What’s “pseudo” about the time travel in Time After Time? H.G. Wells invents a time machine. He goes into the future to catch Jack the Ripper, who has “borrowed” his machine to get there.
Somewhere In Time might be considered “pseudo” only because the method of time travel:
[ol]
[li]Stay in an old hotel[/li][li]Dress in clothes from the period[/li][li]Lie down, close your eyes and basically autohypnotize yourself into that era.[/li][/ol]
Now why didn’t I think of that? Certainly less complicated than snorting dandelions and playing Black Sabbath albums backwards…
…or so I’ve heard. Mentioning it because of a friend of mine…
I am curious at some of the movies mentioned being considered “cult” films. I mean I would consider Close Encounters of The Third Kind and Willow to be mainstream Hollywood films.
Willow was directed by Ron Howard and produced by George Lucas. Close Encounters of The Third Kind was directed by Steven Spielberg. I wouldn’t consider them “cult” movies or obscure at all.
To me a “cult” movie is a movie with a small following and not much recognition with mainstream audiences; neither of the films above qualify as that.
Thanks all, lots of suggestions, Not sure exactly how to find some of these but got some low hanging fruit for Netscape for now.
I guess to give my own contribution to my own thread. A great bad move that I’m sure would be cult if it wasn’t so unknown. Adventures of Hercules II
To quote myself from a previous post on the subject
First of all the positive, Ferrigno is the closest to what I imagine the Ancient Greeks imagined Hercules to look like that I have seen. I’ll spoiler the rest for anyone who is interested, since the movie is so beautifully and unexpectedly weird.
Ferrigno can’t act worth a shit, which matches perfectly with all of the rest of the titty chick cast. A plot that combines actual Greek myths, with bizarre nonsense vaguely related to Greek myths(Daedalos is an chick who is the ruler of an ice realm of hell, and dresses like a Valkyrie?) and random sci-fi (Tartarus is a plate armor demon who uses a laser Trident?, a gorgon with energy Minions?). Machinations with Machinations that are never attempted to be explained. The awesome dialog I expected, “I have scientifically altered her destiny”, all held together with crappy traditional effects(floppy cardboard shields) and CGI horrific even by 80’s standards(Magic and science both seem to be implemented with glowy light blobs). And the sheer genius of Zeus popping into a scene, a calling down a Deus ex machina, and leaving.
“Old movies” from the 1980s. I laugh at you! Ha! Ha!
Try Giovanni Pastrone’s epic film Cabiria (1914), which predates D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. deMille, and was the first movie shown at the White House. Title cards written by proto-Fascist and conqueror of Fiume, Gabrielle d’Annunzio, and a depiction of Moloch 14 years before Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
Try a pawnshop. My local pawnshop has thousands of DVDs, most of which you’d never find any more at a standard media store. They may have been available at such a store once, and people bought them from there; but they proved to be not popular enough to be worth stocking forever, assuming they are even still in print. Meanwhile, the same people who bought them at the media store got rid of them through the pawnshop.
I will third (or fourth?) Phantom of the Paradise. It flopped when it was released (except, strangely, in Winnipeg of all places), but it’s worth a look. Great music, all composed for the film by Paul Williams; many quotable lines; and Jessica Harper, whom you’ve likely never heard of, but who will send shivers up your spine when she sings “Old Souls.”
Definitely. It pokes fun at life in Marin County at the time. My library system has a copy. I had only seen it once before, but it really was worth seeing once again.
Bright Lights, Big City. Read the novel when it came out, I had some familiaity with the Bolivian Marching Powder. Saw the movie on VHS when it came out, didn’t love or like it. Seen it a couple of times in the past year, really good. The scene with Michael J. Fox drinking wine in his apartment with Swoozie, talking about how his wife left him. Most actors, good ones, overplay being drunk.
I’ve heavily culled my video collection, but some I cannot bear to chuck out are:
Well-regarded and on a few top 100 lists - The Long Good Friday - a classic British gangster movie, starring Bob Hoskins. Guy Ritchie is not worthy of licking the DVD case this comes in.
My Winnipeg - beautiful, surreal, mesmerising, a total cack.
My Life As a Dog - possibly not eligible, being a foreign film entry in the Academy Awards etc, but sadly forgotten by anyone who didn’t go to an art cinema in the 1980s.
Lair of the White Worm - excellent British rural horror, and could also throw in the original Wicker Man, starring Edward Woodward.
Stone- Australian biker film - influenced George Miller a lot in the making of Mad Max.
The Man From Hong Kong - Former Bond, George Laserbeam fights kung-fu thugs. According to Wikipedia released in the US as The Dragon Flies.
There was a period when Australia had very generous tax concessions to encourage film making, known as the 10BA clause. It led to a small renaissance of quick, and often dirty film making that started off various household name directors, actors and cinematographers. There is an excellent documentary overview - Not Quite hollywood, if you’re interested.
The Raid - a relentless Indonesian martial arts masterpiece.
but got some low hanging fruit for Netscape for now.