John Scalzi - The Science Fiction B-Movie Hall of Fame: Submit Your Nominations!
The great movies of science fiction: The movies that changed the genre -- changed film history -- and may have even had a significant impact on your own life.
Yeah, well, today, we're not gonna talk about them.
Today I want to talk about the other science fiction movies: The cheap ones. The shoddily made ones. The ones (if you're old enough to remember the time) you ignored while you did other things at the drive-in. The ones that had their debut in the "cheap rental" bin of your video store. The ones where you look at the actors on screen and wonder what act of financial desperation drove them to this.
In short: The B-movies. Whether a genuine "B" movie (the short, quickly-made feature that played before the "A" movie your grandparents actually paid to see) from the '30s, '40s and '50s, a me-too exploitation flick from the cashing in on the success of a blockbuster from the '60s, '70s or '80s, or the modern era direct-to-video third or fourth sequel of a marginally successful theatrical release, the B-movie fills a unique role in the cinematic ecosystem: The movie you didn't really want to see, but are going to watch anyway.
The B-movie knows -- or more accurately, its makers know -- where it sits in the grand scheme of things. It knows that it wasn't your first choice at the video store, and that you got it just because the cool new release was already out, or because you're simply congenitally unable to walk out of the store without five rentals. It knows that its primary audiences are the bored, the undiscriminating, and the stoned. It knows that you and your arch, hipster friends will perform your own home-grown version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on it as soon as you pop it in the player. It knows all these things.
And, of course, that's what makes it fun. Because, this is the defining characteristic of the B-movie: It's not that it's bad, it's that it is freed from the requirement to be good. Why? Because no one actually cares if it's good or not -- indeed, there's a certain segment of the audience (see: MST3K wannabes) actively hoping for bad. And freed from the usual expectations of quality, the B-movie is free to be entertaining by any means possible. It doesn't have to be good. It doesn't have to be art. Hell, they don't even have to make sense. They just have to give your eyeballs something to do for 90 minutes.
In Praise of the B-Movie
I come not to mock the B-movie, but to praise it. Because, here's
the thing: Every once in a while, you'll find a B-movie that's actually
really good. It's still a B-movie -- made for a few million bucks,
featuring TV stars and/or women with unrealistic body shapes, special
effects that would have been top of the line 15 years ago, trading off
the popularity of an unrelated blockbuster -- but somewhere along the
line, someone actually paid attention and gave the flick something
special: A good script, maybe, or perhaps an actual credible
performance, or a visual look that implies the director actually paid
attention in his community college film classes. And when you find
that, you want to celebrate it.
I'll give you an example. My favorite science fiction B-movie is 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars, a quickie cashing in on the Star Wars craze, produced by B-movie king Roger Corman, and made for $2 million, most of that going to stars Robert Vaughn and George Peppard. The hero is played by Richard Thomas, best known to '70s audiences as John-Boy Walton. It is what it is: A space opera-y rehash of The Magnificent Seven, with just enough ooh-aah special effects to keep the kids entertained. And yet, it's a lot better than it should be.
Part of the reason for that is that the filmmakers themselves were unusually talented up-and-comers. The screenplay was by John Sayles, who would later be nominated twice for screenwriting Oscars (for Lone Star and Passion Fish) and who became a notable director himself. The score was written by James Horner, future two-time Oscar winner. And the co-art director of the film was some dude named James Cameron, whom you may have heard of. All three of these folks would go on to do more and better work in the field of science fiction movies (and movies in general), but it's clear even here that they were better than their budget, and their mission.
Battle Beyond the Stars is not alone: There are other science fiction B-movies that are better than you'd expect. I think they deserve recognition. So here's what I propose: We start, here in this space, a Science Fiction B-Movie Hall of Fame, recognizing B-movies that, while still B-movies, are better than they had to be.
Here's how it will work: You suggest a movie -- just one, be choosy -- in the comment thread. In a couple of weeks, I will select five to ten of those and put them into a poll, which everyone will vote in. The top vote getters will then be the inaugural entrants into our Hall of Fame. It'll be a fun way to commemorate the flicks we enjoyed more than we expected.
Got it? Excellent.
So, then, tell me: Which science fiction B-movie do you nominate?
Winner of the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, John Scalzi is the author of The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies and the novels Old Man's War and Zoe's Tale. His column appears every Thursday.
Trancers - Tim Thomerson (always good), Helen Hunt and time travel. Spawned a number of sequels (six according to wikipedia, I've only seen 2 and 3).
The Puppet Masters with Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal and Julie Warner. Not a great adaptation of Heinlein, really, but a suprisingly solid SF B-movie if taken on its own terms.
Flash Gordon, the 1980 version with Sam J. Jones (IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080745/)
Seriously. First, you've got the ridiculously AWESOME soundtrack by Queen. Second, you have Max von Sydow as your villain. You cannot POSSIBLY go wrong with Max as your villain, even if he's a racist stereotype. Nominated for an Oscar among other awards on a long and varied list. Third, you've got Brian Blessed, amazing Shakespearean actor, playing the biggest, best, most wonderful part. Hearing him say, "Gordon's alive!" even after all these years still gives me goosebumps.
That doesn't even include the wonder that is the golden bikini... the sneakiness that is Richard O'Brien... the horror of *gasp* THE BORE WORMS (said in Ornella Muti's adorable accent)... the jealous passion of a 36 year old Timothy Dalton... the magic sex ring... flying blind on a rocket cycle...
Really, there is no better choice.
Kelly J.
I have to go with Ice Pirates myself. Of course, I haven't seen it in forever, so it might have been the whole adolescent thing.
They Live.
And I quote-
"I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all outta bubblegum."
'nuff said.
They Live.
And I quote-
"I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all outta bubblegum."
'nuff said.
I'll nominate 1984's "Night of the Comet", starring Catherine Mary Stewart. Definitely a B-movie, but it had a coherent plot, reasonable acting, and did what it set out to do - entertain and amuse for the length of the movie. There's a lot of marquee-topping flicks that can't even manage to achieve one of those factors...
ice Pirates! I haven't seen Ice pirates in years. That may need to go on my netflix queue.
But my nomination is Barbarella.
The sets are made of shag and cardboard and it's based on a French soft core comic. And that's some of it's good qualities. It also has it's musical lineage (a villain named Duran Duran) and a bit part by a mime (Marcel Marceau as Professor Ping. And well, Jane Fonda ain't exactly hard to look at in her Star Trek inspired get ups. it does have some inspired set decoration, given that they had about 3 francs to work with.
Army of Darkness. It doesn't get any better than Bruce Campbell....unless it's Bruce Campbell going in fast forward!
The Monolith Monsters from the mid 50s.
Hero is a geologist, a small town is in danger of being crushed by rocks from space, budget is tiny, cast is a lot of actors you have seen as minor characters in a lot of movies and the whole thing works. Crappy title but a well-written, realistic-feeling movie.
I highly recommend Cherry 2000 (1987), which features Melanie Griffith (in her best role outside of Working Girl) as E. Johnson, the tracker. Tim Thomerson and Ben Johnson are also featured. A well-worked-out story, imaginatively done, that holds up to repeat viewings every few years. My daughters still sometimes emulate the Cherry sexbot's most frequent expression: "Oooh. Pretty!"
Bad Channels.
If there's one film that epitomises so-bad-it's-good, then it's this one. An alien hijacks a radio station, and forces the DJ to play bad heavy metal. Selected beautiful women throughout the town hallucinate that the band on the radio is actually playing live in front of them... And then the women are beamed back to the radio station, shrunk to 6 inches tall, and put in bottles.
Oh, and the soundtrack is by Blue Öyster Cult.
From the 50's either: Robot Monster (with dialog like "I am ro-man not hu-man" and the gorilla suit.) or Plan 9 from Outer Space (the cheesiest special effects ever eg a metal pie pan on a visible wire for the spaceship -- doused with lighter fluid for the climax; a deceased Bela Lugosi, and a ridiculous plot.).
Modern: Army of Darkness with Bruce Campbell or Bubba Ho Tep with Bruce Campbell as Elvis and Ossie Davis as JFK. Yes Elvis and JFK were dead when the movie takes place and Ossie Davis is black; but Campbell and Davis make it work.
I'd definitely go for Robot Monster:
The last family on Earth have to contend with man-eating dinosaurs, a food shortage, and a space helmet-wearing gorilla from outer-space armed with a calcinator ray and a bubble machine who wants them dead!
