The Gunslinger 45: Top 12 Movies I Like, You will Probably Hate

THE TIME HAS COME MOFOS! VENGEANCE IS NIGH! About a week or so ago I made my list of my top 12 Biggest Film Disappointments. Many of the entries being films many a MoFo like, but I your humble host do not care for. Now it is time to go in the opposite direction! I will now list my top 12 films that I, your humble Gunslinger, likes or loves, but most of you will probably will not care for.

Now I want to lay a few ground rules. First off I am not just going to post a list of 12 Cult Classics. I want to try and keep cult films to a minimum. I am not going to go the easy route and throw in a great film like Eraserhead because Lynch is kind of polarizing. I really want to put on this list films that there is not going to be a whole lot of love for. Now a few cult films might make it but if they do, I will have explanations as to why they deserve to be listed here.

So let us dive in! These are the Top 12 Films I Like, You Will Probably Hate!

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Fear and Loathing in MoFo... The Gunslinger 45's Top 50 Favorite Films

In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

I've been waiting for this!

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Cool! I expect some disgusting sleaze, dammit!

12. Miami Connection

The French Connection dealt with the French heroin dealers in the 70’s in a realistic gritty style. Miami Connection however, dealt with the 80’s Miami centered cocaine trade being taken over by ninjas and they are run afoul by an Orlando based college rock band that plays Tae Kwon Do themed rock and roll music. Clearly the latter is the most grounded in reality. The movie was a flop in its initial release and critically panned, and for understandable reasons. The premise is beyond ridiculous, the acting is subpar, and for a million dollar budget it still looked cheap. By comparison, Cannon’s Chuck Norris movie Missing in Action and Van Damme’s Bloodsport had a 1.5 million dollar budgets and looked better. Top it off it tries to incorporate the principles of self defense and peace found in Tae Kwon Do, but ends with an outright slaughter fest. But as you can guess, I really liked this movie.

This is going to be one of those cult films I am trying to keep to a minimum; but this movie clearly deserves an entry. The movie’s premise is ridiculous. It also has a bunch of out there subplots that don’t fit in the movie and the ending while built up to be tragic, turns out fine in the end. The flick is also just a lot of fun to watch. Finally, the music is actually pretty good; even the songs by the lead character’s band Dragon Sound. Now the title song “Friends” is VERY cheesy, but enjoyable. “Against the Ninja” however is far less cheesy and a much better song in my opinion. I have both songs on my iPod.

The movie has developed a cult fan base thanks to a digital restoring by the Alamo Drafthouse and its re-release in their theaters. But the film is still very much a “love it or hate it” movie. I am in the camp that enjoyed it. Now I opted to place it in the number 12 spot since I know others like it since it won the B-Movie HOF. But I know there will be plenty others who hate the flick.

Oh man... YES! Great movie!

11. The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

This is an animated movie meant for adults that infuses exploitation movie references, comedic elements ranging from dark to blue, has several musical numbers, tons of foul humor and plenty of cartoon t!ts, and to it off it was a straight to DVD movie made by Rob Zombie. Now an adult oriented cartoon is not new to American animation. These kinds of films have been around since Ralph Bakshi made Frtiz the Cat and the days of Heavy Metal. Now I LOVE Heavy Metal and even considered including it on this list. But I opted for this film instead since Heavy Metal actually has a cult fan base. There is a fan base for Ralph Bakshi movies too. I opted for this film for the list since there is not much of a fan base outside of the Rob Zombie fan base. And even that is not guaranteed.

Now I love Rob Zombie as a musician. It was Metallica and Rob Zombie who were most responsible for me getting into heavy metal. I listened to his albums all the time as a teenager, The Sinister Urge and Hellbilly Deluxe are among the albums that defined my high school days, and I still listen to them today. As for Rob Zombie the filmmaker, he has been a mixed bag. I saw House of a 1000 Corpses in theaters and liked it well enough and I liked The Devil’s Rejects; but I never liked his movies as much as I loved his albums. And I never bothered to see his Halloween remakes. Now I first heard about this flick from an insert when I bought his Educated Horses CD. And I thought it looked interesting enough. So when I learned the DVD was out, I bought it.

Now the flick in of itself is going to be a niche flick. Any animated movie that is not made by Disney, Dreamworks, or Pixar is not going to be a crowd pleaser. It heavily features film references to horror, exploitation movies (plus a few other classics), it has crass humor, cartoon violence, and while there is cartoon nudity it won’t satisfy the hentai fans. Also, the musical numbers in the movie are not going to be metal songs. In fact several seem like parody of songs by The Monkees. Finally it is a work made and directed by Rob Zombie in an artistic medium that is not his strongest. And you know what? I really like it!

