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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 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?
Just to add to the 80's sex comedies:
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.
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.
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've seen MischiefNot 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.
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 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.
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.Hollywood does remakes and reboots because they have no new ideas.
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.[ . . . ]
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.
You realize you're just confirming my increasing negative opinion of the 80s with all these movies, right? ... ;)
You realize you're just confirming my increasing negative opinion of the 80s with all these movies, right? ... ;)
...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.
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.
Pink Floyd, The Wall 1979I got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from
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 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.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.
And yet the direct to video soft smut you were posting outweighs the quality by a serious amount.
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.
And yet the direct to video soft smut you were posting outweighs the quality by a serious amount.
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.
What's that one between Beetlejuice and Critters 2? I can't make out the text and the poster doesn't ring a bell.
Looks like Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bill Maher is a lot sexier than I remember ...View attachment 19640
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.
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.