There's a scene in which we see a plane flying through fog, and the prop guy's hand holding the plane in front of the camera is wonderfully visible...
There's only one word to define the driving force that had this film made: HEROIC
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)
This movie is just made of awesome, is totally quotable, and even has actors most people would recognize. It is also so very much a B movie.
Freejack. Emilio Estevez plays a NASCAR driver who's kidnapped into the future by bounty hunter Mick Jagger so that Anthony Hopkins can transplant his brain into Emilio's body and make sweet, sweet love to Rene Russo. Awesomely terrible.
Nobody mentioned Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone? Wow, I cut my teeth on that movie. Molly Ringwald, Peter Strauss and Ernie Hudson. I don't think a movie from the 80's can be classified as a 'B' without Michael Ironside, right?
My temptation was to nominate "Krull," my favorite dreadful but highly entertaining SF/Fantasy adventure from childhood, but a quick IMDBing revealed that it had M$27 budget. In 1983. So, it's definitely not a B-movie.
Instead, I'll nominate the 1996 movie, "The Arrival." It was made for M$5 by writer/director David "Pitch Black" Twohy, it had a credible cast (Charlie Sheen, Lindsay "Maggie Walsh" Crouse, Teri Polo), and its script was surprisingly smart for a movie of this sort. It felt more like a story from a science fiction magazine than a typical Hollywood "silly sci-fi for the kids" excuse for FX sequences.
Big Trouble in Little China is my nomination, since Buckaroo Banzai has already been mentioned (I have both on DVD, and watch them a couple times a year because they are just that awesome).
Should have known Tremors would come up before I finished my post.
But considering the above poster choose part 4, I pick the first Tremors.
You just can't beat Bacon and man-eating worms combined.
Quick note:
Remember that just because a film is not good doesn't mean it's a "B-movie." At least a couple of movies here -- Flash Gordon and Kull are two -- are definitely "A" movies, given budgets, stars, and whether the studio released them pegged the films as a major release.
Here are two examples which might be instructive:
"The Terminator" was a "b" movie when it was released (tiny budget, no major stars, released by a non-major studio), but "Terminator 2" was an "a" movie;
and
"Starship Troopers" was an "a" movie, but "Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation" (straight to video, tiny budget, no stars, director was better known as a special effects dude)was a "b" movie.
Hopefully that makes it just a little bit clearer.
Dark Star was great. I watched a bootleg copy in someone's motel room at a science fiction convention before it was released to theaters. That's the way to see a movie. But my nomination has to go to "The Creeping Terror." Worst "monster" in movie history, a spaceship with garage doors that don't come clear to the ground, a hootenanny, etc. Maybe the funniest movie ever made. Watch it with a few friends at 2am, when your brain is relaxed.
Oops! I forgot another "classic" movie: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. Makes "Plan 9" look like oscar material.
"Night of the Comet" and "The Arrival" were my first choices.
I'll have to list another Charlie Sheen vehicle (uh, pardon the pun) "The Wraith".
Clint Howard sporting a pompadour + a Dodge concept car + Randy Quaid = Win
I'd also like to vote for Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. It's a spoof of B movies with awful effects, awful dialogue and, awful acting. But like properly done bad singing or dancing, you've gotta be good to be that bad.
army of darkness was thrown out there but i say evil dead II all the way! it has time travel so that makes it sci fi, right?
I suggest "Message From Space". I remember seeing it at a drive-in when I was a kid (too young for "other things") and loving it. Ironically, it is ALSO a rehash of "The Seven Samarai". It's an Asian production; dunno if it's Japanese or Hong Kong(ian?) or what.
Quick PS: Read all your books. Love 'em.
Since Ice Pirates and They Live! have already been nominated, I'll go with one that hasn't been mentioned yet: Flesh Gordon (the 1974 porno). Surprisingly well made, it manages to capture the essence of the 1930s serials in a totally campy parody (that just happens to also be a porn movie).
Besides having such characters as Emperor Wang and Dr. Flexi Jerkoff, it also features the voice of Craig T Nelson (The Incredibles, Coach) as the monster.
Gotta third the vote for Dark Star. I saw in at a con when I was a kid, in a double-feature with Bambi Vs. Godzilla, and both changed my life.
Slither with Nathan Fillion - altogether slimy and icky and just goshdarn brilliant.
