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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 25, 2019 6:19:10 GMT -5
For years I've been hearing and reading about how great " The Big Lebowski " is, and I've never seen it. Unlike big box office movies, there seem to be a set of films that are beloved that are off the beaten path. Which movies do you like that are considered cult classics?
I always hear the first Blade Runner movie to be in that category.
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Post by brutalis on Sept 25, 2019 8:08:17 GMT -5
This is one of those kinds of things that gets very confusing quickly. Technically if it is a "cult classic" to a select crowd doesn't that mean once it gathers a larger following it is no longer considered a "cult classic" anymore? Star Trek was once considered as a cult classic but is so large a "thing" now for so many viewers in so many formats (television, movies, books, comics, toys) it is another cash monster devouring our wallets. Rocky Horror Picture Show, the epitome of cult classic has such strong following it no longer feels like a cult classic.
But for me some of the movies I consider as "cult classic" and enjoy: so many to think of but these are just off the top of my head.
Buckaroo Banzai
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Sword and the Sorcerer
Beastmaster
Trancers
Doc Savage
Wizards
Toxic Avenger
This is Spinal Tap
Time Bandits
The Warriors
Evil Dead
Re-Animator
They Live
Escape from New York
Assault on Precinct 13
Big Trouble in Little China
Walking Tall series of movies
Billy Jack series of movies
Highlander
All of the Frankie Avalon/Annete Funicello Beach Blanket movies
Both Dr. Phibes movies
both Dr. Goldfoot movies
Beetlejuice
Sonny Chiba Streetfighter series of movies
Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies (can be an entire listing on its own)
Caddyshack
The Dark Crystal
Darkman
Death Race 2000
Halloween 2: Season of the Witch
Knightriders
The Keep
Phantasm
Hatchet series of movies
Princess Bride
Robocop (original movie)
Runaway
Starship Troopers
Streets of Fire
Westworld
Them!
The Thing (original b/w and Carpenter's version)
Blazing Saddles
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Post by Warmonger on Sept 25, 2019 8:50:45 GMT -5
The Big Lebowski is probably my all-time favorite comedy. I love damn near everything that the Coen brothers produce.
And Blade Runner is right up there with Jaws as my favorite movie, period.
If you’ve seen neither, check them out as soon as possible.
Most of my favorite “cult” movies would probably be horror or comedy flicks.
The Thing (1982), They Live, Army of Darkness, The Hidden, Phantasm, Drowning Mona, Old School, Tremors, Burn After Reading, Raising Arizona, etc.
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 25, 2019 9:09:14 GMT -5
How soon we forget: Plan 9 From Outer Space. Nothing like it.
Not sure if it's a cult film, but O Brother, Where Art Thou? (the Coen Brothers) might fall into that category. (It's brilliant.)
Johnny Guitar (1954) Freudian Western combined with an attack on bigotry and McCarthyism.
Freaks (1932) Tod Browning gives the world the creeps.
Caged (1950) The Ur-women's prison movie. Cynical, naturalistic, and way ahead of its time.
Night of the Hunter (1959) A fairy tale wrapped in a nightmare wrapped in a horror film wrapped in a parable presented as poetically as a movie can be. The only movie Charles Laughton ever directed. Wait for the car underwater is all I'll say about how eerily beautiful this film is.
The Third Man (1949) Corruption in post-war Vienna. You like cynicism and "dark" stories? Try this. Harry Lime was dark long before Ledger's Joker. And he'd make mincemeat of the latter.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Sept 25, 2019 12:06:48 GMT -5
Personally, I wouldn't consider some of the films mentioned above, like, say, Caddyshack or Robocop, cult movies, just because they were pretty big box office hits and also had pretty extensive second lives on cable/video. Same goes for anything by the Coen brothers (much as I love pretty much every single movie they made), because even if they're not always well-loved by general audiences, they get quite a bit of critical acclaim and pick up lots of awards - and they're usually really popular abroad, esp. in Europe. And yeah, you should see The Big Lewbowski (and, if you haven't already, Raising Arizona, and Oh, Brother Where Art Thou, and Miller's Crossing, and... okay, I'll stop now). Otherwise, yeah, The Warriors, Blade Runner, This is Spinal Tap, They Live and, of course, Plan 9 from Outer Space are probably the dictionary definition of cult classics. Also all worth seeing in my opinion. I would add: Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - a campy space opera by Roger Corman meant to cash in on the then current Star Wars craze. Basically the Magnificent 7 in space, or, in the words of one perspicacious blogger, the ‘Citizen Kane’ of Schlock Sci-fi. It stars, among others, John-Boy Walton, George Peppard, Robert Vaughn and the ever-alluring Sybil Danning. 1941 (1979) - this is one of Steven Spielberg's biggest box-office flops. It's a World War II film set in southern California about a week after Pearl Harbor, and the basic story is that a general panic breaks out in LA after a Japanese submarine is spotted off of the California coast, sparking a whole bunch of mayhem as several plot-lines with various characters play out. It's frenetic and often doesn't entirely make sense, but I love it. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2019 15:07:07 GMT -5
O Brother, Where Art Thou? was a bigger box office hit for the Coens, compare to Lebowski. It did well; but gained fame through home video and that's where the cult built up around it, same as Blade Runner.