Now aside from the fact that I enjoy these kinds of flicks, they reference a bunch of flicks I really like. They reference a bunch of exploitation flicks I like and even movies from The Shining, Carrie, and even Taxi Driver. I thought the humor was funny, the animation was great in its art style, and I liked the musical bits. Cherry on top they got legit voice talent for the movie. They got Rosario Dawson and Paul Giamatti who are legit actors. Sherri Moon Zombie has a big role and is paired with Brian Posehn. Plus you have a few horror actors like Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, and ET), Ken Foree (Peter in Dawn of the Dead), and even Danny Trejo. But they got huge names in voice over acting to be in the movie. Jesse Harnell, Rob Paulson, John DiMaggio, Debra Wilson, Kevin Michael Richardson, Dee Bradley Baker, and Tom Kenny. All of whom are huge in the world of voice acting. So there is no shortage of talent here. Top it off this is a movie that is just a lot of fun to watch. It is not a heavy watch that requires a lot of thought to enjoy. But it is a very fun entertaining flick for me to watch.

Interesting. I haven't seen it, but I'm REALLY not a fan of Zombie's work as a director. Do you think I should give it a try anyway?

IDK. It is pretty far from say House of a 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects as the flick is a comedy.

10. Troma’s War

I had to put a Troma movie on here somewhere. Troma Entertainment is a film company headed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz. Both are film producers and directors who make horror comedy films and found commercial success with the likes of The Toxic Avenger and Nuke Em High. And they have found continuous means to make their own unique brand of B movies from SGT Kabukiman, Terror Firmer, Tromeo and Juliet, and more recently Poultrygeist. I really like a lot of them and Troma has its own hard core fan base. But I opted to use one. Why? The films I listed are the ones Troma fans actually like.

Troma has always been a production company that has placed quantity over quality to their film library. As such they have produced and distributed a lot of really good flicks. But for every good movie they made or licensed; there were even more movies that were not as good or regarded as outright crap even by their fans. And the best of their film library tend to have been directed by Herz and Kaufman. But even they had their own failures. Troma’s War was a movie made for $3 million dollars in the late 80’s. Not that may seem cheap to you, but for 80’s Troma this was actually their most expensive movie to make at the time. Part of what makes the films find some sort of profit and success is to make the movies on extremely low budgets. So 3 million was a big deal at the time. In fact this was actually not distributed by Troma. This movie was distributed by 20th Century Fox. The end result of the film ended up a critical and commercial flop, and not exactly a hit with their fan base.

The flick was supposed to be a satire on 80’s Regan politics and how the administration glorified armed conflict. The flick takes place when a commercial airline flight crash lands in hostile territory and the passengers struggle to survive. As such the film is filled with shootouts, very over the top violence, Troma’s own brand of humor, and very over the top characters. These characters range from a gung-ho Vietnam Vet, the main villain of the movie who is a neo-Nazi, and Senoir Sida. Sida apparently being the local term for AIDS. Guess what he has. Now Troma’s War hit a snag thanks to the MPAA. It was initially deemed to violent and had to have lots of scenes cut out just to get an R rating. And Senoir Sida while having a very tiny part in the film originally was supposed to have an entire subplot that had to be removed as well. The final product resulting in a lot of the intended satire taken out of the flick and has a significantly shorter run time. As such it was not all that popular with general audiences and not a big name within the fan base.

But I dig the flick. I watched the uncut version on Troma’s YouTube page and really enjoyed it. Then again it helps I got the full viewing experience. What I enjoy about it is that it is over the top. It is full blown over the top violence and some downright f**ked up humor. And while it was certainly not Kaufman’s intention, the film is just a lot of fun to watch. It is silly, funny, and just a good movie to watch if you want to have something entertaining on. It felt like I was watching Red Dawn only without the Milius pathos and replaced with slapstick and crude humor. As a result, I genuinely enjoy the movie.

I love the Troma I have seen but that's unfortunately not very many. Best thing about Troma is they always have super long making of docs, great for someone like me.

Miami Connection is one of the greatest masterpieces of the 80's!

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is the only one i've seen, wouldn't be surprised if it was the only one i've seen on the whole list. I wouldn't call myself a fan of it exactly but i did laugh some.

I totally agree. I need to see it again!!!

I have seen none of these.

You don't scare me at all. Goodbye.

I saw Miami Connection for that B movie HoF and I enjoyed it. I watched El Superbeasto on your recommendation for the animation countdown and I liked that too.

Never heard of Troma's War.