When I was little we'd rush home from school to watch The Twilight Movie on our local station. They often featured horror films. Fond memories.
My favorites were Them!, I saw that nominated above. Giant ants - what's not to love? Watch out for those mandibles!
I also nominate Day of the Triffids, about giant walking plants - they even walked up the stairs. Some super sonic noise killed them.
Finally, my all-time favorite is Attack of the Giant Shrews. Super funny. It scared the daylights out of my little sister. These giant shrews (radiation, of course) attack scientists stuck on an island. For attack scenes, the director interspersed close-ups of real shrews with Labrador Retrievers wearing coats of shrew fur. I remember on scene where the shrews are attacking on a beach and it's just too obvious that these dogs are trotting along. A must see film!
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983) - Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson, Michael Ironside as the evil but ultra-cool Overdog.
Favorite line: "Okay, what did you do to this?" "Emergency repair procedure number one." "You kicked it?"
I have to throw in another vote for They Live. The never-ending fight scene is cinematic gold:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqKFadyJxwg
And let us not forget the sex scene at the end...
If I had to pick a new one, I choose...Mansquito. Craptacular!!!
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, hands down, has to be the greatest scifi b-movie of all time. You've got some pretty good actors with Peter Strauss playing, at least for me, the quintessential image of a freelance spaceship captain and pre-sixteen candles/breakfast club Molly Ringwald as the only survivor of a medical expedition trying to help a planet full of plague victims, sexy androids, blonde bombshell damsels in distress, big blasters, crazy-looking aliens, this sort-of-future tank thing that takes our heros from one life threatening adventure to the next on this world where rebels are fighting for their freedom from an army of mutants. I believe we see here the father/grandfather of all scifi RPG videogames. Oh, and I still kick my computer when it doesn't work right because of this movie.
I'm fond of The Last Starfighter. A bit rich on budget (at $14M, double The Terminator), but they spent it all on Cray cycles, not actors.
Every time I see The Frontier in a great curving grid, I think of a Cray FORTRAN loop with CALL DRAWFRONTIERTHING() inside.
It's a decent movie, too. Sarcastic lizard! Death Blossom!
Since night of the Comet has already been mentioned, I'm going to go with Colossus: The Forbin Project. It's a well written script, decent production values, probably done on the cheap since the action mainly takes place in a top secret underground computer lab, and the main actors are the dependable but not exactly A-list Eric Braeden and Susan Clark. And computers taking over the world is definitely a traditional SF b-movie plot.
I can't believe nobody's mentioned "Dark Star"
Co-written and starting Dan O'Bannon who used some of the same tropes with less humor in Alien, co-written, directed and scored by John Carpenter... this piece of shlock, with crappy effects (shoe-shaped spaceship coming to a dead stop in space), talking bombs, a beach-ball alien. Sweet sweet shlock, this is great.
Oh, and don't miss the Alan Dean Foster novelization that somehow finds emotional motivation and backstory for characters without two brain cells to rub together.
Since Night of the Comet has already been mentioned, I nominate Colossus: The Forbin Project. Decent production values combined with what were probably inexpensive sets, since we're talking about offices and a top secret underground computer facility. Also, the headliners and rest of the cast are solid reliable actors, but hardly A-list stars: Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gorden Pinsent, William Schallert, Dolph Sweet, Georg Sanford Brown, Martin E. Brooks and Marion Ross. And the plot is pure SF b-movie - computers gain sentience and take over the world.
I nominate any Rutger Hauer movie from the late 80's or early 90's. Blood of Heroes, Split Second, and Fatherland all come to mind.
I gotta give a shout out for Space Truckers
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Space_Truckers/1190898?trkid=222336&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=1763207448_0_0
Completely tongue-in-cheek right down to outer space versions of truck cabs & trailers.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
It's pretty much perfect :)
Favorite classic B-movie would have to be "Them!" (1954) about giant ants (caused by atomic bomb testing, of course). It also stars film history's best Santa Claus, Edmund Gwenn.
Favorite modern B-movie would be "Tremors 4: The Legend Begins" (2004) starring everyone's favorite 80's TV dad, Michael Gross. It had all the self-conscious pomp of the original (abandoned were the high-falutin' CGI worms of episodes 2 and 3) with only a dollop of star power. Plus, Chinese fireworks.
