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Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 15th, 2017, 5:43 pm
by Gleebergloben123
The original Tron. A lot of people think it's average at best but I love the film. Just saw it again last month and really enjoyed it. Hard to believe it was released 35 years ago.

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 15th, 2017, 10:24 pm
by goldenband
scotland wrote: I read that after Dragonslayer did poorly at the box office

I'm sorry to hear that it did poorly, as I like Dragonslayer a lot! It's very much in the vein of other late-1970s/early-1980s fantasy movies, which was a rich period for the genre (e.g. Excalibur).

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 16th, 2017, 2:44 pm
by pacman000
goldenband wrote:
scotland wrote: I read that after Dragonslayer did poorly at the box office

I'm sorry to hear that it did poorly, as I like Dragonslayer a lot! It's very much in the vein of other late-1970s/early-1980s fantasy movies, which was a rich period for the genre (e.g. Excalibur).


That dragon was cool, just wish they showed it a bit more often. ;)

Message from Space, Toei's attempt to cash in on Star War's success. Sets look like something from a stage play, mixes almost-Star-Wars-quality FX w/ embarrassing-by-50's-standards FX, and the story is crazier than The Phantom Menace's story, but I still found it fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC4v979_fQk

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 17th, 2017, 10:10 pm
by jon
Wow, this is a great topic. I agree with Retrology that The Fan is an amazing movie. It does a great job of showing the dark side of people.

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 18th, 2017, 8:37 am
by AtariToday
pacman000 wrote:Message from Space, Toei's attempt to cash in on Star War's success. Sets look like something from a stage play, mixes almost-Star-Wars-quality FX w/ embarrassing-by-50's-standards FX, and the story is crazier than The Phantom Menace's story, but I still found it fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC4v979_fQk



I love Message From Space! Yes it is a Star Wars rip-off, but it's bonkers crazy and fun.

Another rip-off worth watching is Star Crash. It's an Italian attempt to cash in on Star War's success and dare I say it's even crazier than Message From Space. It has Caroline Munro (heck yes!) battling amazons, cave-men, robots with a southern accent, lava-lamp death rays etc. It just jumps from one crazy scene to another. David Hasselhoff also makes an appearance in way too much eye makeup. If you like B-movies (or movies so bad they qualify as "good") this is at the top of the list for must watch. Also you have to see this on Blu-ray. A lot of work went into restoring the footage and it looks absolutely stunning. If you want to check this out before you throw money down the whole film is currently on youtube. Substandard non-bluray release of course (still tons of fun!)
https://youtu.be/8hqcGK72XYQ

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 18th, 2017, 6:00 pm
by Stalvern
AtariToday wrote:Also you have to see this on Blu-ray. A lot of work went into restoring the footage and it looks absolutely stunning. If you want to check this out before you throw money down the whole film is currently on youtube. Substandard non-bluray release of course (still tons of fun!)
https://youtu.be/8hqcGK72XYQ

That YouTube link actually has an advantage over the Blu-Ray because it has the original cut of the film (although it's stupidly cropped to widescreen from the already cropped VHS, so you get only a cramped center bit of the picture; better to watch the original rip, which isn't hard to find). The Blu-Ray had to be sourced from Roger Corman's cut, which removed a lot of the sillier details to make it marginally more presentable. Not that the Blu-Ray wouldn't be worth watching in its own right, but it is noticeably less fun. (Edit: I found a page listing all of the cut footage; this should give an idea of what I'm talking about.)

I don't know if so-bad-they're good cult movies like Starcrash and Message from Space are really in the spirit of the thread (I'm sure that everyone who's into bad movies enough to know about Starcrash loves it for exactly what it is, and they don't remotely appreciate it seriously like the OP does The Grinch), but I guess that I should at least post my own favorite instead of just responding to others.

