# Worthy cult classics. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2019, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324 "2019-12-03T20:11:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/41 "2019-12-04T15:31:41Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > L.A Story (1991). More Patrick Stewart as the world’s snobbiest maitre’d. Really a very insightful, love letter to how surreal life in Los Angeles was in the late 80s. Steve Martin and Sarah Jessica Parker are great in it. My Blue Heaven, in a similar vein. ---
**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:** [December 4, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/42 "2019-12-04T15:44:56Z")
I don’t think these are listed above: **Creation of the Humanoids** – badly acted, but intriguing low-budget SF **The Last of Sheila** – my all-time favorite mystery movie **Panic in Year Zero** – low-budget SF movie about family escaping nuclear attack on LA **The Quatermass Xperiment/The Creeping Unknown** **Quatermass 2/Enemy from Space** **Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth** – Nigel Kneale’s BBC TV serials from the 1950s got turned into movies in the 1950s and 60s. Highly recommended. **The Adventures of Mark Twain** – Will Vinton’s only Claymation-only feature-length movie. Excellent. **The Lost Missile** – almost totally forgotten 1950s SF movie by Jerome Bixby (whose better-known film **It! The Terror from Beyond Space** I also recommend) about a runaway Cold-War missile causing havoc. **Operation Moonbase** – you’ll alternately cringe and cheer at this movie cobbled together from an aborted TV series written by Robert Heinlein (against his objections). It presents the best and the worst of his writing. The guys at MST3K covered this in their KTLA days, but get the un-hectored edition if you can. **Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders** – TV-movie adaptation of Robert van Gulik’s T’ang dynasty detective, produced by the King of TV movies, Nicholas Meyer. well worth watching. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/43 "2019-12-04T15:49:41Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > …This film caused Omar Sharif to quit acting for awhile. “Wait. You dropped your phony dog poop.” [Top Secret](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088286/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_56), another cult classic. ---
**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:** [December 4, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/44 "2019-12-04T16:05:35Z")
[The Swimmer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swimmer_(film)) [Shadow of the Vampire](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0189998/) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/45 "2019-12-04T16:13:54Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > My Blue Heaven, in a similar vein. I LOVE **My Blue Heaven**! Steve Marin as a gangster in Witness Protection. “It’s the shoes, right? The shoes are _tragic_!” ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/46 "2019-12-04T16:31:15Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [After Hours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Hours_(film)) I was thrilled when I added this to my DVD library. Too bad it isn’t available on Blu Ray. It is strangely overlooked for a Scorsese movie. FTR the My Blue Heaven screenplay was based on the information provided to Nicholas Pileggi for the book ‘Wiseguy’ AKA Goodfellas. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/47 "2019-12-04T17:23:18Z")
Don’t know if these quality as cult films: \*The Endless Summer Blow-Up\* Both were made in 1966 and portray the era in ways that never was. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/48 "2019-12-04T17:34:53Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > I LOVE **My Blue Heaven**! Steve Martin as a gangster in Witness Protection. > > “It’s the shoes, right? The shoes are _tragic_!” “5 o’clock Christmas morning, I run downstairs and look under the tree and what do I find? Uncle Alfresco, dead on the floor, shot through the back of the head. Plus no bicycle. It was a disappointing Christmas on many levels.” Love that movie! [The Committments](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101605/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/49 "2019-12-04T17:45:09Z")
Looking at my handful of Western movies: _Caveman Creepshow Creepshow 2 Easy Rider Rollerball The Andromeda Strain Two Lane Black Top Vanishing Point Wizards_ Probably only _Caveman_ and _Creepshow / Creepshow 2_ are appropriate for casual viewing. The others are sit down movies. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/50 "2019-12-04T17:55:06Z")
I like _Legend_, an early, lesser-known Ridley Scott film. Fairies, elves, a Satan-esque Tim Curry, and a young unknown Tom Cruise. Lots of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/51 "2019-12-04T18:32:26Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Looking at my handful of Western movies: > > _Caveman > Creepshow > Creepshow 2 > Easy Rider > Rollerball > The Andromeda Strain > Two Lane Black Top > Vanishing Point > Wizards_ > > Probably only _Caveman_ and _Creepshow / Creepshow 2_ are appropriate for casual viewing. The others are sit down movies. I have to also recommend Two Lane Blacktop. I was waiting to see if anyone else would. It is a sparse movie about a couple of drifters in a '55 Chevy hot rod who are travelling the country, racing at local drag strips for money, with no particular place to go. None of the characters have names, The Driver is James Taylor (yes, the singer), The Mechanic is Dennis Wilson (The Beach Boy). They meet a guy driving a new 1970 GTO Judge (Warren Oates), and along the way they pick up The Girl (Laurie Bird). The GTO and the '55 Chevy decide to race across country to Washington DC for pink slips (car titles) along old Route 66. The interaction between the 4 main players and the friendship or whatever it is that develops along the way is the story. James Taylor couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag but Warren Oates, seriously, should have at least been nominated for an Oscar. It also has Harry Dean Stanton is a brief spot as a gay hitchhiker. It is in the Library of Congress National Film Registry as culturally historically, or aesthetically significant. It also has one of the best ending scenes in film. Hard to find the movie unless you buy it. > **[Two-Lane Blacktop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Lane_Blacktop)** > > Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 American road movie directed by Monte Hellman, written by Rudy Wurlitzer and starring songwriter James Taylor, the Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. > Two street racers, the Driver and the Mechanic, live on the road in their highly modified, primer-gray 1955 Chevrolet 150 two-door sedan drag car, and drift from town to town making their income by challenging local residents to impromptu drag races. ("Blacktop" means an asphalt road.) As t... ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/52 "2019-12-04T19:17:42Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Looking at my handful of Western movies: In the West, the term “Western movie” means a movie set in the American Old West: > **[Western (genre)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_(genre))** > > The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada.: 7  > The frontier was commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West" and depicted in Western media as a sparsely populated hostile region patrolled by cowboys, outlaws, s... ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/53 "2019-12-04T19:45:19Z")
