Oh, I’d forgotten all about those. Did you ever see BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON? The premise is believable enough: a senator dies so the governor appoints in his place a convicted traitor who took up arms against the local arsenal. (He pardoned him first.) When Billy Jack gets there he finds- GASP!- that D.C. is corrupt and so he kicks butt (literally). Hysterical.
I read an interview with Laughlin once in which he claims to have a ridiculous IQ (something like 185). It’s not evidenced in this.
When I saw this thread, this is the movie that immediately popped into my head. I’ve seen it so many times because it’s so fucking stupid that I laugh until I almost pee myself. I made my boyfriend (at the time) watch it with me once, and he enjoyed it as well. Especially the scene where the baby rolls down the hill, and keeps rolling and rolling and rolling. My ex didn’t really have a sense of humor, but at this part he laughed hysterically, and said "Isn’t that a bit excessive ?
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Escape From L.A. yet. The scene with Kirk Russell and the Mutant Insane Plastic Surgery Addicts From Hell is worth the price of rental.
Imagine a cross between The Road Warrior and every half-assed b-grade sword and sorcery film of the mid-80’s, add in Tutu wearing henchmen, garden tool weilding mutants wrapped in neon green bandages, a freaky Robin Williams wannabe who does 1001 bad impersonations while continually replicating himself and a lot of other wacky shit I’m totally zoning on. Great movie.
I Married a Monster from Outer Space, Attack of the 50 Ft Woman (either the Allison Hayes original or the Darryl Hannah remake), and The Blob with Steve McQueen are all excellent sci-fi B movies. (You can even pretend to be studying the feminist subtext of the first 2).
Eight Legged Freaks and Lake Placid are recent monster movies in a similar style, and both a lot of fun. The 1995 remake of Piranha is good too, but the 1970s original is meant to be better. I would say Lake Placid is best of the three.
My life will never be complete until I can see Billy Jack Goes to Washington. Michael Medved listed The Trial of Billy Jack in his “50 Worst Movies of All Time”, and mentioned (IIRC) that BJGTW was his next project. But I never realized that it got completed.
The Billy Jack website is down, or I would link to some of Mr. Laughlin’s more “interesting” thoughts.
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Night of the Lepus, starring the B-move standard Stuart Whitman. I think it was originally made for TV, but the classics scenes are those of the giant man-eating bunny rabbits!. They took these extreme close-ups of rabbits with red dye on their little mouths (supposed to be blood), than ran them in slow motion.
Desperado - the guitar case/rocket launcher still cracks me up.
On Deadly Ground - when Steven Seagal writes, directs, and stars you know you’re in for a rare treat. Sticking in an EVIL Michael Caine, in his worst role ever (though this is hardly his fault), is simply a cherry on the cake.
I am astonished that no one has yet mentioned ROBOT MONSTER, a film that actually had real actors in it, as opposed to the director’s cronies.
Particular favorites include the scene where our babe is abducted by the Ro-Man (guy in a gorilla suit with diving helmet) and any of Ro-Man’s utterly hilarious ponderings as to whether or not it’s actually a good idea to go ahead and exterminate the human race. So funny you won’t believe it wasn’t intended to be comedy…
Desperado Oh c’mon, wasn’t that bad. I love this movie. What is not to love? Antonio Banderas all hot, bothered and on a mission to kill just about any bad guy around. Salma Hayek in slow motion parting her lips and stopping traffic and running a book store in a desperately poor section of Where Ever, Mexico. It’s just cheesy.
One of Steven Segal’s movies - I have purged the title from my mind - is an undercover cop who has been in a coma for something like 9 years. And poof* he recovers and is in top athletic form. Loads of fun.