Mediocre movies that you remember, but nobody else does.

I forget. Am I in prison ?

Rich Kids. Went with the family to see it. First time I heard of Trini Alvarado (who grew up to become Andie MacDowell)

Gary Coleman's one and only movie.

and Lisa Eilbacher was in it.

R1 Stephen, I don't care what anyone says. You were phenomenal in Loving Couples. I loved the chemistry between you and Sally Kellerman.

I had to google 80’s movie ,boy goes bald to find the title lol

Tim Conway and Harvey Korman in "The Long Shot," which was directed by Paul Bartel and is his absolute worst film.

R6 Did that play with Chu Chu and the Philly Flash?

Robby Benson was in a lot of these.

"A Sinful Life," with Anita Morris and Dennis Christopher. Comedy that never came out on DVD to my knowledge.

Maxie.

There are a couple.

Sweet Liberty starring Alan Alda and Michelle Pfeiffer (actually Michelle is a supporting player)

The Mozart Brothers

Both 80's movies, the 80's had some great and some weird little movies.

starring Shelley Hack

I’m watched this multiple times on early cable TV in the 80s and was mesmerized by it. It’s a nice companion piece to Sunset Blvd. also directed by Billy Wilder. And Michael York plays himself, which is very meta.

Brooke Shields + George Burns:

Femme Fatale by Brian D. I fucking loved it. I found it entrancing.

With a pimp named RamRod no less !

Saw this on tv as a kid.

This movie would have been amazing without that ugly cunthole Ellen. Poor, beautiful Bill having to kiss that cold fish.

The Mad Room. Scared the hell out of me when I was a child.

Elliott Gould/Kate Jackson/Rich Little

and still managed to be worse than it looks--

The Cell with J.Lo and both Vinnies (Vaughn and D'Onofrio).

The movie itself was a completely forgettable piece of trash (I can't even remember how it ends or much of what happened with the characters), but it had some amazing visuals and costumes by the legendary Eiko Ishioka, who has now passed.

I wish I had gotten to see it in the theater, for the visuals alone.

That drug movie with Mickey Rourke. Forgot title

A Change of Seasons where Anthony Hopkins leaves Shirley MacLaine so he can fuck younger Bo Derek.

Sticky Fingers with Melanie Mayron and Helen Slater.

I actually paid to see Honky Tonk Freeway in the theater.

My father loved Burt Reynolds, and dragged me to this when I was 13. I can;t remember anything about it, although it had the unlikely star casting of Reynolds, Lesley Anne Down, and David Niven.

There is a hilariously bad scene in the horrible movie "Just Between Friends" where Mary Tyler Moore has a mental breakdown.

You can see part of it in this trailer at the 2:06 mark.

and be sure to check Mary out at 0:22

so bad.

R20 Wow! I've never even heard of that one. I thought I'd seen every Kate Jackson movie.

R27=Conrad Jarrett

Mary Tyler Moore should have won an Oscar for trying.

So many rancid memories.

One more from Bo: "Ghosts Can't Do It"

Another really, really bad Mary Tyler Moore movie. This time with Dudley Moore.

[italic]Lassiter[/italic] - starring Tom Selleck and Jane Seymour with Bob Hoskins. In the 40s, this could have been a perfectly good B movie. It was okay. Bob Hoskins was memorable, the acting fireplug.

I can't tell if this is supposed to be updated Wheeler and Woolsey or a cut-rate Marx Brothers "homage."

bah, the copy and paste didn't take at r34

Between Friends (AKA Nobody Makes Me Cry) was made for HBO in 1983 and starred Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Burnett. It was definitely mediocre.

Actually, to boast that I remember it might be going too far. About the only memory that remains is a scene where Taylor's character, spending the night at a man's house, goes into his bathroom. Glancing at the jars and bottles on the counter, she mutters, "God, he's got more skin creams than I do."

Other than that, it's a blur.

Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring with Sally Field.

Cookie starring Emily Lloyd, Dianne Wiest and Peter Falk.

The theme song was sort of memro0able, but nothing else about the film was.

Weirdly, this did okay at the box office.

Immediate Family- James Woods and Glenn Close play a childless couple who are approached by a white trash pregnant teenager played by Mary Stuart Masterson. The movie used to air on cable quite a bit in the 80s and 90s.

Yikes.

I've actually seen these 3 mentioned above:

Sweet Liberty

Rough Cut

Femme Fatale (I have the DVD)

Also yikes, I knew someone would post Sweet Liberty and I didn't even see the film, but I remember the promo poster.

"Bird on a Wire" -- Goldie Hawn, Mel Gibson, and downtown Vancouver!

Sibling Rivalry - great cast, forgettable film (although I’d like to see it again to be sure)

Instinct with Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr. - When I saw this in the theater I was the only person there.

The Legend of Bagger Vance - see above

The High Road to China - with Tom Selleck

[italic]Happy New Year[/italic] - I'm cheating, because this is a sweet little movie. The studio had a change of regime. The local movie review stated that due to the change in studio heads, this movie would play one week and disappear, so see it now if you're interested. I did. It stars Peter Falk, and Charles Durning as jewel thieves with Wendy Hughes as Falk's love interest. Directed by Jon Avildsen. And it disappeared after one week in the theater.

You could devote this entire thread to the films of Shelley Long.

Lots of Tom Hanks films before he hit it "Big".

Bachelor Party, The Man With One Red Shoe, Every Time We Say Goodbye, Nothing in Common (with Jackie Gleason as his father), Punchline (with our dear Sally - he's really good in this as a standup comic).

Wow--I have seen WAY too many of these.

Now and Then (1996) the movie about four friends reuniting and thinking back to their childhood in the '70s

The Other Side of Midnight

Salsa The Motion Picture!

Lambada: The Forbidden Dance

Hot Stuff (1979)

Starring Dom DeLuise, Jerry Reed and Suzanne Pleshette.

Directed by Dom DeLuise.

I love Cannon Films. They are probably even less than mediocre.

Surrender with Sally Field and Michael Caine.

I remember that, r55. After a brutal divorce hearing, Michael Caine is standing in an elevator lobby. Two elevators open at once. One contains a beautiful woman, the other a snarling Doberman (or other dangerous dog). Caine gets into the elevator with the dog. It was an odd movie with some funny moments.

I saw it in cinemas back in the '80s r56 but I can barely remember anything except Sally jumping on a bed lol (mind you, I was 11 or so when it came out).

This one is so bizarre I'd swear I made it up in a fever dream if imdb didn't confirm it actually exists: "Hey Babe!" from 1980. Buddy Hackett and Yasmine Bleeth (!) sing and dance their way through a bizarro mashup of Annie, Victor/Victoria and Taxi Driver. I couldn't find an actual trailer but this clip and photo montage proves I'm not making it up. And I can only assume the director is on some FBI watchlist for perving on underage girls.

Playing By Heart, with a cast full of people variously loved or pulled apart by the DL. Bizarre little movie. Even the title is awkward.

That's the one where one of the subplots has Ryan Philippe refusing to have sex with Angelina because he is HIV positive.

This piece of shit movie. I had completely forgotten that I had seen it, until It was on tv a few years ago and I had a ptsd flashback to seeing it in the theater as kid.

I loved this movie as a kid but seeing it as an adult I realized it is not great. It certainly has it moments though and how can you not love Cyndi Lauper ? There is also a Young Steve Buscemi as her ex boyfriend, Peter Falk, Julian Sands, Jeff Goldblum, John Kapelos, and Elizabeth Peña!

Miracles with Tom Conti and Teri Garr as a bickering former husband and wife.

American Dreamer with Jobeth Williams

Dude, Where's My Car?

Speaking of Stephen....

I saw DC Cab on a double bill with A Night in Heaven featuring Chris Atkins.

Mermaids.

I remember it because I watched it last week.

It's a typical Hollywood POS, in that -- much like their nepotism -- you can see the easy calculation: Ryder had just done Heathers, which was brilliant, and much of it was anchored with voice over. So they started casting her in teen roles where she would deliver voice overs. The mistake is obvious: the movie is so direct that much of the voice over is redundant, yet there it is.

