Cheesy B movies that you actually like

My top 3


1. Flash Gordon (the 1980 film)


So much cheesy over-acting in this movie but there's no denying that the Queen soundtrack is first rate and Brian Blessed is awesome even when playing an over the top campy role! Oh, and Max von Sydow IS Ming.



2. Phantom of the Paradise


Weird, bizarre, fascinating, disturbing and funny all at the same time.



3. Battle Beyond the Stars

Essentially "Seven Samurai" in space with some pretty good special effects and some great one-liners from Robert Vaughn and George Peppard.

Army of Darkness (1992)

John Carpenter's They Live - 1988
and pretty much every other John Carpenter B-type movie.

"They Live" is great!! It has my favorite performance by a former WWE wrestler ever!

Oooh yeah, I enjoyed They Live!

Even more so than Andre the Giant?

He was great too in "A Princess Bride" but Piper is still my number 1!

THE ICE PIRATES

Couple Disney ones.

The Great Race.

Chiti Chiti Bang Bang.

Star Wars

The Toxic Avenger (1984)

My guilty pleasure:

Barb Wire (1996)

And I went all in when I realized that "Die Cheerleader", one of my favourite bands of all time, are featured as in-house musicians for Barb Wire's club and on soundtrack.

My all time favorite B movie. Dad loved it to.

Bubba Ho Tep

Bruce Campbell (as an Elvis impersonator) and Ossie Davis (as JFK, who not only survived Dallas but was made black all over), discover that their fellow old folk's home residents are not dying of natural causes, but an ancient threat come back to life.

Point Break. The original one with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, of course. Hilariously over-acted with lots of cheesy moments, my favourite of which is the world's longest free-fall before pulling the rip cord. Still, good old-fashioned fun!

Bruce Campbell is a damn fine actor, classy, honest, and one funny SOB.

Bruce Campbell for President!

I don't know that diving in some pool after bricks has to do with FBIing, but YEEHAW!

"Ice Pirates", "Bubba Ho-tep", "Army of Darkness" are great picks, "They Live!", and "Toxic Avenger" maybe a little less so, but still.

I guess "The Thing" (Carpenter Remake) counts as a B-movie; "The Warriors" probably deserves mentioning, but my personal little B gem is another Bruce Campbell flick, "Terminal Invasion".

- Has body-moving Aliens, so pretty much every character during the course of the film is "it" at some point, which makes for great paranoia.
- Has the most honest and succinct motive in film history why Aliens would want to invade Earth.
- Has Bruce Campbell


"Dagon" (Spanish film) is an excellent adaptation of "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by HP Lovecraft, in a modern setting, and delivers the pun with gusto.

"Vampire Party" (French) is extremely conventional in concept, but perfect in execution, with a surprisingly simple yet novel solution by a bad guy how to find his victim hiding among many dozen other victims.

"From Dusk Till Dawn" definitely is a "guilty pleasure" B.

"High Plains Drifter" (first Eastwood-directed film, I think) certainly has a substantial amount of cheesiness, and yet is a masterpiece of the Revenge type Western.

Carpenter's "The Thing" was hardly a B-movie or cheesy. Well acted, engaging plot, great special effects (for its time) , solid, solid pacing. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 83, with an audience score of 92%.

It did very poorly on release, but critics and audiences have taken another look and it's now recognized as a classic and a milestone of sci-fi horror, and culturally iconic. Possibly my all-time favorite film.

Remember: watch Clark. Watch him close.

Not actually B movies considering they are generally well regarded in sci-fi film circles but The Thing From Another World, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, It Came From Beneath The Sea and Them are a great way to get through a winter evening.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

+1

Space Truckers, a movie with Charles Dance in it is always worth watching.

Zardoz, Sean Connery in a wedding dress!

Screamers, another underated Philip K. Dick classic which is despite its problems still entertaining.

And everything David Cronenberg made (except Existence).

A very strange yet watchable movie. Charlotte Rampling was quite the hottie when she was young!