They have a lot of their movies on their YouTube page. A LOT of them. Including Troma's War

9. Jersey Girl

Most people on the site will know I am by far the most vocal fan of director Kevin Smith on Movie Forums. I have loved the man’s work ever since I was a teenager. I am a huge fan of Smith’s View Askewniverse and still rewatch those films today. Now post Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith moved away from the shared world of Clerks, Mallrats, and the like to make a stand alone movie. The biggest reason is that frequent collaborator (and one half of Jay and Silent Bob) Jason Mewes was way too dialed into heroin and oxy’s. And it was becoming harder and harder to get the man to sober up for a movie. So Smith opted to go in a none Jay and Bob way. He wanted to make another flick in the same vein as Chasing Amy. As such Kevin wrote Jersey Girl as a love letter to his daughter Harley Quinn Smith. It did bring back repeat Smith actors like Ben Affleck, George Carlin, and there was a small role for his wife Jennifer Schwalbach; but also introduced Raquel Castro to movies and was the first time Smith worked with Liv Tyler and Jennifer Lopez.

Problems for Smith came in the form of the tabloids. Benniffer was a huge media sensation (why I have no idea) and this caused so many problems on set. Worse still the script was changed and J-Lo’s role had to be minimized following Gigli’s critical panning and commercial bombing. So the flick got retooled. In addition, Smith made an attempt to try and reach a wider audience beyond his fanbase. As such the flick was PG-13; thus making the movie nowhere near as raw as Kevin’s previous R rated works like Clerks. And again, this was his first time making a movie without Jay and Silent Bob.

But that being said I still like this movie. There are two parts to a Kevin Smith flick. One part is the raw humor. His flicks are very vulgar, have a lot of sex humor, and someone will make a joke about dudes sucking **** and what not. But Kevin Smith flicks also have a lot of heart in them. He draws a lot from his own personal experiences in life and has used that in his film making. Clerks was about his life working in convenience stores. And while this film was very raw, the flick had its heart at the ending of the flick. Chasing Amy was the perfect blend of heart and raw humor. LOT’S of vulgar jokes but a lot of heart throughout the movie. What Jersey Girl ended up being was a double dose of heart. Not raw at all outside of the occasional sex joke and George Carlin using ONE of the seven words you can’t say on TV every so often. Which is understandable since the flick was meant to be a love letter to Smith’s kid. So the film was a very different kind of Kevin Smith movie then before. Now he got so hammered critically because of the flick he had to step away from filmmaking for a bit. Now ultimately he returned and went back to the well with Clerks 2 (my favorite film of his). And while lots of people say Jersey Girl sucks or use it as a punch line (Smith included) I like the flick. I don’t love it like the rest of Smith’s work, but it is nowhere near as bad a movie as others make it out to be.

I haven't seen Jersey Girl but I can remember the bashing it got.

8. An American Carol

I could probably just name this film and leave it at that. An American Carol was a modern day parody on the Charles Dickens story. But instead of Christmas, the movie was set during the Fourth of July. A caricature of Michael Moore was the stand in for Scrooge. Faux Moore’s nephew is an officer in the US Navy, and faux Moore is visited by spirits until he learns that America is the greatest country in the world (and that its people prefer features). This movie was made by conservatives, starring conservatives, for a more conservative audience. It starred Kevin Farley, Kelsey Grammar, and Robert Davi. The film also had minor roles filled by prominent Hollywood conservatives like Jon Voight, James Woods, and Dennis Hopper. The film also had other actors like Keith from Scrubs and Kevin Sorbo. And oh yeah Bill O Reilly was in the movie. The film also featured liberal actors who either worked with director Zuckerberg before (Leslie Nielson), people who seem to have great senses of humor (David Allen Grier), or who just needed the work (Gary Coleman). The film presented conservative view points and had the Michael Moore stand in be the butt of the jokes. Some of its political opining was very heavy handed and it over did it on the fat jokes. It also alienated the liberal half of America and LOTS of critics hated it. It also failed to be a box office success as this did not inspire patriotic Americans to the theaters the way American Sniper did. Seems many waited for the DVD release.

But I liked the flick. Because it did what Shaun of the Dead never did; it made me laugh. I liked a lot of the jokes and got plenty of genuine laughs out of it. I thought the premise was pretty interesting with the Christmas Carol twist. JFK was the Marley stand in, and the three spirits were Kelsey Grammar as George S Patton, Jon Voight as George Washington, and Trace Adkins as the angel of death. Why Trace Adkins? Because the movie needed an ending musical number. I thought Grammar was a great comedic version of Patton. But by far the funniest people in the movie were the terrorists played by Robert Davi, Sammy Sheik, and especially Geoffrey Arend (the guy who was freaking out in the back of the car in the opening to Super Troopers). Arend definitely had some of the best punch lines in the flick and he was a delight to watch. His best scene for me was when he was standing in an Afghan line to vote and made jokes about a guest worker program and the marriage amendment ballot. Top it off the film ends with Trace Adkins singing one of my favorite Charlie Daniels songs “America I Believe in You.” And while I did not subscribe to all the films political leanings (I changed my mind on The Patriot Act under W Bush) but I liked that it was a pro military pro America movie. Which was kinda hard to come by during this film's release. And the fact that I thought it was funny did help the film overcome its shortcomings. I am glad I saw it and I own it on DVD.