Oddball Movies
(Yeah, it's dumb but hilarious if you're my age and remember watching it with a group of friends.)
Quote: slytherBetter Off Dead
To this day, one of my top five favorites. It was panned by the critics for being a comedy based on the topic of teen suicide. As a result, it got killed at the box office. Too bad, because if you see the film, you will agree that it is actually very life affirmng. Who can forget the classic line, "Gee, I'm real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky"
John Cusack is also the star of another film I would put on this list: Grosse Pointe Blank. A quirky mix of high school reunion romance and competing hit men shoot-it-up. And its got Dan Aykroyd in it.
Quote: EvenBobSome movies you can't take out the context of the
time they were made. Caddyshack was a huge hit
30 years ago, its just kinda dumb now. At the
time it was cutting edge.
Many movies, (oddball or otherwise) I haven't seen in a long time. But as I can't think of another big comedy golf movie, I figured I was safe with that one.
Quote: zippyboyRegarding Caddyshack, I just finished a book called Fat, Drunk and Stupid – The inside story behind the making of Animal House, and there are stories about Caddyshack in there, like all the principle actors were high as hell during all the filming, except for Ted Knight. Doug Kenney (who played Stork in Animal House) was a producer of Caddyshack, and he'd stuff handfulls of cocaine in his face at a time "like an animal in heat", and dropped enough on the floor to get a normal person high for a lifetime. Rodney Dangerfield showed up 2 days before filming started with a suitcase full of drugs, mostly cocaine and pot, but then Chevy Chase came in the next day with an even bigger one.
Sarah Holcomb was Chlorette DePasto in Animal House and Maggie O'Hoolihan in Caddyshack. The story is that she was so consumed by the wild lifestyle on both sets that she gave up acting and dropped completely out of sight. Search the name, there are more details. There is an obscure film from 2004, Stateside (I haven't seen it), about the director's relationship with her. It seems she was quite a remarkable person, and was considered an actress with a lot of promise (I agree).
Quote: FarFromVegasWanna make 14 dollars the hard way?
(Yeah, it's dumb but hilarious if you're my age and remember watching it with a group of friends.)
You didn't really have to believe too hard in Dangerfield as an actor, it was just funny listening to his various one liners.
My favorite line is probably one involving the difficulty Bill Murray's character had with understanding a Scottish accent.
Quote:Sandy: Carl I want you to kill all the gophers on the golf course.
Carl Spackler: Correct me if I'm wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers they'll lock me up and throw away the key.
Sandy: Not golfers, you great fool. Gophers. The little brown, furry rodents.
Quote: rxwineMany movies, (oddball or otherwise) I haven't seen in a long time. But as I can't think of another big comedy golf movie, I figured I was safe with that one.
Caddyshack, Fletch, and Airplane were all big hits (in the top 20). It's just that they are all old. Pan's Labyrinth (2006) along with Like Water for Chocolate (1993) are oddball because they are in Spanish, but they are the most successful Spanish language films ever released in the USA. I enjoyed all these films, but I was hoping to get the names of really obscure films that most people haven't seen that struck you in some way.
Eating Raoul was an excellent, if deeply disturbing film.
Waking Ned Devine (1998) is one of the funniest movies you will see featuring old Irish comedians and a small obscure town in Ireland engaging in a collective lottery scam.
Quote: MoscaNight of the Comet: You want oddball? I'll give you oddball.
Eraserhead: I still don't know what this is about. The director, David Lynch, described it as "A dream of dark and troubling things." That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.
David Lynch is super wierd. Blue Velvet was F*cked Up & Not long after I saw Wild at Heart I ran into Diane Ladd at a shop in Sedona.... her role made a lasting impression, I was afraid she would shoot me. Her daughter on the other hand I would have hit on in a second but not the wicked witch!
Quote: pacomartinCaddyshack, Fletch, and Airplane were all big hits (in the top 20). It's just that they are all old. Pan's Labyrinth (2006) along with Like Water for Chocolate (1993) are oddball because they are in Spanish, but they are the most successful Spanish language films ever released in the USA. I enjoyed all these films, but I was hoping to get the names of really obscure films that most people haven't seen that struck you in some way.
???
Blacula did feature the first interracial gay couple in a movie.
Quote: zippyboyRegarding Caddyshack, I just finished a book called Fat, Drunk and Stupid – The inside story behind the making of Animal House, and there are stories about Caddyshack in there, like all the principle actors were high as hell during all the filming, except for Ted Knight. Doug Kenney (who played Stork in Animal House) was a producer of Caddyshack, and he'd stuff handfulls of cocaine in his face at a time "like an animal in heat", and dropped enough on the floor to get a normal person high for a lifetime. Rodney Dangerfield showed up 2 days before filming started with a suitcase full of drugs, mostly cocaine and pot, but then Chevy Chase came in the next day with an even bigger one.
Ted Knight rocks in that movie "sent many a boy your age to the gas chamber Danny...didn't want to do it. Felt I owed it to them"
The real club it is based on- Indian Hill CC in Winnetka, IL Is right in my back yard and yes the people are really like that in Winnetka. It's rich in-breeding at its best.
Quote: BozBasket Case....Enough Said!!
Hahaa, Mrs and I saw that one. Poor Belial!
Forgot that one, uproarious!
Quote: Mission146Idiocracy.
Forgot that one, uproarious!
I saw parts of it. Funny.
I think it's basedon, or inspired by, a story by Cyrill M. Kornbluth titled "The Marching Morons." It's very much worth reading (all his stories are). It's a kind of sequel to another story called "The Little Black Bag."
Quote: zippyboyRegarding Caddyshack, I just finished a book called Fat, Drunk and Stupid – The inside story behind the making of Animal House, and there are stories about Caddyshack in there, like all the principle actors were high as hell during all the filming, except for Ted Knight. Doug Kenney (who played Stork in Animal House) was a producer of Caddyshack, and he'd stuff handfulls of cocaine in his face at a time "like an animal in heat", and dropped enough on the floor to get a normal person high for a lifetime. Rodney Dangerfield showed up 2 days before filming started with a suitcase full of drugs, mostly cocaine and pot, but then Chevy Chase came in the next day with an even bigger one.
Didn't the Stork guy die when he fell off a cliff in Hawai'i or something like that? Now that I read what you just said it becomes unsurprising. He also was one of the founders of National Lampoon.
Quote: AyecarumbaJohn Cusack is also the star of another film I would put on this list: Grosse Pointe Blank. A quirky mix of high school reunion romance and competing hit men shoot-it-up. And its got Dan Aykroyd in it.
How could I have forgotten about Grosse Pointe Blank??? I love that movie, especially the soundtrack. I guess because Cusack and I are contemporaries. I didn't much like Aykroyd in it, though. But I thought Tom Hanks was bad in Catch Me If You Can so good actors can have movies where they're just not good.
Quote: Mission146Idiocracy.
Forgot that one, uproarious!
Looks good!
Quote: EvenBobSome movies you can't take out the context of the
time they were made. Caddyshack was a huge hit
30 years ago, its just kinda dumb now. At the
time it was cutting edge.
"Caddyshack" I would say is still great, just that we have seen it so many times and it looks old to the younger set. The beauty of Caddyshack is that it is not "about" one charachter for the most part. It was supposed to be about Danny, but when they got done writing the first screenplay the thing was nearly 3 hours. So they stripped a lot out of it. So it became a snobatorium seen from Danny's eyes.
But it is the kind of movie with 4-5 subplots that all have to come together. Others like it are "Ruthess People" and "Get Shorty." They are great because they are a few movies but do not seem jumpy from plot to plot.
Quote: pacomartinLooks good!
Even better: President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho. Just reading the description of the movie cracked me up.
Wes Anderson, starring the Wilson Bros.
Not really "oddball:" captures Las Vegas perfectly.
El Topo
The Holy Mountain
Santa Sangre
Quote: FarFromVegasDidn't the Stork guy die when he fell off a cliff in Hawai'i or something like that? Now that I read what you just said it becomes unsurprising. He also was one of the founders of National Lampoon.
That's right, he did. But he was an addict and suicidally depressed most of the latter part of his life. In fact after he died, his wife(?) said of his death "He was looking for a place to jump off, when he slipped".
Quote: zippyboyRegarding Caddyshack, I just finished a book called Fat, Drunk and Stupid – The inside story behind the making of Animal House, and there are stories about Caddyshack in there, like all the principle actors were high as hell during all the filming, except for Ted Knight. Doug Kenney (who played Stork in Animal House) was a producer of Caddyshack, and he'd stuff handfulls of cocaine in his face at a time "like an animal in heat", and dropped enough on the floor to get a normal person high for a lifetime. Rodney Dangerfield showed up 2 days before filming started with a suitcase full of drugs, mostly cocaine and pot, but then Chevy Chase came in the next day with an even bigger one.
That's why all those 80's "SNL Pack" (Chase, Ackroyd, Belushi, Martin, etc) were all so damn funny..they were all HIGHER THAN A KITE!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm heading to Starbucks, been awhile since my last hand-job.
Check these out if you want to see some hilarious ass kicking..
Five Shaolin Masters
Shaolin Temple
The 36 Chambers Of Shaolin
I also like "Very Bad Things" with Christian Slater, a very, very dark comedy, and "A Simple Plan" with Billy Bob Thornton.
