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PretentiousHipster wrote:But aren't these 80s and 90s comedies just as commercial, and are appealing to trends at that time? Just that everyone forgot about them since they weren't all that memorable.

not really they seem to be a lot more politically incorrect and don't seem to be driving an agenda. Feels more like someone had a good idea for movie and made it instead of looking at an excel sheet to try and target the exact audience views and likes for maximum profit.

RCBH928 wrote:

PretentiousHipster wrote:But aren't these 80s and 90s comedies just as commercial, and are appealing to trends at that time? Just that everyone forgot about them since they weren't all that memorable.

not really they seem to be a lot more politically incorrect and don't seem to be driving an agenda. Feels more like someone had a good idea for movie and made it instead of looking at an excel sheet to try and target the exact audience views and likes for maximum profit.

There is definitely a very different feel to older comedies, they feel less workshopped or more specific or something. Riskier. Less bombastic. It's like how a lot of modern horror films are jumpscare fests. There is definitely a lot more of a formula to the average modern theatrical comedy than it at least feels like there used to be.

The agenda comment is funny considering that the plot of the film you've mentioned. It reminds me of Witches if Eastwick which despite its age is loved by more modern feminists.

I don't know too much about the more mainstream 80s and early 90s comedies, but in the late 90s to early 00s they were just following trends at the time, just that edgy and gross-oit comedies were the trends.

It does make sense for recent stuff though, because of the more algorithmic nature of how people watch films now. Scorsese wrote a fantastic article about this and the preservation of film history.

EDIT: https://harpers.org/archive/2021/03/il- ... -scorsese/

RCBH928 wrote:

PretentiousHipster wrote:But aren't these 80s and 90s comedies just as commercial, and are appealing to trends at that time? Just that everyone forgot about them since they weren't all that memorable.

not really they seem to be a lot more politically incorrect and don't seem to be driving an agenda. Feels more like someone had a good idea for movie and made it instead of looking at an excel sheet to try and target the exact audience views and likes for maximum profit.

Older films engaged in more casual racism/misogyny not because they weren't "politically correct" but because the standards at the time were that such things were ok.

1989's Fatal Exposure. Absolutely amazing. I guess you can call it so bad it's good, but there are some legit great qualities to it. The lead's acting is decent, and some of the gore is fun to watch. He's a descendant of Jack the Ripper, and he drinks blood to increase his sexual potency. He's a photographer who puts people in death traps, and takes photos of them just as they are dying. There are lots of fourth wall breaking moments with him narrating, and it's hilarious because other characters will comment on it, saying stuff like "who are you talking to?" Of course, it is super illogical, but my god is it entertaining.

My Wife and I just watched Bowfinger, hadn't seen it for years. Eddie Murphy is so brilliant and I wish there were a feature-length Fake Purse Ninjas.

February is over, so back to my more typical output:

Robo Vampire



A Robocop wannabe is sent on a mission to rescue an undercover agent who's been taken hostage. He never achieves his mission. But he does blow up a lot of drug dealers, hopping zombies, and a guy in a gorilla mask who shoots sparklers out of his robes.

Yeah, this thing is pretty awful. But it's hysterical in it's horrible-ness, because of how absolutely ridiculous most of it is. The Robo-Dude looks like a cheap attempt at a Shredder costume, the "vampires" are zombies that spend their time hopping around (unless it suites them to do otherwise or they just feel like doing a backflip), there's a ghost witch who sporadically pops up wearing a see-through dress (granted, some of you may actually like this), and all of that is sandwiched between gorilla warfare and a lot of inept drug dealers. The whole thing is a mess. But it's a mess in the same way a train wreck is a mess. You know it's terrible, but you just can't look away because you just KNOW it's going to get worse. And it does. It's that kind of film.

Oh man Robo Vampire is awesome. Another one you might want to check out is 1986's Eliminators.

My watch yesterday was 1985's Starchaser: Legend of Orin


It is a Stephen Hahn film by Young Sung Productions. Which means nothing to most people but Stephen Hahn was a big 80s cartoon production manager and Young Sung animated everything from Gummie Bears to TMNT to Bobs Burgers. Starchaser is often stated to be a knockoff of Star Wars but it is so much more than that. It is in a smalls subsection of animated movies that the soundtrack is crtical part of the film - like Heavy Metal or Rock and Rule. It follows a story about Orin, a slave in a gem mine enslaved by robots. One day he finds a magic sword hilt (aka moody lightsaber) and finds out there are other worlds outside of the gem mine. So he escapes, finds out their god is a sham, meets some robots that want to harvest his body parts, and eventually finds a rougish smuggler who helps him get off planet. The story just explodes from there with some of the best background paintings you will see in an 80s animated film.

The plot is alittle muddled and it is painfully obvious they were trying to set it up as a backdoor pilot. But if you can forgive some minor plot quibbles and the weird rapey scene with the female robot, it is a good way to spend an evening.

fastbilly1 wrote:Oh man Robo Vampire is awesome. Another one you might want to check out is 1986's Eliminators.

My watch yesterday was 1985's Starchaser: Legend of Orin

Is this targeted towards adults or children? I saw the trailer, seems a little bit like TMNT style.
I know most people into "anime" but I favour the western adult oriented stuff which is rare. Adult oriented anime like Ghost in a Shell is ok with me, but I can't stand the more childish ones like Naruto and One Piece. The never ending series does not help either. I will not watch 964 episodes of One Piece. I see the comic side of anime but it grows mundane too soon.

It is for teenagers, same demographic as Heavy Metal, Rock and Rule, and Titan AE.

There are thousands of animated films from countries not the USA or Japan that are worth watching, but getting a hold of them is difficult. I had to have a friend find me a DVD of Dalis Idok in a second hand store in Hungary after trying to buy it on line for over five years and it never showing up on ebay. Titles of note out of the last few years: I Lost My Body, L'Extraordinaire Voyage de Marona, Buñuel and the Labyrinth of Turtles, Funan, and anything by Cartoon Saloon - Breadwinner, Wolfwalkers, etc, should be easy enough to find. European animation is about to explode since the artschools started focusing on it about a decade ago and the styles are all distinct.

If you want some more obscure selections to look up just let me know.