So, having just come back from seeing “Snakes on a Plane…”
Sporks?
Really … the best way to see this movie is to know that it wasn’t meant to be taking seriously. The makers knew it was a stupid movie and they had fun with it.
It put me in mind of other movies that knew they were working from a stupid premise but decided to have fun with the concept anyway. Not films like “Airplane” which are completely intended to be comedic, but ones that take a subject and lampoon it while at the same time staying true to it’s material.
I think my favorite is a gem called “Back to the Beach.” Both a send-up and a recreation of those old Annette Funicello / Frankie Avalon beach party movies. The makers know the whole thing is stupid and corny, but the go for it anyway.
The best part … at one part Annettes’s daughetr is having trouble with her boyfriend and Annette says (im paraphrasing) “You know what we always did at a time like this? Pajama Party!” Which cuts to a whole pajama party sequence.
Later on, when the surf nazis (yes, there are surf nazis) are having problems on the beach, one of them says “There’s only one thing to do at a time like this” and one of the nazis from the back of the pack yells “pajama party!”
If you’ve only seen the Buffy movie but have the least bit of interest in trying the show, try it. You’ll be in for a real treat. Most fans of the show hate the movie, so if you like it already, you’ll probably LOVE the show.
I’d say most of the Will Ferrell movies I’ve seen played into the fact that they were stupid, especially Anchorman and Talladega Nights. Old School was pretty up front about its stupidity too. I wish I could not laugh every time they come on, but I love them all against my will.
Both of these movies are straight up spoofs though. Is that what the OP is talking about? I feel like he’s looking for movies, like Snakes, that seemed like the makers started out to make a serious genre flick, and ended up sort of making fun of themselves as they realized thier movie was heading inevidably to cheesey B movieland anyways.
Best example I can think of is Deep Rising a stupid monster flick that became increasingly unbelivable and cliched till the last scene, where you realize the director isn’t even pretending to make a serious movie anymore.
That’s sort of why they’re fun. You feel sorta confident that no one could actually put this line of cheesy dialouge or rudiculous plot twist in a movie with a straight face, but your not really positive.
The wolves in Day After Tomorrow? I’m still not sure.
Yeah, I think Tremors is the best example. I also agree with Deep Rising, which is a lot of fun.
Big Trouble in Little China probably fits. And Peter Jackson’s Braindead (Dead Alive), although it’s an over-the-top parody so maybe that rules it out.
There’s a little known B-movie called “Electra” that definitely fills this bill. There’s a few little scenes that show the filmmakers are definitely having fun with the movie. Like the fight scene where the hero’s girlfriend battles two lesbian ninja superchicks, only she has super powers so she rips the heart out of one superchick’s chest and throws it into the other superchick’s open mouth. (Scenes that’ll have your heart in your mouth!) Or the scene where Shannon Tweed dreams that she hacks her stepson’s girlfriend to death with an axe, then pins her stepson to a tree with that same bloody axe, still covered with girlfriends blood, and makes love to her stepson.
Night of the Creeps, with this immortal exchange. (The setup is that the detective is at the sorority house where the sisters are waiting for the fraternity brothers to show up for their dates. But the frat boys have been zombified):
Detective Cameron: I got good news and bad news girls. The good news is your dates are here.
Sorority Sister: What’s the bad news?
Detective Cameron: They’re dead.
And all of the characters are named after horror film directors.
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