B-Movie HoF II: The Sequel!

Tools    





A vote sounds in order, even if not everyone in this HoF participates. One thing I'd like to avoid is (drum roll.....) drawing too much attention. I'd like to be able to pull a fast one and get away with it. Haha! Nah.

This was an assorted lot, that is for sure.

@edarsenal, btw, I got through abought 20 mins of Spaced Invaders last night and so far off to a great start! Digging that humor, and those effects and miniatures/lighting...woah. Not too shabby.



Geez Joel a vote isn't needed...All that you need to do to get through sucky movies, is to multi task. You know watch the movie with one eye, while you surf the net or text or whatever. People all the time will post saying, "I'm watching the movie right now" but they also must be using their phone. Just do that and you can get through the movies easy peasy...

OR...if the story sucks so bad you just don't care, watch the background of the movie for interesting set pieces, or listen to the score. If none of that works just watch 30 minutes at time until you're done.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
@edarsenal, btw, I got through abought 20 mins of Spaced Invaders last night and so far off to a great start! Digging that humor, and those effects and miniatures/lighting...woah. Not too shabby.
thanks. It does skirt the borders of a legit B Film, but it was just too much of a fun film to say no to. Ya know.
__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes
~Mr Minio



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Geez Joel a vote isn't needed...All that you need to do to get through sucky movies, is to multi task. You know watch the movie with one eye, while you surf the net or text or whatever. People all the time will post saying, "I'm watching the movie right now" but they also must be using their phone. Just do that and you can get through the movies easy peasy...

OR...if the story sucks so bad you just don't care, watch the background of the movie for interesting set pieces, or listen to the score. If none of that works just watch 30 minutes at time until you're done.
VERY true!

Well said!!



Yeah I agree this was a hard bunch of movies to watch. I guess that's not a surprise as B movies are often the bottom of the movie barrel.
I agree to a point. Way too many comedies to my taste (even though I ended up liking couple of those comedies the most after my own nom). Still I actually had worse time watching some of the 30s HoF films than these



My final review for this HoF. I don't know if I'd call this even B-movie - it's just silly because this kind of family films usually are.

Spaced Invaders (1990) N

It's Halloween but young Kathy doesn't feel like celebrating. She's dressed up as an alien and feels alienated in the new town without friends and would rather stay home with her widower dad. But daddy needs to work so off to party and candy collecting she goes. Oh, and there's the Martian invasion of sorts too.


"Honey, you're too young to go to GWAR concert."

Spaced Invaders is quite standard kid or family movie with little more edge than these usually have (there's at least one death, references to genocide and torture, etc.). Obviously it also tries to teach compassion, love and other "good" values but either it fails miserably or actually makes fun of the cliche (maybe this is just hopeful self-deception); especially Kathy is like modern liberal who sides with the genocidal and murderous aliens refusing to believe anything bad about them even when they themself proclaim their goals.

Acting and writing are both naive and exaggerated but as I consider this a family film it doesn't really matter (I suppose watching family films is my chance to switch off some of my cognitive processes). Dialogue and humor in general could be a lot snappier but there's some charm in the awkard and childish mess.

I occasionally watch family films and while Spaced Invaders isn't anything special it's OK for what it is. Also needed to check IMDb to figure out why Kathy looked so familiar - she's the girl from the first Jurassic Park.




I found this HoF hard to do, and it was my first. It'll be my only. Nobody was alone in being tortured by this HoF. I've now even amended how I say I love B-movies. I used to just say I love them. Now I'm very careful how I phrase that.
__________________
You're an enigma, cat_sidhe.



Got through Spaced Invaders. Kind of a Critters production value except probably better. Silly humor mostly kind of light and forgettable. Highlight was alien blues rock jammin in the trailer and cigarette trick or treat, ha! That was funny.

It was a refreshing palate cleanse as I suspected it might be.

Nice one, @edarsenal!



Looks like we are all just about done. Ill send my list in to myself i guess lol.

Cici and TUS i believe are still fitting those last ones in but not sure if thats it.

We ssid the 22nd?

Ill get into it once im not on a phone



The Editor

I didn't understand any of the jokes as I've barely seen any Giallo films (except maybe Suspiria), but overall I enjoyed myself. If I did notice any reference it's the unique colours and bizarre zooms. It kinda looks like a student film. The 'whodunnit' story-line was fairly entertaining. The gore and violence are a lotta fun. The screams sound genuine and pretty horrifying. There were lots of sexy ladies!

That's all i can say, how is someone who's watched almost no Giallo films supposed to get the full experience of a parody of one. I'l'l stick with the first Scary Movie for now @CiCi

Also the dude from The Human Centipede 2 plays the priest, how ironic.

+



Women will be your undoing, Pépé



The Editor

Well, I gotta say, this was a VERY befitting end for me to this Hall of Fame with a solid bit of B-Film schlock/parody.
Like a few others, I have not seen any Giallo films but did get a few chuckles out of this Naked Gun-esque parody of serial killer porn films with a mercurial line between fantasy and film making and what actually is real. And in the end, doesn't really matter. And I would hazard to guess it doesn't change the amusement of the watching this film either.

As I said, a befitting end to this HoF!



WE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!!
PS: Apologies if it sounds like im a bit lower energy than normal, I recorded this just as I was transitioning out of "Severe Tonsilitus" and into "Annoying Headcold" so I may sound a bit gruff and "Bleh"...Im still "Bleh" but eh...whattayagonnadoamIright!?