Death Race 2000 (1975)



I still remember the hospital staff rolling out patients to get hit but the driver plows through the staff instead.

It wasn't cheesy, I fully agree with it.
But the whole story and setting reeks B-movie. There's nothing wrong with B, I f'in' love B. A B film by definition is tailored to attract a specific demographic of the audience - in this case science fiction and horror fans, plus maybe the fan groups of the lead actors. A film that won't attract women, for example, can't be "A", and "Engineers and scientists trapped on an Antarctic station with an evil, body-invading alien" is about the polar opposite of a rom com chick flick. The original "Terminator" was B (well, C, actually, or D or E if you consider the budget); because it was so successful (not the least because it was released exactly when the VHS age took off into the mass market) it enabled the Terminator franchise after that point to leap into A category.

That original definition has been lost though and is not used by current mainstream pop culture. "B Movie" for a long time has meant specifically a low budget, campy movie with lots of bad acting and cheap production values.

Hmm...either Boondock Saints or The Room. The Room is so bad it managed to be hilarious.

“The Room” even had a movie made based on it starring James Franco!!

Tremors,that was a 'B' movie wasn't it?

Also,Hobo With A Shotgun (Rutger Hauer).

i'll nominate THEM from 1954 still a good watch but cheesy as hell

All of those named so far!
I’ll add a personal favorite comedy:
Young Einstein. I even had the movie poster.

Scifi, some of the best:
Forbidden Planet...excellent paired with Robinson Crusoe
Mutant Chronicles
Immortal (Nikolpol)
Spectral...a new one on Netflix
Robot Jox
Screamers...Peter Weller in a Phillip K Dick story

Horror
The Babadook
Tucker and Dale vs Evil...comedy too, should appeal to Alan Tudyk fans

Too many to name!

Oh, yeah.

Speaking of B movies PM...
Flash Gordon!

I guess you forgot my initial post already?

Ok, then Buckaroo Banzai Arcross the 8th Dimension.
Another Peter Weller winner!

"They Live" ---- Love the line .. Im here to chew bubble gum
"Real Men" ---- What a hoot
UHF ----- Dont you know the dewey decimal system!! -- Not sure this a cheesy B movie ... but it was low budget

Any of the Troma films - The Reanimator, etc., are all worth watching.

Was just about to put that one forward too along with it's follow up story All Saints Day, liked it enough to get the sound tracks and they are played a lot in the car.

Spacehunter: Adventures in the forbidden zone

Crank and Crank 2: High Voltage really a good laugh, introduced my youngest to them two weeks ago and he was in stiches watching them.

There was one Dolph Lungren film that I seen the start of in the cinema, fell ill and had to go home and never seen the rest of it, it was broadcast on the TV a good few years later in a late night showing and I had settled down to watch it when the girl friend pop round and I had to shut it off, still don't know the name and could not find any reference to it on IMDB. Dolph was a bounty hunter in a space ship, landed on a planet and got hit by a chemical shell which made I'm immortal or invincible or some such, that was about as far as I got in the story both times always wondered how it finished It came out around about the same time as the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century film came out so around 1979 - 1980 ish

I have so many "B" movies in my collection that reading what has been listed here is like a catalogue of my film collection

EDIT: No it was not Dolph Lungren, it was Richard Kiel that was the actor!

Edit2: The Humanoid was the film

I recently watched that due to a recommendation here (it was probably you Dart) and yes,I thoroughly enjoyed it and it deserves mention here.



I just checked out the trailer for that. A very heavy Star Wars influence. I'm surprised George Lucas didn't sue

Boondock Saints is a "B" movie? Well, then it's one of my favorites...lol.

I watch so many odd independent type movies anymore it's hard to tell what's a "B" movie.

I just looked up some info on this movie and found out it was shot in Italy. It also starred Barbara Bach!


I also watched that trailer and yes, it "borrowed" heavily from the Star Wars aesthetic.

Boondocks wasn’t expected to be a B movie, and IMO was better than that, but definitely a “B” cult classic now after it didn’t do well in theaters. If the writer/director didn’t blow it having such a big ego, he was at one time expected to be one of the best new talents.
I couldn’t watch the sequel. Also, weirdly, SPF was unrecognizable for some reason. Either a car wreck or platic surgery gone wrong, I don’t know. At first I thought it was someone else.

OMG, Ssnake mentioned Terminal Velocity, a perfect example of actors putting in a way better performance than the script or the production deserved.

Did not. I wrote "Terminal Invasion", and meant it. Like, this one.

Hahaha, me,too....I guess the pain killers are working too well on me. I do like that the airplane's prop spins the wrong way.

Bruce Campbell has a way of getting inexperienced actors to step up by example.

1. Blood of Heroes
2. Night of the Comet..

John Carpenter = genius and has an uncanny way of capturing a movie.

But agree The Thing was hardly a B movie.
I found it terrifying and it was a letterbox movie everyone went to it when it came out. Didn't you?
. In fact watching it still creeps me out to this day.
The why is both the way Carpenter makes movies and the subject place. And frankly the likelihood of it!
I practically was raised on Alistair MacLean novels and Ice Station Zebra was a later favorite. After that I thought for sure as an adult I would wind up on one of the poles in an either scientific or Spy mission!!
I guess The Thing really grabs me and 'rocked my world' is that there are UFO's and creatures under the ice (disclaimer; I never said that - I'd lose my Seti clearance!)

my favorite other carpenter classic is Big Trouble in Little China. also a true story
Starring the same lovable Kurt Russell.

Other favorites movies are Kelly's Heroes - but I would not call it cheesy. Has Clint Eastwood in it.
and btw;
ze "High Plains Drifter" a B movie!!! ....
NO!!!! ... Sacrilège!

I seen the second film first, had not seen or heard of the first one. The bluray of All Saints Day was in the local store and it looked interesting, so I took it home and really quite enjoyed it, thought it was cheesilly funny and the soundtrack hit the right note, so I went looking for the first film and got it on Amazon then got the soundtrack for both on iTunes.

"B" doesn't indicate low quality to me. "B" doesn't mean trash. There are bad B films, and very good ones. Just like there are AAA bombs.
B means you get exposure only to a very specific target audience. Maybe back in the early 1970s Westerns were still mainstream enough to consider High Plains Drifter an A movie (but certainly not AAA). Compared to today's production values and the fact that only Western fans go to watch a Western film in theaters (unless it happens to be directed by famous directors with a AAA cast, like Dances With Wolves, the True Grit remake, or No Country for Old Men) - well, in the light of these two aspects High Plains Drifter is a B film. Still not convinced? The film has a f'in' dwarf in it (it doesn't help that the sync voice actor in the German version was the same who voiced Stan Laurel).

And Kellys Heroes hits hard on the cheese. As a war film it is rather terrible (firing paint cans from the gun, really?). The plot - stealing Nazi gold with a tank - (and its twist) are taken straight from a pulp novel.
As an Italo-Western in a WW2 setting it's quite enjoyable, however. I just have to take off my tanker's goggles.

I think maybe we are getting into an issue of semantics. What you just described is known in the industry now as an "independent" or "artsy" film. "B movie" most definitely and always has a negative connotation attached to it.

Nice! Blood of Heroes was not only friggin awesome, it had a great cast to boot.
Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Vincent D’Onofrio, Delroy Lindo...


How about a foreign B movie?
Brotherhood of the Wolf.
It’s part 13th Warrior, part awesome martial arts movie.


Animated B movie:
Beowulf
Mostly a tech demo, but well done and excellent voice work with Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright, Crispin Glover, Angelina Jolie...lots of recognizable actors.

In what way was this a B movie? It had a production budget of 150 million and it had a very wide theatrical release.

Yes, rhis movie is beyond comical at times.
This is a very funny review about it, do not watch it if you haven't seen the movie as it contains massive spoilers.

probably, just about any Western film ( early ones ) The Audie Murphy ones come to mind along with The World in his Arms , The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Flight to Mars.

To be honest, the only reason I watched the film was because I found out that it was directed by John Boorman who also directed "Excalibur" and "Deliverance" which happen to be 2 of my all-time favorite films.

The Last Dragon - C'mon, who wouldn't like Motown and 80s mixed with martial arts? Bruce Leroy V Sho'Nuff the Shogun of Harlem? William H. Macy in one of his first role, with Vanity even!
Lifeforce - Need I say more? BEsides you get to see Patrick Stewart in a B-movie
Machete - Nuff said
Machete Kills - Just Carlos Estevez being in it makes it a B movie right off the bat
Sword and the Sorcerer - A triple sword with flying blades, woohoo!
Beastmaster - Marc Singer did have his own movie and wasn't just fighting aliens in "V"
Wizards - Ralph Bakshi at his finest (well, besides how he tricked the networks into letting him do Mighty Mouse)
Creepshow - Ed Harris with hair and dancing disco should be b movie status alone
Creepshow 2 - I BEAT YOU!!! I BEAT YOU!!!!!
Cleopatra Jones - Gotta love it
Breakin and Breakin 2 - I thought Breakin was a decent movie (plus you get to see Jean Claude Van Damme dance) - Electric Boogaloo was defintitely cheesy though

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Well I just watched Zardoz and found it quite entertaining. Just enough boobs to keep me happy

Robin Hood with Kevin Coster.

I will go away forever in shame now

The definition of B movie, in this thread, is rather inconsistent.

Very much so. I can't really think of any B-movies I really enjoyed that haven't already been named.
There's definitely some that I didn't enjoy. Like The Norsemen (1978).
It's about a bunch of vikings wearing breastplates and mini-skirts, led by a Viking with Greco-Roman plate and helmet, going to America and getting shot in the butt with arrows. Or something. There's probably a plot hidden under the bad acting, slow-mo beach running, and porn star 'staches.
It's hilariously bad, and certainly a B-movie.

Oh!
Robot Jox. Entertaining B-Movie about the USA and USSR settling all their differences with giant robot duels.

Yes Ok I admit to being a western fan, and a target audience.

Especially since I saw High Plains Drifter in a Real old west 1800's theatre in a place called non other than; Rifle, Colorado!
It was indeed the 70's. And I have a western Drawl (Howdy!) now too

What's the difference between a Western drawl and a Southern drawl?

Grit

true

Anything with Bruce Campbell in it. He's a riot.

Well, the classic definition is a film that was made to either supplement a Feature Film, or one that was never meant to be a Feature Film. It was something to show along with the "real" movie.



In the old days it was often a mechanism to satisfy actor contracts, back when actors signed exclusively with a movie company. An actor would sign for X number of pictures, and the studio had to satisfy it or be in breach of contract, allowing them to switch movie companies. Often the quality of these films, and their budgets, reflected this.

Sometimes one gets The Quiet Man, which was a two-fer contract filler for John Wayne and Mareen O'hara for doing McLintock! (and was in fact a Feature Film), but other times one gets The Three Musketeers, where John Wayne's portrayal of an Arab is amazingly identical to every other role he performed.

Indeed, today movie companies will make films using intellectual properties that are never released to satisfy their contractual obligation to the owners in order to keep them.

Today we can safely define a "B" movie as one that either had a very limited release in theaters or never meant to be shown at theaters. Anything direct-to-DVD qualifies, as do most "made for TV" movies.

About a pint of Whiskey or 1/2 pint of Moonshine!

The Last Starfiighter
Evil Dead
Hellraiser
Iron Eagle (lol)

Hell, most movies from the 80's were B movies.

The Siege of Firebase Gloria

Hobo With a Shotgun

Title says it all

Also in the same vein is "Rubber"



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