# What is your favourite “B-movie”?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [June 11, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489 "2025-06-11T19:38:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/21 "2025-06-12T01:01:38Z")
If you want to list several, go nuts.
---
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/22 "2025-06-12T01:06:55Z")
I have a shameful soft spot for _ **Billy Jack** _.
---
### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/23 "2025-06-12T01:13:45Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> My all-time favorite superhero movie: _Zorro, The Gay Blade!_
I recall enjoying watching that repeatedly back in the day.
---
### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/24 "2025-06-12T01:16:15Z")
Of course you know _Amazon Women_ is by the same dudes. I like it much more.
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/25 "2025-06-12T01:19:58Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> Of course you know _Amazon Women_ is by the same dudes.
Not really. Landis was one of the directors of Amazon Women, but the ZAZ team had no involvement in it.
---
### Author:  [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/26 "2025-06-12T01:20:28Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> I remember _They Live_ mainly because it starred “Rowdy Roddy Piper”. So how could it possibly be a terrible movie?
Because it could have been another RRP opus, “Hell Comes to Frogtown”!
---
### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/27 "2025-06-12T01:20:53Z")
Ha! I’d forgotten about that one.
---
### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/28 "2025-06-12T01:58:55Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#):
>
> They Live
This shows for me the problem with calling something a B-movie. _They Live_ is a fairly famous movie. Jonathan Lethem wrote an entire book about it in the series Deep Focus published by Soft Skull Press. It’s one of my 100 favorite movies.
---
### Author:  [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/29 "2025-06-12T02:14:05Z")
So many Nicolas Cage movies, like _Con Air_, _Face/Of_f and _Vampire’s KIss_. Also, the delightfully cheesy _RoadHouse_.
---
### Author:  [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/30 "2025-06-12T02:51:38Z")
Another 80s childhood favorite of mine,
_Midnight Madness_ is a 1980 comedy film about a night time scavenger hunt by teams of college students. It also is the feature film debut for Michael J Fox in a small role.
Also the 1981 sex comedy _Porky’s_.
---
### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/31 "2025-06-12T03:09:46Z")
[Mant!](https://youtu.be/EVEjdGQSzc8?feature=shared) a hilarious B-movie inside a movie. (Joe Dante’s _Matinee_)
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/32 "2025-06-12T05:50:18Z")
This might get me banned…
[The Party Animal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Party_Animal)
Uh… I really only watch for the soundtrack! Yeah, that’s it!
---
### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/33 "2025-06-12T06:37:43Z")
_Two on a Guillotine_
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/34 "2025-06-12T07:15:11Z")
Not sure how the OP defines “B-movie”. The term used to be a financial statement – hpw much money they got to make the thing – not a value judgment of the film’s quality.
I recall a New York Times article from ages ago praising good and often overlooked B-movies. Two that I recall, and agree are great flicks, are **The Incredible Shrinking Man** and **D.O.A.** (the original, of course, the one with Edmund O-Brian and the Bradbury Building). I saw the former again recently, and its special effects were better than I recalled. I’d love to see the remake it today. Not only would the effects be much better, with CGI (the spider can be a black widow, as in the book, rather than a hairy tarantula), and they could explore the sexual themes that they could only hint at in the 1950s. **D.O.A.** needs no defense fro me – a very _noir_ film in which a fatally poisoned man hunts down his own murderer.
A few others:
**Panic in Year Zero** – Ray Milland guides his family to safe ground after a nuclear bomb wipes out Los Angeles. Apocalyptic science fiction on a budget. Very well thought out.
**Creation of the Humanoids** – sounds much cheesier than it is. The acting’s atrocious, but there’s something arresting about this low-budget flick about relations between humans and very human-like androids in the near future.
---
### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/35 "2025-06-12T07:57:32Z")
The excellent and entertaining books _Video Trash and Treasures_ really liked _Repo Man_, _Local Hero_, _Harold and Maude_, _Withnail and I_, and Sybil Danning. Hard to argue with these. Are these “B-movies”? They are if you think they are.
> **[Video Trash & Treasures](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1836706.Video_Trash_Treasures)**
>
> "Never trust a mutant, that's your motto, isn't it?" Y…
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/36 "2025-06-12T08:02:52Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> Sybil Danning
Given that she’s nicknamed “the Queen of the B-Movies,” her work definitely qualifies. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/37 "2025-06-12T08:18:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Not sure how the OP defines “B-movie”.
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> Are these “B-movies”? They are if you think they are.
I agree that a B-movie is in the mind of the beholder. Me, I’ve always used the definition from the days of drive-in movies: there would be a a major feature (the A-movie) and a filler to complete the night (the B-movie). Typically, the B-movie was not as expensive as the A-movie, nor as heavily marketed, and it was often a genre picture (western, heist, blaxploitation, noir, science fiction, etc.). The B-movie would be shown first, to keep the audience waiting for the A-movie. Plus, while all that was happening, there would be more revenues from the snack bar.
So, for example, in 1973, the drive-in would show _Electra Glide in Blue_ first (the B-movie), and _The Sting_ second, as the A-movie. In between, enjoy the dancing candy bars, previews of upcoming attractions, and PSAs of what to do if you accidentally drive off with the speaker attached to your window.
Point is, that, to me, a B-movie is whatever came on first at the drive-in. That’s my definition.
---
### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/38 "2025-06-12T09:42:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Not sure how the OP defines “B-movie”.
I guess I would define it as a low budget and campy movie, with poor script, poor acting, cheap sets, and mostly single takes.
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> Harold and Maude
That’s one of my favorite movies, thought I wouldn’t consider it a “B” movie.
A few “B” movies I love that come to mind:
**Beyond the Valley of the Dolls**
**Rock ‘n’ Roll High School**
**Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS**
**Death Race 2000 (1975)**
**Sleepaway Camp**
Not sure about **Beyond the Valley of the Dolls** , though. Yea, it’s stupid and campy, but it’s so well done that I put it somewhere between “B” and “A”.
**Clerks** is one of my favorite films. Even though it was very low budget, though, I’m not sure I would define it as a “B” movie.
---
### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/39 "2025-06-12T09:54:57Z")
Oh gosh, I forgot to mention my favourites. Here, in no particular order:
_Two-Lane Blacktop_
_Vanishing Point_
_They Came to Rob Las Vegas_
_The Cheyenne Social Club_
_The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox_
_A Big Hand for the Little Lady_
_Death Race 2000_
… and any number of AIP beach party movies. They were all silly and fun.
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489/40 "2025-06-12T10:03:05Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> I guess I would define it as a low budget and campy movie, with poor script, poor acting, cheap sets, and mostly single takes.
See, this is why I included the economic definition. The NYT article clearly didn’t think of the “B” movies they reviewed as campy, badly acted, or having cheap sets. “B” movies just didn’t get as big a budget.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489.md?page=1)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favourite-b-movie/1019489.md?page=3)