If you want to list several, go nuts.
I have a shameful soft spot for Billy Jack.
I recall enjoying watching that repeatedly back in the day.
Of course you know Amazon Women is by the same dudes. I like it much more.
Not really. Landis was one of the directors of Amazon Women, but the ZAZ team had no involvement in it.
Because it could have been another RRP opus, “Hell Comes to Frogtown”!
Ha! I’d forgotten about that one.
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.
So many Nicolas Cage movies, like Con Air, Face/Off and Vampire’s KIss. Also, the delightfully cheesy RoadHouse.
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.
Mant! a hilarious B-movie inside a movie. (Joe Dante’s Matinee)
This might get me banned…
Uh… I really only watch for the soundtrack! Yeah, that’s it!
Two on a Guillotine
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.
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.
Given that she’s nicknamed “the Queen of the B-Movies,” her work definitely qualifies. ![]()
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.
I guess I would define it as a low budget and campy movie, with poor script, poor acting, cheap sets, and mostly single takes.
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.
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.
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.