Underworld. How can a movie about a war between vampires and werewolves come out so tremendously, painfully bad? It shoulda been a popcorn flick classic.
Groudhog Day was based on a short story called 12:01 A.M. The same year it came out, there was a made for TV movie based on the same story and called 12:01. It starred Jonathon Silverman and Helen Slater and was more true to the story.
That could be what you were thinking of.
As for the OP, I want to mention a small part of Star Trek V.
There’s one shot where the camera is behind Kirk, McCoy and Spock in a shuttle, the camera pans around them and then is suddenly outside the shuttle and pulls away. It’s a very elegent shot, and about the best thing in the movie.
What a great topic, I like it because the movie Equilibrium has such a perfect example.
Equilibrium is an absolutely awful movie; bad acting, bad CG, bad everything… except for gun katas. I just love the idea of gun katas. Gun katas explain how it seems that “heroes” never miss with their weapons and enemies can never hit. It doesn’t make anyone invincible or anything, it makes them “80% less likely to be hit.” It’s just a cool concept that changes heroes from a “superhero” to a believable, skilled soldier.
I can–it’s one of my favorites.
It was. It just wasn’t a great movie. Maybe the director’s cut improves it; I’ll see.
This is exactly the sort of stuff I was thinking of when I started the thread. I’m thinking it would be possible to assemble a great B movie, or even a great A movie, from the scraps of bad B movies that are good and worthwhile. Sort of a Frankenstein approach to movie making.
The fistfight in They Live was only 5.5 minutes. I timed it and even started a thread about it.
The movie was awful, I will admit that (though the set designers did a fantastic job). But track down the book by Richard Matheson. Before the filmmakers gutted it and changed several central ideas of the plot, it was phenomenal. I’ve had my copy for nearly 7 years now and it’s fallen apart.
And I’ll have to throw in any seriously good idea that gets stuck in a Lifetime movie. Any Lifetime movie- they all have the same plot progression anyway.
There’s an old Aaron Spelling TV movie (I think it was a series pilot) called “Velvet” that had a central plot device/set that could work out really well in another context. It’s about a chain of aerobics exercise studios called “Velvet” that are actually a front for U.S. international cops who fight crime under cover of being aerobics instructors.
The really cool thing was the set – each “Velvet” location had a central office with all of the exercise studios radiating from it in a ring. The wall of the studios that adjoined the central office were mirrored on the studio side and one-way glass on the office side, so the aerobics staff could watch any given exercise class at any given time. There was also a secret inner office inside the central office where the Velvet agents could contact headquarters.
I’ve always thought the same setup would be GREAT for white slavers. They run the exercise studios and the instructors are actually their minions. They use the members’ application forms as the basis for an investigation to determine if they are kidnappable. Then they have prospective buyers come by the central office, where they examine their prospective victims through the one-way glass as they exercise and pick out the ones they want.
It would also make for a great scene where a bound and gagged victim is held in the central office, watching her former classmates exercise while they’re picked over by the slavers, unable to warn them even though she can clearly see them.
Great B-movie fodder, indeed.
The only thing I liked about Equilibrium was the end gun battle where they each knock the other guys gun away whilst trying to get their gun into postion. Could be used to go effect elsewhere.
BTW anyone else like the fact Evil Captor posted about white slavers?
I may be wrong about this (its some time since I saw the movie), but I don’t think sleeping with Andie McDowell was what got him out of the loop. I think he did that about halfway through the movie – although, if I was him, I’d remember what I did to get her into the sack, and then do it again whenever I felt the need – she may be a lousy actress, but, hey… 
I believe he got out of the loop by finally executing every single part of the day perfectly, saving the life of the choking victim, resuing the cat in the tree, etc., etc.
<hijack=“Groundhog Day”>Doing everything “right” was what he was TRYING to do to get out of the loop. Thus the scenes with the homeless guy. He dies that day, regardless of what Phil (Bill Murray) does. My memory may be a little muddled, but the scene with the homeless guy happens late in the movie… I pretty sure he gets to the 3rd two days later. So on day Feb3-2 he finds out the homeless guy will die, no matter what he does. On day Feb3-1, he knows his Perfect Day is impossible, but he’s still running around catching the kid falling out of the tree, fixing the old ladies’ flat tire, etc… and sure he ends up getting in Andie MacDowell’s pants. The reason he gets out it because he does all these good deeds knowing they will not work and seduces Rita (MacDowell) without the careful engineering of the entire day as happened earlier in the film. Think of it like a Japanese finger trap, Once he finally stops trying to get out, it’s possible for him to escape.</hijack>
I’d like to nominate Cube. It’s actually a pretty good movie, I just think it could be better.
If you mean that the original idea for the script had the dog being an alien, then I’ll buy it, but AFAIK, it’s not based on any story. Although that “dog as an alien” might have been changed because it was too similar to the Fredric Brown story I mentioned.
The trailer for S1m0ne portrayed what I thought was an awesome premise: creating a computer-generated “actress” who becomes an international superstar. A producer’s wet dream! You don’t have to pay “her”; “she” won’t pull any prima-donna stuff; “she” works on your schedule; and so forth.
It took me about one minute, afterwards, to realize how it was going to really play out: another tired trying-to-fool-all-of-the-people-all-of-the-time farce. (Accurate prediction, I’m told.)
What I’d do with that premise is devote almost the entire film to the producer figuring out how to create this “actress”: what she should look like, how she should talk, and move, what kind of backstory she should have. He would work with the techies to accomplish this, and the story would turn on the release of the film, and the overnight sensation of the new “star”.
The last act would involve the techies realizing that they, collectively, were worth more than any one actress could ever demand. “Give us X amount of money, or we’ll blow the lid off this thing.” Realizing that the techies have nothing to lose by exposing his scheme, while his future depends on their silence, the producer is forced to sign over the entire profit from his film, and perhaps some of his capital. His name is above the title of a huge hit…but he has nothing in the bank to show for it.
I’ve mentioned this on another thread but I think Capricorn One is a good story let down by crappy 70’s special effects.
The idea is that a US mission to Mars is planned but found to be impossible at the 11th hour, so for political reasons the launch and landing is faked and a story is put out that the astronauts are killed on the return journey. The real astronauts are held captive and forced to fake the landing on a soundstage. They are to be killed after they are no longer useful…
I’ll stop there for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet but the intrigue and technology of faking the landing are not given due attention in this film. For example the effect of lower gravity is mimiced by slowing down the film speed of the touchdown. Duh.
With modern special effects and the paranoia cranked up a notch this would make a great film.
It WAS a popcorn flick classic.
Another film that could stand to be stolen from is “Passion Network.” It’s a Skinamax flick, which is weird, because it’s got a wonderfully twisty, gloriously, needlessly complicated plot. A young couple is recruited by a group of wealthy degenerates, who want to have sex with them since they’re very good at it. The guy loves the idea, the gal isn’t too crazy about it. The story is told as a series of flashbacks as the gal makes a report to the cops, which I’ll put in a spoiler box Just In Case:
The gal finally persuades her lover to make an escape from the Passion Network, but he gets shot in the escape attempt. She reports it to the police, who are extremely suspicious of her tale of a secret network of wealthy, powerful horn dogs (and horn dogesses). When her boyfriend shows up at the police station safe and sound and denying her story, saying she’s “a little eccentric” the cops give up on her entirely. Turns out that was the whole idea – the Passion Network and her boyfriend conspired to make her think they’d killed him so that they could totally discredit her with the cops. So she shoots her boyfriend so the cops will HAVE to investigate her story.
With a wittier script and better acting, this could be a very tasty movie, indeed.