The hot guy from Sixteen Candles is in it. He plays a hot guy here, too, with the personality and presence of a 30s movie monster. Stiff as a board. You can see why he didn't get more work; he was a terrible actor and, evidently, wasn't related to anyone. Small miracle.

Also, Christina Ricci was very strange looking as a child. Not much has changed.

Cher is a massive bitch in Mermaids. Perfect casting.

Michael Crichton's Looker - costarring Susan Dey

Melanie Meyron was always a big box office draw.

This was a cable favorite back in the 80s.

This was made only a few years ago, but it was forgotten before it was even released . . .

[quote]The Cell with J.Lo and both Vinnies (Vaughn and D'Onofrio). The movie itself was a completely forgettable piece of trash (I can't even remember how it ends or much of what happened with the characters), but it had some amazing visuals and costumes by the legendary Eiko Ishioka, who has now passed. I wish I had gotten to see it in the theater, for the visuals alone.

The Cell is one part Fellini and two parts Hollywood Procedural. The latter helps to kill the former.

Great thread!

My contribution: CROSS MY HEART, a romantic comedy from 1987, with Annette O'Toole and Martin Short. Nearly the entire film takes place on one night in an over-decorated 80's apartment with them discussing whether or not they should have sex.

I saw this film in a nearly empty theater when it came out (I was trapped in a mall waiting for my car to get worked on). I remember thinking it was one of the dumbest things I'd ever seen. Decades later, I'm a little obsessed with it. I eventually tracked down a digital copy and have probably watched it ten times in the last few years. I think I'm obsessed with the hyper-80's styling, and the coziness of the apartment set.

R73 I LOVE that movie. Too campy to be forgettable, but definitely one of Brian DePalma's more underrated films.

R39 I clearly remember my parents taking me to see that, but remember nothing about the film itself.

To this day, I still can't believe a friend and I went to see this on opening night.

Seven Minutes in Heaven (1985): Jennifer Connolly before attending Yale, Maggie Corman and an early Lauren Holly. I had such a crush on Byron Thames.

No Small Affair (1984): Jon Cryer and Demi Moore.

and NOOOOOOORM!

R68, but he was so BEAUTIFUL!

Funny you should ask. Just watched this piece of horrifically sexist trash on DVD last night...despite a very good performance from Bill....

By the end of the movie, R83, I was more into Bob Hoskins. Sixteen Candles Hunk looked like a demigod, but half his lines were grunts and he moved around like lurch. Maybe the director wanted this. But it scarred me.

Heartburn - Streep and Nicholson

And HEARTBLEEPS where Bernadette Peters and Andy Kaufman are Jetsons-like robots.

Dangerous Beauty

Miami Rhapsody with Antonio Banderas, Mia Farrow, Sarah Jessica Parker. Very good.

The Bride.

I was a teenage Sting fanboy.

This

Another epic piece of shit with Ms Shelly Long

R44 I swear, I just searched this movie the other day and it's nowhere. I wanna see it too. I watched MADHOUSE with her and John Larroquette and it made me think of it. R52 I love that movie! The Puerto Rican Dirty Dancing. I have on DVD. It's out of print.

One True Thing - Renee Zellweger takes care of her dying mom played Meryl. William Hurt played the father.

I laughed at the casting of the sisters in Playing by Heart. Gillian Anderson didn't look like she could be sisters with Madeline Stowe and Angelina Jolie.

Sorry r91 Top Secret is not mediocre. It’s hilarious!

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

Yes, DL queens

You are the only ones who remember Bachelor Party, DC Cab, She-devil, and Top Secret!

"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" is very good -- Sondra Locke and Alan Arkin are both very memorable in this.

"Haunted Honeymoon", 1986, Gilda Radner's last movie, where Dom DeLuise in drag does "Ballin' the Jack" in a duet with her. I believe he won the Razzie for Worst Supporting ACTRESS. I saw it again recently after finding it on line, and while there are some funny moments, it is indeed pretty bad. Carson from "Downton Abbey" is the alleged bad guy.

Back in the 80's, there was a cinema on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena where you could see second run films for $2.50. I got to see a lot of the films described above.

I think Sibling Rivalry is on home video, [R93], but here’s a link https://m.ok.ru/video/36913875522 Also, I still think Madhouse has some genuinely hilarious moments!

^^^Thank you! Yes. I love the gold digging sister, Claudia.

Many of the Hammer "horror" films from England. They used to terrify me as a youth, but now she seem so hokey.

Countess Dracula and Vampire Circus were among my favs

R103 I've seen several films about Countess Elisabeth Bathory, and "Countess Dracula" is by far the best. (I do not count 1936's "Dracula's Daughter" which is very good but only coincidentally resembles her.)

The Linguini Incident: Terrific cast, headed by Rosanna Arquette and David Bowie, stumbles through an oh-so-quirky caper. Cute, but not as clever as it wants to be.

R75, I like Cross My Heart too. I haven't seen it in awhile but I have seen it on cable several times.

R80, I love the song at the end of that movie.

I went to the premier of So Fine, the movie that tried to cash in on the designer jeans craze.

For Those Who Think Young.

Angel (1984) was about a Los Angeles high school girl who works as prostitute on Hollywood Blvd. at night. It's memorable for the performance of Dick Shawn as a transvestite hooker. He was either brilliantly funny or grotesquely awful (you decide). Susan Tyrell was also in this freak show.

It was successful enough to spawn a couple of really bad sequels, but not with Shawn of Tyrell.

I saw Top Secret in a theater when it first came out - I thought it was hilarious!

Another movie I saw and loved when it first came out was Heroes (1977) starring Henry Winkler, Sally Field, and Harrison Ford. It has not aged well but I still like the ending.

"Let It Be Me" from 1995 It was shown to death on cable years back and seems to have disappeared. A charming little move about a group of people in a ballroom dance class. Starred Campbell Scott, Jennifer Beals, Yancy Butler, Jamie Goodwin (James on "Sex and the City"-the boyfriend who was too small for Samantha), Patrick Stewart and Leslie Caron.

I have a weakness for Campbell Scott. Jamie Goodwin was very good as one of the dance instructors. His career stopped after 2001. I wonder what happened to him.

JoBeth Williams turned down Murphy Brown to do American Dreamer. I remember she was asked by Bryant Gumbel why, and she replied, she was the lead, it was filmed in Paris, and she got to costar with Tom Conti.

R106 Dear you, love me. ❤

The recent Trish Van Devere reminded me of this forgettable flick:

[quote] I have a weakness for Campbell Scott.

You should check out The Dying Gaul if you haven't already. There's a deleted scene as an extra on the DVD of him getting fucked by Peter Sarsgaard.

Another forgotten Trish Van Devere film, which also starred Carrie Fisher.

Jane Fonda

Elizabeth Taylor

Cicely Tyson

Ava Gardner

. . . in a George Cukor film no one saw

Rent-a-Cop. Hooker Liza Minnelli walks through a gay bar stalked by her killers and nobody even notices her. I think someone thinks she's a drag queen, but it is almost as if the real Liza never existed, only the obnoxious character she played.

Two Weeks Notice (should be Two Weeks' Notice, but for some reason they left off the apostrophe). I'm not sure it even meets the bar of mediocrity, though. I hardly remember anything about it. There was LOADS of hype around it, and the media teased a real-life Hugh Grant/Sandra Bullock romance. And then everyone forgot about it.

Great thread. There are some real beauties posted here. So far, R58 wins.

Westworld had an unmemorable sequel - Futureworld, with Peter Fonda & Blythe Danner

I remember as a young gayling (I must have been 10 or 11), there was a TV movie about a hairy-chested lifeguard.

I got excited to watch it because all the ads leading up to the day showed a hunky lifeguard. I have no idea what the movie was about but it was kind of a bore.

Liv just couldn't catch a break in her American films, could she?

Sour Grapes - Larry David's first post-Seinfeld comedy. Very mediocre (and panned by the public) but I always found it kind of funny.

The Abdication

Tales That Witness Madness - fun, campy horror film starring Joan Collins AND Kim Novak.

