# Mediocre films that stay with you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 26, 2026, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577 "2026-08-26T15:56:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/101 "2026-08-27T19:13:10Z")
Hey, that man has no dick. Well, that’s what I heard! William Atherton; I gotta see this movie. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan\_myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@aruvqan\_myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan_myers)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/102 "2026-08-27T20:46:24Z")
I saw it on cable back late 80s [like 88, 89?] and actually hated it. I had been reading old Doc Savage pulps [got to love random boxes of auction stuff] and the movie was nothing like them. I can see Ron Ely as Doc, but the others sort of sucked, the plot sucked and the writing sucked. And yes, Xanadu did have a good soundtrack as did Highlander [though I love Clancy Brown as Kurgan =)] ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/103 "2026-08-27T22:32:45Z")
**Outland** with Sean Connery and Peter Boyle. Rip off of **High Noon** set in outer space. Frances Sternhagen practically steals the movie. Very nice to look at, empty headed as a mannequin. Still, I must watch when I can find it. **Looker** with Albert Finney and Susan Dey. Michael Crichton nonsense about models being murdered after being digitally simulated. Not as interesting as it might sound. But, watch I must. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/104 "2026-08-27T22:35:33Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Sheriff JW Pepper from _Live and Let Die_ and _The Man With the Golden Gun_, weeellll, both those films predate _Smokey and the Bandit,_ so maybe the inspiration was the other way round! He was in a series of (IIRC) Volkswagen commercials that were popular at the time. His signature line was “don’t sass me, boy!”. The character was popular enough that they put him in those Bond films. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/105 "2026-08-27T22:40:37Z")
I’d watch commercials for laundry detergent if Susan Dey were in them! 🥰 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/106 "2026-08-27T22:43:36Z")
Does the musical film _Evita_ count? I was obsessed as a teenager. I know it almost completely by heart. Very clever lyrics. I still sing them sometimes. _Such a shame she wandered_ _Into our enclosure_ _Our unfortunate disposure_ _Has forced us to be blunt_ _No, we wouldn’t mind_ _Seeing her at Herrod’s_ _But behind the jewelry counter,_ _Not in front!_ As an adult I have never seen anyone mention this film favorably. [I am seeing all the lyrics online say “how unfortunate this person has forced us to be blunt.” I don’t think so.] ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/107 "2026-08-27T22:51:28Z")
…and **Silver Streak**. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/108 "2026-08-27T22:52:52Z")
So you _have_ seen it. I think they used her doppelgänger in one of the in-movie commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/109 "2026-08-27T23:11:28Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > **Outland** with Sean Connery and Peter Boyle. Rip off of **High Noon** set in outer space. Frances Sternhagen practically steals the movie. Very nice to look at, empty headed as a mannequin. Still, I must watch when I can find it. I second your opinion, including about Sternhagen. There really isn’t much to it, but one keeps watching. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/110 "2026-08-27T23:13:27Z")
“Take two aspirin and call me in the morning. That’s a doctor joke.” 😁 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/111 "2026-08-27T23:57:18Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > **Outland** with Sean Connery and Peter Boyle. Rip off of **High Noon** set in outer space. Frances Sternhagen practically steals the movie. Very nice to look at, empty headed as a mannequin. Still, I must watch when I can find it. Harlan Ellison wrote a wonderful venomous little piece eviscerating **Outland** , and pointing out its manifold mistakes. Well worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![turtlescanfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@turtlescanfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turtlescanfly)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/112 "2026-08-28T01:08:57Z")
The scientific liberties taken in “The Core” were outlandish, some of the acting absolutely over the top, yet I find it strangely re-watchable. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/113 "2026-08-28T02:12:01Z")
This is a weird one. **Munster Go Home**. Basically an extended “vacation episode” of _The Munster_s - but it is in _color!_ That beautiful oversaturated color that can only be found in films and TV from around 1965-1967. Batman ‘66, pop art, swinging London, late French New Wave, comic bookish color. _Munster Go Home_ was the beginning of my love affair with color films made within that brief window. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/114 "2026-08-28T02:55:13Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > _Vanishing Point_ (1971) has been mentioned a couple times, but we need to remember that there were all kinds of pretty mediocre films being made after the success of _Easy Rider_ (1969). … > > Anyway, we ended up with films like _Electra Glide in Blue_ (1973), which is my second submission to this thread. Thoroughly ordinary, but often fascinating to watch. They probably could have saved a lot of the film’s budget and just filmed the ending as a short. A lot of those B-pictures were mediocre but memorable. I’ve mentioned _Vanishing Point_, and you’ve mentioned _Electra Glide in Blue_, and we can add _Two-Lane Blacktop_, _Chato’s Land_, _Duel at Diablo_, _They Came to Rob Las Vegas_, and _Fuzz_. Pretty much anything by Russ Meyer (seriously, how can a film with the name _Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!