I would say, generally speaking, for it to be a cult classic, it had to be a limited audience in original release and discovered through other means, with a growing fanbase over time.
I would add things like the Kommissar X series of Eurospy films, which gained a following when they were shown in syndicated movie packages. These include Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill; Death is Nimble, Death is Quick; So Darling, So Deadly.
Other cult Eurospy films:
(Agent 077)
Mission Bloody Mary
From the Orient (or Bosphorus) with Fury
Special Mission Lady Chaplin
(James Tont)
Operazione UNO
Operazione DUE
The original OSS 117 films, plus the Jean Dujardin satires (Cairo Nest of Spies, Lost in Rio)
The Fantomas films of the 60s, with Jean Marais in the dual role of Fantomas and Fandor:
Fantomas
Fantomas Unleashed
Fantomas vs Scotland Yard
The 1960s Mabuse crime/horror films:
1000 Eyes of Dr Mabuse (with Fritz Lang directing)
Return of Dr Mabuse
Testament of Dr Mabuse (the remake, not the Lang original)
Invisible Dr Mabuse
Scotland Yard vs Dr Mabuse
The Secret of Dr Mabuse aka The Death Ray of Dr Mabuse
The lucha libre movies of Mexico, starring individually and in team-ups: El Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras.
The Champions of Justice lucha super team films, with the above and others
The Neutron films, with Wolf Ruvinskis.
The Wrestling Women vs the Dr of Doom
The Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy
The Italian Super Argo films, with a masked wrestler/superhero
The 3 Supermen films, from Italy (3 Fantastic Supermen, then several sequels, into the 1970s)
(With Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer)
My Name is Trinity
Trinity is Still My Name
Superfuzz
The original Inglorious Bastards, with Bo Svenson
Django (the original, with Franco Nero, Sergio Corbucci directing)
The Gamma One series of sci-fi films, from Antonio Margheriti:
Wild, Wild Planet
War of the Planets
War Between the Planets
Snow Devils
also: Battle of the Worlds, The Green Slime.
The Hercules films, beyond just the Steve Reeves films
The Machiste series
The Ten Gladiators films (Ten Gladiators, Spartacus & the Ten Gladiators, Triumph of the Ten Gladiators)
Hong Kong action films:
The Heroic Trio
The Executioners (sequel to the above)
Drunken Master & Drunken Master 2
Armour of God and Armour of God 2: Operation Condor
Project A
Project A 2
Once Upon a Time in China series
City on Fire
The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow (all John Woo films)
A Chinese Ghost Story
Zu Warriors
cult martial arts films:
36th Chamber of Shaolin
Shaolin vs Ninja
The Lucky Stars films (Hong Kong comedy films, with cameos from Jackie Chan and others)
Black Cat (Hong Kong ripoff of La Femme Nikita)
fumetti-based films:
Danger Diabolik
Kriminal
The Mark of Kriminal
Satanik
The Doll Squad
Damnation Alley
Killdozer
Trilogy of Terror
Jim Kelly films:
Black Belt Jones
Black Samurai
Three the Hard Way
Cleopatra Jones
Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold
Dr Who and the Daleks
Dr Who: Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD
The Land That Time Forgot
The People That Time Forgot
At The Earth's Core
Warlords of Atlantis
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2019 16:28:19 GMT -5
Number 1 Cult Movie
Release date: September 25, 1975 (USA) (TODAY)
44 years ago this movie came out and I saw this movie last night at a friend place and we watched this movie together along with our dear friends (about a dozen or so) and seen this movie 44 times in our life. We pop in a DVD and let this movie ... run its course.
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Post by berkley on Sept 25, 2019 22:19:47 GMT -5
For years I've been hearing and reading about how great " The Big Lebowski " is, and I've never seen it. Unlike big box office movies, there seem to be a set of films that are beloved that are off the beaten path. Which movies do you like that are considered cult classics? I always hear the first Blade Runner movie to be in that category. I saw The Big Lebowski for the first time just a few months ago and it yeah, I'd say both that it deserves its high reputation as a cult classic.
Another one in that cult category I saw for the first time just this past year is Withnail and I, and once again, I'd say it more than lives up to its rep.
