oudeis on 27/2/2007 at 05:52

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oh fer cryin' out loud...

OF COURSE 'STARSHIP TROOPERS' WAS FUCKING SATIRE. The satire was as blatant as the gratuitous nudity, and those are two of the reasons I liked it so much. Well, Dina Meyer's tits count as two reasons in themselves, so we'll make that three reasons. It was also a kick-ass action movie.

I've never really gotten the whole point of cheese- 'So bad it's good' just doesn't register for me. Movies are simply too immersive and too involving for me to want to waste my time on half-assed efforts. However, there are movies I like which many or even most others don't or didn't, and some that I will watch again just because of the story, or certain scenes, or a single performance. Here are some:

* Hannibal- There was more ham in Anthony Hopkins' performance than in all the pigs that were supposed to devour him. Gary Oldman and Ray Liotta are almost as bad, and when that many actors do bad work the trail of blame leads right back to the director. Julianne Moore was superb filling in for Jodie Foster and single-handedly kept the movie from being unwatchable.


* Red Dragon- Add porky to hammy and you have basically summed up Sir Tony's 3rd attempt at Hannibal Lecter. Edward Norton gave such a smug performance as Will Graham I wanted William Petersen to walk on set and bitch-slap him. Rafe Fiennes' Dolarhyde was excellent but he was much too weedy to be terrifying. While it was surprisingly non-terrible for a Brett Ratner movie, I got more enjoyment from comparing it mentally to the far superior 'Manhunter' than from what I was seeing on the screen.


* Flight of the Intruder- Terrible casting plus bad acting on top of John Milius' militaristic pretentions results in a movie that adds up to exactly the sum of its parts. But, the score was kickass and the raid on Saigon rocked.


* Buckaroo Banzai*- If you don't know what this was about and how great this movie is, get the hell off my forum.


* Big Trouble in Little China*- I would actually say that John Carpenter set out to make a cheese movie with this, but Kurt Russell and Dennis Dun were simply too cool and so the movie ended up being great.
*(A filmmaker friend of mine has informed me that Jack Burton and Buckaroo Banzai were supposed to appear in an unofficial sequel to both movies, but the plans were binned after BB tanked. This ranks up there with the Ash/'Phantasm' crossover in my 'greatest missed opportunities in movies' list).


* Godzilla/Gamera- Men in overstuffed rubber monster costumes duking it out on minature-scale Tokyo sets, accompanied by overwrought music. BADASS.
I would say pretty much everything Lucas has ever done has been cheese, and yes, I am including the original Star Wars, which I saw 9 times the summer it came out and 12 times that year, and watched every Christmas during USA channel's Star Wars Holiday Marathon period. I'd also say most of Spielberg's work is cheese simply because it is so blatantly and maladroitly manipulative. He trowels out the most facile moralizations and tired cliches like they were the wisdom of the ages and expects to be praised for them, like a precocious child regurgitating a textbook lesson for his parents.

I never saw 'Wild Will Smith West', but the reviews and the commercials were so heinous that I avoided it like a hepatitic hooker. It simply looked too horrendous to be cheese. Honestly, though, I think the true horror can't be understood until after you have read the (http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Wild-Wild-West.html) shooting script and the (http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/wildwest.txt) original. I read the original first but I'd recommend the reverse order: once your eyes are done hemorrhaging from the the revision you can soothe them with the original. You may end up weeping at what could have and should have been, though, so keep the tissues handy.

dylan barry on 27/2/2007 at 06:18

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Been getting into Russ Meyer recently, pretty insane realy.

aelburr on 27/2/2007 at 12:43

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At least you know that was based on a comic book and wasn't supposed to be profound.

Scots Taffer on 27/2/2007 at 14:00

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WIIIIILLLLLLLLLLIIIIIAMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!


god, that movie was dreadful


also, belated birthday old chap

R Soul on 27/2/2007 at 18:38

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I don't know whether I should feel guilty or amused that it was my comment that triggered it :erm: