
· 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
· 2001: A Space Odyssey
· 300 (Spartans make a stand against the Persians)
· 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
· Dr. Doolittle
· Dr. 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
· 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 C. England, about crusaders returning from the wars
· John Carter
· Journey to the Center of the Earth
· Jumanji
· Jurassic Park
· Kama Sutra (Indian love story)
· Kate & 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
· 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
· Mrs. 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 C. 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 C.)
· 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 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 C. 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. Muir
· 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 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
· 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
· 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 thingy)

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Don’t miss information on Celtic myth and history, as well as practical travel planning tips, and hidden places, in my travel books.

– Legacy of Hunger

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– Mythical, Magical, Mystical: A Guide to Hidden Ireland
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Celtic Fairies, Fables, and Folklore! Bestselling author (top #100 Amazon Canada, #1 in Paranormal Fantasy, Amazon Canada) Christy Nicholas, also known as Green Dragon, is an author, artist and accountant. After she failed to become an airline pilot, she quit her ceaseless pursuit of careers that begin with 'A', and decided to concentrate on her writing. Since she has Project Completion Disorder, she is one of the few authors with NO unfinished novels. Christy has her hands in many crafts, including digital art, beaded jewelry, writing, and photography. In real life, she's a CPA, but having grown up with art all around her (her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother are/were all artists), it sort of infected her, as it were. She wants to expose the incredible beauty in this world, hidden beneath the everyday grime of familiarity and habit, and share it with others. She uses characters out of time and places infused with magic and myth. Combine this love of beauty with a bit of financial sense and you get an art business. She does local art and craft shows, as well as sending her art to various science fiction conventions throughout the country and abroad. Facebook: www.facebook.com/greendragonauthor Homepage: www.greendragonartist.com Blog: www.greendragonartist.net Twitter: www.twitter.com/greendragon9