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Post by berkley on Sept 27, 2019 1:04:36 GMT -5
The definition is pretty vague, but I agree that a limited but devoted audience of fans is one of the keys. Some of the HK films codystarbuck listed would I suppose be cult films for people like me in the western hemisphere, but I imagine a few of them might have been big box-office hits in HK and elsewhere, and thus not cult films there.
Edo Bosnar makes a good point about the Coen brothers, but I still think a film like The Big Lebowski might qualify because it has such a fanatical following of people who can quote from it endlessly, that sort of thing, and similarly with Withnail - so I suppose that means that I think the intensity of the fan interest or obsession is a factor as well in defining "cult" status. But again, if that obsession is widespread to the level of a Star Wars, I don't think it's cult anymore.
All this makes me wonder if we couldn't speak of personal cult films, those with an obsessive audience of exactly one (as far as you know) - yourself. The David Niven Casino Royale might have been such a movie for me when I was a kid - I saw it I think 5 or 6 times on tv from the late 60s to the early 70s, because I loved it so much I would sneak out past my bedtime if I knew it was on. Haven't seen it for decades now but I'm still enamoured of the soundtrack, which I have on cd.
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Post by Duragizer on Sept 27, 2019 23:49:44 GMT -5
Oy, this is gonna be a lengthy post.... - Barbarella (1968)
- Barton Fink (1991)
- Big Meat Eater (1982)
- Black Christmas (1974)
- Blue Velvet (1986)
- The 'Burbs (1989)
- Burnt Offerings (1976)
- The Cable Guy (1996)
- Carnival of Souls (1962)
- The Changeling (1980)
- Commando (1985)
- Creepshow (1982)
- Dark City (1998)
- Dead of Night (1945)
- The Dentist (1996)
- The Dentist 2 (1998)
- Dune (1984)
- Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam AKA Turkish Star Wars (1982)
- El Topo (1970)
- Equinox (1970)
- Eraserhead (1977)
- The Evil Dead (1980)
- Evil Dead II (1987)
- Army of Darkness (1993)
- The Exorcist III (1990)
- Freaked (1993)
- Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
- A Goofy Movie (1995)
- Hausu (1977)
- Highlander (1986)
- The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
- The Hitcher (1986)
- Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)
- The Holy Mountain (1973)
- Hudson Hawk (1991)
- Ice Cream Man (1995)
- Incubus (1966)
- Labyrinth (1986)
- Legend (1985)
- Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
- The Lost Boys (1987)
- Lost Highway (1997)
- Mr. Sardonicus (1961)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- The Ninth Configuration (1980)
- Nothing but Trouble (1991)
- Phantasm (1979)
- Phenomena (1985)
- Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
- Prince of Darkness (1987)
- Psycho II (1983)
- Roadgames (1981)
- Robot Monster (1953)
- The Room (2003)
- The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
- Sleepaway Camp (1983)
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
- The Thing (1982)
- Toys (1992)
- Troll 2 (1990)
- UHF (1989)
- Vampyr (1932)
- Yellow Submarine (1968)
- Zardoz (1974)
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 28, 2019 6:15:06 GMT -5
Tron ?
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Post by beccabear67 on Sept 28, 2019 13:54:03 GMT -5
Mine are all older I guess... 'cult' meaning genre and weird... often b&w...
Cat People ('40s Val Lewton)
I Walked With A Zombie ('40s Val Lewton)
Carnival Of Souls - 1962
Night Tide - 1961 (with Dennis Hopper)
Spider Baby -1964 (with Creighton 'Lon Jr.' Chaney)
Suspiria -1977 (Italian, had that actress from the old tv Dark Shadows in it)
and too many Hammer films to list
more general audience/name studio/director I'd recommend these...
The Rain People - 1969
The Last Picture Show - 1971
THX 1138 - 1971
Duel - 1971 (Dennis Weaver vs. a truck)
The Stepford Wives - 1975 (the one with 'Ginger' from Gilligan's Island)
Polyester (John Waters)
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 28, 2019 19:25:49 GMT -5
THX-1138, the one film Lucas didn't ruin by adding CGI footage. For the dvd release, he had ILM add the the cityscape, giving it more depth and scope. Otherwise, he left the iconic scenes alone. Granted, it was a somewhat obtuse narrative, so it would have been hard to make a mess of it, apart from removing scenes. Robert Duvall still shoots first!  |
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 29, 2019 11:38:12 GMT -5
Tron is just a weird movie overall. It's part corporate espionage, part Greek tragedy, & part cyberpunk (before the term was even coined I think)
I kind of like Legacy more to be honest, but that's partly because of how good Uprising was
As for my vote? There's too many to choose I'm currently re-watching Last Action Hero. Used to air all the time on either Starz or Encore in the early to mid-00's and I loved it to pieces, same with Hackers and The Last Dragon |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Sept 29, 2019 14:42:13 GMT -5
Last Action Hero is a good movie, and really underrated I think.
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