Set the DVR's, then kick back for a nice enjoyable night of face value entertainment. Get your best beer and settle in with your "Non-Judgmental Hat" on.

Saw an ad for Red Faction: Origins on Syfy next Sat.
SyFy channel...based on video game...ok, not looking promising, but it does have some names in it. Maybe we'll get lucky? Robert Patrick, Kate Vernon (Tigh's wife on BSG).

However, also noticed some other good B movies on earlier in the day:
Mutant Chronicles....excellent alternate reality, high marks for visual style. Good cast, people all over the place: Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Sean Pertwee and even John Malkovich.

Star Runners....more or less Pitch Black, but not just a carbon copy. It's got Connor Trinneer (from Enterprise) carrying the movie (again, like Enterprise) and also James Kyson Lee, "Ando" from Heroes.

They should go all the way and put my favorites in there: Immortal, Equilibrium and Mirrormask.
Screamers would be nice, I love that Philp K Dick adaptation.

There *IS* such a thing as good B work, due to still getting a good story and performances. Big maned actors.
Name some other favorites to watch when you're ready to blindly accept it.

I assume we are defining "B movie" here as strictly a movie that has a low budget and not necessarily a movie that has a cheesy/tongue in cheek/campy feel to it?

For example, "Equilibrium" did indeed have a low budget but there was nothing campy about it while you have a movie like Battlefield Earth that had quite a substantial budget but it was so full of cheese it was unbearable.

"Straight to dvd", or not a theatrical release is more like it. B is just so much easier to type out though. LOL

In that case it's been quite a long time since I've seen a good sci-fi movie that wasn't a theatrical release. The last one was probably Equilibrium!

To date, I have not seen any SyFy original movies that were even watchable unless I just wanted to laugh a lot and come up with my own MST3K style commentary.

I saw Screamers in the theater, so I don't think that counts.



The Jedi Master

But, what about Screamers 2: The Hunting

I consider Starship Troopers and Starship Troopers 2, B movies

The first one definitely had a campy feel to it but that was intentional. The second one was definitely a B movie in both budget and campiness.

I had forgotten all about SSTroopers 3. I have totally erased that one from my memory. lol

They made a third one??? Sheesh.

Is there such a thing as "C" movies? How does the scale go?

Once you reach "DD" you're in an entirely different genre.

I think Mystery Science Theater specialized in riffing those "DD" class movies.

Well we can rule out Dune 2000 or Children of Dune from sy-fy. Man those were horrible on a level unmatched by few other movies. It makes the original Dune movie look great though.

I always thought the first Scanners was a classic lol!

Interesting analysis. I thought "Children of Dune" was quite well done with good performances and production values. The Dune miniseries though was pretty atrocious. You could tell how low budget it was and most of the performances were pretty lame.

As for David Lynch's "Dune", you either hate it or love it with a passion. I'm one of the lovers.

I enjoyed both of the Dune mini-series, but they had a very difficult task to accomplish, since they wanted to try to stay true to the books...on limited budget.
Still, it's the original version Lynch movie that I can watch pretty much any time and enjoy the heck out of it.

While Lynch's film deviates quite a bit from the novel, I am still deeply impressed by the performances and by the visuals and production design. It just seemed to be a much more interesting and compelling Dune universe than what we saw in the miniseries.

Patrick Stewart with more hair is all it takes to like the original Dune lol! If we could just swap the two versions a little like say the actors and budget from the original and the script from the remake and we could have one epic movie. I think I've read where David Lynch doesn't like thinking of Dune yet alone having it mentioned near him but if I met him on the street I'd heckle him for it! And for the record as bad as the story revisions are in the original Dune I love it too. It has that epic movie feeling to it.

Now that I'm thinking of other B style Movies how about Flash Gordon (and I thought the Dune miniseries was bad). Its so bad you have to love it, Max Von Sydow as the Emperor Ming classic stuff and lets not forget the killer soundtrack (try topping that Toto)!

What? Dune miniseries (2000)
Children of Dune miniseries (2003)


I have no rememberence of this. William Hurt, Susan Sarandon... nope.. nada.

They aired on SFC in those years and were released on DVD later.
I got them both on Amazon dirt cheap.



The Jedi Master

A little bit of trivia about Dune and Flash Gordon. Both films were produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

And yeah, Queen did a fantastic job with the soundtrack for Flash.

Oh, as for the Lynch dislike for discussing Dune, there is a whole epic story behind that but I'll keep it short and say what caused the initial problem is that Lynch did NOT have full creative control over Dune. It was in fact a creative partnership between Lynch and De Laurentiis. I have no doubt that the film would have turned out even better had Lynch had full creative control.

The books are a little slow paced and more political than fun sci fi. I think I made it partly into God Emperor before it just lost me. I hated the time jump, although it was cool for a couple of characters. One day I'll finish them.

The extended movie shows the water reclaiming ceremony, which I do wish had been in the original. They could've spent a little more time on that.

^I know about Dino De Laurentis having control over the creative side and final edits. My biggest issue with that movie is the wierding modules (most peoples issue too).

Did not know he was involved in Flash Gordon. What kills it for me in the miniseries is the sub par acting and just plain awful special effects, I think George Lucas could've given them some pointers on low budget special effects.

Here's another B Sci Fi movie classic: Ice Pirates

And the baddest time warp scene evvvvvvaaaaaaarrrr! lol

Space Herpes!

