Cheap 'n cheesy: Your favorite low budget "B" movies.

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**nels1031**

Gitzbitah wrote:
Kung Pow, Enter the Fist. Steve Oedekerk's loving recut of several kung fu movies, where he does all the voices. It is incredibly dumb, well aware it's dumb, and gloriously funny. Within the first 10 minutes, you will either be rolling in laughter or cursing the name of whoever recommended it to you.

Whichever you choose, you will likely continue it until the end of the film.

Ya, loved that movie. Steve Odenkirk has some solid hits under his belt.

Thumbnation stuff was killer too.

**cuda1179**

BrianDavion wrote:
Not sure if it qualifies, strictly speaking, as a B movie, but for me it's the Swartznegger conan movie. I tend to class it as a B movie but love it because it's kinda cheesy etc

Which Conan movie? there were two of them. Conan the Barbarian was a more serious and dark movie and had adult themes (boobies). Conan the Destroyer was taken significantly less serious and the only boobies we see are Arnold's.

**Matt Swain**

Dean Koontz's Phantoms is a very underappreciated movie i think people here will like. It's an intelligent action/sf/horror movie, and yes it's possible to make a movie like that fairly intelligent.

Good plot, good acting, interesting monster, some science, and peter o'toole shouting a hilarious F bomb in his wonderfully accented voice. What more could you ask for?

At the far, Far, FAR opposite end of the quality spectrum we come to a movie from japan in 1962 called "Gorath."

This one is for you guys who like your movies extra cheap and extra cheesy. This movie is cheesier than an all primaris ultramarine army built by a total WAAC'er.

Basically, in the distant future world on 1979 an object smaller than earth with 6,000 x earth's gravity pays a visit to the solar system and is on course to hook up with earth, possibly wanting to impress her with it's huge gravity spike. (yeah, that was bad. sorry.

)

The human race has 2 years to build a set of atomic rocket engines at the south pole to push earth out of the way of the unstoppable object, named with absolutely no explanation whatsoever "Gorath".

It was stated in the movie that moving earth would take 6 billion, 600 million megatons of thrust and that was an actual figure a physicist hired to come in and work it out arrived at, you can see his figures on a blackboard in one shot. That was about the only piece of actual science in this laugh/groan inducing B movie masterpiece.

While no giant monster was written in the original draft or needed, some suit insisted it have a kaiju in it, so a ridiculous (Allegedly at the director's insistence to express his contempt for the mandated monster scene) monster suit looking like a giant walrus was hastily made, stuffed in the movie in a disposable scene and killed off in 6 minutes. The director made it possible to omit the entire monster scene and american distributors of the movie wisely did so.

**Frazzled**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Just thought of some more.

The Gate. This low budget, Canadian-made horror movie for kids looks ready to be another Goonies or Explorers...and then it gets fetching intense. This movies’ minions are anything but cute. Heavy metal to the rescue!

House 2. A great low budget weird-a-f fantasy/horror? movie. Zombie grampa. Prehistoric caterpillar dog. Human sacrifice. John Ratzenberger’s greatest role. If you only look up clips from this movie, look him up as the electrician.

My Science Project. Similar to House 2 on the weird gak-o-meter, but only in the last half hour. Kid’s science project opens vortices through time and space. There are cavemen and cyborgs, gladiators and a T-Rex. Al Long cameos as a Viet Kong. Fisher Stevens (Short Circuit 1,2, Hackers, Super Mario Brothers) in his most obnoxious role yet.

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Looks like all three of those movies are free on YouTube.

These are three of the best B movies! very awesome.

Also the original Sinbad films with stop motion.

**Azreal13**

Seeing as Dog Soldiers is getting some love, I'll throw in Wolf Creek.

It's actually become a bit of a franchise, with a sequel and two seasons of a TV series, all of which have things to recommend them.

Film 1 is the best example I know of a film where the protagonists mostly do the right things, but things just go to gak because the baddie is better at the game than they are.

Film 2 is an odd one, as it seems to add in a more comic tone while maintaining the brutality. I ordinarily wouldn't recommend it, but in the context of the thread it's ok. Sort of like the Michael Madsen "ear" scene from Dogs, but for 90ish minutes and with bad puns.

Season 1 of the show changes gear again, I won't go into too much because I'm rambling a bit plus spoilers, and Season 2 I think is one of the most underrated TV seasons of the last decade, it's peak Mick Taylor and even lets a little mysticism into the mythos.

**DrGiggles**

I love cheesy 'B' horror movies that end up being more of a comedy than anything else.

Strays - A family moves into a remote house and is hunted by a large group of cats. I believe you can find the full movie on youtube, the link below is just for the trailer.

Grizzly - A movie trying to cash in on the 'Jaws' craze where a giant Grizzly Bear going on a killing spree.

