Do you love a movie that not many people remember? I will talk about a movie like everyone should know it but then realize I am looking at a bunch of blank stares. I hate when people don’t know what I am talking about.
10) Time Bandits
Time Bandits is a crazy adventure of eleven year old Kevin and a group of time traveling dwarven thieves that show up in his room. Kevin ends up on a crazy adventure through time with his new friends as they try to stop the Supreme Being, a giant floating head.
This 1981 British fantasy, comedy, adventure was written and directed the by the awesome Terry Gilliam. It starred Craig Warnock as young Kevin. It also starred Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, and many other famous actors.
This wacky British adventure was the forerunner to movies like Neverending Story but is often forgotten. It is worth a watch.
9) The Secret of NIMH
The Secret of NIMH is a dark animated movie from 1982. Even though the animation is similar to that of day, it is not a Disney movie (many assume it is). It was put out by MGM. It is an adaptation of the 1971 children’s novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien.
Widowed Mrs Brisby is a field mouse who in a cinder block with her children on the farm. Their family has to move every year when the fields are being plowed. Her son Timothy falls ill and cannot be moved. Mrs Brisby goes on an adventure to delay the plowing until her son can be moved to safety. She works with the Rats of the rosebush to save their son. She finds out that husband secretly was an alley to these rats who where experimented on by NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health.
This is not the cutesy animated movie of the 80s . It different and had a lot to offer with the story. It leveled out the darkness with light moments and the light animation style. It is worth checking out if you have never seen it.
8) UHF
UHF is Weird Al Yankovic’s 1989 comedy. For those that don’t know UHF stands for Ultra High Frequency and they were a group of channels on old televisions. These stations were not often the popular stations of the day. In this crazy and spoofy comedy, Al plays George Newman, a Station Manager who is just trying to get his station to survive.
It had crazy TV shows in this film like a game show called Wheel of Fish, Raul’s Wild Kingdom, and Stanley Spadowski’s Clubhouse. There are movie spoofs thrown in the middle of the movie. It is the kind of station I would definitely watch.
It also stars Michael Richards (of Kramer from Seinfeld) Stanley the Janitor, Victoria Jackson, and Fran Drescher,
This movie is very tough in cheek and slapstick at points. It is worth a watch.
7) Johnny Dangerously
Before Michael Keaton was Batman, he starred in several comedy movies. This is a slapstick 80s film about a gangster, Johnny Dangerously. Johnny turned to a life a crime to save his poor mother. He kept it a secret all of the years years from his family but his little brother becomes the District Attorney. This is the 1984’s Johnny Dangerously.
It spoofs the genre of mafia movies like the Godfather without being direct spoof. It is filled with fun character like Danny Vermin, played by Joe Piscopo, and Roman Moroni who cannot quit curse properly.
This is a fun movie with a lot of sight gangs. It has an amazing theme song, This Is the Life, from Weird Al. If you don’t check it out, then you are a fargin icehole.
6) Batman: Mask of the Phatasm
This movie is a part of the Batman: The Animated Series but released in the theaters in 1993. It does star Kevin Conroy as the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker. This is based off of the story “Batman: Year Two”
Originally this movie was going be direct to video but the studio decided to release in in theaters in the last minute. Because it is wasn’t promoted, then it flopped in the box office.
A new vigilante shows up in Gotham City along with Bruce’s ex-girlfriend. This vigilante makes no bones about killing criminals. The police assume this is the work of Batman and go after him. Batman has to prove himself once again to the Gotham City PD.
When I saw this movie after it was released, I had very low expectations but it way over produced. This movie is a movie section of the amazing Batman: The Animated Series and fully delivers.
5) Ladyhawke
Ladyhawke is a medieval fantasy from 1985. It stars Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, and Michelle Pfeiffer. It was directed by Richard Donner.
A thief, “The Mouse”, escapes from the dungeons of Bishop of Aquila right before he is to be execute. But he escapes right into the hands of the Bishop’s guards. A former guard, Etienne Navarre, shows up with his Hawk and rescues the Mouse. Navarre needs the Mouse to help him break into the castle. We are soon introduced to Navarre’s love interest, Isabeau of Anjou. The Bishop used a satanic spell to curse both of the lovers since he couldn’t have Isabeau. During the day, she is hawk and at night he is a wolf. They can almost touch at dawn and dusk but are tortured without truly seeing each other.