Yeah, to go from the "weirding way" which was a sort of Bene Gesserit martial art in the book to the weirding module which was a voice activated weapon was rather bizarre. I have no idea though if that change came from Lynch or De Laurentiis.

Hell comes to Frogtown and Damnation Alley when I was watching them on the USA channel back then.

Ah yes I remember the USA "Up All Night" Saturday B movies hosted by some blonde bimbo. I can't remember her name.

Rhonda Shear.

I actually preferred when Gilbert Godfried hosted.



The Jedi Master

Ah yes, that was her name. It rings a bell now that I see it.

Rhonda Shear, Up All Night 1

http://youtu.be/0nJ358fWY2Y


Wheels

Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Absolutely outstanding retro-futuristic classic, I have it on DVD.

Miao, Cat

I love that one! Watched with Forbidden Planet, the perfect 1-2 punch of sci fi.

I prefer The Day the Earth Stood Still or War of the Worlds with Forbidden Planet for my 50s fix.



The Jedi Master

The original "Godzilla" is quite good and considered to be a classic.

Dark star



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Star_%28film%29

I'll have to watch that one again. I tried to watch it a couple years ago but I found it to be really stupid so I quit about 40 minutes into it.

I'd say Dark Star is really most worth watching for the 2nd half. If you quit before halfway, you've watched the worst part without getting the benefit of the end.




The Jedi Master

Would any of the Highlander movies count towards "B" surely Endgame would right? Even the first one has a lot of B quality to it. Like Flash Gordon it does have a killer Queen soundtrack......

If you go by Raw Kryptonite's definition of "B" movie then no because all of the Highlander films were theatrical releases as far as I know.

I rented about 3 weeks ago. I didn't make it either. Sometimes the cost is just too high even for ME. LOL
There was one a week ago I dvr'd but haven't seen yet, Red Faction something or other? Don't know if it's got to do with the game or not.
Too much to hope for it to be good?


Don't sweat the B movie thing, just not a blockbuster Matrix or ID4 type movies everyone know about. I just want some flicks to watch that I might not know about.
Endgame was a tv movie I think, then dvd. So much potential, but alllll screwed up. They even got the best cast members together again.

Speaking of B movies, here's a new one from SyFy that will air this Saturday.

Oh, and it stars Michael Hogan (Saul Tigh) and Ty Olsson (Captain Kelley) from BSG.

http://www.syfy.com/movies/originals/index.php?pageid=154



Sad.

I'll probably still record that too. You just never know!
I wonder if that Odysseus movie was any good? "Good" being a relative term.
I see Mutant Chronicles in there, I didn't know they actually funded that one themselves. Star "Pitch Black" Runners too.
May have to crack open Red Faction tonight. Needs to either entertain or clear out of the dvr.

Check out the description of War Birds. Classic! LOL

RF is supposed to be a prequel to the games IIRC. I caught a bit of it. Ugh.


The Jedi Master

Do the Tremors movies count? They just ooze 'B' movie. I love them all!



Me too! I recon that film looks better now than the day it came out.

Especially if you get it on bluray. It's cheap on Amazon!

Hard to say if it looks better as IIRC the version has not been restored, merely transferred from the best avaialable source. So it's quite likely that on release it would've looked better in a good theater.



The Jedi Master

Ugh ???

It's that bad?

It's a SyFy production, of course it's bad!

Other than the "named" actors, it seems SFC deliberately hires actors with zero experience besides maybe a toothpaste commercial. Some (not all) of the effects were good enough, only a few were cringe-inducing. The sets were largely virtual or simple, keeping costs down.
I'd say the plot even seemed fairly good.
The problems with all these SFC films is that while the premise/plot can be quite good, the acting and dialogue (even for the good actors) can be so poor as to make you look longingly at Attack of the Clones' love scenes as the pinnacle of film.

Actually, I've come to the conclusion that SFC isn't trying to make good films on a B budget, they're TRYING to make B films on a B budget. There's no way to make THAT many and fail to be good every time unless that's what they're aiming for.



The Jedi Master

It's not just a conclusion but it's fact. I'll have to hunt for the article online but I read an interview with the SyFy director of programming about a year ago and he basically said that their goal with the original SyFy movies was to continue the legacy of the 1950's B movies. And I'm pretty sure that the reason these movies get decent enough ratings is the whole "it's so bad it's good" phenomenon so a lot of people are curious to watch them. And of course these movies are dirt cheap to produce.

I downloaded it but now I'm too scared to watch it. lol

Here's a recommendation:

a TNT made-for-TV sci-fi film called The Thrill Seekers starring Caspar Van Dien, Catherine Bell and Martin Sheen. Alternate title is Time Shifters

another time travel what-if film.

That one looks pretty good.


Wheels

Here's another sci-fi b movie that I saw on VHS in the early 90's. I was quite impressed and it stars Mark Hamill! It was also directed by the same guy who directed the original Tron.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098350/

I remember that one! Not much about it, but I remember Mark being in it.

The other day I was thinking about "living ship" type movies, like Event Horizon. Anyone remember "Nightflyers"? Probably never made it off of VHS. Fun flick, kind of scifi horror. About psychics, ship in distress/insane...decent cast. Had Catherine Mary Stewart in it.

What I find so funny about "Soldier" is that it had a big budget but it sure felt like a B movie between the cheesy acting and dialogue. It was like a high budget B movie.

That was Alien.
A B movie that outgrew its britches.


The Jedi Master