_ be anything but memorable, based on the title alone?), and by Roger Corman. All inexpensively produced, and pretty mediocre. Heck, I struggle to remember some heavily-hyped and well-acted A-pictures (_Six Weeks_ (1982), Dudley Moore, Mary Tyler Moore; _Hotel_ (1967), Rod Taylor; and _The Hospital_ (1971), George C. Scott). But I, and many of us, I would imagine, can remember the cheap and mediocre B-pictures. The fact that we remember them nowadays ought to say something. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/115 "2026-08-28T04:20:51Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > _Chato’s Land_ Yeah, I’m a sucker for a lot of those revisionist Westerns of the late 1960’s and 1970’s. I can probably (maybe) resist it now, but I’ve probably compulsively watched Chato’s Land and similar films like Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter a dozen times each on daytime re-runs or cable over the decades. I’m not sure I’d rate those two as mediocre per se, though some sure are. But I wouldn’t call them high art, either. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/116 "2026-08-28T05:28:36Z")
I didn’t know that! Interesting, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/117 "2026-08-28T12:25:58Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > He was in a series of (IIRC) Volkswagen commercials that were popular at the time. His signature line was “don’t sass me, boy!”. The character was popular enough that they put him in those Bond films. Similar character, different actor. [Joe Higgins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Higgins_(actor)) as Sheriff J. W. Higgins, for Dodge. > **[Classic YouTube: Sheriff J.W. Higgins And The Dodges Of 1970-1971 -...](https://bangshift.com/general-news/car-features/mopar-car-features/classic-youtube-sheriff-j-w-higgins-and-the-dodges-of-1970-1971/)** > > We found a treasure trove of commercials featuring Dodge Safety Sheriff J.W. Higgins from the early 1970s. Enjoy! He was in print ads, too. [![](https://scontent-xxc1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/646921714_26867808402821716_4509297449155969196_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg_tt6&cstp=mx2048x1578&ctp=s2048x1578&_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=w_e0xKzF07YQ7kNvwEaLcyl&_nc_oc=Adr1bwYUT07lPUtxwFPdrXOJoXD5MClHQ_UryyB_GaN5WrCsLW0G-LTl3sF96aqg3lk&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-xxc1-1.xx&_nc_gid=kf04M_a9prYPr3j3N1pweA&_nc_ss=70289&oh=00_AQHoIv2zzyncpwI-WTGr81SFwixDbuplp3PI9vtpaEftfQ&oe=6A97517F) ](https://scontent-xxc1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/646921714_26867808402821716_4509297449155969196_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg_tt6&cstp=mx2048x1578&ctp=s2048x1578&_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=w_e0xKzF07YQ7kNvwEaLcyl&_nc_oc=Adr1bwYUT07lPUtxwFPdrXOJoXD5MClHQ_UryyB_GaN5WrCsLW0G-LTl3sF96aqg3lk&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-xxc1-1.xx&_nc_gid=kf04M_a9prYPr3j3N1pweA&_nc_ss=70289&oh=00_AQHoIv2zzyncpwI-WTGr81SFwixDbuplp3PI9vtpaEftfQ&oe=6A97517F) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/118 "2026-08-28T14:01:11Z")
I feel like there are two types of mediocre fantasy/adventure/action films. One is the type where the filmmakers are making a movie and doing their best, and it turns out “cheesy, bombastic, and absurd”. I feel like _Highlander_ and _The Final Countdown_ fell in that category. The other is when they’re making a movie that they **know** will be “bad” in some sense, but that’s part of the point. _Flash Gordon_ falls in that category, I feel, as does _Army of Darkness_. You could even argue that they’re neither mediocre nor bad; that’s part of the point for both movies, as @odesio says. > [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Oh also _Moonraker_ only really existed due to _Star Wars._ After _The Spy Who Loved Me_ the film makers even said ‘James Bond will return in _For Your Eyes Only_’, which got postponed after George Lucas made a tonne of cash). I’ve always felt like _The Spy Who Loved Me_ is up there for kind of mediocre relative to the filmic merits of some other Bond movies, but it’s also the ultimate example of the big, bombastic, over the top Bond film in the _You Only Live Twice_ vein. I mean it’s got a supervillain who wants to destroy the world, a huge underwater lair, a supertanker that eats nuclear missile submarines, thousands of henchmen, the first appearance of Jaws, and none of it is as clearly absurd as later movies’ villain’s plans are. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/119 "2026-08-28T14:15:23Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > **Outland** with Sean Connery and Peter Boyle. Rip off of **High Noon** set in outer space. Frances Sternhagen practically steals the movie. Very nice to look at, empty headed as a mannequin. Still, I must watch when I can find it. My one memory of Outland is the way the lesser gravity of its location only applied when they were outside. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577/120 "2026-08-28T14:20:02Z")
**Green Street** R 2005 Rated 45% on Rotten Tomatoes by critics. It’s had something of a revival with audiences as that rating is now 87%, up from around 50% a decade ago. Elijah Wood is something of a post college layabout who decides to move in with his sister living in London shacked up with an ex soccer hooligan. It’s not long before the bored fish out of water Elijah begins spending time in this violent underworld with the younger brother of said ex hooligan who is still very much in the game. I enjoyed it start to finish. It’s not over the top like **The Firm** (1989, not the Tom Cruise 1993 film) or _any_ Guy Ritchie film, it’s more like a modern honest look at something unsavory akin to **American History X**. It’s worth seeing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mediocre-films-that-stay-with-you/1032577.md?page=7)