I haven't seen it for years, but a movie that stuck with me despite the low-budget flaws, especially the less-than-stellar special effects, is The Hidden from 1987 (Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian, and Clu Gulager star).
I came close to choosing "The Mole People" (1956), but I think I have to pick "The Little Shop of Horrors" (1960, directed by Roger Corman and made on a budget of about $1.98...although Wikipedia claims it was $30,000) as my favorite science fiction B-movie.
I'd say it qualifies as science fiction: Seymour got Audrey Jr. through cross breeding, which is enough science to make it science fiction.
Anyway, it's a classic just for Jack Nicholson's early role as the masochistic dental patient. I just want to know what they did with the $30,000...it sure doesn't show on the screen, which is one of the things that makes the movie so much fun.
Tremors 2 has a special part in my heart, especially with Michael Gross introducing his role as the survivalist gun nut.
"I am completely out of ammunition...that's never happened to me before!"
And I know it had a big budget for the time, but I have to give a shoutout to Lifeforce (1985)...Tobe Hooper directing, a script from Dan O'Bannon of Alien fame, Miss Mathilda May demonstrating the futility of your HU-MAN clothing, space vampires, human zombies, a blowed-up London and Patrick Stewart as "Dr. Armstrong".
Good times, the eighties. Good times.
I see a bunch of movies already here that I could have voted for (Buckaroo Banzai, They Live, Big Trouble in Little China) so I'm voting for Tremors (1990), a great little monster movie starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. Lowish budget, funny, action packed. Made by a director who had more major work ahead of him, and a cast that were either TV veterans, unknowns or Kevin Bacon in a semi-career limbo period. Great stuff!
(And as for the earlier comment, I can't speak for the sequels at all -- can't go past the original!)
No one's gotten to my favorite movie of all time yet; Repo Man. How can you beat a trunk full of "real live dead aliens"?
Oh, my god it's so hard to do just one.
Zardoz?
Laserblast?
Flash Gordon?
Too many to choose. The mind boggles.
I'm going to go with Nemesis
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107668/
I love this movie.
Lots of great films here. My own choice is so bad, it's good:
Warlords of the 21st Century!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084887/
Of course, it may have been the moment in time that I saw it, I think I was probably 12. It MIGHT not hold up to my adult viewing :)
I think John Irving said it best: "The only good movie was a bad one."
Everyone here has made me really want to watch Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone again as well as Big Trouble in Little China.
Nobody's mentioned Tom Selleck's "Runaway," directed by Michael Crichton. Er, there's probably a reason for that. No, don't waste it on that. My vote: Screamers, starring Peter Weller. If that movie was on TV late one night, I'd probably stay up and watch it again.
Pitch Black (2000)
Vin Diesel before he was famous. Claudia Black from TV. But the real draw is the genuinely excellent story, rooted in traditional science fictional tropes. Slam-bang opening action sequence, moral dilemma for the main characters, well paced, twists and turns. Fantastic movie by most criteria.
How about "Escape From New York?"
The Hidden was my pick, but Jena beat me to it.
Let's see, I haven't seen Earth Girls are Easy mentioned, so if it is considered a B-movie I'll throw it out there.
How 'bout a lifetime achievement award as well? It's a gimmee for Corman sure, but Bert I. Gordon, Ed Wood, Sandy Frank and Robert L. Lippert could round out the poll. Maybe even John Carpenter and Lloyd Kaufman for more modern producer/directors of fine b-movie goodness.
Not sure it was a 'b' movie, but what about 'A boy and his dog' staring a young Don Johnson?
Definitely Starcrash (1978) - is there any other movie that stars both Christopher Plummer AND David Hasselhoff? The stars appear to be made out of Christmas tree lights; the female protagonist's clothing has this tendency to mysteriously disappear. And of course, nothing beats the climax of the movie, when Christopher Plummer looks out majestically over the star field and declares:
"Imperial Battleship, HALT THE FLOW OF TIME!"
Well, hmmm, Tremors and Escape from New York have already been mentioned.
I'm going to have to go with Damnation Alley. Starred Jan Michael Vincent and George Peppard.
Came out in 1977 right about the time some other A+ list SciFi movie came out...got overshadowed just a little bit by that Force...
Zardoz. No, it's not a sleeping pill. It's a very "Psychedelic 60's" futuristic utopia gone wrong thing with a young Sean Connery, buff, with no shirt. So what's not to like?
ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOS!!!! For no other reason than dubbing over the Japanese scientist's explanation (which he is giving in perfectly good English). And the theme song which will now be going through my head all afternoon.
Cannibal Women and the Avocado Jungle of Death with Adrienne Barbeau, Shannon Tweed and Bill Maher
"Time Rider - The Adventure Of Lyle Swann" (1982) starring Fred Ward. A time-traveling motocross racer goes back to the old west with his modern cycle. Does popcorn matinee get any better than that?
While Starhunter has it's moments, I MUST put forth
CRITTERS
if only for the subtitles alone. These aliens invade this small town in the Midwest and it gets kinda gory. However! every time the aliens talk, there's the subtitles - and they are hilarious.
The only actor I recognised at the time was Scott Grimes.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Did more with less than any movie I can think of.
No-one's mentioned only the classic B movie of all time - Rocky Horror?
But for real beer and pretzels, turn off your brain on a Friday night with your buddies, B movie experience, I love the Troma Team. Case in point: Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD.
Of course, our local "free weekly" has a Video Vulture, who spends every week talking about B, and sometimes C movies (more often HK and Japanese martial arts movies than SF, but still), so I get to think about it more often than others.
Tough to choose ... Flash Gordon, The Apple, Battle Beyond the Stars, Space Truckers, Ice Pirates ... so many. Flash Gordon and Battle Beyond the Stars are two I would still watch today.
Although, as far as "you must watch at least once" I'd have to go with Liquid Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9-n9gpFVpk
I was going to join in with the Dark Star votes, a movie i stumbled on channel surfing one night and unable to stop watching because it was so bad it was good.
But then carriev brought up Pitch Black. Now there is a movie i went into the theater barely expecting to even be entertained and coming out thoroughly impressed. And it certainly puts its A movie sequel to shame.
So my vote's with Pitch Black
I have to put my vote in for Trancers as well! You cannot go wrong with Tim Thomerson. Plus, who would have thought Helen Hunt would get to where she is now, having done a role like this? Another one of those "Jennifer Anniston was in Leprechaun" anomalies!
Oh, and excellent example, John, with Battle Beyond the Stars. I still remember the cool star-shaped ship that the brunette (wasn't she the princess from Buck Rogers?) flew in. And was is just me or did "John Boy's" ship look like it had breasts? Maybe it was just puberty.
Death Race 2000
David Carradine as a car racer named Frankenstein. Squeeeee!
Luckily, _Dark Star_ has already been mentioned several times; it truly does deliver great entertainment bang for the production buck. There are lots of other greats here, too.
But a sleeper movie that I remember really enjoying was _Millenium_ from 1989. Not campy bad, just a good story delivered on a B-budget...with Kris Kristofferson, Cheryl Ladd, time travel and a sarcastic robot!
I created an account just so I could put in my two cents -- years ago, I saw a lovely film titled “The Wizard of Speed and Time”, a modern-day fantasy about a special effects wizard. It was cheaply made and beautifully done. It was fun. I’d watch it again – heck, I’d buy it on DVD ahead of a lot of “A” movies.
I don't know if you can call Pitch Black a 'B' movie given its $23M budget. Same thing with Big Trouble in Little China with a $25M budget.
As a side note, it's interesting to see how many John Carpenter movies are being listed (Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, They Live!)...
But a sleeper movie that I remember really enjoying was _Millenium_ from 1989.
Hey, if we're doing adaptations of John Varley stories we've got to have a shout-out to Overdrawn At The Memory Bank.
To quote Pearl Forrester; "What Raul Julia was doing in this piece of sh... urely fine entertainment I'll never know."
Three by underated director Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony Dawson):
Wild, Wild, Planet -- a great science fiction horror story about a mad biologist who is kidnapping and shrinking people to create a super race, and the square jawed space station captain who has to stop him. Impressive futuristic look on a low budget (they built two futuristic cars and everyone in the world shares them).
Yor, The Hunter From The Future. A great story of cavemen, dinosaurs, spacemen, androids, pretty girls, etc. Has a stirring rock anthem theme song I'd like to see Rudy Galindo skate to.
Treasure Island in Outer Space. Just what it sounds like, this is an 8 hour TV miniseries featuring Anthony Quinn as Long John Silver. Ernest Borgnine is in there too. Not *exactly* a B movie, but too good to miss.
