PDA

View Full Version : Ode to B Movies


Mota Boy
12-12-2004, 12:14 AM
Oh B movies - how I love thee. How I smile wide at the sight of heroes falling from incredible heights and only damage whatever they land upon. How happy I am to see oversized guns ripping the scenery to shreds. It warms the cockles of my heart to see a knife, gun, fist, sword, cup or flamethrower fight have periodical, planned pauses to allow the exchange of repartee.

And the gratuitous explosions. Of course you can't commandeer a car without finding that it's loaded with extremely volatile chemicals or have terrorists that merely want to assasinate someone with a gun. How dull would that be? Shit, you'd need at least a few hundred people's lives to be in jeopardy, and that's just for the opening sequence.

OK, so you had a car chase scene. Is that all? Just two cars running around? Did you have a cement truck? Or a 90 ton crane? Or have someone jump from one car to another? Was it a group of terrorists disguised as firemen with a sniper on the extended ladder of the firetruck firing on a double decker bus containing two bickering partners and a bunch of nuns? If not, then it'd better damn well meet at least three of those criteria for the reshoot. Remember - you always, always need at least one scene with a man firing machine gun at you from a helicopter. Oh, and what's that woman doing wearing clothes?

It's great to see a movie such as The Long Kiss Goodnight where no less than three characters "die" only to have a dramatic ressurection within one ten minute span, or Bad Boys when Will Smith successfully tails a car on foot. It's like visual/aural opium - any higher functions of my brain can have a bit of a rest for the next two hours without having to worry about missing a thing.

The Rundown is another perfect B movie, though it's a bit more intelligent than the others I've mentioned, I never really notice that part.

How 'bout some of your favorites?

greencows12
12-12-2004, 12:16 AM
what's a b movie?:D

Vera
12-12-2004, 04:44 AM
In the old days of Hollywood, movie theatres used to show two movies in one showing. This would mean that if you went to see movie X, you also got to see movie Y, sort of as a two-for-one package.

In this case, the movie Y was a movie that was shorter and had a smaller budget. Overall, it was just worse quality. But it was sort of used as an advertisement on a certain level.

The movie Y would be called a B movie and the movie X (the movie people actually paid for) would be a A movie.

Nowadays the term is used for smaller budget, just kind of crap films. B movies have become a synonym for bad movies but a movie done with a relatively small budget isn't necessarily a B movie nowadays. The rise of independent films in 1990's is a show of this.

(Can you see I've been taking a course on Film History?)

Not Ozymandias
12-15-2004, 11:40 PM
Every movie would be improved with Godzilla in it.

Mota Boy
12-16-2004, 12:11 AM
Give me a black-and-white villian with a gratuitous death scene any day.

Not Ozymandias
12-16-2004, 12:15 AM
Make me.......

Formaldehyde
12-16-2004, 02:09 AM
Anything by Edward D Wood Jr. Let's start with Plan 9 from outer space

Dive
12-16-2004, 08:20 AM
I always liked Jack Frost. Not the one with Michael Keaton, but the one where the prisoner is transformed into a snowman and, of course, goes around murdering people. I'm pretty sure there's a rape scene involving a carrot.

samr
12-16-2004, 08:22 AM
I like horror b films more than the GR4PH1C5 of today's film.

intothevalleyofdeath
12-16-2004, 08:57 AM
i love independent movies...the best ones ive seen are "Mean Creek" and "Primer"