This is an amazing tail with a star studded cast and an awesome director. This is one of the best medieval fantasies out there . It is not as mammoth as Lord of the Rings but tells a great story in 2 hours.
4) One Crazy Summer
Many people remember the zany 80s comedy, Better Off Dead, as they should. One Crazy Summer is the same type of humor but with a different plot and story. It was also directed by Savage Steve Holland (of Better Off Dead). It stars John Cusack just like Better Off Dead. It also stars Demi Moore, Bobcat Goldthwait, Curtis Armstrong and Joel Murray. It was filmed the year after Better Off Dead.
Hoops McCann just graduated high school. Most of his classmates got a car for graduation but not Hoops, he got a street sweeper. Hoops is on a mission to get into an exclusive art school but lacks self esteem. He runs off to Nantucket with some friends to get away and work on his art. This leads to a zany adventure with Bullies, Movie sets, a boat race, and summer love. Oh by the way, Hoops cannot shoot a basket to save his life.
If you like the humor of Better Off Dead and have never seen One Crazy Summer, then you are missing it. I would make faces at you but I am afraid someone will slap my back and my face will freeze that way.
3) Bubba Ho-Tep
Bruce Campbell stars in this 2002 American horror and comedy film. Bruce plays Elvis Presley, who faked his death and now lives in a nursing home in East Texas. His best friend is John, an African American gentleman in the same nursing home who claims to be JFK after the CIA faked his death and changed his skin color.
A Mummy, Ho-Tep, is on tour across the country. An accident leads the mummy to be dumped in the river. This revises the Mummy who sucks on life force. The mummy stalks the nursing home, because who will notice if a lot of their residents start dying? Old Elvis and JFK have to take on the mummy they have nicknamed “Bubba” since they are in east Texas.
This movie has the classic Bruce Campbell humor and tongue in cheek. It is a monster movie with a lot of horror. It is also a fun comedy. If you don’t know this movie, you need to rent it or buy it.
2) They Live
What if the world had been invaded and we never knew it? What if the aliens and look like us and act like us? What if they are manipulating us as a culture to make us more compliant? These are the questions that John Carpenter asks in this 1988 Science fiction action movie. It is based on the 1963 short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” by Ray Nelson.
Wrestling’s “Rowdy” Roddy Piper stars as Nada, a drifter. When he is given a special pair of sunglasses, Nada can now see the world in a much different light Some of the people aren’t people at all but aliens. Behind the signs and billboards and magazines are secret messages to enslave the population.
This is one of the best movies that many people have never seen. Yes, the acting is not always great. But the story is wonderful and makes you think. Heck, I am still wondering if this isn’t happening today.
If you don’t watch it for any other reason, you should watch the scene with Piper delivers the immortal line, “I am here to Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum. And I am all out of bubblegum” right before his shots a bunch of aliens in a bank.
1) Rebecca
Rebecca is my favorite thriller movie of all time. Most people give me a blank stare with I mention this amazing film. It saddens me that so many people have never seen it.
Rebecca is the first Alfred Hitchcock movie filmed in the United States. It hit theaters in 1940. It won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Cinematography. It is a psychological ghost story where you NEVER see the ghost.
Maxim de Winter, played by Laurence Oliver, is a rich gentleman who remarries after his wife dies from a tragic accident. He takes the “new” Mrs Winter (Joan Fontaine) as his wife and takes her to his estate. The staff loved the former wife and don’t care for the new Mrs Winter. Crazy and weird things keep happening and the staff all contribute it to the ghost of Mrs Winter or as they call her, “Rebecca”.
In this ghost movie, we never see the ghost if there was one. The movie is named after the previous Mrs Winter and since she is dead, she never once appears in the movie named after her.
Hitchcock was a master of scarring us without showing us. The intensity of the scene and music was enough. He did this in almost all of his movies. Rebecca is a masterpiece of it.
If you like Hitchcock movies or scary movies and you haven’t seen Rebecca, you need to. I have had problems finding it over the years so if you see it, pick it up. If you don’t, it will haunt you.
Stay Geeky!
Secret of Nimh is amazing- great book, too! And I despise rats, so that’s saying something! Rebecca is also a great film.