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As a kid I didn't really distinguish special effects, to me Battle Beyond the Stars looked as good as Star Wars. I loved the Sinbad films with their vivid Harryhausen effects as much as some modern big budget fantasy film like Legend or Willow.

It was only when I got older and revisited films I loved as a kid like Conquest of the Planet of the Apes that I noticed how low budget it was compared to the first two films, etc.

Predicting what will last is a bit of a sucker's game, most of the popular writers of the 19th century are forgotten and no longer read even by the literate, those we do remember were often not that popular during their time; most of the pop music stars of the early 20th century are obscure figures now.

How many people these days, even among film fanatics, watch the tremendously successful Andy Hardy, Dean and Martin or Bing and Hope comedies?
Writing and performance stand the test of time. Battle Beyond the Stars is good because it's a reimagining of a timeless story. People still watch classic Doctor Who because the writing (and sometimes the acting) sold the stories despite the sitcom level budget.

As for kids as your audience, this bloke knows a thing or two about acting.

 
Just to add to the 80's sex comedies:

The weird thing about 80s movies is that no matter how many I discover for the first time, there's always more! How could all these releases fit in a mere 10 year span?

Pile on top of that all the television shows that somehow existed in that time frame, plus all the airplane novels, and you'd have enough material to mentally spend a lifetime in that era. There must be some dudes out there who decided to go back and never leave.
 
The weird thing about 80s movies is that no matter how many I discover for the first time, there's always more! How could all these releases fit in a mere 10 year span?

Pile on top of that all the television shows that somehow existed in that time frame, plus all the airplane novels, and you'd have enough material to mentally spend a lifetime in that era. There must be some dudes out there who decided to go back and never leave.
Why would you leave? Asymmetrical haircuts! Who could Leave that?!?!
 
The weird thing about 80s movies is that no matter how many I discover for the first time, there's always more! How could all these releases fit in a mere 10 year span?

Pile on top of that all the television shows that somehow existed in that time frame, plus all the airplane novels, and you'd have enough material to mentally spend a lifetime in that era. There must be some dudes out there who decided to go back and never leave.

Some Canadian contributions:



 
The weird thing about 80s movies is that no matter how many I discover for the first time, there's always more! How could all these releases fit in a mere 10 year span?

Pile on top of that all the television shows that somehow existed in that time frame, plus all the airplane novels, and you'd have enough material to mentally spend a lifetime in that era. There must be some dudes out there who decided to go back and never leave.

I've often felt over the course of my life that culture moves far too fast for me to ever catch up, it will probably only get worse as the world gets more globalist due to the internet.

It kinda makes me envy those quiet European villages from fairy tales, where time moves at a glacial pace and someone can eek out their days as a shephered, playing panpipes in the mountain hills for the sheep and canine companion.

But...then I wouldn't have all the dankest of memes and the Pavlovian behavioural reinforcement of "Likes" on social media...
 
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...I feel like this is an endless black hole. We really only scratched the surface, could keep posting them but it's getting depressing.

Of all of the ones posted so far, I've seen only two - Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Meatball III (but that was on TV, so all the reasons for it existing were cut out). I was too young when they were a thing, and by the time I was old enough, I didn't care.

I dunno, I just kinda feel bad for all the actresses. I mean how many girls got nudie for the camera for these cheap 'sploitation flicks and then went on to no career whatsoever in Hollywood? I'm reminded of the Red Letter Media Best of the Worste staple, where they often say "Oh no, not for this. Not for this film"...

There ARE good reasons to stay in the 80s and never leave, but I don't think Boner comedies are one of them.
 
I dunno, I just kinda feel bad for all the actresses. I mean how many girls got nudie for the camera for these cheap 'sploitation flicks and then went on to no career whatsoever in Hollywood?

Not saying the level of exploitation is the same, but most of the male actors in these films had no career later on either. Plus, there are varying levels in these films.

A lot of these were in regular rotation on USA Up All Night back in the late 80s/early 90s, so I've seen a good number of them minus boobs.

I recently watched ScrewBalls on Prime, and it was pretty awful. I mean, even cutting the characters slack for being in a horny teen movie, at least two of the "protagonists" are flat out sociopathic sexual predators. And the plot of the movie is explicitly the pursuit of the sexual humiliation of a girl. I'm no prude at all, and I even like a fair number of these stupid movies, but ScrewBalls was definitely past my line in the sand.

Then you have stuff like Joysticks which is just freakin' stupid. I dunno, tho. It's at least ridiculously stupid with a sense of humor.

My favorite one is I Was a Teenage Sex Mutant (or Dr Alien).

I'll have to look up Mischief (I like Catherine Mary Stewart) and Stewardess School (Judy Landers). I imagine I've probably seen Stewardess School already and just don't remember any details, but Mischief doesn't look familiar at all.
 
Not saying the level of exploitation is the same, but most of the male actors in these films had no career later on either. Plus, there are varying levels in these films.

A lot of these were in regular rotation on USA Up All Night back in the late 80s/early 90s, so I've seen a good number of them minus boobs.

I recently watched ScrewBalls on Prime, and it was pretty awful. I mean, even cutting the characters slack for being in a horny teen movie, at least two of the "protagonists" are flat out sociopathic sexual predators. And the plot of the movie is explicitly the pursuit of the sexual humiliation of a girl. I'm no prude at all, and I even like a fair number of these stupid movies, but ScrewBalls was definitely past my line in the sand.

Then you have stuff like Joysticks which is just freakin' stupid. I dunno, tho. It's at least ridiculously stupid with a sense of humor.

My favorite one is I Was a Teenage Sex Mutant (or Dr Alien).

I'll have to look up Mischief (I like Catherine Mary Stewart) and Stewardess School (Judy Landers). I imagine I've probably seen Stewardess School already and just don't remember any details, but Mischief doesn't look familiar at all.
I've seen Mischief
As I recall it was set in the 50's where the dorky kid was taken under the wing of a cool kid drifter. He helps him get the girl of his dreams while falling for another local girl.
Could have it wrong though.
 
The weird thing about 80s movies is that no matter how many I discover for the first time, there's always more! How could all these releases fit in a mere 10 year span?

Pile on top of that all the television shows that somehow existed in that time frame, plus all the airplane novels, and you'd have enough material to mentally spend a lifetime in that era. There must be some dudes out there who decided to go back and never leave.

Movie production in the 70s was even higher, the 30s and 40s were probably the peak with the studios cranking out 100+ films each (288-388 films a year!).

Later after the studios grip on theatres was weakened via antitrust law the independent theatres and drive-in theatres helped maintain a high demand regionally and internationally for low budget features.

Initially VHS was also a boon to low budget productions until Blockbuster came along. A lot of these teen sex comedies were really aimed at the VHS market.

These days so few films actually make it to the theatres it is a real shame..
 
...I feel like this is an endless black hole. We really only scratched the surface, could keep posting them but it's getting depressing.

Of all of the ones posted so far, I've seen only two - Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Meatball III (but that was on TV, so all the reasons for it existing were cut out). I was too young when they were a thing, and by the time I was old enough, I didn't care.

I dunno, I just kinda feel bad for all the actresses. I mean how many girls got nudie for the camera for these cheap 'sploitation flicks and then went on to no career whatsoever in Hollywood? I'm reminded of the Red Letter Media Best of the Worste staple, where they often say "Oh no, not for this. Not for this film"...

There ARE good reasons to stay in the 80s and never leave, but I don't think Boner comedies are one of them.

The first Meatballs is worthwhile because of Bill Murray's obviously improvised and hilarious one-liners. Rewatching it I was thinking 'how many kids understood these Nixon jokes?'

And Fast Times...was the introduction of one of the finest actors of her generation, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Her character gets a very sympathetic treatment by the director Amy Heckerling. Along with Animal House it is one of the few films of this subgenre where the women characters are more fully drawn.

To me the bigger issue is that most of them just aren't that funny or well made but even the worse are kinda fascinating as a time capsule representation of their time and place.

Despite the salacious covers most of these films have one or two super brief flashes of nudity at the most. The bigger issue to me is as G Gabriel says some of the films have a nastier misogynist/creeper streak. It makes you appreciate the more genial films like My Chauffer and Tom Boy all the more.

Several of the actresses like Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell, Kelli Maroney, Linnea Quigley and others had pretty solid careers throughout the 80s, often crossing over to horror films as well. Julia Roberts even got her start in the terrible sex comedy Fire House.

Many of then are interviewed for the blu releases and are active on Twitter and none of them seem to regret their work.
 
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Hollywood does remakes and reboots because they have no new ideas.
Agreed. Like many institutions, Hollywood is inherently conservative* and risk averse. Reboots are a safe reliable money maker while trying something new risks big losses. This is what was told to me by a friend who is in the industry, at any rate.

*not in the political sense
 
[ . . . ]
I'll have to look up Mischief (I like Catherine Mary Stewart) and Stewardess School (Judy Landers). I imagine I've probably seen Stewardess School already and just don't remember any details, but Mischief doesn't look familiar at all.
These movies tend to be pretty unmemorable - I'm sure I've seen a fair few of them but I'm buggered if I can remember much of the details.
 
You realize you're just confirming my increasing negative opinion of the 80s with all these movies, right? ... ;)

As a movie fan I'd say the best era for American films are the 40s and 70s, hands down. I think the 80s are when the studios and suits reasserted their control of the films and there was a serious decline in quality of films meant for adults.
 
...I feel like this is an endless black hole. We really only scratched the surface, could keep posting them but it's getting depressing.

Of all of the ones posted so far, I've seen only two - Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Meatball III (but that was on TV, so all the reasons for it existing were cut out). I was too young when they were a thing, and by the time I was old enough, I didn't care.

I dunno, I just kinda feel bad for all the actresses. I mean how many girls got nudie for the camera for these cheap 'sploitation flicks and then went on to no career whatsoever in Hollywood? I'm reminded of the Red Letter Media Best of the Worste staple, where they often say "Oh no, not for this. Not for this film"...

There ARE good reasons to stay in the 80s and never leave, but I don't think Boner comedies are one of them.

A lot of these movies provided girls who had featured in Playboy and Penthouse a shot at a movie career, and a few found a fair level of success in these films. A few were full on porn stars, Marilyn Chambers turns up in quite a few, and Tracy Lords was able to go from these really bad films into some decent low budget movies and TV. The nudity involved is less than what they did for magazines (way less for the porn stars). Sybil Danning and Shannon Tweed did a lot of these movies and a career in B movies is still success. While most of the actors / actresses didn't go onto big film careers, some landed jobs in daytime TV. These movies also provided work for some known actors / actresses who just needed the work, Joe Don Baker turns up in some and Lauren Hutton is in one with a young Jim Carrey (Once Bitten).

B movies provide legitimate work for actors / actresses but the reality is most people who go into that business as a career don't go far. A few of these movies helped to launch some careers, look at the cast of Revenge of the Nerds, Hollywood Knights, and Police Academy, mostly all minor league at the time but many went on to very successful careers after the success of those movies.
 
As a movie fan I'd say the best era for American films are the 40s and 70s, hands down. I think the 80s are when the studios and suits reasserted their control of the films and there was a serious decline in quality of films meant for adults.


I don't know, a lot of the crap pre-80s we just don't know about because we weren't around and nobody can be bothered to save complete crap. The signal to noise ratio in film making is high. For every decent film there are probably 20 bad ones, and for every great film, probably 100 total turds. Television is no better, we all bitch about reality TV but there has always been crap on TV, we just have more channels to fill.

I got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from
Pink Floyd, The Wall 1979
 
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I don't know, a lot of the crap pre-80s we just don't know about because we weren't around and nobody can be bothered to save complete crap. The signal to noise ratio in film making. For every decent film there are probably 20 bad ones, and for every great film, probably 100 total turds. Television is no better, we all bitch about reality TV but there has always been crap on TV, we just have more channels to fill.

The films of the 30s and 40s are well preserved by the studios and widely available via TCM these days. The overall quality is surprisingly high, there are many screwball comedies one may have never heard of that are far better than the average comedy these days. They did produce more films back then, as I said nearly 300 films per year, and there are certainly some stinkers but the overall craft is much, much higher. I'm a kid of the 80s but looking over film history I definitely find the films of other decades significantly stronger on average.
 
As a movie fan I'd say the best era for American films are the 40s and 70s, hands down. I think the 80s are when the studios and suits reasserted their control of the films and there was a serious decline in quality of films meant for adults.
The 80s was when a lot of things we take for granted now took root. And a lot of the foundations for technology we take for granted were laid then.

But it wasnt all that the nostalgia goggles make it out to be any more than the 60s were.
 
The films of the 30s and 40s are well preserved by the studios and widely available via TCM these days. The overall quality is surprisingly high, there are many screwball comedies one may have never heard of that are far better than the average comedy these days. They did produce more films back then, as I said nearly 300 films per year, and there are certainly some stinkers but the overall craft is much, much higher. I'm a kid of the 80s but looking over film history I definitely find the films of other decades significantly stronger on average.

The good ones were, 300 films per year x 40 years (1930-1969) = 12000 films, I'm guessing you could fairly easily find 10% of those, and some of that 10% includes stuff so bad it became a cult hit like Plan 9 from Outer Space, the 1960s version of Sharknado.
 
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Haven't seen it in 30+ years, but as I recall this was actually pretty funny, a spoof of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Also an early appearance of Bill Maher.
 
The good ones were, 300 films per year x 40 years (1930-1969) = 12000 films, I'm guessing you could fairly easily find 10% of those, and some of that 10% includes stuff so bad it became a cult hit like Plan 9 from Outer Space, the 1960s version of Sharknado.

Great trash films are the product of independent regional production, the films I mentioned are the studio films, which at their worse are workmanlike and boring. The studios system from the 30s to the 50s (by the 60s it was falling apart) often impeded American film from achieving the heights you see in other countries films (Europe, Japan) but it also prevented it from achieving the lows of independent producers.

To be as spectacularly bad as Plan 9 or Robot Monster is the result of independent producers working regionally, the death of that kind of film production is why we don't get the classics of trash cinema these days either. I think Plan 9 and the like is actually a less-than-ideal example as it is still watched today because Wood's voice as a filmmaker is so distinctive that many find it entertaining, his films are 'so-bad-they're good' which is actually a rather rare aesthetic achievement. More conventionally bad films don't generate that kind of interest over the long-term.

The whole point of the classic Hollywood system was that it was a group of expert craftspeople cranking out films of a remarkable standard of quality compared to anywhere else. There were costs and benefits to the system, I used to be very leery of it, but when you actually sit down and watch the films the general quality and craft brought to the films is undeniable. There is a reason American films from the 30s and 40s were so popular and it wasn't just due to industrial domination.

I'd point to the MCU, Pixar and Disney's animated films as modern-day examples of the classic studio system model working fairly well in consistently producing a popular art of a fairly high standard.

I mean people are going to like what they like and that is often determined by when they grew up and what they grew up watching, it doesn't really matter to me if someone finds most of their favourite films are from the 80s, I just don't happen to agree.
 
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Wow Mariska Hargitay is one of the main characters on Law & Order SVU (listed, I don't think she is either of those shown on the poster). It looks like she did several of these teen comedies before moving on to more dramatic B movies, and then parts in better films. Also a fair bit of TV work which obviously eventually paid off. I'm not a big fan of L&O SVU but have seen it occasionally so I know who she is. I didn't know she was Jane Mansfield's daughter.
 
Great trash films are the product of independent regional production, the films I mentioned are the studio films, which at their worse are workmanlike and boring. The studios system from the 30s to the 50s (by the 60s it was falling apart) often impeded American film from achieving the heights you see in other countries films (Europe, Japan) but it also prevented it from achieving the lows of independent producers.

To be as spectacularly bad as Plan 9 or Robot Monster is the result of independent producers working regionally, the death of that kind of film production is why we don't get the classics of trash cinema these days either. I think Plan 9 and the like is actually a less-than-ideal example as it is still watched today because Wood's voice as a filmmaker is so distinctive that many find it entertaining, his films are 'so-bad-they're good' which is actually a rather rare aesthetic achievement. More conventionally bad films don't generate that kind of interest over the long-term.

The whole point of the classic Hollywood system was that it was a group of expert craftspeople cranking out films of a remarkable standard of quality compared to anywhere else. There were costs and benefits to the system, I used to be very leery of it, but when you actually sit down and watch the films the general quality and craft brought to the films is undeniable. There is a reason American films from the 30s and 40s were so popular and it wasn't just due to industrial domination.

I'd point to the MCU, Pixar and Disney's animated films as modern-day examples of the classic studio system model working fairly well in consistently producing a popular art of a fairly high standard.

I mean people are going to like what they like and that is often determined by when they grew up and what they grew up watching, it doesn't really matter to me if someone finds most of their favourite films are from the 80s, I just don't happen to agree.

I like movies of the 1930-60s and consider myself fairly well versed in the period. I agree that many are superior to many of the films from later periods.
I just think time has helped to hide some of the crimes. A lot of quality films have been lost, movies that people would actually like to watch. I can only imagine what has happened to the films that the people involved would happily see people forget. What you see watching TCM, you are not seeing the 1940s equivalent of Porky's (or worse), they don't bother showing that stuff, assuming it wasn't purged and burned.
VHS and video store promotional material has made it much easier to dredge up the worst of 80s and 90s "film" making, a fair bit of 70s schlock too. The 70s sure did have a fetish for rape / revenge murder movies, pretty happy to see that trend fade, well except for the 2010 remake and sequels, seriously WTF is wrong with people. :shock:
 
yeah, I remember when they used to sell those cheap DVD sets with 20 or 30 movies, a lot of them would be 70s low budget "horror" that all seemed to be in the vein of Last House in the Left or I Spit on Your Grave.
 
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