Mermaids is very well known. Video, TV airings, DVD...

I see Mermaids on cable all the time

The Big Bus.....

A disaster comedy with a nuclear powered bus directed by William Frawley who also directed most of The Monkees episodes.

Re:118

Also featuring Miss Dionne Warwick!

How could Williams turn down Murphy Brown for American Dreamer r112? American Dreamer came out in 1984; Murphy Brown started airing in 1988.

Disney's 1994 version of The Jungle Book. Saw it on cable and thought it was decent. WEHT Jason Scott Lee?

Trading Hearts (1988) starring Raul Julia, Beverly D'Angelo and Jenny Lewis. I saw it as a kid and remember it being a sweet movie. It's on YouTube but it's dubbed in Russian.

The Filthiest Show in Town

The Great Santini.

I remember seeing this ad in the newspaper but it only lasted a week in theaters. I eventually watched it on cable, A love story between a gay man and a lesbian.

Then there was that other gay movie "Partners" with Ryan O Neal playing a cop who goes undercover as a homosexual.

R105 Yes! The Linguini Incident... I discovered this film existed a few years ago. Watched in semi-disbelief. A weird failure with an amazing cast. Very interesting oddity.

The Boy Who Could Fly

(spoiler: He really could fly!)

I used to watch this hacky piece of fluff every time it came on when I was a kid.

"Where the Day Takes You" (1992), a drama about homeless youth in Los Angeles, starring, among others:

Will Smith

Dermot Mulroney

Lara Flynn Boyle

Sean Astin

Ricki Lake

Kyle McLachlan

and Alyssa Milano.

“I Was A Teenage Boy” aka “Willy/Milly” aka “Something Special”

Pamela Segall (not yet Adlon) makes a wish and wakes up with a dick. Patty Duke plays her mom. We saw this at a test screening in Columbus, OH one summer but I’m not sure it ever had a wide theatrical run. One of the weirder body switch movies of the 80s. I’d be interested to see how it plays now in a pro-trans environment.

Oops -- forgot to post the trailer link...

Nasty Habits

Chu Chu and the Philly Flash

I worked that set, Ugggggg stinko-rio.

I love all the Miss Mare movies with Margaret Rutherford.

Murder, She Said

Murder at the Gallop

Murder Ahoy

Murder Most Foul

Fun Fact: In the 1950s, Rutherford and her husband Stringer Davis unofficially adopted the writer Gordon Langley Hall, then in his 20s. Hall later had gender reassignment surgery and became Dawn Langley Simmons, under which name she wrote a biography of Rutherford in 1983.

R3 is wrong. "On the Right Track" isn't the only Gary Coleman movie. See link.

Some other star-laden but virtually forgotten films:

Garbo Talks (Ron Silver, Anne Bancroft, Harvey Fierstein)

Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will? (Beau Bridges, Tess Harper, Beverly D'Angelo, Judge Reinhold)

Six Pack (Kenny Rogers, Erin Gray, Diane Lane (sans frozen peas), Anthony Michael Hall)

Miss Marple

R130 Sorry, Fred Mertz did not direct the Big Bus or The Monkees. You mean James Frawley.

The Hindenburg.....

Nuns On The Run (1990)

R137 I saw "Partners" just recently. It features both John Hurt and Jay Robinson as gay characters, two former "Caligula's" for the price of one. Indeed, it is dreadful. Not offensive, just really boring,

R151 I still do the sign of the cross the way these nuns did...."Spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch...." Oscar nominee Janet Suzman ("Nicholas and Alexandra") as Mother Superior.

Mermaids actually originally ended with Ricci drowning, but it tested so poorly they changed the ending.

I saw it in the theater with my sister who was gasping and trembling and I kept saying, "They aren't going to kill the kid in a Cher movie."

I loved that movie r141 Can I touch your face?

Bermuda Depths: Connie Sellecca is a ghost girl who is the protector of and is protected by an enormous sea turtle in the Bermuda Triangle. Not gonna lie, I was mesmerized at 11 yrs old.

In middle school our choir was on a trip for some event and had to kill time for some reason and ended up at the movies. The only PG movie playing at the time we were there was “Heart Like A Wheel” so that’s what we had to see. I imagine the tickets for the 30 or so students and teachers on the trip made up a huge chunk of the movie’s shitty box office.

R2 No, Trini Alvarado grew up to be herself, as did Andie McDowell.

Streets of Fire with Diane Lane. Willem Defoe was hot AF is this.

Criss Cross. Remember renting this and being surprised to see Goldie Hawn play a stripper at her age. I think she wears nipple pasties or something. Also surprised that an American movie from that era would feature underage male nudity. The movie itself was pretty decent if I remember.

R152 now that you mention it, "Caligula". There were boners at a distance and sort of on the sidelines here and there, but it made no sense and wasn't even remotely sexy. Completely forgettable!

R8 I've watched most of Benson's movies and enjoyed almost all of them.

I thought this was a fun movie where Stallone got to display his comedic chops. It probably hasn't aged that well.

Hardly at a distance, r160.....

THE CAR

What Planet Are You From? (2000) Garry Shandling stars as an alien from another planet sent to Earth to impregnate a woman. Shandling was coming off his hit HBO series, Larry Sanders Show, but this movie set back his career for good.

Videodrome - This used to show up on cable in the 80s. My housemate loved it and made me watch it with her. It stars James Woods and Debbie Harry. A bit trippy, it has a scene in which Woods inserts a VHS tape into a hole in his abdomen. "The TV is the retina of the mind's eye."

For your consideration, i submit Tiptoes, a drama for the ages. It has everything - romance, shame, Gary Oldman as Matthew McConaughey’s midget brother, Kate Beckinsale as their mutual love interest... need I go on?

Straight to video. Unintentional hilarious. 20/10 best move to watch stoned with friends. Enjoy.

Videodrome was pretty big iirc, - Liquid Sky, was not

Speaking of Trish Van Devere, this shit has played like 5 times on TCM in the past year. It remains fully mediocre even w Trish's immaculate elocution and Melvyn Douglas.

[quote] Gary Coleman's one and only movie. and Lisa Eilbacher was in it.

Coleman made at least 2 feature films.

[quote] Rich Kids. Went with the family to see it. First time I heard of Trini Alvarado (who grew up to become Andie MacDowell)

They don't really look that much alike, outside of the hair.

Was this George c Scott/Trish Van Devere talking-dolphin movie big? WOOF.

-----> Brewster McCloud <----- A Robert Altman Classic, from 1970.

From IMDb, the synopsis:

An introverted loner living in the bowels of the Astrodome plots to develop - with the aid of a mysterious guardian angel - a pair of wings that will help him fly.

Connecting Rooms

A low-rent "Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone". The worst Bette Davis performance I've seen.

Tunnel Vision

I love all the 60s beach movies, especially Beach Blanket Bingo.

Encino Man, with Brendan Fraser and Pauly Shore

The War, with Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood

Quite a few people remember the Beach Party movies, r175....

R174 There were a lot of those Television parody films. Another was The Groove Tube

My favorite 60s Liz Taylor mediocrities

The Sandpiper

The VIPs

The Comedians

There was this Robert Altman movie that nobody saw

Robert Altman made plenty of movies no one saw. Another

Fedora, Femme Fatale and Videodrome are NOT mediocre movies, FYI.

Agreed, R182

Cannibal parents! Sandy Dennis! Need I say more?

The only actress more mediocre and forgotten than Trish Van Devere, Marilyn Hassett, who starred in The Other Side of the Mountain Part 1 & 2 and this...

The film that introduced me to Dermot Mulroney..

Strangers When We Meet

It’s available on YouTube

Not of This Earth

Go Naked in the World, starring Gina Lollobrigida as a call girl. Featuring the immortal line "I'm hooked by a hooker!"

Lifeguard (Sam Elliott - yum!)

Summer of ‘42

Dermot Mulroney was even hotter in 1991’s “Samantha” with Martha Plimpton.

