The golden age of B-movies

[Famous Mortimer]

Well, it probably wasn't the golden age of anything, but that time when home video was in, before the internet started driving the cost of films down. Early 80s to late 90s?

I just watched the Christopher Lambert film "Fortress" and it was a bit rubbish, but loads of fun nonetheless. A film that silly would be all CGIed and shit these days, and would be made for 20p. I love that films like this could get made, that weirdoes like Jim Wynorski, Stuart Gordon and Andy Sidaris (among tons of others) could make films with half-decent budgets.

There's probably a zillion threads about stuff like this, but it's always fun to share the gems of this genre. It's hard not to want to put on "Commando" for the millionth time rather than the film that's great, but will actually involve you thinking a bit too much.

[Noodle Lizard]

Ehh ... could you be more specific?  The "B-movie" thing is throwing me off because 'Fortress' and 'Commando' are far from B-movies.  Do you just mean "sort of shit but entertaining movies"?  In which case, yes, the mid-late 80s and 90s were great for those.

[Johnny Textface]

As soon as I saw the word Fortress, for some reason I thought of Soldier starring Kurt Russell. A massive flop in it's day but is it any good - like John Carter?

Worth a download?

Just had a quick look at IMDB and Kurt Russell plays a character called Todd 3465 which sounds utterly brilliant[nb]shit[/nb].

[ads82]

I've not watched it for years but I think Cyborg, Jean Claude Van Damme would be a good choice for this thread, I used to love that movie.

[Famous Mortimer]

Ehh ... could you be more specific?  The "B-movie" thing is throwing me off because 'Fortress' and 'Commando' are far from B-movies.  Do you just mean "sort of shit but entertaining movies"?  In which case, yes, the mid-late 80s and 90s were great for those.

It's not terribly specific, it's more a you know it when you see it sort of thing. Usually at the lower end of the cost spectrum, the sort of thing that may have been in cinemas but would have been part of the video shop boom. Early 80s to late 90s. You know!

[Johnny Textface]

Cyborg

I remember watching that and getting a glimpse of a blue crash-mat they were fighting on. lol.

[Famous Mortimer]

That's a fine idea for a really odd thread - there's a hint of crashmat in Commando too, along with tiny model people who get blown up.

[Brundle-Fly]

The golden age of B movies was the 1950s; I'm confused.

[Blumf]

As soon as I saw the word Fortress, for some reason I thought of Soldier starring Kurt Russell. A massive flop in it's day but is it any good - like John Carter?

Worth a download?

Yes. It's a little slow, not a balls out action flick, but a decent story well presented.

Turns up on TV often enough, keep your eye out.

[Brundle-Fly]

Has the definition of B-movie gone the same way as the meaning of 'indie music' now?

THIS is a B -movie! A giant anthropomorphic communist avocado being attacked with a blowtorch

[Famous Mortimer]

Has the definition of B-movie gone the same way as the meaning of 'indie music' now?

Don't think so, the first line of yer Wikipedia says "A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film". It's not meant "the second half of a double feature" for a very long time.

I'm getting ready for "Fortress 2" tonight, I always like it when a film has an unexpected sequel. Why will Lambert have to go back to that prison? Will they have bothered to make it look the same as before?

[Viero_Berlotti]

Fuck Pacific Rim and Transformers, 'Robot Jox' was where it was at:

http://youtu.be/8Kd642Ix5ks

[Noodle Lizard]

Don't think so, the first line of yer Wikipedia says "A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film". It's not meant "the second half of a double feature" for a very long time.

So are 'Paranormal Activity', 'Insidious' and 'The Blair Witch Project' B-movies?  What about '28 Days Later', 'Kill List' or 'The Inbetweeners Movie'?  What about 'Take Shelter' or 'Lost In Translation'?  All cost considerably less than the movies you threw up there.

Your theory is all flawed.  To most people, the term "B-movie" has fairly clear connotations and aesthetics and 'Commando' and 'Fortress' don't really qualify (both being big-studio releases with well-known actors), hence the confusion.  If you'd said "The Golden Age of Shit But Fun Films", we could have made things a lot easier on you.  But you didn't, so we can't.  You're going to pay for this.

[biggytitbo]

I wouldn't exact call 'The Swarm' a golden age.

