I was thinking of the film Vivarium recently…I realized that film comes to mind a lot, and I’m not sure why. It’s got a pretty average IMDB and rotten tomatoes score, and I’d hesitate to recommend someone to watch it.
But there’s something about the set up, the visual elements, and the creepy child, that somehow stuck in my mind.
It feels sometimes like there’s a 2D spectrum of good/bad against memorable/forgettable.
Examples of movies that had that effect on you? And yes, you’re free to say vivarium was completely forgettable, this is going to be very subjective I guess.
I’m kind of attached to the movie A Stranger Among Us, where Melanie Griffith (I’m not a fan of hers) goes under cover in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn to catch a murderer. There’s just something about it that appeals to me. I’ve watched it multiple times. There is no accounting for taste.
I have a strong nostalgic attachment to The Last Unicorn, which is not really a good film but it’s so weirdly haunting and complex I can’t help feeling some kind of way.
“And where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent young maidens you always come to? How dare you! How dare you come to me now, when I am this!”
Beat me to it (on the first reply, too!). I saw this film at the base theater at Naval Air Station Alameda when it came out. The whole audience erupted in cheers at that line.
I would suggest Highlander (the original film from 1986). It’s high art compared to the infamously awful sequel, but is still “cheesy, bombastic, and absurd” in its own right, as one critic put it. But people love it, including me.
Another one I’d suggest is Army of Darkness. It played on a regular rotation on my submarine. Cheesy, ridiculous, and over the top, but a lot of fun.
“Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up! You see this? This… is my BOOMSTICK!”
Troy. It’s not particularly good or laughably bad, but if it’s on TV I can’t not watch it. I also have it in my digital collection to put on when I’m in a Sunday afternoon napping mood. It’s perfect for that because I’ve seen it so many times and it’s good and long.
I think the Queen music elevates Highlander (plus cool if not realistic sword fights) - the same can be said about Flash Gordon – well that and Brian Blessed
For my original contribution to this thread, I’d put Stuart Saves His Family up for consideration. It’s not a good movie, by any means, not a laugh-a-minute series of gags, but surprisingly warmhearted, both a sendup of and a tribute to twelve-step programs.
The Pleasure of His Company. Fred Astaire neither sings nor dances, but it is my favorite of his movies.
(Well, technically, he does dance once. But it is not a Musical Number. It is simply two characters waltzing, and the camera focuses on their dialog, not their dance.)
Curse of the Fly. Third in the Al Hedison/Vincent Price series, it does not have any of the actors from the first two movies. It was shot on a shoestring budget, and it shows, but I still remember it more vividly than I remember either of the first two.
Another vote for Xanadu, Highlander, and Flash Gordon.
I am not a fan of Adam Sandler at all, but Little Nicky amuses me.
I’m not sure it is mediocre, but it was a made for TV film that was so low budget the bad guys don’t speak any lines on camera (because you’d have to pay them more).
I am referring to the David Janssen film Birds of Prey. Not the DC universe film, but a movie about a traffic helicopter pilot who witnesses a robbery, and decided he needs to intervene. It has some of the best helicopter flying (and it’s all real) but it’s also about aging and “growing up”. And the ending still gets me.
A plus one for me on The Last Unicorn from me as well (I have the DVD of course). That’s a wonderful moment you quote, but I’m always haunted by the end - an immortal having a heart is a tragedy in a world of mortals. Such things also made me fear and abhor Mommy Fortuna’s sequence in the film. What a toxic arrogance, pride, and vanity to step forward ever day and torment an immortal…
For similar reasons, the scene with the skeleton, his dreams, desperation and anger lingered in my mind for years long before I got the DVD as well.
The thread on Tim Curry passing also means I want to mention the flawed film The Shadow. I love it, in spite of it’s many flaws (the clash between honestly dark, pulp action, and over-comedic tones especially), but it’s got beautiful images (Shere Khan standing up from the tiled floor as his elaborate costuming slides across it always sticks with me), and the ending song “Original Sin” is so good I bought the soundtrack nearly for that alone!
I was sure The Shadow was going to suck, compared to my mental images of the old radio show (I have such vivid memories of lying on my grandma’s floor listening to Orson Welles on her big old tube radio).
But I loved it, and it’s stuck with me.
Especially certain scenes like Lamont Cranston being able to “see” the bad guy’s lair (it’s a vacant lot to everyone else, but he concentrates and discovers that there’s a 10-story Devilishly Deco skyscraper behind the chain-link fence).
I’m sure that part of its being imprinted on me is that that was a movie that my kids wanted to rent over and over.
(The Rocketeer is another. After 100 viewings I could probably play the whole movie in my head… and thoroughly enjoy it!)
As a teenager, I was obsessed with Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985) - IMDb
Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker as teenage girls who just want to win a chance to dance on TV.
See, I’d say The Shadow is a pretty good film that got lost and underappreciated. Compared to the similar pulpy The Phantom, which is mediocre (but not bad) film that doesn’t stay with me. And The Rocketeer is awesome!
This film couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be a biopic of sorts or a horror movie and it was also somewhat loose with the facts and timeline. But some of the performances were compelling and it was an interesting window into a niche subculture that seems pretty unbelievable from the outside.