I HATED "The Boy Who Could Fly". LOVE the song though "Walking On Air". It's on my iPod. Geneva was a horrible person. R141 I have that movie on DVD. haha. It's so try hard with those young actors of the day to be gritty and act which makes me laugh. But there is something entertaining and very nostalgic Los Angeles. It is worth a viewing. Sean Astin 💦 The things I would do to that boy then.🔥 R159 I just found that on VHS for like 25 cent the other day. They practically forced me to take it. Haha. I'm gonna watch it now because of your post.

Streets of Fire is anything but mediocre.

1979 - The Last Word, with an interesting cast (Richard Harris, Karen Black), script with some potential (crazy inventor tries to save his home) but a blah movie. 1981 - All Night Long, with Barbra Streisand and Gene Hackman. The film she wants everyone to forget. It really isn't bad. Just mediocre.

Not mediocre, but I seem to be the only one who remembers it.

Maybe it's on the mediocre side. Sorry, didn't realize that trailer was en espanol.

Pacific Heights with Melanie Griffith and Michael Keaton

STREETS OF FIRE is the bomb. "Tonight is What It Means To Be Young" is a killer song. "I Can Dream About You" Dan Hartman lost to AIDS. Rest in Peace. Soundtrack is bangin.

Voices - Amy Irving is a deaf dancer and Michael Ontkean is the blue collar wanna be singer who loves her. Yup.

Brian De Palma's Home Movies - a film project that served as a hands-on training exercise for his students at Sarah Lawrence College.

The finished film was released - to the sound of crickets.

Who's Minding the Mint?

Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx

Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

this might be a bit off topic since it's a contemporary movie, but i'm just watching Greta, with Isabelle Huppert and Chloe Grace Moeretz (sp?). It's soooooo trashy! Basically it's Fatal Attraction but with a mom/daughter dynamic. I cant believe la Huppert said yes to this. Oh, and directed by Neal Jordan! Future cult movie. It came and went without anyone noticing it.

R202 - I remember Sailor solely because of Kris Kristofferson's ass

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM (1989) with Jason Robards, Piper Laurie, Harry Dean Stanton, Meredith Salenger and Corey Haim.

I’ve seen it like fifty times and know the script inside out. I don’t know, something about it just comforts and uplifts me. It’s silly frothy romance drama with metaphysical pretensions, but damn if it’s not going to be loveable about it all. It did very poorly in theaters and is rarely mentioned when discussing the careers of the cast since. It has a sequel that is depressing and unwatchable.

[quote]Did that play with Chu Chu and the Philly Flash?

I was a theater manager of a major multiplex and played this. Shows stated at 10am with the last show at 10pm all day, all week and show after show was empty. It was one of the lowest grossing movies I ever played and with multiple screens I have played utter crap.

R176 I fucking love Encino Man. It’s just affectionate insanity that perfectly captures that time period. “Weez the JU-uuuuuice...”

Not only is it quotable as hell, it gave us the party-metal banger of the decade in Vince Neil’s ‘You’re Invited (But Your Friend Can’t Come’). It shreds your face right off.

"Who Slew Auntie Roo" or as the credits say "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo" as it is known in Britain. Just watched it on TMC after decades and it is maybe the most mean spirited movie I have ever seen.

White Oleander (2002)

A poster that would make Leni Riefenstahl smile.

Poor Alison lohman. She did Matchstick Men and Drag Me to Hell and faded into obscurity

The VIPs is actually a lot of fun, with especially great work from Maggie Smith, hunky Rod Taylor and Oscar winner Margaret Rutherford. Liz Taylor, Richard Burton and Louis Jourdan add glamour as well.

Nasty Habits - is actually a very funny spoof of Watergate and surveillance tapes taking place among nuns, with Sandy Dennis a particular standout in a great cast headed by Glenda Jackson.

Summer of '42 is actually a classic, with a gorgeous musical score by Michel Legrand.

And her sister Anne, r210.

Huh?

Joe vs The Volcano from 1990

Starring

Tom Hanks

Meg Ryan (she played 3 different roles of each of 3 sisters)

Lloyd Bridges

Robert Stack

Abe Vigoda

Amanda Plummer

Ossie Davis

R209 I thought she quit Hollywood like Lelee Sobieski. They didn't so much fade as they did just drop off the face of the earth overnight.

or Lolita Davidovitch

Is Lelee still writing poetry?

Touched By Love (1980) with Deborah Raffin and Diane Lane. Raffin is a special education teacher and Lane is her student with cerebral palsy who is obsessed with Elvis Presley. This played constantly on HBO in the early 80s (and I watched it every time) but then fell into obscurity. I recently saw it on one of the mesothelioma channels and it’s awfully cringeworthy. Lane is actually pretty good but Raffin was deservedly nominated for a Razzie award for it.

Based on the play "Gemini". I really wanted to like it.

"I'm not hungry, I'll just pick."

I'm thinking of two horrible all-star comedies I saw during their first run:

"First Family" Bob Newhart, Madeline Kahn, Gilda Radner, Richard Benjamin, Harvey Korman, Bob Dishy, Austin Pendleton, Fred Willard and Rip Torn. Written and directed by Buck Henry, I remember it as being virtually laugh-free.

"Wholly Moses!" Dudley Moore, Larraine Newman, James Coco, Jack Gilford, Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, David L. Lander, Richard Pryor and John Ritter. It was equally laugh-free.

Mixed Nuts is another one with a great cast that is just very meh. Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, Rita Wilson, Juliette Lewis, Garry Shandling, Rob Reiner, Parker Posey, Jon Stewart. Co-written and directed by Nora Ephron. Amazing how so much talent can still struggle to make something good.

I think it has a few charms, r220.

R217 I remember watching that movie a bunch of times on cable.

Another movie that featured a disabled character that was constantly aired on cable for a long time was Voices which starred Amy Irving as a deaf teacher who really wants to a dancer and a truck driver/singer played by Michael Ontkean falls in love with her.

Mixed Nuts is sorta fun. Madeline Kahn trapped in the elevator is hysterical. It was odd to release such an anti-Christmas movie at Christmas though. I remember it has some big change of heart at the end and everyone's all filled with the Christmas spirt, but by the point people got to the end, they weren't feeling it. Maybe it should have stuck to the landing and just been a movie for people who hate Christmas and not added the syrupy ending.

R165, I'm convinced I saw that when it played in theaters. I definitely remember it being released and, yet, I can't remember if I saw it or not. I'm pretty sure I did. I think I mix that and the movie version of My Favorite Martian up. I think they came out at the same time.

The Seduction with Morgan Fairchild. These days, a movie like this would be made for Lifetime and have all the skin shots taken out. It looked like a really beautifully shot, well made TV movie. I guess that's why it was always playing late at night on TBS.

There was a movie that scared me to death at the time called Hell Night. It had Linda Blair as a sorority pledge and she and some other sorority/fraternity pledges had to spend the night in this apparently haunted house where a family was murdered. I saw it at a drive-in with my sister and we were terrified the entire time. I wonder if it's held up, because I thought it was one of the better and scarier horror movies of that time. I never see it on TV.

My favorite non-Christmas-y Christmas movie is Reckless, r223.

....

[quote] The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

I don't know if this was widely released, but it is anything but mediocre. A beautiful and creepy film.

eww

Shelly Long really did make some forgettable movies, including this one which also stars Steve Guttenberg.

I saw this 1975 movie at a drive-in, in the last days of drive-ins. I got so bored by it that I stopped looking at the screen and instead started watching pieces of trash and still-lit cigarette butts blowing between the parked cars. It was much more interesting.

Summer Lovers with a hot as hell Peter Gallagher.

Mass Appeal with Jack lemmon and Zeljko Ivanek.

R227 I sat through that god-awful trailer just to see if that was Giancarlo Esposito as the game-show host

R235 I just watched Mass Appeal last weekend. Zeljko was hot.

Terror Train

Meet the Deedles ('98)

The Stupids ('96) with Tom Arnold

Madeline ('98)

The Pest ('97) with John Leguizamo

Master of Disguise ('02) with Dana Carvey

Meet The Applegates. The jock son was hot.