WE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!!
The Dragon Lives Again
It was over the top obnoxious just as I expected. The print I saw was filthy. Hairs, dirt, and debris popping up on ever single frame. The crop was ridiculous. Everything was thin and compressed. This is a widescreen film, shot as a widescreen movie is shot, with characters in the 1st and 3rd of the frame while usually dead space is in the center. I will own this on blu ray or a decent dvd soon enough.

For time reasons, I'll just say that this is the kind of film you really, really need to be in the mood for. You can have fun with it and make your own audio track(s), but that would be a lot of work.

So the movie itself, OK. Well, there isn't much I can say that others haven't said already. It's very ambitious and the scope of adventure is enormous, with the cast of characters defining the word range.

This is the kind of movie you have to watch really high and while in a very good mood.

That is why I have bookmarked it for a competent presentation. I will be able to really see it once I track down a copy that isn't on a pop up website, or isn't distressed with bad aspect ratio. I love debris on film so, that's never an issue.

The bottom line is: I did not enjoy it for this HoF, but like pahaK's nom, I believe timing is important, and I know that once a watchable print is obtained, I will be able to reassess. lol, I said "ASSES".

A circumstantial snafu, but bookmarked just the same.

Thank you, @TYTD!

Happy to hear your saving this one for the right mindset man I agree it's one of those films thats best enjoyed when your in the right "Zone" Additionally (And quite sadly) you may be out of luck finding a polished version of this. the best quality copy I can find is the original PAL VHS release from 1987 and thats still got print damage and is cropped into 4:3 (Though at least it's presented unstretched in 4:3) all the DVD prints of this look absolutely awful and it looks like it's been cropped in to give a "Full screen" experience (Yuk...) Sadly theres no Bluray release either...though I hope to god that within my lifetime we get the 8k restoration that this film truely deserves!



Cherry 2000

Probably the most 80's film on this HoF, and probably one of the less boring ones. It certainly tries to say alot about relationships and AI and all that jazz. The soundtrack is very nice, the action is pretty cool, and the ending was surprisingly emotional. The performances from the leads were very strange (The dude always looked high when he was surprised) and I found it really funny how this normal, suburban dude is wielding guns and shooting people without remorse.

Cool film @Citizen Rules

-



Cherry 2000

Probably the most 80's film on this HoF, and probably one of the less boring ones. It certainly tries to say alot about relationships and AI and all that jazz. The soundtrack is very nice, the action is pretty cool, and the ending was surprisingly emotional. The performances from the leads were very strange (The dude always looked high when he was surprised) and I found it really funny how this normal, suburban dude is wielding guns and shooting people without remorse.

Cool film @Citizen Rules

-
Glad you liked it, or at least didn't hate it! I had fun rewatching it myself.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
The Child

Most B-Movies use their budget to ignite a certain charm, this one did not. It felt a little stagnated because of it. As a result, it felt less like a B-Movie to me than some others listed. That's not to say that it's not a decent film, there are certainly some aspects to enjoy from it. The music works, the atmosphere is creepy and there are some genuinely enjoyable moments, but as a whole this one was less fun than the other nominations. When I see a B-Movie, I want to have fun.


Hunter's Blood

Same boat as The Child, where there was little fun to be had. This one had a bit more going for it though. A lower budgeted Deliverance, the film manages to get some level of excitement. There are plenty of movies exactly like this, but it was good to watch it as part of this series. It's always fun seeing Billy Drago in movies. The guy has the LOOK of a bad guy, no matter what he does.

The Dragon Lives

Out of the final 3, this one was fun. In was fun in the sense that it was insanely absurd. I can't add anything else to what others have said, but this was one of the weirdest movies I've probably seen this year. THAT'S A GOOD THING!!!
__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
The Child

Most B-Movies use their budget to ignite a certain charm, this one did not. It felt a little stagnated because of it. As a result, it felt less like a B-Movie to me than some others listed. That's not to say that it's not a decent film, there are certainly some aspects to enjoy from it. The music works, the atmosphere is creepy and there are some genuinely enjoyable moments, but as a whole this one was less fun than the other nominations. When I see a B-Movie, I want to have fun.


Hunter's Blood

Same boat as The Child, where there was little fun to be had. This one had a bit more going for it though. A lower budgeted Deliverance, the film manages to get some level of excitement. There are plenty of movies exactly like this, but it was good to watch it as part of this series. It's always fun seeing Billy Drago in movies. The guy has the LOOK of a bad guy, no matter what he does.

The Dragon Lives

Out of the final 3, this one was fun. In was fun in the sense that it was insanely absurd. I can't add anything else to what others have said, but this was one of the weirdest movies I've probably seen this year. THAT'S A GOOD THING!!!
The very first time I saw him was a killer, Frank Nitti, in The Untouchables with Costner, Connery, and DeNiro

and he nailed the evil psychotic beautifully. Absolutely loved hating him.



When I see a B-Movie, I want to have fun.
I guess this is related to the reason why I ended up disliking majority of these films while I still consider myself somewhat a B-movie fan. Unlike many others I don't watch B-movies to snicker at their imperfections or to see intentionally bad films. I'm more into interesting concepts and stories (interesting obviously being used subjectively here). For me a B-movie is just a movie with finite resources and/or limited technical prowess.

I suppose I should have seen this when people were asking about how to rate these nominations (I think there was something weird about that in the first B-movie HoF too). I just can't alter my tastes based on the movie budget (or age, status, etc.) so I basically rate every film with same standards.

This is not directed to @TheUsualSuspect in any way, he just said the words that made me write it