A-List B-Movies: Chronicle Of Greatness
It’s been a while since I chronicled my top movies and while I still pretty much stand by that list (Okay, so Rambo 1 and The Day The Earth Stood Still deserved more), I remember deciding to myself that movies should be rated on watchability as well as greatness. So step out of your french art-house-critic suit for a moment and smell the burnt celluloid; some movies, bad movies, are just awesome. That’s what we call A-list B-movies.
Directors, actors, effects-people, you who are about to be listed, I salute you.
1 means awesome, 2 is awesomer and 3 is awesomest.
- Time Cop, Zardoz, Braindead, Cobra, Death Race 2000, Judge Dredd, Soldier, Mortal Kombat, Masters Of The Universe, Total Recall, The Lawnmower Man, Commando
- Escape From L.A., Leviathan, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, The Last Dragon, American Ninja, Bloodsport, Highlander 2, Soylent Green
- Forbidden Planet, The Running Man, Escape From New York, Cherry 2000, Westworld, Logans Run, Outland, Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun
To make this list extra handy for your next hot-pockets powered get-together, here’s a really quick checklist to let you know when you’re watching an A-List B-Movie:
- It features an action hero that says “He had to split” after sawing a man in two or “He blew a fuse” after electrocuting him.
- Smoking is allowed aboard the space ship.
- Sidekicks proclaim: “I’m not your buddy, pal!”
- Features green milk.
- Has a montage to either of these fine songs: “Live to win”, “Fight for love”, “Push it to the limit”, “You’re the best”, “Eye of the tiger” or “Hearts on fire”.
By the way, despite being a highly exact science, somehow everyone inherently knows how to enjoy B-movies. With that in mind, please educate me on which B-movies I haven’t yet had the pleasure of watching. Pings and discussion are open. Oh, and please: no Uwe Boll movies; they set the standard against which all badness is measured. I leave you with Hearts on Fire by John Cafferty:
I haven’t heard of a lot of those movies, some of them sound interesting. Made a little list for myself, will try and get through as many of them as I can. :) Thanks for curing some afternoon boredom Joen!
Total Recal and Judge Dredd deserves a place on the “awesomer” list. Otherwise I agree.
Here are some of my favourites not in any particular order:
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058548/) – was once on the bottom 100 on IMDb.
Killers from Space (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047149/) – With a young Peter Graves
Collission Course (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097081/) – With Jay Leno and Pat “Mr. Miyagi” Morita.
Oh man I haven’t seen American Ninja in years.
1. Ice Pirates
2. Rad
3. Iron Eagle
And I think it goes without saying anything starring Patrick Swayze up to and including Point Break
Great additions. Consider them added to m “to eventually watch” list!
American Ninja 1 is good, 2 is watchable. 3 is almost bearable. 4 is unbearable and 5 is torture. Just, you know, a heads up.
Adding your three movies to the b-list :)
Oh, and Patrick Swayze! Road House FTW!
Like I said before, Big Trouble in Little China will rock your lists.
Hell yes! I’ve gotta toss in my vote for Evil Dead 1 & 2 and Army of Darkness.
I loved Army of Darkness!
Some additions to this list from friends and collegues:
Swamp Thing! Awesome.
I bet this is a great movie as well, though I haven’t seen it.
Hot Resort from the early 80s. Is that a B movie?
It sure sounds like it.
and Big Trouble in Little China. hrrrmmmph!
Holy shit.
I recommend Ultraviolet starring Milla Jovovich of Resident Evil fame. It has an awesome techno score. And some rather hilarious/disconcerting continuity errors.
Speaking of usability (since I saw your other entry on that topic), what about usability on your blog? Those yellow links around the comment form are damn near unreadable.
criticize master joen???? oh nooooo youuu diiiiiiiidn’!!!!!!
Oh yes I did. Can you even spell, chirs? I thought not.
I saw ultraviolet, and wanted to like it because I like Kurt Wimmers “Equilibrium”. Alas I just found it boring, more-so than the B movies listed here!
As for usability, oooh I love criticism. In the words of George Bush, bring it on!
To rebute your statement, the usability of those links may not be superb (blue and underlined would be preferrable), it’s more a matter of accessability in the fact that they’re hard to read.
Because this is also a personal blog and not an admin interface, I find the conscious choice of picking a little style over substance should be permissible.
are you mocking my name? just because i may be the first, and possibly only Chirs you run into, I ask that you respect my Azerbaijanian heritage.
Hi. Larious!
Heh heh heh. 10 points for the joke. But be nice Chris. Or I’ll kick you. Remember, I know where you live ;)
Sorry to burst your bubble, but “rebute” isn’t an English word. You want “rebut” or “refute.” Or is that the British spelling?
:P
Aaaw, now you’re being mean :)
I meant refute, you spelling nazi :)
Holy shit indeed!
Whoops, add “accessability” and “preferrable” to that list. o.O
Haha, I’ll stop now.
Sir, your list is seriously lacking Killer Klowns from outer space and Hell Comes to Frogtown. And if I allow myself to get started, I can dig up even more. Great post!
They sound like excellent choices! Added to the steaming pile of to-watch.
Oh, and where the hell is They Live – the origin of the quote “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.“?
Oh wait, it’s right here on Google Video
Oh you’re just throwing gold in my general direction. Excellent.
Heh, I knew spending my entire youth watching B-, C- and D-movies would be good for something. Do you want really bad? Try Seed People. Ow. Ooowww.
Wow, almost sounds like a porno.
I need B, C or D bad, not Transformers 2 bad! “Seed People” looks like it’s only slightly better than Transformers 2.
It would probably have been better AS a porno. What a waste that movie was!
Want an underrated B movie gem instead? Pumpkinhead.