BUG

The Maze - cheesy film from the 1950s with the funniest "twist" ending I've ever seen

For r202: Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York

Sheila was a favorite growing up, basically Julie Kavner's Brenda from "Rhoda" turned into movie. But the last time I saw it, I didn't think it held up. And it flopped and got bad reviews at the time. Great, memorable title thought, of course.

Some mid-80s Canadian movie, with a title something like "Housework" or "Housekeeping," although the latter was a Christine Lahti movie. This one was about a happy housewife, happy with her grueling, daily housecleaning schedule. But she loved it, only stopping in the afternoons to lay on the couch listening to records. But she recently found out her husband is having an affair, and gives him a stabby surprise when he comes home for dinner. The end.

SKI PARTY.

Yes, I remember seeing this at a drive-in. I was a child, but I saw it.

R245 Sounds like "Dancing in the Dark" to me.

I hate it when a great thread like this gets to the point when people start posting without reading the thread so they repeat something. And, no, it’s not like joining a conversation midstream because it’s all, you know, there and just waiting to be read. Quite bratty to not do so.

Five Days One Summer - 80s flop with Sean Connery. I kind of like it, though. It's beautifully photographed.

Doctors' Wives.....

The Housekeeper. I don't think it was made for TV, but it's about an illiterate woman who kills her father (I think she killed him, but I can't remember) and she goes to work for a family as a housekeeper and befriends the town busybody/religious fanatic (who used to be a big whore) and, somehow, her new friend convinces her to murder the entire family. Really weird movie.

R226 Like many slashers from that period, Hell Night has a sizable cult following. Shout Factory released a Collector's Edition not too long ago.

Hell Night is a creepy film. I like it. Great premise.

Remember this?

What was the 90s movie with Sean Connery and Lorraine Bracco in the rainforest? Forgettable movie I doubt many remember but it was the first time I’d ever seen Bracco in anything and I was blown away by her awfulness. The whole time I was watching I couldn’t understand how they had cast someone that bad. How she has any career in Hollywood is beyond me. I never watched The Sopranos much but Debra Wilson on MadTV did a brutal, spot-on impression of Bracco’s monotone delivery.

Medicine Man is what I was thinking of. Here’s the trailer. Couldn’t even scrape together a couple passable line readings for it!

The presumably never to be aired again on any television channel “Soul Man” which is just... I can’t even.

The last time I recall seeing Soul Man on TV was the late 90s.

School Ties

I love School Ties, especially the scene where they're nude in the shower!

[quote]What was the 90s movie with Sean Connery and Lorraine Bracco in the rainforest?

It's like you had the cure for cansher, and you just losht it!

“Get Crazy,” a cheap Animal House rip-off from 1983 featuring Malcolm McDowell’ as a Mick Jagger-type rock star..

Get Yourself a College Girl - featuring Nancy Sinatra, Mary Ann Mobley, and a young (gorgeous!) Chad Everett

Warlock. Went to see this twice...

This piece of shit, which was the precursor to another piece of shit "sucker punch" which was meant to make slutty chicks with fake looking blonde hair appear to be "tough".

[quote] Warlock. Went to see this twice...

Did Julian Sands appear nude in this film?

Dark Obsession, starring Gabriel Byrne

Unfortunately not, R266.

Town & Country with Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn. From the era when Hollywood was trying to make Jenna Elfman happen. Dark days. “Mediocre” might actually be a bit generous for this one.

Dungeons & Dragons, with the thief that makes a reference to a real world Christian god... (WTF?)

Thora Birch is in it.

IDK how anyone would be able to forget School Ties. It seems to be on tv at least once a week. I always liked the movie, Dead Poets Society and With Honors.

Dungeons & Dragons has QUITE the shitty cast. Justin Whalin as the lead, my goodness.

Justin Whalin! There’s a name I haven’t heard since the 90s.

"Ticket to Heaven," about a Moonie-like religious cult, with Nick Mancuso and DL fave Kim Cattrall as a virginal church member who's afraid of sex.

Ive never met anyone who has seen this gem...

Here's an Oscar Bait epic that completely vanished: Tom Berenger, Aidan Quinn, Daryl Hannah, John Lithgow, Tom Waits

David Naughton, a very young Michael J Fox and a lot of people you never heard of (including Eugene from Grease)

How much did Jeremy Irons get paid to appear in Dungeons and Dragons?

And am I the only person who remembers The Super Mario movie?

Yes, I saw Race with the Devil. Hard to forget Loretta Swit in a satanic cult thriller.

Bo Derek made some real stinkers. My personal fave is "Bolero" (1984).

In this one, Bo goes horseback riding completely naked. Yippee!

A friend and I were obsessed with Bolero when it came out and quoted it endlessly. Our favorite was the Latina woman attacking Bo screaming, "You beech! You beech! You Hamerican beech!"

[quote]And am I the only person who remembers The Super Mario movie?

We remember

[quote]And am I the only person who remembers The Super Mario movie?

Nope.

I also remember that it had little to nothing to do with the actual game

Like this piece of shit:

"Love Stinks", a direct-to-video romantic comedy with Bridgette Wilson, French Stewart, Bill Bellamy, and Tyra Banks.

[quote] The Great Santini.

Doesn't fit the criteria. It's a very good and well remembered film, with excellent Oscar-nominated performances by Robert Duvall and Michael O'Keefe, and a very fine performance by Blythe Danner that should have been nominated.

Bolero is a terrible film. Beyond mediocre.

But I love Andrea Occhipinti. He's cute (and gay).

[quote] Meet The Applegates. The jock son was hot.

There was also some memorable cheesy dialogue.

two jocks are blown off by the Applegates' daughter.

JOCK #!:"What do you make of her?"

JOCK #2: "Oh, I think she needs her temperature taken..."

(Jock #1 looks puzzled)

JOCK #2: "... with my ALL-BEEF thermometer!"

(They high-five.)

I remember when HBO was in it's inception many of these bad films played endlessly and remained on for months at a time. I thought to myself "I'm paying for this?"

The Big Bus never left it should have been called The Big Bus network.

Say, R279, "Race with the Devil" was scary.

Americathon.

Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou

Streamers. Another Robert Altman stinker when he was in his filming plays era.

Ice Castles. This was on cable constantly in the early 80's. And they even remade it!

Loved Midnight Madness- has Paul "Pee Wee" Reubens, Michael J Fox,. All night scavenger hunt movie.

Anyone remember The Boy Who Could Fly?

Here's one that I bet a lot of gay guys have never heard of but a lot of lesbians remember fondly...especially that scene at the end on the beach!

Just One of the Guys

I would think a movie that has been remade or that has multiple sequels wouldn't qualify as forgotten.

HealtH or H.E.A.L.T.H.

This film went in all directions, yet nowhere at the same time. Dick Cavett had a cameo, which for people who remember what happened when health guru J.I. Rodale was a guest on Cavett's show, is funny.

Heart Condition with Bob Hoskins and Denzel Washington.

This used to play on HBO a lot when I was a kid. I clutched my pearls when I saw Priscilla Barnes from Three's Company had a naked sex scene.

What movie are you talking about R297?

Killing 'em Softly. You knew George Segal's run as a leading man was over when the best he could get was Irene Cara. Made in Canada and released straight-to-video.

A movie that John Malkovich would probably like to forget.

R296 I’m a lesbian who loves JUST ONE OF THE GUYS, guilty as charged🙈 Hyser just looks so cool crossdressed!

I also love the spiritual sequel JUST ONE OF THE GIRLS of which fewer have ever seen or heard. Corey Haim crossdresses as a girl throughout, and tongues a guy while in the drag. It’s...really something else. Alanis Morrisette makes a cameo at the end.

This gay guy loves “Just One of the Guys”! It was another one that aired constantly on cable in the 80s and 90s and even 2000s. I always though Joyce Hyser was a terrible actress (with admittedly lovely breasts) but her bad line readings add to the charm of the film. I was in lust with her hilarious horndog brother. There’s a great reunion Q&A with the cast on YouTube.

Making mr Right is not bad at all. And the 80s pop aesthetics are beautiful. It's almost as good as Seidelman's prior movie, Seeking Susan

R278 No you most certainly are not the only one who remembers the Super Mario Bros movie.

