We’re talking 99 cent rentals, folks. No “Arthouse” foreign films and no Sundance Film Festival winners. We’re talking one week or less in the theatre, low budget, fun flicks.
McCale’s Navy-I happen to like Tom Arnold, so sue me! Dead-Alive-see if you can hang on for the lawnmower scene. Brain Donors-a dead on pastiche of A Night At The Opera. Down Periscope-Kelsey Grammer at his easy going best. The Puppet Master series-I love the theme music. Gumbally Rally-Cannonball Run without the ego trip. Shock Treatment-little known sequel to Rocky Horror. Michael Nesmith’s Elephant Parts-funny skits and musical bits. The Stunt Man-My second favorite Peter O’Toole movie. Remo Williams-Don’t mess with Little Father! Buckaroo Banzai-“No matter where you go, there you are.” The Sword And The Sorcerer-I want that sword!
A Roger Corman classic, actually a really good movie on several levels with great deadpan humor - “Mercy Hospital” is fantastic - on a budget that must have featured Jack Benny as auditor.
Scanners is a great sci-fi/horror B film. Exploding heads, a wonderfully gory final psychic battle, and a cast that (with the exception of Michael Ironside, who looked Oscar-worthy in comparison) just about redefined “acting” by “what it is not”. Not Cronenberg’s finest couple of hours, but an old favorite.
Full Moon Entertainment (the folks behind the Puppet Master series) put out some other gloriously bad movies before they started trying to inject deliberate humor, which screwed up the balance of the inadvertent variety–Oblivion largely marked the beginning of the end there. The curdled cream of the crop would be Doll Man, starring Tim Thomerson (of Trancers “fame”) as a hard-boiled cop from a planet where people just happened to be a foot tall. He was armed with the Kruger Blaster, the Most Powerful Handgun in the Universe. On his own world, it vaporized people; down on earth it still blew respectable chunks of people into mist.
Cyborg was, I’m still convinced, Van Damme’s “finest”, as it consisted of no attempt at acting. It was marred slightly by a half-hour walking scene in the middle, but otherwise was redeemed by merely being one long running kickboxing-plus-laughable-knife-fighting match.
I Come in Peace was an amusing tale of giant Aryan aliens coming to Earth, one to turn human brains into an illegal narcotic on their home turf, the other to stop him, and both running afoul of Dulph Lundgren. Featuring deadly flying cd’s, and absurdly large alien handguns that seriously upstaged any other actor involved.
Czarcasm, I’m glad to find someone ELSE who loves "The Sword and the Sorceror)!! The year it came out, 1983, I had won a contest that our local paper runs on picking Oscar winners. The prize was a one-year pass to all the theaters in town. Did I ever see movies! If I like something(like TSATS) I would see it several times. Also saw “Motherlode” a lot, and “Chariots of Fire” at least six times. The latter won Best Picture that year.
I want the sword too, but I’d RATHER have the hunky guy Talon, play by Lee Whats-his-name. Too bad that the planned series didn’t pan out.
Lee Horsley was a hoot, wasn’t he?
I believe the sequel to The Sword And The Sorcerer is being filmed side by side with the long-waited sequel to Buckaroo Banzai.
I just bought a DVD double-feature of 2 Herschel Gordon Lewis drive-in cheapies from 67/68: “For The Hell Of It” and “Blast-Off Girls”. The latter features a cameo appearance from Colonel Sanders. Great 60s garage band soundtrack, too.
For the true “B” movies, you generally have to go back a way. They don’t make 'em like they used to. Russ Meyer is always good. Also classic are “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and “The Switchblade Sisters”. And of course, no mention of “B” movies would be complete without bringing up “Plan 9 from Outer Space”.
As far as B-movies go, wsb, I still think Plan 9 is a bit overrated. If you want to go for Ed Wood, check out Bride of the Monster or Glen or Glenda? Terribly funny movies, both.
But for true B-movie entertainment, I highly recommend the following:[list][]Romancing the Stone[]The Evil Dead[]Ovelords of the UFORoad House
The Beastmaster got mentioned! Yay! That’s one of my favorite all-time movies. It’s just fantastic. I cry every time those weasels sacrifice themselves in the burning pit. Sniff.
I’m not sure if it counts as a B movie, but it is in fact “so awful it’s good” – but The Warriors is a fabulous movie experience. Gang warfare in 1970s New York, with each gang goofier than the last. The Lizzies (lesbian gang), the gang on roller skates, the gang that looks like mimes. My dream Halloween costume is to find a bunch of other people I can convince to dress up as the Baseball Furies, and then ride the NY Subway all night. Probably 99 in 100 people would have no idea what the costume was, but I bet 1 person in 100 would look at us and say "Wow, that just made my night. Well, it would make my night, at least, to see it.
Flash Gordon. It’s a lot of fun because everyone in the cast knows they’re in a high-camp fun movie - except the guy playing Flash. He clearly thinks he’s in a serious film and is just acting his little heart out.
I’ve tried to watch Buckaroo Banzai three times and never made it through. I heard it once described this way: “Imagine a ten part serial based on the adventures of a rock star adventurer surgeon who battles space aliens. Now imagine only seeing parts 3 and 9. That’s Buckaroo Banzai.”
