Nearly being finished with Cinemageddon’s list of over 40 dystopian films, (some amazing like Le Darnier Combat, The Lathe of Heaven, and The Handmaid’s Tale and some completely awful, like Nirvana and Casshern.) I’ve been thinking about what to watch next. Last night I got around to a couple films I’d been meaning to watch for a while.
If you were around in the early 90’s, you probably remember the pinnacle of Robbie Van Winkle, A.K.A. Vanilla Ice’s career in which they let him make a movie called Cool As Ice (1991), as if he was Elvis or some shit like that. And while Vanilla Ice did share the ability to steal black music for white audiences, much like Elvis, he could not make a movie a success merely by merit of him being in it. The scenes of him and his “homeboys” relaxing at a bizarre bike repair depot/house are not only dated, I have to say most people probably found them ridiculous even 19 years ago when this movie first came out. Ice moves through all the bizarre colors and badly written music acting like a complete douche in the first half of the film and a stoic hero for the latter half. He carries off the douche part way better, since his acting acumen for the rest of the film falls neatly into the “Keanu Reeves” as neo slot. Robby should have really played a villain and played up the douche angle more. Andrew Dice Clay could have taught him a few lessons, I think.
On a much more fun note, I watched Dark Star (1974), another film I’d been meaning to get to for a while. I’d both read about it and had many people mention it to me as a great space comedy. Dark Star is indeed everything I expected and more. It’s basically a cross between a cartoon and Dr. Strangelove in space.
However, this film isn’t just a great comedy. Anyone looking to make a movie about space and convey a sense of isolation and claustrophobia should watch this film and take some serious notes. Almost immediately upon the start of the film I got a little anxious due to the cramped feeling of the control room. If you can make your viewers really feel the sensation you want to convey like that, you’ve definitely met with huge success. Dark Star is wonderful.
What now? Well I have a few things I want to watch in the meantime. I started Jason and the Argonauts (1963) before falling asleep last night. I think I got through about a third of it. It’s a pretty neat movie so far.
I think next I’m going to watch all the movies which got four “slime drops” on badmovies.org. Badmovies.org is one of my favorite review sites and the four slime ratings are all “must see” films, according to the site proprieter Andrew Borntreger. I’ve seen a few of them, but not nearly enough. Here’s the list I’ve compiled from badmovies.org of the four slime rated films. (* after the film means I’ve seen it. % means I’ve seen part of it.)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Bad Taste
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
The Champions of Justice
The Crippled Masters
Dawn of the Dead%
Dead Alive
Death Race 2000*
Destroy All Monsters
Dolemite
Drunken Wu Tang
The Educational Archives: Driver’s Ed
El Topo
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn%
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Fiend Without a Face
Fist of the North Star
Flash Gordon*
The Fly*
Forbidden Zone%
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Gamera vs Guiron*
The Giant Claw*
Godzilla vs. Monster Zero
Greaser’s Palace
Gymkata
Hawk the Slayer
Hundra
Infra-Man
Killer Klowns from Outer Space*
The Killer Shrews%
Maniac
Master of the Flying Guillotine
Meet the Feebles
Planet of the Apes*
Plan 9 from Outer Space*
Raiders of Wu Tang
Reptilicus
The Resurrected
Return of the Living Dead
Robot Monster*
The Rocky Horror Picture Show*
Rodan
Rollerball*
Santa Claus%
Slither
Starcrash*
Story of Ricky
Streets of Fire
Terror Beneath the Sea
The Terror of Tiny Town
There’s Nothing Out There
Uninvited
Wizards
So that’s over 40 movies for me to watch. Yee haw. I’ll update you on what I think of them as I watch. If you haven’t checked out badmovies.org, I highly recommend you do so. If you worry about spoilers, don’t read reviews of movies you haven’t seen, because he’s not worried about spoilers at all. Andrew is hilarious and I like poking through there for some of my favorite bad films to see his take on them.
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