THX 1138

George Lucas' first film remains his best one. It's also a perfect example of how to clean up an old film because it sure doesn't look its age. It's a hard sci-fi genre flick that makes the most of its limited budget but slows down just a little too much in the middle to keep its status as a personal favorite.

THX and LUH are living in a closed-off, underground city, that is using drugs to keep its population under control. They are slowly defecting, but the city has many fail-safes in place to warn them about rogue citizens. Even so, together with the help of SEN, they come up with a plan that may get them to the surface.

Stark camerawork, intriguing (but cold) sci-fi designs, and a fetish-like styling give the film a timeless appeal, though the more recent visual upgrade definitely helped. The concept is a little simple though and some scenes feel dragged out beyond their stretching point, but dedicated sci-fi fans owe it to themselves to give this one a go.