R296 i watched that recently on Netlflix. And for an 80s movie, it's aged pretty well. I was expecting to it to be a lot more offensive.

R209 i love that movie.

R274, I went to a Catholic high school. They made our entire senior class spend a day at an offsite retreat where they made us watch Ticket to Heaven as a cautionary tale against cults.

At least I got to fantasize about Nick Mancuso.

Here On Earth (Leelee Sobieski and Josh Hartnett)

To Gillian On Her 37th (Peter Gallagher and Michelle Pfeiffer)

The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (Elijah Wood and Rachael Lee Cook)

Rough Magic (Bridget Fonda and Russell Crowe)

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, starring Andrew Dice Clay!

Anywhere But Here with Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon. Also Hart Bochner shows up for a bit about halfway through.

BED OF ROSES (1996) with Mary Stuart Masterson & Christian Slater.

You could never make and release this film today. The sympathetic love-interest (Slates) is a literal stalker who manipulates our pathetic naive ninny of a protag (MSM). The ‘romance’ is warmed-over and contrived, the soft-focus cinematography is horrid. To put it another way; Mary didn’t deserve this, Christian did.

R295, that has been remembered. Read back.

I love many of Robert Altman's films (most especially 3 Women), but a lot of his stuff belongs here.

In addition to what's been mentioned, I'd add Quintet, a post-apocalypse film starring Paul Newman. I don't think even Pauline Kael liked it.

If you liked me as Duckie, you'll love me as Morgan!

Which CUNT listed WARLOCK?? First of all it's great 2nd of all it's not at all obscure. It's worth watching for Richard E Grant alone, but Julian Sands is also great.

Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood.

I saw this with a group of friends. We laughed through the whole silly thing. Everyone had a good time. But what a piece of fluff.

Oh wow, Liquid Sky. I have tried to watch it three times and just get bored. Fascinating time capsule though.

Liquid Sky was pretty good in the theater. The story was original. It was about the kind of people you saw in real life but not in media at the time and the sci-fi/sexual revenge plot was surprising in that context.

[quote]White Oleander (2002)

I really liked this movie; it was different from the book but still very enjoyable. Allison Lohman was terrific in it. She was also in Tim Burton's Big Fish.

I'm the one who posted Liquid Sky above, it had a sort of comeback in the 90s rave scene(who knows why). I, also, tried to watch it several times but ended up...bored.

I think without the laughter of an audience, Liquid Sky seems slow. Not all comedies work in the living room.

The Sergeant with Rod Steiger as a repressed gay

I never met anyone who saw 'Gabby' with Isabella Rosselini. I think it went straight to home video. Abused child porn, really.

Cole Hauser was hot in White Oleander. But he was nothing like the character described in the book.

R311 Thought Corbin Allred was cute in this movie. There is a very awkward strip scene in it if I remember.

Speaking of The Boy Who Could Fly, I remember watching many times when it aired on cable. It has a cute Jay Underwood who invents an invisibility potion but in order for it to work, has to be completely naked. Of course, there are several times where the potion wears off during the most inopportune moments. The movie also has a very eccentric performance from Karen Black.

Most noted, r323, for the scene where Rod......

R303 I absolutely love Making Mr Right. I will hear no categorization of mediocrity for it. I won't!

The Loved One.

It doesn't always work, but it never stops trying. And often it succeeds in the most surprising ways.

Agreed, r328. Malkovich was actually......endearing!!!

Dammit, ^ r329

R324 is the film you are thinking of "Zelly and Me"? I was obsessed with Isabella at the time and it played for maybe a week at the theatre. I somehow even managed to get my hands on a poster of the film before I saw it. A sad depressing film that made me hate Glynis Johns (but loved her again in "The Ref"). Or is there another child abuse movie Isabella did?

Yes! Yes it was Zelly and Me. Horribly depressing!

LIPSTICK

Wanda Nevada, with Brooke Shields and Peter Fonda

not one of Sidney Lumet's high points . . .

Paradise, a ripoff of The Blue Lagoon with Phoebe Cates and Willie Aames (!)

She’s Out of Control (1989) - starring Tony Danza and Ami Dolenz (Mickey’s daughter) in a forgettable 80s “geeky” teen girl gets a makeover and becomes a babe story.

Speaking of Sidney Lumet movies, R337, Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve in "Deathtrap."

from the mid-1970s - Chosen Survivors

The Boogeyman from the early 80's. I remember thinking it was going to be some Halloween clone and, in some ways it was, but it's a weird supernatural movie about a haunted mirror. Super weird, but I recall it being entertaining.

He Knows You're Alone with Tom Hanks in his first movie role. It's a true Halloween rip off right down to the score, but the cast is kinda likable and there's some suspense every now and then. Not too bad, just not brilliant. I think I caught it on late night TV once. I keep thinking it was TBS or TNT or one of those channels.

R337 All I remember about that film was Ali MacGraw attacking some man with her purse. It seems like that was supposed to entice people into seeing the movie as the scene was also featured in the TV ads and on the poster.

R288 I sat through those HBO movies in the 80s too, and yes, most were utter crap. Remember Tempest with Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon and Molly Ringwald? It was pretty stupid but the scenery was breathtaking.

Anybody remember the 1983 movie The Hunger with Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon (and a young Beth Ehlers, who went on to play Harley on Guiding Light). I loved it at the time, but critics hated it and I have never seen it anywhere again.

I love The Hunger, I don’t think it’s mediocre at all.

Just a Gigolo

R254 I think this movie is remembered quite fondly though I remember it being quite cheesy in some places. It finally got a blu ray release but its UK only.

R349 Which came first? DARYL or Small Wonder?

Noises Off!

I love this film!!!

Yes, Tempest was the worst. And I paid to see it. Mazursky really lost it after An Unmarried Woman.

Vault of Horror

[quote] Speaking of Sidney Lumet movies, [R337], Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve in "Deathtrap."

I always loved Deathtrap when I was growing up. I hadn't seen or read any mysteries when I was that young so all the plot twists completely blew me away. I watched it again recently when TCM ran it and I still enjoyed it but the ending is pretty weak. It's filmed so dark it's hard to even tell what's going on. Christopher Reeve was fucking beautiful though and really nailed his gay sociopath character.

NAKED KISS

One of the things I liked about Just One of the Guys was the scene where Rick thinks Terri is a gay boy and he says that he's ok with it. I thought that was rare for an 80s comedy to be pro-gay.

Speaking of Rod Steiger....The Illustrated Man

Horror fans are the most loyal. They won't let anything be forgotten.

Not a mediocre movie but one nobody remembers. It's a tight little thriller from Canada that I saw years ago and it has stayed with me. Starring Elliot Gould and Christopher Plummer and directed Daryl Duke (who went on to direct "The Thorn Birds") . It's about a robbery with Elliott being chased by a very evil Plummer and has one scene that will have you jumping out of your seat.

And you can now watch the entire movie for free. It's worth it.

Ghost in the Machine was an early precursor to the Final Destination series you would would never think so considering its reputation. This scene was quite something but it pales in comparison to the microwave death which I couldn't find online. Minor spoilers of course.

Serendipity

Diggstown

The Moon-Spinners 1964. The exquisite Peter McEnery. The great actress Hayley Mills. Now that was art!

Excu-u-u-se me, r362!

Mr. Holland's Opus

The Manitou (1978).

Sure, that lump on your girlfriend's back isn't a zit. It's reincarnated, highly evil Indian! The birth scene, not bad. Maybe she'll never wear a sleeveless dress again though.

Just One of the Guys is not mediocre. I think it's a very funny '80s teen comedy, much better than it has any right to be. I thought Joyce Hyser was excellent. The only drawback of her performance is that she was too old to be believable as a teenager. She looked more like a college student.

And she really did have great tits.

R358, you're so right. Most horror fans I know are huge collectors and practically walking encyclopedias of knowledge about horror films. If you ask them "what was that made for TV movie about Satanists in Utah starring Patty Duke from the 70's?" they'll know it and proceed to tell you everything about it and why it's impossible to find on home video. They even know about the worst horror movies ever made. I'm talking movies so bad you can hear the director calling for action, can see the actors tripping over power cords, and featuring boom mikes dipping into the frame every 45 seconds.