**BobtheInquisitor**

I love all of Ray Harryhausen’s movies. My least favorite is Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, but even that has some great schlock and a hammy villain. Anyone who hasn’t seen the 7th Voyage or Sinbad or The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is in for a treat.

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Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Good luck finding a copy of it, its that much of a B-movie, but there's a film I literally grew up on called Blind Rage.

My dad had a copy of it recorded on VHS from when he and my mom first got married and had cable.

Plot synopsis: A laughably bad asian "gangster" is pissed off at, well, someone, and so he hires a literal team of blind people to rob a bank in like, malaysia or some gak.

To date, I've only seen one other VHS copy for sale on amazon in 20 years, and it was coming out of one of those countries where shady video practices are regular.

This sounds pretty awesome. I wonder if the GoodBadFlix guy knows where to score a copy. He seems to have a mainline to zero-budget foreign films.

**Overread**

I'd argue that the Harryhausen films are not B movies, its only in retrospect that they appear B because they don't have top end CGI. For their day they were very advanced.

Also one to add to the pool - BLACK SHEEP!

**BobtheInquisitor**

To start they were pretty mainstream, but by Eye of the Tiger I'm pretty sure they were considered B movies, judging hey the quality of the talent. The stop motion baboon was twice the actor as the guy who played Sinbad.

**Reavsie**

John Carpenter's Dark Star from the seventies.

Features a killer beach ball and a bomb having an existential crisis.

**Gitzbitah**

And more modern- there's a pretty glorious train wreck of a film called Knights of Badassdom. Someone once went to a LARP, and thought wouldn't it be cool if this was real- and that person acquired the funds to hire some star power with major appeal to an audience interested in such a thing. Summer Glau, Peter Dinklage, and Danny Pudi. It sounds much more impressive than it is- but it is a fun romp.

And for shows- Angie Tribeca is the definition of B rated shows. Oftentimes, it seems an entire episode has been dedicated to a visual gag. It is the good kind of bad.

**Matt Swain**

"Zone troopers". Also called sometimes "The dead nazi jubilee"

A Tim Thomerson vehicle, this movie is not a satire or parody, but a lovingly made tribute to the golden age of SF. what's called the "gernsback era".

Think like flash gordon, spaceships were rockets with flaring bell engine nozzles and rakish fins, aliens usually had bug eyes and nazis were so evil even the bug eyed aliens hated them.

It's a pretty innocent movie, no sex or foul language. A group of G.I. is caught behind the lines in WW2 italy and discover something really weird is going on. The rest involves an old fashioned rocketship, a bug eyed alien that eats tobacco, a desperate effort to keep the nazis from getting advanced alien technology, hitler getting punched in the face by a boxer from jersey and death rays. Lots of death rays.

It's a genuine tribute to the old days of sci-fi, not too many real honest tributes get made today. Parody is so much easier.

**AegisGrimm**

Matt Swain wrote:
"Godzilla, mothra and king ghidorah. giant monsters all out attack."

Asides from having the longest title of any godzilla movie, this one is notable for making the big G an all out, flat out villain, even tho that may be an unfair portrayal.

This movie also tackles a taboo subject in japanese culture. Japan's atrocities during WW2.

I won't go into japanese war crimes and atrocities during the war, except t say they were on par with their european allies.

Well, since ww2 the japanese have tried to forget their warcrimes and mass atrocities (But boy they're still wiling to talk about how awful hiroshima and nagasaki were.) and that's just accepted as a given in japanese culture.

Now in GMKD, as this movie is called, the godzilla is a radioactive mutant as usual, but it is apparently driven by the ghosts of the people japan murdered in WW2, and yes what the japanese did in ww2 was mass murder.

The ghosts are apparently rising up because japan has refused to acknowledge it's guilt and actively tries to pretend they did nothing wrong, so this godzilla is apparently possessed by their ghosts to punish japan for it's attempt to ignore the evil their ancestors did.

That's actually mentioned in the movie, which makes it kind of edgy for a japanese movie.

Also in this movie ghidorah is actually portrayed as a good guy, which is a real first. (The cyborg ghidorah in an earlier movie doesn't count, it was only good when controlled by that japanese girl from the future.)

Basically the "evil" ghdzilla,( And boy, does this godzilla look evil. I mean it, this is probably the scariest godzilla they ever made, the eyes are really creepy. This is one evil and scary looking monster.) starts rampaging thru japan, and destroying pretty much everything in sight. This movie also breaks another japanese taboo, when this godzilla caps off an atomic breath shot, they show a mushroom cloud rising.

Evil godzilla.

Now Baragon is in the movie too, but apparently didn't rate title billing, and he is one of he "Guardian monsters" that protect japan, along with mothra and ghidorah. The thing is, they care about the country itself, not the people living in it.