Hands down, my favorite bad movie is Battlefield Earth - I've laughed harder at that movie than at any deliberate comedy. It's unbelievable that a movie this wrong got a multi-million-dollar budget and a wide release instead of going direct to video. You'd swear that everyone involved in the movie was actively trying to ruin it. John Travolta's performance is insane. Every single shot is cockeyed and tinted an arbitrary color. The "plot" is an incoherent mess that turns a mediocre book into something actively insulting. (For example, the humans in the book have to steal the aliens' weapons and vehicles to fight them because the ancient human weapons are unusably deteriorated - in the movie, they fly thousand-year-old Harriers. This is one of the less stupid changes to the story.) There isn't a scene that doesn't, in detail or (usually) in substance, impress with its idiocy. It's almost thrilling to observe.

For an actual guilty pleasure, I'll go with C.H.U.D. (which turns out to stand for two different things, one of the lamest "twists" I've ever seen). It's a dumb, trashy John Carpenter wannabe from 1984 about monsters living under New York City. I watched it for laughs, but I ended up actually getting into it - it really gets a lot of John Carpenter's special vibe right, and while the two leads are complete bores, everyone else is interesting in some way or another (especially Shepherd). It definitely isn't a good movie, but there are enough good things in it that I was happy to play along for an hour and a half. I should watch it again sometime.

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 19th, 2017, 8:57 am
by AtariToday
Stalvern wrote:That YouTube link actually has an advantage over the Blu-Ray because it has the original cut of the film (although it's stupidly cropped to widescreen from the already cropped VHS, so you get only a cramped center bit of the picture; better to watch the original rip, which isn't hard to find). The Blu-Ray had to be sourced from Roger Corman's cut, which removed a lot of the sillier details to make it marginally more presentable. Not that the Blu-Ray wouldn't be worth watching in its own right, but it is noticeably less fun. (Edit: I found a page listing all of the cut footage; this should give an idea of what I'm talking about.)


Thanks so much for sharing that link Stalvern! I didn't realize I was missing out. You get major cool points for this!


While I can't share your love for Battlefield Earth I do enjoy the following (that others didn't quite enjoy):

Waterworld - The reviews were highly unkind when this movie hit the theaters. For me it was an awesome action movie with a unique setting. (Mad Max on water perhaps?) At the time it was the most expensive movie ever made, and interestingly enough it went through numerous re-writes (some even done on-site during filming!), the director walked off and left halfway through production leaving Kevin Costner to finish it, and a lot of the crew had near death experiences. The trivia section for Waterworld on IMDB is a must read!

John Carter - I enjoyed this film and I'm still upset we are not getting sequels. This jump started my interest of reading the original stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and I've been hooked ever since. I can't stop buying and reading his books (take my money!). Comparing this movie to the books showcases the normal liberties directors take when adapting a book series to the silver screen, however the playing of the characters Dejah Thoris and Tars Tarkas was spot on.
The book series and run in comics had quite the span and have more than enough story to make further films...gimme more.

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 20th, 2017, 11:22 am
by VideoGameCritic
I second Waterworld. The movie got horrendous press in its day but I enjoy it. It's a good summertime movie. Usually watch that and Jaws each summer.

A movie that I really like that few people seem to know is Election with Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. The title is deceiving because it's about a high school class president election. This is a really unique movie with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments.

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 20th, 2017, 4:33 pm
by velcrozombie
VideoGameCritic wrote:A movie that I really like that few people seem to know is Election with Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. The title is deceiving because it's about a high school class president election. This is a really unique movie with a lot of laugh-out-loud moments.


Election is a very good black comedy/satire and it's actually well-regarded among critics. The director, Alexander Payne, made several other critically-acclaimed movies - including Sideways (which won an Oscar for Best Screenplay) and Nebraska (which was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture). I liked Election and Sideways a lot but haven't seen anything else he's done.

Re: Movies You Like That No One Else Does

Posted: February 23rd, 2017, 5:32 pm
by AtariToday
Howard the Duck - I saw this film as a kid and loved it. Re-watching it lately I've noticed a lot of content that was more aimed at the adult market that I seemingly ignored or didn't catch as a child. Still love this film after multiple viewings. The movie is quirky and weird and has a certain charm to it...anybody else like this one besides me?