It must be nice (and also maybe a little terrifying) to be a horror filmmaker and know that there will probably always be an audience for your film. These movies really never die.

Yeah, that's true about horror films. The nice thing, too, is that a lot of films from the '80s are being reassessed, re-evaluated and reissued on Blu-ray, streaming, etc.

I absolutely love Scream Factory and Arrow Video (UK) since they love reissuing horror films from the '70s, '80s and '90s.

Synapse did a fantastic job reissuing Suspiria. The Changeling and When a Stranger Calls both got beautiful deluxe reissues.

I wonder if a lot of the people involved in these small, low budget horror films are surprised that these movies are getting re-released. It seems like a lot of them never even made it to DVD and languished in out of print VHS hell for 20/30 years.

Speaking of horror movies.....how about God Told Me To?

R370 Is that mediocre? Shudder has a few Larry Cohen movies including The Stuff and Q The Winged Serpent. I watched both and thought they were brilliant. This one doesn't seem as well known but since it's on there, I'll give it a shot.

Has anyone mentioned UFOria, starring Cindy Williams and Harry Dean Stanton? A kooky offbeat comedy from 1985 about a drifter and a small-town cashier who fall in love amid tent revivals and alien prophecies.

One of the best scenes has a blithely clueless hippie cashier (who lives in a geodesic dome) cheerfully tell a fat lady that she and her kids are gonna die of heart attacks from all the junk food in their grocery cart. "Listen, mister," she replies, "You got a free country here. If I wanna be fat,I damned well will be fat!"

I don't have the links on here live so might have missed this one being listed if no one put a title or summary.

One that wouldn't be made today...

She's an honor roll student by day and a prostitute by night. She's Angel!

Maid to Order

R359 - Silent Partner!

I remember that. Very good.

R362 The Moonspinners is slated for the next "Treasures from the Disney Vault" on TCM June 25. 8 eastern/5 pacific.

How dare you call [italic]Moonspinners[/italic] mediocre? Blasphemy!

I loved [italic]UFOria[/italic], but I was a sucker for Fred Ward movies. When he's trying to pick up Cindy Williams, he says something like it's been so long since she had sex, her zipper's rusted shut.

R346 I've seen it on tv a few times.

R366 she did have a great set of tits but that scene was so unnecessary. She could've made the same point with a bra on.

The New Age with Judy Davis and Peter Weller. Yuppies in Los Angeles who want more out of life. Not on DVD.

Into the Night, very 80s with Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer. The only thing I remember was MP's character had smuggled a packet of jewels, and there was a quick shot of her retrieving the baggie from her vagina. You didn't see skin, but it was still a strange and unnecessary moment.

[Quote] and there was a quick shot of her retrieving the baggie from her vagina.

Reminds me of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake where a girl pulls out a gun from her hooha.

Another huge fan of Joyce Hyser's tits here! This epic was on The Home Box Office constantly too.

Billy Zabka was so hot in JOTG.

I love Noises Off!....on stage. I don't know why the movie feels so flat.

Start with the fact that Carol Burnett is not a suitable substitute for the great Dorothy Loudon.

The original production of "Noises Off" was the funniest thing I have ever seen in a theater.

I'm jealous you saw the original production! I've never even seen a professional production of the show, but a college production was one of the things that made me a theatre fan. Still one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Though I wonder if I saw that show now, would I still think it was amazing?

Such a shame the movie didn't capture the magic. Maybe you just have to see it all unfold in real time.

The mention of American Dreamer reminded me of Trenchcoat, a comedy/mystery with Margot Kidder and Robert Hays. All I rmember is Robert Hays gets locked out of his room wearing only a towel. And eventually loses the towel. There was no actual nudity but the mere idea of naked Robert Hays was inexplicably intriguing when I was a wee gayling. It was even implied that his character was well hung:

Hays: I can't believe the Inspector saw me naked. Do you think he was impressed? Kidder: I'm sure everyone in the lobby was impressed.

[quote] Maybe you just have to see it all unfold in real time.

Exactly. At each performance, the audience was in the hands of absolute masters. Every one of the cast members was an accomplished actor. Deborah Rush, careening head first down a flight of stairs. Unforgettable. I've never heard more laughter in a theater, and I've attended A LOT of theater.

Young Robert Hays naked. Sounds great to me.

I’ve never met anyone who has seen There’s a Girl in My Soup (1970) starring Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn (or maybe I’m just too old). I remember this scene: PS and GH go off for a dirty weekend on the French Riviera or somewhere. The bellman takes them to their room and says, in a heavy ‘French’ accent, ‘I weesh you a penis tonight.’ (He means ‘happiness.’)

King of the Mountain starring Harry Hamlin and Deborah Van Valkenburg (from Too Close for Comfort).

a forgotten John Belushi movie.

I was an extra in Angel, r373.

My favorite example of what OP opines is the movie NAKED IN NEW YORK (1993), directed by a protegé of EP Scorsese.

Mary-Louise Parker takes her first lead role. Kathleen Turner stars (this was when she was still just about hot shit). Tony Curtis & Timothy Dalton support. David Johansen, Quentin Crisp & Eric Bogosian cameo. Ralph Macchio gay-kisses Eric Stoltz in one scene. Book Of Love & The Ocean Blue have gorgeous dreampop songs on the OST.

Yet it all amounts to a sour, hard little green raspberry that was buried in the indie graveyard forevermore. Marty conspicuously never mentions this movie’s existence and neither do his admirers.

Anybody else keeps getting:

Reloading the page now to get latest version of DataLounge from the server

^^ There's a thread about it. But the problem seems to have been solved.

R370---I saw God Told Me To at the Collective for Living Cinema in the early 1980s. That film has really stuck with me.

Badly produced maybe----but not mediorcre!

Has a cult following, but definitely mediocre: Blue Sunshine.

Who Killed Teddy Bear

Deadly Hero.

Parts of it are great, but in the end it goes into a mediocre direction.

DL remembers it well, r397......

Beyond Therapy, Christopher Guest plays a bitchy queen lover as only Christopher can.

Another fan of "Just One of the Guys". Plus a fun fact that younger gays might not know: Hyser was Bruce Springsteen's girlfriend for a few years (pre-Julianne)

R374, Maid to Order is a great one. It's not a brilliant movie, but it's one of those you discover while flipping through the channels on a lazy Saturday and end up watching the whole thing due to its charm. It's been awhile since I've seen it, but I remember Beverly D'Angelo as a chain smoking fairy godmother and one of the housekeepers having a hidden singing talent leading to a random, impromptu musical number by the piano inside the house.

Poor Ally Sheedy, she just never really happened.

Speaking of Ally Sheedy, just watched Man's Best Friend recently. It got savaged by critics but I was surprised how entertaining it was. Don't see it if you're a cat lover.

I liked Deadly Hero, [398], definitely worth one viewing. Likewise 'The Young Sinner' with Tom 'Billy Jack' Laughlin.

cvvgdf

[quote]cvvgdf

Never heard of it. Was that an indie film?

Foolin’ Around (1980) is another one that aired a lot in the early HBO era. Pre-crazy Gary Busey romances Annette O’Toole to the chagrin of her snobby mom, Cloris Leachman.

Nobody Waved Goodbye (1964) and You're A Big Boy Now (1966) which both starred the same actor, Peter Kastner. The nuns at my high school made us watch the first one for some reason. The second one was like a more conventional version of Harold and Maude with none of the morbid appeal and a bizarrely miscast Elizabeth Hartman.

Mr Peter Kastner's legendary TV series......

I'm guessing "The Ugliest Girl in Town" won't be a candidate for a reboot anytime soon.

It's Alive . . . about a killer baby

Rubber . . . about a killer tire

^^^^^^

I feel so bad that so many Annette O'Toole movies have been mentioned here. I love her, but she really does need to pick better projects.

R415 she'll always have Smallville.

Jeanne Eagels HATED that movie, r413!