This is definitely a godzilla movie worth watching, and includes an attack against godzilla made from inside involving a minisub and a japanese naval officer with a kamikaze fetish.Check it out if you can.

Yes, that is a solid movie for being out of the mold for standard Godzilla fare. I had never seen it and got it in a three-pack of movies for my son from the local Dollar store. Ghidora being a three-headed version of a dragon spirit was definitely interesting. A good stand-alone movie, kind of like Shin Godzilla, and like you said, pretty notable in portraying the Japanese as the unrepentant bad guys.

**Crispy78**

I'll chime in on Dog Soldiers too, that was great.

I really enjoyed Lake Placid as a silly monster movie with some wonderfully snarky dialogue in it.

Final recommendation - Cockneys Vs Zombies. Awesome chase scene with an ancient Richard Briers on a zimmer frame trying to escape from a similarly slow-moving zombie through the garden of a nursing home. Oh, and the fight between zombie gangs of Millwall and West Ham football hooligans...

**harlokin**

I'm yet another Dog Soldiers fan.

A low budget classic that hasn't been mentioned is The Evil Dead. It's still creepy as hell.

Of more recent stuff, I'd suggest The Borderlands, and A Dark Song, both are excellent low budget horror films.

**Easy E**

No love for Trancers 1 - 6?

I am shocked. SHOCKED!

**BobtheInquisitor**

Trancers! I saw it back when there was only one movie, and I mentally filed it away with Time Trax and the other Action Pack/PTEN TV series. It was a movie movie?

**AegisGrimm**

I also have to say I loved Screamers, as a stupid fun action flick.

**OldMate**

Black Sheep

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A kiwi horror, rabid sheep/weresheep.

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Also Evil Dead - All great. Not the new/remade one it's garbage.

Dog Soldiers - Always a good'en, although I'd probably say it's more old than it is B grade in my eyes.

Rogue- Giant crocodile take exception to a tour boat in it's territory.

The Thing. I'm not sure if it is B grade either. As I said with Dog Soldiers. But what's not to love about a shape changing terror.

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I'd have to say Lake Placid as well. So many good suggestions here.

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The Mutant Chronicles.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Hammer, Amicus. Two studious of near non-stop B-Movie action.

I loves it.

**Trondheim**

Overread wrote:
I'd argue that the Harryhausen films are not B movies, its only in retrospect that they appear B because they don't have top-end CGI. For their day they were very advanced.

Also, one to add to the pool - BLACK SHEEP!

Saw this movie in the cinema when it came out, great fun! Also, they did good work with the dialogue in it.

**squidhills**

What about Big Trouble in Little China? It's only the greatest American kung-fu movie of all time.

**Turnip Jedi**

squidhills wrote:
What about Big Trouble in Little China? It's only the greatest American kung-fu movie of all time.

whilst its a great movie. possibly Carpenters finest, I'm not sure its a B-Movie, given it had a sizeable budget, two reasonably known 'leads' (its really Wang story) sadly muddled marketing , sniffy critics and Aliens didn't do it any favours until VHS culted it up

**Strg Alt**

Als die Frauen noch Schwänze hatten.

https://youtu.be/nP5MOm4nupQ

**gorgon**

Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter.

Not saying it's *good*. But it's a interesting genre-blender for its era, and better than you think it would be with a title like that. And hey, Caroline Munro.

**Easy E**

You can never go to far wrong with a movie that has Caroline Munro in it.....

**cuda1179**

squidhills wrote:
What about Big Trouble in Little China? It's only the greatest American kung-fu movie of all time.

Wasn't there some mumbling about an upcoming sequel to Big Trouble in Little China?

**squidhills**

cuda1179 wrote:
squidhills wrote:
What about Big Trouble in Little China? It's only the greatest American kung-fu movie of all time.

Wasn't there some mumbling about an upcoming sequel to Big Trouble in Little China?

I'd heard remake rather than sequel. Somebody floated the idea of Dwayne Johnson as Jack Burton. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that. I dig Dwayne Johnson. the man has solid comedic and action chops and both are needed for Big Trouble in Little China. But I'm not sure you can capture lightning in a bottle twice, y'know?

**Gadzilla666**

Ok, trying not to list anything that's already been mentioned:

Ice pirates: Space pirates = win.

Dead Alive: (had a different name in Europe, can't remember what) Lawnmower vs zombies. Lawnmower wins.

The Bronx 1999: I still want a pair of boots with hidden knives in the toes.

Rolling Thunder: Monster truck murder machine.

They Live: Greatest. Fight scene. Ever.

Do the Evil Dead trilogy and the first two Critters movies count?

**BobtheInquisitor**

Do TV movies count? Our discussion in another thread about sci fi shows that didn’t age well reminded me of Tekwar. It aged so badly that it became amazing. This is probably the “best” scene from the whole movie: