# American action, sci-fi, and horror trash from the 80s



## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)

I was watching Night of the Comet last night, and it took me back to the time I used to hang around the video shop (and travelling video van!) with my friends as a kid. Hours upon hours picking up and reading the back of the VHS boxes, only being able to afford to get one of the hundreds of amazing looking films. With Night of the Comet, I must've picked it up and read the back of the box hundreds of times. What's you're favourite? There are so many!


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## 8den (Sep 28, 2015)

American International Pictures - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)

8den said:


> American International Pictures - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



I particulary like the sound of this one...


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)




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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)




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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)




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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)




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## DaveCinzano (Sep 28, 2015)

*Subscribes to thread*


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## hot air baboon (Sep 28, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


>



...looks somewhat reminiscent of this highly enjoyable "high-tech 80's" little gem...


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 28, 2015)

_Scarecrows_ (1988)


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## Sweet FA (Sep 28, 2015)

When I was about 11 or 12, I started baby-sitting for our next door neighbour. They used to pay me up front so I could get a video from the newsagents; dear god the shit I watched.


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## Sweet FA (Sep 28, 2015)




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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)

I liked the post apocalypse Mad Max/Escape from New york stuff....mostly made in italy by old spaghetti western directors...


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)

hot air baboon said:


> ...looks somewhat reminiscent of this highly enjoyable "high-tech 80's" little gem...



I'm sure that was a remake of a 50's film.


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)




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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)

hot air baboon said:


> ...looks somewhat reminiscent of this highly enjoyable "high-tech 80's" little gem...



I'm sure that was a remake of a 50's film.


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)




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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)




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## DaveCinzano (Sep 28, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


> I'm sure that was a remake of a 50's film.


Really?


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)

DaveCinzano said:


> Really?
> 
> View attachment 77328



Lol, I'm on a 4" old smartphone, thanks for enlarging the text


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 28, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


> Lol, I'm on a 4" old smartphone, thanks for enlarging the text


Always happy to help the aged and infirm


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)




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## DaveCinzano (Sep 28, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


>


First saw that introduced by Alex Cox on _Moviedrome_


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)

DaveCinzano said:


> First saw that introduced by Alex Cox on _Moviedrome_



Yeah, me too. I have the Moviedrone books somewhere. Late night on a Sunday is still the best time to watch these


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 28, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


> Yeah, me too. I have the Moviedrone books somewhere. Late night on a Sunday is still the best time to watch these


PDFs of Volume 1 and Volume 2 both available from Cox's website


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)

DaveCinzano said:


> PDFs of Volume 1 and Volume 2 both available from Cox's website



Excellent!

Does Repo Man count for this thread? It's too good somehow.


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## 8den (Sep 28, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


>


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## Throbbing Angel (Sep 28, 2015)

This nonsense is on the Horror Channel tonight (Sky 319)  1980


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## Boycey (Sep 28, 2015)

Sweet FA said:


> When I was about 11 or 12, I started baby-sitting for our next door neighbour. They used to pay me up front so I could get a video from the newsagents; dear god the shit I watched.



the pipe, the knife and the punk in yellow all make me think of final fight


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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)




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## Sweet FA (Sep 28, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


> Does Repo Man count for this thread? It's too good somehow.


Yeh, too good; Repo Man isn't trash.


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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)




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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)

I personally rented 976-EVIL at least five times. And I own a DVD copy of this beauty:






...although somehow without the peeling plastic VHS cover it's not the same


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## Sweet FA (Sep 28, 2015)

May Kasahara said:


>


Caught by the ghoulies


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## Sweet FA (Sep 28, 2015)

Is Fright Night too good?


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## Sweet FA (Sep 28, 2015)




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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)

This just sums up the joy of the 80s video shop to me  

Your opening post brought me such nostalgia mwgdrwg - our local video shop was a total palace of wonders, I used to wander up and down gazing at spines and reading blurb and trying to spend my two quid or whatever in absolutely the best, most entertaining way...and that's before you even got to the trailers on whatever piece of crap you chose.


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 28, 2015)

May Kasahara said:


>



Lol? I remember that! Made me think of this...


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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)




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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)

Fucking hell, Creepozoids!






Sample review on IMDB: "The best movie I've ever seen about men running back and forth in corridors. As far as corridors and men running back and forth are concerned, it's a masterpiece. Thumbs up to David de Coteau for this running around extravaganza."


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## Sweet FA (Sep 28, 2015)




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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)

Not american....but still counts I think


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)




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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)




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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)

I've found my next timewaster on the internet: http://80shorrorcentral.webs.com/


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)




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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)

"Crabs"


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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)

Of course, one of the best things about browsing the 80s video shop for cheap thrills was that every now and again you'd stumble on a genuinely excellent film, like this:






 - which I rented assuming from the cover that it was another slash-by-numbers flick. It wasn't.


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 28, 2015)

May Kasahara said:


> Of course, one of the best things about browsing the 80s video shop for cheap thrills was that every now and again you'd stumble on a genuinely excellent film, like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


A seriously fucked up film


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## Sweet FA (Sep 28, 2015)

Fuck. It's not like I watched them once. Over and over again. I must have seen Class of 1984, Razorback, From Beyond, Society, various Living Deads and loads more half a dozen times each at least. And that's not including other films on repeat; Scum, Warriors, Exterminator etc.

Then again at the age of 12, bar wanking, I didn't have a lot on to be fair.


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 28, 2015)

May Kasahara said:


> Of course, one of the best things about browsing the 80s video shop for cheap thrills was that every now and again you'd stumble on a genuinely excellent film, like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Donald Cammell


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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)

Back to the real 80s, just googling Mary Woronov brings up an impressive slew of 'classics':











(I actually really love that one ^^  )


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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)




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## not-bono-ever (Sep 28, 2015)

Utter shit.filmed in a disused hospital in hammersmith. the main character went out to NY for a weekend with the camerman to film outside walking up and down shots that were spliced into the appalling narrative


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## May Kasahara (Sep 28, 2015)

But what a cast!


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 28, 2015)

not-bono-ever said:


> Utter shit.filmed in a disused hospital in hammersmith. the main character went out to NY for a weekend with the camerman to film outside walking up and down shots that were spliced into the appalling narrative


A film written and directed by the ex-boyfriend of famous Hollywood prostitute Heidi Fleiss, in which a psycho nut job slasher killer with a fondness for wearing his victims' fleshy pelts is relentlessly pursued by a vengeance-seeking prostitute called Heidi..?


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## not-bono-ever (Sep 28, 2015)

^^ and that as well


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## hot air baboon (Sep 29, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


> I'm sure that was a remake of a 50's film.



the original Blob was Steve McQueen's first lead role - billed as Steven McQueen







...did anyone ever see this...Blockbusters went bankrupt before I ever got round to renting it....good cast including Peter Wyngarde but I'm wondering if Winstone includes it in his filmography...


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## hot air baboon (Sep 29, 2015)

Sweet FA said:


> Is Fright Night too good?



...YES.!!   

...Fright Night 2 however is pretty much your copper bottomed waste of plastic tape...it was a popular theme though ....










..different film...






...as the U75 thread of record this needs to be posted ofcourse :


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

Donald Pleasence maintained a career guesting in trash flicks....


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

Yet another classic with Donald Pleasence...


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 29, 2015)

I'll see your Pleasance, and raise you a Bronson
















All three currently up on (UK) Netflix


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

I think that is supposed to be Linda Blair on the cover...


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## Belushi (Sep 29, 2015)

Jesus this thread takes me back


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## Belushi (Sep 29, 2015)

I saw all these, mainly because our video shop had different prices and these were all a pound rental


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## mwgdrwg (Sep 29, 2015)

Ninja films! 

This was my favourite film for a short period:


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## hot air baboon (Sep 29, 2015)

DaveCinzano said:


> I'll see your Pleasance, and raise you a Bronson




....I am thoroughly ashamed to say I actually saw that at a cinema...

...it was a Cannon cinema ofcourse as was the film ( courtesy of Mssrs Golan & Globus - the imprimatur of high-quality 80's cinema entertainment  ) ...they wouldn't have got anything released without actually owning the cinemas...

...the only thing I can remember was that Bronson's character was called Leo Kessler..which was a bit confusing as ofcourse that was the brand name used for all those Sven Hassel rip-off paperback series....although their second-rate character is in some ways quite appropriate.....( & a little bit reminiscent of The Fly 2 where they decided to name the son of the original Fly Martin Brundle....who was ofcourse a fairly well-known F1 racing driver of the time )


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## Belushi (Sep 29, 2015)

I liked a good buddy movie


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

Lone Wolf McQuade has a fantastic soundtrack by Francesco De Masi


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)




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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

This claims to be directed by Martin Dolman, but MArtin Dolman is really Sergio Martino who made the near classic Spaghetti Western Mannaja: A Man Called Blade, which was one of the last great Spaghetti Westerns...


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

Because Starcrash 1 was such a massive hit...

(also known as Escape from Galaxy 3)


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

This was 1992, but everything about it is mid 80s trash....

'He'll need bigger guns....'


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

Watched this in Netflix recently....fucking shite. From the makers of Miami Vice, Directed by Starskey (not Hutch), theme tune by Bob Dylan, has a young Larry Fishburne, a rotten turn from the always good Stephen Lang....and has Ajax from the Warriors as the kingpin bad guy...


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

Robert 'Exterminator' Ginty was a 80s trash action god....


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)




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## DaveCinzano (Sep 29, 2015)

Nice article about Cannon from 2013:

The rise and fall of Cannon Films

Fascinating documentary about Cannon by Mark Hartley (who did the excellent _Not Quite Hollywood _about Ozploitation flicks):

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A less well-received doc, but featuring interviews with Globus and Golan:

The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## DotCommunist (Sep 29, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


> Ninja films!
> 
> This was my favourite film for a short period:




this, despite looking cheese has some excellent swordplay and a fantastically shot ninja bloodbath in a clinically white train interior

and christopher lambert


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

total poop


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## DotCommunist (Sep 29, 2015)

wtf is it with bad 80s art on VHS covers? Is it just that these low rent shitefests were just too cheap to do a photo cover


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

I think the art just made them look more exciting than they ever could be....

I mean a Ninja flying above the city launching four star throwers whilst firing off some kind of flame thrower is way better than anything in the movie


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## hot air baboon (Sep 29, 2015)

....I realise the cynically derivative naming-alike is embedded in the culture of the exploitation flick they often sell themselves short by their regrettable lack of originality and faith in the rough-diamond qualities of their product....

...I mean lets think this through ...if you were putting together a hit-squad of no-holds-barred mercs to execute some dirty business in some far-off hell-hole for your backers would you go for a Shakespeare quoting thespian like Burton and his tag-along mates Harris & Moore or a crew of inglorious bastards like..

_.....COLLINS....BORGNINE....VAN CLEEF.....KINSKI...._

...I think we all know who'd come out worst in a toe-to-toe bun-fight in a back alley out of that lot...


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

Van Cleef as a Ninja....


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)




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## DaveCinzano (Sep 29, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Van Cleef as a Ninja....



Alternative title:

_Deadly White Van Men_


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)




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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

more Van Cleef rubbish


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

A knock out title from the Sybil Danning advenutre series


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## hot air baboon (Sep 29, 2015)

....this was a weird one I remember me and my chums went off to the local flea-pit to see on the back of the Kung Fu tv series..

...there was some buzz about it & I see the story was originated by Bruce Lee, James Coburn and Hollywood script-writer Stirling Silliphant....

.....an early experience of consumer disappointment....


