Westworld (1973) - Most people aren't aware that Crichton was also a director who helmed seven big-screen features. This was his first, a sci-fi feature about an amusement park where the attractions go berserk. He'd return to this subject with those pesky Spielberg dinosaurs, but in Westworld, the park is like an R-rated version of the old Wild West City theme park in New Jersey. People could live out their fantasies of bedding a robotic hooker, or, if having sex with a robot sounds a little too metallic for you, you could have gunslinger battles with robot outlaws. One such outlaw, Yul Brynner, pulls a Palin and goes rogue. Thanks to a computer glitch, he starts using real bullets and shooting the crap out of people who paid good money for him to use blanks. I saw this movie when I was 4 years old, and there's a scene where Brynner (perfectly cast as a robot) has his face pulled off to reveal all these circuits and wires. Scared the shit out of me. This is why I don't care for Westerns. Or robots.

Coma (1978) - Robin Cook's novel gets a first rate treatment by Crichton and stars Michael Douglas and Genevieve Bujold. It takes place at a hospital where people are harvested for their organs by Richard "Odie's Mom Loves Me" Widmark. Even if you haven't seen the movie, you're probably familiar with the creepy images of bodies hanging horizontally from the ceiling. One of those bodies belonged to Tom Selleck. The climax of this film, a race against time to save Bujold, remains one of the most suspenseful things I've witnessed onscreen. It scared the shit out of me as a kid. This is why I don't like hospitals.

Runaway (1984) - Speaking of Tom Selleck, he stars in this Crichton-directed schlockfest. A really, REALLY cheesy sci-fi movie from craptastic studio Tri-Star Pictures, Runaway co-stars KISS man-whore Gene Simmons and Kirstie Alley before she turned into Jenny Craig the Hutt. It features killer robots (see a theme here?) and chase sequences featuring smart bullets and robo-roaches. The latter get on you and then blow up real good. This is why I hate roaches, and is also a reminder of my aforementioned dislike of robots, but I love this movie and demand you go rent it. Right now.

Congo (1995) - Crichton didn't direct this, but he wrote the novel upon which it was based. The novel is not very good, but the movie is absolutely horrible and so ridiculous it is a must-see. Congo features Tim Curry and a talking gorilla named Amy. In the novel, Amy signed her words; in the film, Amy's signs are translated by a machine that sounds like a baby doll on crack-infused helium. "Amy BAD GORILLA!" says the machine every 30 seconds. "Congo BAD MOVIE!" says I, but you can make a really cool drinking game out of it. Every time you hear Amy's machine, or see anything preposterous, have a drink. Don't blame me if you get alcohol poisoning.

Rest in peace, Mr. Crichton.