Not exactly a movie but probably overlooked by many: Going Postal (2010) ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/54 "2019-12-04T19:56:53Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > I have to also recommend Two Lane Blacktop. I was waiting to see if anyone else would. > > It is a sparse movie about a couple of drifters in a '55 Chevy hot rod who are travelling the country, racing at local drag strips for money, with no particular place to go. None of the characters have names, The Driver is James Taylor (yes, the singer), The Mechanic is Dennis Wilson (The Beach Boy). > > They meet a guy driving a new 1970 GTO Judge (Warren Oates), and along the way they pick up The Girl (Laurie Bird). The GTO and the '55 Chevy decide to race across country to Washington DC for pink slips (car titles) along old Route 66. > > The interaction between the 4 main players and the friendship or whatever it is that develops along the way is the story. James Taylor couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag but Warren Oates, seriously, should have at least been nominated for an Oscar. It also has Harry Dean Stanton is a brief spot as a gay hitchhiker. > > It is in the Library of Congress National Film Registry as culturally historically, or aesthetically significant. It also has one of the best ending scenes in film. Hard to find the movie unless you buy it. > > [Two-Lane Blacktop - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Lane_Blacktop) While it’s a solid recommendation worthy of a look, I’m not sure it meets the OPs criterion > [@](#): > > Nothing too deep, please, it’s hard enough to get the exercise done without an existential crisis ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/55 "2019-12-04T20:01:31Z")
I don’t know if [The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgpfMxYFSmE) is considered a cult classic but it’s definitely unusual. A Dr Seuss screenplay staring Hans Conried as the Dr, it’s worth a watch even if it is aimed at the younger set. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/56 "2019-12-04T20:55:37Z")
_Island of Doomed Men_ (1940) Peter Lorre runs a penal colony and utters classic line: “Keep that monkey away from me!” _Rope of Sand_ (1949) Burt Lancaster’s least favorite of his own movies has interested parties – including Lorre, Rains and Henreid from _Casablanca_ – after a hidden trove of diamonds in S. Africa. Great cast, action and dialogue most of the way. _The Magic Serpent_ (1966) Outlandish Japanese fantasy. _Master of the Flying Guillotine_ (1976) Blind master seeking revenge on one-armed man who killed his students beheads all one-armed men he meets. Fun and amazing. _Buddha’s Palm_ (1982) I’m not going to try to describe this one: Along the same lines, see also: \*The Battle Wizard\* (1977) and \*Holy Flame of the Martial World\* (1983). \*The Vultures\* (1984) Variation on \*Kelly’s Heroes\*. _Dog Day_ (1984) Elegy to the American gangster stars Lee Marvin as heist man on the lam in France getting involved with family of degenerates. _Sonny Boy_ (1989) Stolen baby is brutally raised to be a killer by small-time crime lord. Very perverse black comedy. _Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane_ (1998) Extremely low-budget tale of losers at car lot involved with criminals in hunt for car. _Sharkskin Man and Peach Hip Girl_ (1998) A gangster and a girl go on the lam. Wild and wacky. See also: _Adrenaline Drive_ (1999). _SLC Punk!_ (1998) Punks in Utah. _Sugar Town_ (1999) Interrelated stories of LA music scene has-beens and wannabes. _The Woman Chaser_ (1999) Car salesman makes a bitter movie in 1950s Hollywood. _Buffalo Soldiers_ (2001) Soldier Joaquin Phoenix scams in West Germany just before the Wall falls. \*Returner \*(2002) Cute girl from the future enlists a triad gunman’s help to prevent future aliens vs. Earthlings war. _Dog Soldiers_ (2002) Army unit vs. werewolves in Scotland. \*Crime Spree \*(2003) Ensemble comedy of incompetent French crooks in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/57 "2019-12-04T22:20:11Z")
[Phantom of the Paradise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_of_the_Paradise) was pretty enjoyable. Directed by Brian de Palma, Narrated by Rod Serling, and starring Paul Williams, it had some surprisingly good music in it, along with a whole lot of amusing ludicrousness. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/58 "2019-12-04T22:42:07Z")
_The Duellists_. Ridley Scott’s first film, based on a Joseph Conrad story. Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel play two soldiers in Napoleon’s army, who spend twenty years trying to murder each other, like proper gentlemen. _Children of the Revolution_. Australian comedy about Joseph Stalin’s love-child. As he gets older, he begins to resemble his father in hilarious but slightly scary ways. _House_ and _House II: The Second Story_. Two horror/comedies, produced by the same crew, but otherwise unrelated, except for the generic haunted house meme. The first one is slightly scarier. The second one is mostly comedy. Soldiers of Fortune vs Third World Dictators: _The Wild Geese_ _The Dogs of War_ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/59 "2019-12-05T00:56:39Z")
The way this worked was: **Qad** up there mentions _Phantom of the Paradise_, one of my favorite hidden gems. That leads me to fun quotes “I know the difference between drug real and real real!” Which led me to Gerrit Graham, who played “Beef.” Gerrit reminded me of another quirky movie - _Used Cars_. In which Gerrit co-starred with Kurt Russell, who was also in _Captain Ron_. Which is why my cocktail of choice this evening is a daiquiri, Hemingway-style. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worthy-cult-classics/844324/60 "2019-12-05T01:11:57Z")
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