Yeah, they are filming a movie with Robert DeNiro (and Morgan Freeman and Michael Douglas) here. Surprising since I can't remember the last serious movie that was filmed in Vegas.
Last Vegas.
Quote: Scotty71Quote: zippyboyRegarding Caddyshack, I just finished a book called Fat, Drunk and Stupid – The inside story behind the making of Animal House, and there are stories about Caddyshack in there, like all the principle actors were high as hell during all the filming, except for Ted Knight. Doug Kenney (who played Stork in Animal House) was a producer of Caddyshack, and he'd stuff handfulls of cocaine in his face at a time "like an animal in heat", and dropped enough on the floor to get a normal person high for a lifetime. Rodney Dangerfield showed up 2 days before filming started with a suitcase full of drugs, mostly cocaine and pot, but then Chevy Chase came in the next day with an even bigger one.
Ted Knight rocks in that movie "sent many a boy your age to the gas chamber Danny...didn't want to do it. Felt I owed it to them"
The real club it is based on- Indian Hill CC in Winnetka, IL Is right in my back yard and yes the people are really like that in Winnetka. It's rich in-breeding at its best.
That whole North Shore is disgusting to me.
Quote: AZDuffman"Caddyshack" I would say is still great, just that we have seen it so many times
Rodney Dangerfield makes Caddyshack great. All the
other roles could have been played by almost anybody.
Especially Bill Murray's. Acting like burned out mental
case isn't really acting. Randy Quaid could have done
just as good a job. Dangerfield is unique. His nightclub
routines are still hilarious, way funnier than his movies.
Quote: EvenBobRodney Dangerfield makes Caddyshack great. All the
other roles could have been played by almost anybody.
Especially Bill Murray's. Acting like burned out mental
case isn't really acting. Randy Quaid could have done
just as good a job. Dangerfield is unique. His nightclub
routines are still hilarious, way funnier than his movies.
His nightclub routines are still hilarious? Dude's been dead for 8 years.
Quote: AcesAndEightsHis nightclub routines are still hilarious? Dude's been dead for 8 years.
Through the magic of YouTube, I just saw a hilarious George Carlin nightclub routine. It was still hilarious.
Quote: AcesAndEightsHis nightclub routines are still hilarious? Dude's been dead for 8 years.
I bet I meant recorded routines, and especially the
ones from the 70's and 80's. He was funny in the
60's but not as blue yet.
Murray was also in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Now that was an oddball movie...
I would nominate Run Lola Run, and Shaun of the Dead for this list too. Both alot of fun.
Quote: rxwineSpeaking of dead people. Who was the guy who did some movies playing a janitor. He was first in commercials, made famous for saying "Ewwwwwwwww" and scrunching up his face usually while working a plunger in a toliet, and often a fish eye type lens on him close up.
Jim Varney? He did the "Ernest" movies and used to say, "Hey Vern!"
Quote: ChesterDogJim Varney? He did the "Ernest" movies used to say, "Hey Vern!"
That's it! I couldn't link a name up with the Oscar worthy performances!
Quote: paisielloI believe the original post was soliciting "obscure" movies, not just oddball ones.
Oh, well, then: "Copenhagen."
I haven't seen it, but I'd like to.
How about movies that were well-known when they came out and even for years afterwards, but have now been forgotten or relegated to mere old movie status. Movies like "Soylent Green" and "Logan's Run" (BTW two fo the best ever SF films).
Quote: NareedMovies like "Soylent Green" and "Logan's Run" (BTW two fo the best ever SF films).
The short story that the movie "Soylent Green" was based on called "Make Room! Make Room!" written in 1966 predicted a world population of 7 billion and a US population of 344 million, New York of 35 million by the turn of the century (all reasonable predictions in 1966). In reality the world population was 6 billion and US population was 281 million by the turn of the century.
So, while the numbers are not that far off, the worst predictions of consumer cannibals are never going to come true.
Quote: pacomartinSo, while the numbers are not that far off, the worst predictions of consumer cannibals are never going to come true.
Can't see the forest for the trees?
The problem isn't how big the popualtion is, but how many resources are available and how they are exploited. Malthus said population growth would outpace resource growth. He was wrong.
Besides, cannibalism as a main source of diet is simply unfeasible. You'd run out of your main resource too fast. Niven, with help on the sides, dealt realistically with the problem in "Beowulf's Children" (I think, the novel is pretty bad).
BIG SPOILER FOLLOWS:
There's this large island on a planet where the dominant predator, the grendel, has exhausted all other sources and now eats only its immature offspring. This works, but only because the tiny grendels are vegetarians and there are plenty of them. Otherwise the grendels would die out.
And naturally when humans colonize this palce, they offer plenty of feeding opportunities for the grendels...