By William Castle: Project X. Great, Phil Dick-like story, unusual combination of live action and animation that actually works pretty well. Keye Luke is a villain. A spy returns from China with a message: the West will be destroyed in 14 days! But because he was tortured a special drug he was given has wiped out his memory, with little hope of getting it back. So scientists try to convince him that he is a bank robber in the 1960s. Must be seen to be believed. Recommended.
Remember, folks: Pick just one.
Besides its $27M budget, the other giveaway that Krull is not a 'B' movie is the fact they made an arcade video game based on it.
Mad Max. (I would nominate Road Warrior but its international success would seem to exempt it from the B-flick category.) If MM doesn't make it into the final list, I'll prolly vote for Tremors. This is fun! Great suggestions here!
Island of Terror - 1966 Sand gone bad! The one actor that I am familiar with is Peter Cushing who battles bone sucking silicates on an island that no one can leave. I remember watching this as a kid and being totally grossed out about the 'bag of skin' that was left after the silicates got done feeding. I also could never shake the feeling that there was some odd relationship between the silicates and my mom's old Electrolux vacuum.
I nominate Equilibrium
One of my favorite movies due to it's story line, great casting including Sean Bean and fun combat scenes involving "Gun Kata".
While not nominating them I noticed that Logan's Run and THX 1138 have been missed.
I second the nomination of Cannibal Women in the Avacado Jungle of Death, though the SF content may be too low (unless one argues that anthropology is the science in question). But the script! the leather outfits! the primitive society in the middle of southern California! the script! two women dueling to the death near a pool of piranhas! cannibalism! crocheted potholders! the script! What more could you ask?
I agree with Sarcastro, "Millenium" was really cool... Kris Kristofferson, a cheesy Tin-Man/C3-PO/Wiz wannabe robot, plus Cheryl Ladd as a hot stewardess. Great cinema!!
Nobody's mentioned Liquid Sky yet. Filmed in Greenwich Village, NYC with a half million $ budget. With "star" Anne Carlisle playing dual roles- female and andro-male, a whack German scientist with a great quote: "Ve must study zis cweture!"
A cult classic (but not as good as Repo Man or Buckaroo Banzai.
All of my favorites have already been mentioned (including The Hidden. Good call!) but check out Planet of the Vampires (1965, a.k.a. Terrore Nello Spazio). It has groovy Colorscope Italian style and the plot set-up and some production design details bear an uncanny resemblance to Alien. (It's been noted as a "major influence" on Ridley Scott's movie.) You can find the whole thing – and a great trailer – on YouTube.
Here's an obscure one. How about Galaxina starring Dorothy Stratton. Heard it referenced in Star 80 about her death and caught it at an all night drive-in movie-a-thon a couple of months later.
Man it was sooooooo bad it hurt. No way to forget it.
Ok, Mr. Scalzi, I'll bite. IMDB doesn't always have original budget information. What's considered a "big" budget?
Tremors was made for $11M according to Wikipedia while Flash Gordon spent $35M. If Flash was a big budget film, what does that make Tremors? Medium?
And how do you find budget information? I just spent 20 minutes googling around, trying to find the budget for Buckaroo Banzai with no luck.
And I have no idea whether any given film was given a big release versus a small one. How many screens constitutes big vs. small?
I love many of those already nominated but I have to go with Split Second, starring my all time favorite SF actor Rutger Hauer. Rutger's the MAN!
I was going to go with the horrible but enjoyable, Screamers, with Peter "Robocop" Weller, but it had a $20 mil budget. Split Second was actually better than this and it only had a $7 mil budget. Baffles the mind. Sad.
wargamermike mentioned Logan's Run but didn't nominate it. With a budget of $9M in 1976 and being released by MGM it probably doesn't qualify. By comparison, Star Wars the next year had a budget of $13M and Planet of the Apes in 1968 had a budget of $5.8M...
All right, if I only get ONE make it Yor, The Hunter From The Future. My other choices are too obscure to go into the poll. Chances are at least some of you have seen it, and it was released on video, unlike the others.
As for those who missed seeing Yor, you are to be pitied. Really.
Gotta go with Pitch Black. A nice variation of the "Nightfall" theme.