[Famous Mortimer]

Your theory is all flawed

Well, it wasn't a theory, just an attempt to have a bit of a laugh. But hey, let's argue definitions until everyone's bored and the topic slips down the list, shall we? Jesus fucking christ, what a waste of time this has been. Sorry for daring to start a thread without very very precisely defining my terms. We all know how much fun that is!

[Noodle Lizard]

Sorry for daring to start a thread without very very precisely defining my terms. We all know how much fun that is!

And so you should be.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Has the definition of B-movie gone the same way as the meaning of 'indie music' now?

THIS is a B -movie! A giant anthropomorphic communist avocado being attacked with a blowtorch

that's more of a Z-movie. Ed Wood made Z-movies, basically bottom of the barrel stuff. There are also C-movies, somewhere between the two.

It's all a bit muddled and confused though, and the term has been used for different types of films for 70+ years. So I guess if something seems like a B-movie, it could be classified as such.

The original version of  The Fly is one that instantly springs to mind when I think of B-movie.

[Catalogue Trousers]

"There is no bee in the room, Paulie. No bee. No there isn't."

[Spiteface]

Fuck Pacific Rim and Transformers, 'Robot Jox' was where it was at:

http://youtu.be/8Kd642Ix5ks

I'm more about Super Sentai for my giant robots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbPzU2nElyk

Spider-man was before them though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3xYQh0Rvnw (apologies for the awful dub)

If only the films had Spidey pilot a giant robot.

This sort of thing is on the way out, and that makes me sad

[Kane Jones]

Has the definition of B-movie gone the same way as the meaning of 'indie music' now?

THIS is a B -movie! A giant anthropomorphic communist avocado being attacked with a blowtorch

Jesus.  I've been trying to find out what that film is for years, after waking up on the sofa in the middle of the night to that ^ weirdness.  Why, on these very pages I've asked the question; "What's the film with the weird Wizzbit looking cactus alien motherfuckers?"  And nobody responded.  Please tell me the name of this film, Brundle.  I'll be your friend?  I'll be your slave for life?

[Brundle-Fly]

It Conquered The World!!

[Alberon]

Whatever you want to call those films I always think of them in three distinct categories.

You have the black and white movies of the fifties and sixties (usually with some monster thrown in). Then you have the mostly straight to video era of the eighties and nineties. Finally, you get the deliberately shit Syfy movies of today.

Of the middle era two films that stick in my mind is Trancers (a low budget time travel back to the present co-starring Helen Hunt) and Wedlock (a quite silly Rutger Hauer movie based on a prison where the inmates wear exploding neck collars).

[Kane Jones]

It Conquered The World!!

Thank you!  Karma time.

[Lyfjaberg]

Of the middle era two films that stick in my mind is Trancers (a low budget time travel back to the present co-starring Helen Hunt) and Wedlock (a quite silly Rutger Hauer movie based on a prison where the inmates wear exploding neck collars).

I watched and enjoyed both at an early age.

Trancers is actually quite brilliant -- it has a genuinely creepy feel.

The sequels become epically shit, too.

[VegaLA]

This has to be during the late 70s when the home Video boom started. Italian businessmen would line the film fests with posters for films not yet made but would convince potential backers that the films were in production and close to wrapping. Whichever title would bite and lure the  financing required the Exec Producer would then slither off with the contract and call his buddies to start shooting the film. Awesome stuff.

[Famous Mortimer]

Fortress 2

Whoever said there'd be fun to be had spotting the British soap actors lurking about was right. Wow, there's a lot of em about. And the stupidity of having a prison in space, with fires everywhere, is never commented on.

I'm trying to write a review of this, and am scratching my head a bit. But still, 1999 is about the end of the time when straight-to-video films could afford to have decent sets and good actors and stuff. I imagine 2014's "Fortress 3" (so far, made up) would be filmed on a blue screen somewhere and be Lambert and a bunch of regional theatre school dropouts.

[acrow]

Have you seen the film The Item, fm?

Seems like something you might fancy reviewing.

I watched it a couple of times when it was first released. The second time was just to make sure that i hadn't just imagined it. It is gloriously bad. I'm afraid to watch it again but i think i probably will have to some day.

Here's the synopsis and a review from imdb:

"Four felons are contacted by an anonymous client via the internet. They are instructed to go to a remote desert island and pick up an "item" and keep it safe for 24 hours. It will then be picked up and they will be paid. However, upon getting it back to their apartment, their curiosity gets the better of them and they decide to investigate their package. They discover that they have a telepathic worm connected to a life support system. The film then disintegrates into a slasher film as one by one the protectors are killed in grisly fashion."

