I know it's just my cynical brain blocking things out and that there must've been a FEW movies that used effects to beautify an already-good story rather than hide the lack of one, so uh... name some? Ones that aren't remakes or adaptations? Please? For the love of god?
District Nine is a good movie and respectfully you are criminal, sir, for not watching it. Gattaca is two years out of the range you're hoping for, but it was also a good movie which points out that good Science Fiction concepts in the "what if" don't require special effects, just a lot of ideas. I have a DVD of the later which I'm always willing to loan you next time we cross paths.
That being said, if you want good Science Fiction, subscribe to Analog. Decent ideas seldom make it past the Hollywood big wigs as Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Season 8 can attest to.
Well, I don't know, I'm on the fence there. I've heard some folks raving about it and others thought it was a painfully contrived peice of schlock.
I'll have to watch it sometime, no doubt.
With regards to Tolkien, he was the first one I read. If I pick up something like Dragonlance, Tad Williams, Guy Kay, Shannara, whatever-the-fuck-other big-time fantasy franchise, it's like a kid with crayons filling in a JRR Tolkien colouring book. Only with more emo and bullshit.
One of the most commonly overlooked keys to enjoying Tolkien is to understand that he is NOT like these authors of the 60's, 70's, 80's, or 90s'. He is much older and his work reflects this. Tolkien's work is best compared to things like The Wind in The Willows, Ghormenghast, The Once and Future King, Conan, or even Lovecraft*.
*
The two people I have ever read who I felt truly knew what it's like to write a story that really feels like an actual dream are Lovecraft and Tolkien, and even then they do not always hit the mark, Tolkien almost never. But 'almost never' is a damn sight better than not at all.
That's not to say that I think folks like Lewis Carrol are bad authors, just that there's something subtle they miss in trying to replicate the true feel of a dream in the waking world.