OMG, no one has mentioned, "Night Of The Living Dead," from 1968. It's and independent movie made for $114,000 (or so IMDB says), and in black and white, it has so much more B-movie cred than a lot of the preceding nominees.
Is 9 million dollars low budget? If so I nominate The Beastmaster. That movie is GREAT. Does it count as a B movie?
Enjoy anything by Full Moon (particular Trancers and Puppet Master series) or Troma (The Toxic Avenger).
The original Death Race 2000 - David Carradine and Sly Stallone are unbeatably chewy here. Oh, and Repo Man and Evil Dead/Army of Darkness and Re-Animator (really anything Jeffrey Combs has starred in) rock specifically.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original B&W) - I loved to watch this movie when it came on. I think it was a classic. I love the scene at the end when the guy is standing in traffic. Gotta be the old B&W version though, not any of the remakes. Which points out it's excellent story since who wants to remake a film with a bad story?
Most of the other nominees I would have chosen have already been mentioned:
The Hidden
Boy and his Dog
Mansquito
Repo Man
The Arrival
Day of the Triffids - salt water killed the triffids, BTW
Dark Star
Last Starfighter
Others that I thought about but I am not sure of their b-movie cred include: Spaceballs, Silent Running, When Worlds Collide, Kingdom of the Spiders, Sssssss, Dark City, and Capricorn 1.
WAIT. The more definitely B movie than Beastmaster is Six String Samurai. THAT is a B movie. Post apocalyse, Elvis, spectacular marital arts sequences, great one liners AND the Red Elvises provide the soundtrack.
They filmed the whole thing in Death Valley without a permit and kept getting kicked out. I mean come ON.
So if Beastmaster doesn't count then Six String Samurai is my nomination.
"Mom and Dad Save the World". Jon Lovitz as Emperor Tod is absolute genius. Honestly, I wouldn't lie about something like that.
Re-Animator. An image of the mad scientist as something other than a cackling nutjob.
Robot Jox, starring Gary Graham - "It is 50 years since the nuclear holocaust almost destroyed mankind. War is now outlawed and all territory disputes between the two great alliances are settled by single combat." Giant robots confront each other in gladiatorial combat, operated by their pilots known as "Robot Jox."
1) It's from that wonderful time when post-apocalyptic movies envisioned before the collapse of the Soviet Union came out after its collapse.
2) It got orbital mechanics right - thrust behind the robots moved them *up* in orbit, and they thrusted below to increase speed.
2) There was no sound in space.
3) The hero said to the villain, "Wait! We don't have to do this! We don't have to kill each other!" and the villain (who has been pretty smart throughout the film) thought it over, said, "Ok, yeah, you're right," and they walked off for a beer or something.
I nominate A Boy and His Dog, starring a young Don Johnson and Tiger from The Brady Bunch.
Inseminoid!
Nasty, ultra cheap, British flick, cashing in (it hoped...) on the success of Alien.
TerrorVision (1986) Monster being beamed to alien garbage disposal facility accidentally transmitted to suburban basement pool via new satellite dish (the old school, big one). How can you go wrong with Mary Woronov as one of the leads? It was, however, an interesting parody of ET, albeit one with lines like"
"I am Greek. I am *into* Greek. Is Stanley a *manly* man?"
Paul-Bob says: check it out.
Haven't seen any of the other ones, but does Stargate: The Ark of Truth count? (Straight-to-DVD; not-too-big budget...)
Frankenstein Unbound. Roger Corman's last movie 1990. John Hurt as a time travelling scientist complete with talking car. Jason Patric, Michael Hutchence, Bridget Fonda, Raul Julia as "The Doctor". I fouind this review that says it much better than I can.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,318637,00.html
I would have to go with the 1954 THEM!Actually its well done.Good actors,effective music,and TRhe ants are pretty decent.(The 1951 The Thing is a close 2nd.(Both also star James Arness.
Sooo many of my all time favs have already been mentioned ^-^
But there´s one which has creeped the hell out of me when I was young, that isn´t mentioned yet, so I nominate:
TARANTULA
B&W, an actual living spider as monster, Jack Arnold as director and Clint Eastwood in one of his first roles...'nough said
The Manster. Totally scared the crap out of me on "Creature Feature" when I was a kid... also first hot sex (for a 1962 scifi movie edited for 1972 TV!) scene I ever saw and remember to this day. You've seen it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055139/