" This movie has to be the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. This movie is the definition of B-Movie's It's horrible, and not even funny horrible! Some films your just like wow that was so bad it's funny, but no, with this movie your like, wow that was so bad it makes me want to rip out and swollow my own eyes. Even though it is the worst movie ever made you should still watch it, just to be able to say I have seen the most HORRIBLE movie ever created!Thats all I have to say! Bye

hor·ri·ble Pronunciation Key (hôr-bl, hr-) adj. 1. Arousing or tending to arouse horror; dreadful: `War is beyond all words horrible' (Winston S. Churchill). 2. Very unpleasant; disagreeable. 3. The movie "The Item""

Some kind soul has put the whole thing on youtube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=70V5Zos1IFg

[Operty1]

Agree with OP, the eighties/early nineties were a great time for B-movies. Video shops then always seemed to have a ton of quality B-movies to peruse. You won't find any of these in your local BLOCKBUSTER, and the world is poorer for it.

Dead Heat :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094961/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Spacehunter – Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086346/?ref_=sr_1

Fx 2 The Deadly Art Of Illusion
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101846/?ref_=sr_1

APEX:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109144/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

If I was to recommend one of these though, it would be Dead Heat, it really should have been much more popular. It's an odd horror/cop/buddy/comedy mashup; kind of a mix of Big trouble in Little China and lethal Weapon. Written by Shane Black's brother (himself a small cameo) and even has a small part for Vincent Price. If you're looking for a great 80's B-movie, this is it.

[Famous Mortimer]

"Dead Heat" is great, featuring Eddie Murphy's old SNL buddy Joe Piscopo I think? It's been years.

acrow, I'll give it a go. I started a section of the site called "Youtube Film Club", just for films available in their entirety there. By the way, if any of you like writing film reviews, the site I do mine for is always looking for more people. I find it allows me to stay awake through bad films more easily, if I'm having to pay attention and write things down. You're unlikely to make anything doing it, but it's a good laugh.

[Ignatius_S]

I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle – haven't seen it for years, but a comedy-horror that I enjoyed a lot, starring Neill Morrissey and featuring Michael Elphick, Danny Peacock, Anthony Daniels and Bert Kwouk.

One reason I've said this one was that it was incredibly successful on home video – and I remember hearing about one video shop that had a massive waiting list if you wanted to rent it at the weekend... simpler days.

The golden age of B movies was the 1950s; I'm confused.

If you're going down that route, I would argue it was more the 1930s and 1940s. The major studios (Warners in particular) had wonderful B-picture units, which were not only prolific but made some fantastic films. For example, John Huston's The Maltese Falcon was made under 'B' conditions (although the linking of George Raft, then a far bigger star than Humphrey Bogart, to the lead shows that B-movies aren't straight-forward to categorise) or the Mr Moto series, where Norman's direction [nb]Foster directed six out of the eight Lorre films, IIRC, one that he didn't revolves around the murder at the boxing match – probably the weakest Moto film (IMO), it was being made as a Charlie Chan film, but when the lead actor fell ill, it was hastily re-written for Moto.[/nb] and Peter Lorre [nb]As more often than not, someone comments about the Peter Lorre wearing false teeth to make him look 'stereotyped Chinese', I'll mention that Lorre didn't –  the look of his choppers was entirely due to nature and incidentally, he disapproved of such artifice in performance.[/nb] in the lead made the films far better than they should have been. 

Also, B-Movies are often clearly defined genre films and in the 1930s and 40s, think of all those horror and Westerns.

Then there were all the small studios churning the stuff out as well.

Yes. It's a little slow, not a balls out action flick, but a decent story well presented.

Turns up on TV often enough, keep your eye out.

Yup, totally second that.

Don't think so, the first line of yer Wikipedia says "A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film". It's not meant "the second half of a double feature" for a very long time...

Which is a decent way of putting it – and, FWIW, I thought it was pretty clear that you were referring to films cashing on the video revolution.

Mmm, although there's no strictly defined term for B-movie, personally, I don't think that one really fits. Both the original and follow-up had decent budgets and the first was well-received, both commercially and critically. The second (like the first) doesn't belong in a niche genre, which a lot of B flicks do.

The sequel was widely distributed in cinemas and got decent press coverage, but did worse business that anticipated. It certainly wasn't perceived as a B-movie back then.