The Glorious Genre of the B Movie

In my last post I expressed my liking for B movies. My family teases me about it all the time. The more hokey, or strange, or the more badly written the more they think I'm going to like it. That's not entirely true. I don't really care for zombie movies, or slasher movies, or movies that spend a significant amount of time the an ugly dark place. But I really like movies with interesting characters.

So what is a B movie? One would be tempted to think it means Bad movie, but not so. I was going to muddle my way around an explanation, but Wikipedia puts it better.

A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as second features largely ceased by the end of the 1950s, the term B movie continued to be used in the broader sense it maintains today.

The term connoted a general perception that B movies were inferior to the more handsomely budgeted headliners. As the average running time of top-of-the-line films increased, so did that of B pictures. In its current usage, the term has two primary and somewhat contradictory connotations: it may signal an opinion that a certain movie is (a) a genre film with minimal artistic ambitions or (b) a lively, energetic film uninhibited by the constraints imposed on more expensive projects and unburdened by the conventions of putatively "serious" independent film. The term is also now used loosely to refer to some higher budgeted, mainstream films with exploitation-style content, usually in genres traditionally associated with the B movie.

In looking at several different lists of B movies, I realized that my list is very different from most other lists. Most other lists fall into the really really bad movies but don't we just love them category.


So I decided to make my own list. (In no particular order)

Eaon Flux (the movie) SO don't like the MTV version.
(Because Jaime reminded me...) The Scorpion King
Escape From New York
Escape from L. A.
Fifth Element (Is this a B movie????)
(Have to 'fess up to the Kill Bill movies)
Batman Returns... (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are not B movies)
Flash Gordon
Big Trouble in Little China
Lara Croft Tomb Raider
Hellboy
Star Trek Nemesis
The Alien movies - mostly#3 and #4
All the Predator movies - especially #2
And the Alien vs. Predator movies... though in the last one they nuke Gunnison, Colorado... disturbing since I visit Gunnison occasionally.
Dark City
The first thirty minutes of the Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Mummy (not a B movie) and The Mummy Returns
The Professional
Wasabi
Fright Night
Grimlins
Blade
Doom
Pitch Black
The Chronicles of Riddick
Underworld
The Lost Boys
Interview with the Vampire
Queen of the Damned
Red Scorpion
Vampires - with James Woods
Cherry 2000
They Live
Commando
Terminator 1, 2, and 3 (Some might dispute these)
The Road Warrior
The Crow - Brandon Lee
A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Clint Eastwood
12 Monkeys - a really great movie on the time travel paradox
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Bulletproof Monk
Jackie Chan movies

Some I don't watch, but are very popular

Reptile movies about snakes and crocodiles
Biker flicks
Haunted house movies... Though there's an Amityville House movie I watch for the first thirty minutes and then shut off.
Zombies - the Living Dead stuff
Dr. Giggles
Any of the Saw movies
Jeepers Creepers - one of the most disturbing movies I ever watched. Jeepers Creepers 2 was just as bad.
Sin City
The Candy Man movies
Urban Legend
BloodRayne

There are a lot more, on both lists.

I've been tagged

Song: The Howling - Within Temptation (Another good idea from Jaime)
Attitude for today - Totally didn't know anything about this strange game.

So...do I even have six quirks? I don't know. I can't think of a single thing that I do anyone would call strange.

I suppose playing the soundtrack of Batman Begins all day long, every day for nine months could be considered a quirk. But I've done that kind of thing for as long as I can remember. Within Temptation was a three month stretch. The song Marooned by Balligomingo was a four week stretch while I revamped my novel Prithiel, which isn't yet finished, so I will be going back to it soon for another month or so.

Of course anything by Hanz Zimmer gets a long play--most of the time.

How about my obsession for certain vehicles? I am always on the look out for my favorite vehicles, all of which I can't possible afford. One can hope, right?

Top of the list.
Hummer H2. The biggest one they make. All of the others are just way too small.

The H3T is kind of interesting. Too small, though.Second favorite the Jeep Rubicon. With the big tires. Has to have the big tires.


Then there are the super cars. Whoa boy.


Number one sports car.... Um... Yeah.... Mercedes Benz SLR...droooool. The hottest car on the market.

Top view.....

Side view....
Really sexy back view....
And the super sexiest front view you can find anywhere... but I wax poetic.
You can't over look the Corvette ZR1...more drooling.
Or the Mazda RX8... more drooling

Um... the table top is getting wet... wait a minute

Okay, cleaned up.

The Mazda RX8

Ain't it cute?

I have to add the Porsche Carrera just on looks alone. (In driving tests it doesn't match the 2008 Mercedes.) I still wouldn't mind having one.


Number three.... Can you believe I've only covered two quirks? I can spend days on the computer looked for pics to use for references in my writing.


Number four... I can't sleep in the dark. Nor in the quiet. I have to have the TV on. If something happens, like the power going off, or a well meaning child turns the TV off, I wake up. Since I don't sleep very well anyway, probably because of all the light and all of the sound-ya think?--when I do finally get to sleep, its hazardous to wake me up. Ask my kids who have had me come up out of a dead sleep in fight mode.

Number five --- Have to think here.


I love love love B movies. The B-er the better. I've lost count of how many times I've watched The Mummy...though technically it isn't a B movie, but The Mummy Returns is.


Have you seen Oded Fehr???? DROOL..... Oops, there goes the table again.


I've seen The Professional countless times, with Jean Reno and a very young Natalie Portman... in my opinion her best role so far. The movie started out as a 1 and a half star flick. Over the years it has gained status and is now a 3 star movie. But watch it on TBS because the language has been cleaned up. Jean Reno has another one that is a jewel (after the first half hour...skip that part... too much language). The movie is Wasabi. A real delight.


I'll stop anything I'm doing to see a move with Karl Urban: Doom, Chronicles of Riddick (it doesn't hurt that Vin Diesel is also in it) The Bourne Supremacy, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King, Xena: Warrior Princess.

Isn't he just yummy?

Can't forget the really built Predator.


Or Lara Croft, who can do anything.


Then there's Hellboy. Ron Perlman was also great in Star Trek Nemesis... He kind of looked like Hellboy there, only white instead of red.

These are only a few of the B movies I like, believe me...

So now we're to number six. Hmmmm. Have to Think... It's so hard. There's so many to choose from.

I don't like to call people on the phone because they're never there. I love barbecued beef ribs. I get discouraged easily. I like to play my music LOUD in the car. I love cats.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE dragons...

I can't make up my mind most of the time. I'm obsessed with Mah Jong. I rarely pass up ice cream.

Oh... I know........



Can't believe I forgot.



Drum roll. BRRRRRRR.




I'VE SEEN THE LORD OF THE RINGS 118 TIMES.

Whew. I almost forgot.

Okay. Confession time. I don't know who to tag. Everyone I know Jaime already did, or Lori-ann will.

Nov. 14, 2008 - Update -- Since Lori-ann hasn't gotten around to it, I tag Donna C. (Run away laughing in glee.)