The golden age of B-movies

[Famous Mortimer]

I must have been asleep when Fortress 2 was released then, as I didn't know it existed til last week. I also assumed Fortress 1 did most of its business on video, but again last week I found out it did alright at the box office. Odd.

I think I had "b-movie" stuck in my head thanks to the doc about Jim Wynorski I saw the other day, where they tossed that phrase around quite a lot. His career is the perfect mirror to this thread - starting off in the early-mid 80s with the relatively big-budget "Beastmaster 2" and "Chopping Mall", and by the turn of the millennium churning out boob-filled garbage for Cinemax. I may have already put this in the first post, sorry.

"I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle" was great, and I've not seen it in years, since the days of the local video shop in fact.

I still haven't seen all the "Trancers" films, either, and they're great. Helen Hunt appears in the first two, pretty much at the same time she got the part on "Mad About You" that would make her famous. I imagine there were some serious contract negotiations as she tried to get out of appearing in part 3.

[Famous Mortimer]

I couldn't find a thread for them, but 80s / 90s slasher film series "Sleepaway Camp" are also fine members of the VHS-success family. I just watched part 2, where the kid from the first one is now all grown up, and got a sex change operation in the mental hospital (which happens so often, I'm surprised they bothered to mention it).

[Famous Mortimer]

I just watched Deathstalker 2 from 1987, and it's really funny, pretty well-made (for an obviously very low budget), has some decent performances and bums me out that Jim Wynorski is now doing garbage Z-grade softcore porno spoofs of stuff like "Cloverfield". Apparently the DVD has star John Terlesky (now a TV director) making fun of himself on commentary and is worth a listen. I loved it, and wish we could have more stuff like it today.

[great_badir]

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

Zappa talks about it on the Roxy album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzxa49fefq8

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.

I personally think it's dreadful, but as an interesting factoid - pretty sure Anthony Daniels got paid more, word for word, on that than he did for the first Star Wars film.

[NoSleep]

I have a vague recollection of seeing a 50's monster movie, where the main event is some kind of sea creature, I believe. The only scene I remember clearly is where it attacks a diver and you see his head crumple like a polythene bag as it sucks out all his juices. I wonder if anyone could provide with me the title?

[Delete Delete Delete]

Attack Of The Crab Monsters? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTVWQ8dxPW0

[NoSleep]

That is certainly ringing a bell, both title-wise and the quality of the photography. I'll give it a go.

[NoSleep]

It turned out not to be Attack Of The Crab Monster(s). I've discovered that it was The Monster That Challenged The World.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3RpzGcMjaQ

[Famous Mortimer]

Raw Force (1982)

Like someone took every possible genre and shoved them into one movies. A group of American martial arts "students" (all in their mid 30s) go on a cruise, full of wacky comedy stereotypes, to "Warrior Island" to visit the graves of ancient disgraced ninja and samurai and that. The monks on the island are cannibals, and get their female food from a gang of human traffickers in return for jade. To escape the island, the martial artists need to take on the raised corpses of those disgraced ninja.

There's (terrible) fighting, nudity, comedy, horror and wacky overacting! Highly recommended.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Turns out there's going to be a sequel to Manos: The Hands of Fate after a successful (albeit tiny) Kickstarter - http://www.avclub.com/article/manos-hands-fate-finally-getting-sequel-233212

Seems unlikely to work, but you never know, it might be fun in some strange way.

[Famous Mortimer]

I've got no problem with the surviving cast members making a bit of scratch (I bought a replica Master outfit off Jackie Neyman's Etsy page partly for that reason, look out for me at a Comic-Con near you soon), but it's going to be utter pish. At least Hal Warren wanted to make a movie, these people just want a bit of money for their retirement. I find sequels made by people partly or wholly in on the joke are almost always unbearably bad.

I hope it's better than "Crazy Fat Ethel 2", another long-unwaited sequel to a cheesy classic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NQ5RGHBTU4 (I just wanted an excuse to link to it).

[greenman]

You could argue the golden age of action B-movies was actually the early/mid 90's when Arnie/Sly style blood drenched action lost its hold on the mainstream. Lambert especially lwas a bit too late to the party and had most of his career in this era, Fortress, The Hunted, Gunmen, Mortal Combat etc.

[Famous Mortimer]

A local theatre / cinema (currently showing nothing but the new Tyler Perry movie) has a large lounge area and a big projector screen in their bar, so have been doing VHS nights every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for a few years. Last week they did "Street Fighter" and "Mortal Kombat", this week they did a Troma night (Toxic Avenger and Sgt Kabukiman) and a couple of gems - "Ninja 3: The Domination" and "Lady Terminator" (which is a surprisingly close rip off of the plot of the non-lady Terminator, only one where the villain tears peoples penises off with her magic snake-filled vagina).

It's nice, and something I'd have done myself (if I owned a large cinema with a lounge and bar area).

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'd say video bought in the resurgence of B-Movies. Their heyday was in the 50's/60's when you'd go there with your 'best gal'.

In the video age Troma definitely need a nod.