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## Nanker Phelge (Sep 29, 2015)

hot air baboon said:


> ....this was a weird one I remember me and my chums went off to the local flea-pit to see on the back of the Kung Fu tv series..
> 
> ...there was some buzz about it & I see the story was originated by Bruce Lee, James Coburn, and Hollywood script-writer Stirling Silliphant....
> 
> .....an early experience of consumer disappointment....



Was supposed to be a Bruce Lee starring mystical martial arts epic....


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## hot air baboon (Sep 29, 2015)

Van Cleef is the image of one of those ubiquitous British character actors who turn up in supporting roles in The Bill and similar shows on a regular basis...I can see him & hear him but can't place his name...


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## May Kasahara (Sep 29, 2015)

The Silent Flute sounds like a Profanisaurus entry.

I am dying with laughter at some of these...ah video days, how I miss you.


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## Indeliblelink (Sep 29, 2015)

How about some Ozploitation.
This one's a cracker.


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## Sweet FA (Sep 29, 2015)

hot air baboon said:


> Van Cleef is the image of one of those ubiquitous British character actors who turn up in supporting roles in The Bill and similar shows on a regular basis...I can see him & hear him but can't place his name...


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## Sweet FA (Sep 29, 2015)

Indeliblelink said:


> How about some Ozploitation.
> This one's a cracker.


"The film was released in the UK under the opportunistic title _*Blood Camp Thatcher*_[9] referring to the cold camp commandant Charles Thatcher, rather than the then British Prime Minister".


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 29, 2015)

hot air baboon said:


> Van Cleef is the image of one of those ubiquitous British character actors who turn up in supporting roles in The Bill and similar shows on a regular basis...I can see him & hear him but can't place his name...


"On my muvver's life, Mr Regan/Burnside/Doyle, I 'aven't got a scooby what this geezer's name is, even though 'is voice is ringin' in me ears even as we speak..."


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

This was a cracker...


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

Stephen King, Emilio Estevez, AC/DC soundtrack, Killer Trucks....

What could go wrong?


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

I can't remember anything about this film....but I saw it...


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

...and this was actually quite good, despite the crap cover...


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## Orang Utan (Oct 1, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Stephen King, Emilio Estevez, AC/DC soundtrack, Killer Trucks....
> 
> What could go wrong?


the scene with the coke machine is ace


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

Orang Utan said:


> the scene with the coke machine is ace


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## mwgdrwg (Oct 1, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


>




Lol, brilliant!!!


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


> Lol, brilliant!!!



Stephen Kings one and only attempt at directing...


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## hot air baboon (Oct 1, 2015)

...I was thinking yes!_* that's*_ him on the left ...

...I can't even remember anything in particular he was in let alone the blokes name - ( Survivors possibly ) distinctive accent - slightly nasal...

.....but anyway I seem to have wandered like a badly directed film-extra inadvertently into shot from another thread ...

Supporting actors whose names you can never remember

( ETA - I don't think I ever saw Tosh Lines in anything else tbh...must try harder )


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## mwgdrwg (Oct 1, 2015)

This guy that's the baddie in "Invasion USA", he was a great 80s baddie!


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## mwgdrwg (Oct 1, 2015)

Btw, Lee Van Cleef is one of the most instantly recognisable Hollywood stars ever. I'm a bit confused as to your discussions here. Maybe it's because my Dad was a big western fan that I know him.


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

mwgdrwg said:


> Btw, Lee Van Cleef is one of the most instantly recognisable Hollywood stars ever. I'm a bit confused as to your discussions here. Maybe it's because my Dad was a big western fan that I know him.



He was in lots of euro-westerns, didn't make much in the way of big studio films after a few in the 50s. Did lots of low budget horrors/westerns/actioners....and a classic turn in Escape from New York


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## hot air baboon (Oct 1, 2015)

.....is there anything that provokes quite the same degree of poignant and introspective reflection on the transience of human existence and the ephemeral, ultimately hollow and disposable nature of our mass-culture as the remembrance of crappy sci-fi films past whose once futuristic chronology is even now receding head long ever further into the past.....?

...or is it just that crappy sci-fi films can't be set _*too*_ far into the future without blowing the special effects and location budget.....


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## starfish (Oct 1, 2015)

Sweet FA said:


> When I was about 11 or 12, I started baby-sitting for our next door neighbour. They used to pay me up front so I could get a video from the newsagents; dear god the shit I watched.


Mr. Norris.


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## mwgdrwg (Oct 1, 2015)

hot air baboon said:


> .....is there anything that provokes quite the same degree of poignant and introspective reflection on the transience of human existence and the ephemeral, ultimately hollow and disposable nature of our mass-culture as the remembrance of crappy sci-fi films past whose once futuristic chronology is even now receding head long ever further into the past.....?
> 
> ...or is it just that crappy sci-fi films can't be set _*too*_ far into the future without blowing the special effects and location budget.....


 That's deep, man!


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## DaveCinzano (Oct 1, 2015)




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## mwgdrwg (Oct 1, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


> He was in lots of euro-westerns, didn't make much in the way of big studio films after a few in the 50s. Did lots of low budget horrors/westerns/actioners....and a classic turn in Escape from New York



I've just had a flashback to my Dad saying "Lee Van Cleef...good actor, he'a in everything" whenever he was in a film, even if it was a bit part.


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

One of the many Idiana Jones rip offs....


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## Sweet FA (Oct 1, 2015)

starfish said:


> Mr. Norris.




Strangely British graffiti in the background. Or is bollocks also Canadian?


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## blairsh (Oct 1, 2015)

This thread reminds me of a shelf in my bedroom


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

David Keith, an actor always going nowhere....


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

The Hoff, Christopher Plummer.....John Barry score....shit film...


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

This was one of my faves, The Magnificent Seven in space....featuring Robert Vaughn who was in the Magnificent Seven...also George Peppard...Johnboy from the waltons, John Saxon...


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

Saw this in 3D at the cinema....


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 1, 2015)

Proper crap...but Melanie Griffith with red hair....so it gets by


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 1, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


> This was one of my faves, The Magnificent Seven in space....featuring Robert Vaughn who was in the Magnificent Seven...also George Peppard...Johnboy from the waltons, John Saxon...


Oh I loved this. Made flip book recreations of the battles in the corners of the thicker books my parents owned. Loved the music too. Watched it again recently, and it was a bit of a let down. Still, a great film.


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## fizzerbird (Oct 2, 2015)

blairsh said:


> This thread reminds me of a shelf in my bedroom
> View attachment 77518


 remind me never to do mushies in your bedroom...


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## hot air baboon (Oct 2, 2015)

reminds me of the phrase "straight to video"


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## May Kasahara (Oct 2, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Proper crap...but Melanie Griffith with red hair....so it gets by



Memories...crap memories.


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## Belushi (Oct 2, 2015)




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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 2, 2015)

Belushi said:


>



Never heard of that. Looks great. It's on youtube....1977...so pre-dates mad max in the post apocalypse road movie genre


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## Idris2002 (Oct 2, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Never heard of that. Looks great. It's on youtube....1977...so pre-dates mad max in the post apocalypse road movie genre


I tried watching it - it's based on a famous to sci-fi fans book of the same name (which is quite good, IIRC) - but found it unwatchable.

Poor old Dominique Sanda. From _Il Conformista _to this in less than a decade.


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## Nanker Phelge (Oct 2, 2015)

Idris2002 said:


> I tried watching it - it's based on a famous to sci-fi fans book of the same name (which is quite good, IIRC) - but found it unwatchable.
> 
> Poor old Dominique Sanda. From _Il Conformista _to this in less than a decade.



Not sure I would watch it with any serious intention of finding it much cop...more as a genre piece.


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## Idris2002 (Oct 2, 2015)

Nanker Phelge said:


> Not sure I would watch it with any serious intention of finding it much cop...more as a genre piece.


It was SLOW and BORING.


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## DaveCinzano (Oct 2, 2015)

It inspired Pat Mills to write the first Judge Dredd epic 'The Cursed Earth'


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