Two obscure movies from 1970 have interesting pedigrees:

"The Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots" directed by Sidney Lumet, screenplay by Gore Vidal from Tennessee Williams's unsuccessful 1968 Broadway play, "The Seven Descents of Myrtle". James Coburn (in drag at one point!), Lynn Redgrave and Robert Hooks recreate the roles played onstage by Brian Bedford, Estelle Parsons, and Robert Hooks. Music by Quincy Jones and Cinematography by James Wong Howe. A bizarre oddity.

"Move", a mashup of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and Kafka, from a "Graduate"-inspired novel of a few years earlier. Starring Elliott Gould, DL fave Paula Prentiss and the recently-deceased Genevieve Waite. Producer Pandro S. Berman was behind several Astaire-Rogers films at RKO and went on to produce many classics at MGM, Cinematographer William Daniels was Garbo's favorite. The mind reels at what was going through their minds when this was being made. It's never boring, but many of Gould's fantasies are excruciating and unfunny. Still, Gould's scenes Waite (an acquired taste as an actress to be sure, but effective here) are interesting. And the theme song by Marvin Hamlisch and Alan & Marilyn Bergman is sunshine pop fun.

Lina Wertmüller's A Night Full of Rain - (the full title was "The end of the world in our usual bed on a night full of rain") - was her first and I believe her last English language film.

My.....

Regarding Elizabeth Hartman's casting in "You're a Big Boy Now", R409, I've read two accounts of that: Karen Black stated in an interview that director Francis Coppola offered her the choice of the two young female roles in the film after seeing her in a Broadway play -- either the sweet date or the callous go-go girl. She thought it would be a better idea career-wise to play the more sympathetic character (a decision she later questioned). But I also read in an article about Elizabeth Hartman after her passing that Coppola gave HER the choice of either role and she chose the bitchy character as a follow-up to her timid roles in "A Patch of Blue" and "The Group".

I wonder which play, r421.....

"The Playroom, by Mary Drayton, lasted less than a month, but brought Karen Black to the attention of a young director-screenwriter, Francis Ford Coppola, who cast her in the 1966 release You’re a Big Boy Now."

Peter Kastner, her co-star in the Coppola movie, was also in the play. As was Bonnie Bedelia.

Audrey Rose

Can't read the entire thread. Has anyone mentioned my beloved Travels with My Aunt?

Liberty Heights

Down to You

Tomcats

Night Watch with Elizabeth Taylor is the best movie you've never seen. Seek it out if you can.

R425

Sorry, that was supposed to be Thank you r427 signed r425. The board is weird right now.

R428 omg I forgot about both of those movies. And I won a dvd of Tomcats from some magazine 😄

How about all those horrible Chuck Norris movies from the 80s?

Masquerade with Rob Lowe, Meg Tilly and Kim Cattrall.

With a predictable and yet horrifying death and a bizarre epilogue...

Grand Canyon (1991)

My Blood Runs Cold

DINAH EAST

from 1970

The Initiation starring Daphne Zuniga and Vera Miles. If I recall, it wasn't half bad. It's a slasher movie that takes place in a mall (at least for the last act). Good twist, too.

Don't agree with the Larry Cohen movies selected for this thread but this is one that deserves to be forgotten.

I'll Do Anything

I can't remember the title something to do with rock band being zombies and Hitler still being alive. Came out late 70s or early 80s.

R379 My roommate and I made a blog called "Hip-ocracy" after watching that movie. It's long gone now, but it was intended to be a celebrity gossip satire site before satire sites were even a glimmer in an Onion's eye.

Speaking of Daphne Zuniga, how about Gross Anatomy?

Hard Rock Zombies

Boys From Brazil, with Steve Gutenberg as a Nazi hunter!

Boys From Brazil was a popular movie when it came out. I thought it was very good.

R379 That actually sounds badly hilarious. It sounds like another movie that came out in the late 70s called Serial (starring Martin Mull). It was a take on all the California fads at the time - health foods, hot tubs...

Gypsy Girl (1966) starring Hayley Mills and Ian McShane. Apparently it wasn't considered questionable for mentally impaired female characters in the 60s to be considered romantically viable (see also: The Light In The Piazza, 1962).

Speaking of Steve Gutenberg, there's The Bedroom Window, costarring Isabelle Huppert & Elizabeth McGovern.

The Life of David Gale, a cinematic abortion starring Miss Kevin Spacey

R447 Steve Guttenberg was cute back then. Didn't know he started acting in the 70s.

Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World

The White Tower

[italic]The Devil and Max Devlin[/italic] was right about Cosby. I knew there was a reason I liked that movie when I was a kid.

Unbearable Lightness of Being

I love Milan Kundera, but he's such a wiseass. He wrote the damn thing in French instead of Czech. Not the most fun to translate on the fly. The movie was good but they really had to dumb it down and clean it up for the Americans.

Jungle 2 Jungle

Dudley Do-Right

Jungle 2 Jungle! Holy shit. I haven't thought about that movie in over 20 years. I saw that in theaters with my dad. What was the other one that came out around the same time with Richard Dryfuss. Something Tribe?

r459, Krippendorf's Tribe

The ending of that movie was dumb beyond belief: Lily Tomlin actually found a real tribe just like the made-up one, so they got off the hook?!?!!!?!

Jacknife, with Robert De Niro, Ed Harris and Kathy Baker.

The Aviator (1985 Christopher Reeve movie, not the Scorsese/DiCaprio Howard Hughes bio).

Another forgotten Chris Reeve movie is Monsignor.

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952).

Ohhhhhh, r464.....

"The Greatest Show on Earth" is hardly forgotten. It's a high-camp funfest. And every year, around Oscar time, it's widely cited as the worst movie ever to win the Best Picture Oscar.

^^^ Wait, I thought that was Crash?

Something Short of Paradise

The Buddy System (also starring Susan Sarandon)

I had completely forgotten about "Something Short of Paradise," and I was an extra in it.

Speaking of Ms. Sarandon....anyone mention “Compromising Positions” yet?

Woman investigates murder of her dentist husband.

Peter Seller's last movie, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu. Also stars Helen Mirren.

White Squall

My Chauffeur Valley Girl Real Genius

Deborah Foreman triple feature with both Nicolas Cage and Val Kilmer when they were both young and beautiful. Also Flash Gordon's Sam Jones in a totally gratuitous nude scene e in My Chaffeur.

DF has only 26 credits on IMDb. Wonder what happened to her.

Dick

Extreme Measures- Hugh Grant played an ER doctor who finds out that Gene Hackman's character is experimenting on homeless people in a quest to cure spinal cord injuries.

1980's Little Miss Marker starring Walter Matthau & Julie Andrews

Savage Harvest, a "When Animals Attack" movie starring Tom Skerritt and Michelle Phillips

Movie Movie with George C Scott - directed by Stanley Donen. First half is a boxing movie and second half is a musical. Final Analysis with Richard Gere and Kim Bassinger Electric Dreams with Lenny Von Dohlen, Virginia Madsen, Maxwell Caulfield

Without Movie/Movie, r479, we wouldn't have.....

[italic]Compromising Positions[/italic] was not mediocre. It introduced Raul Julia, Judith Ivey and Joe Mantegna to a wider audience. Pauline Kael wanted Susan Sarandon and Julia to get together and create a race of goggle-eyed children. And it had Jason Beghe in a small role (Officer Cupcake).

Don't forget the wonderful Deborah Rush, r481.....

Timecop

Almost Heroes

Wyatt Earp

Laurel Canyon

Deborah Foreman did a handful for fairly memorable movies and then got while the going was good. I want to say the last thing she did was '89 or '90. A true 80's star. Still, to have Valley Girl, Waxwork, and April Fool's Day on your resume isn't bad. I always found her very appealing. I've seen recent pictures of her, too, and she looks absolutely gorgeous. I think she's done a few conventions here and here, but not many.

^^^ Good thing she had the grill to fall back on!

Irreconcilable Differences. I'm so pissed. They had a special screening of it in Santa Monica, and a Q&A with Shelley Long.

Right down the street from me and I just found out! Anybody go????

What, r487?!?! Dammit I would have gone too!

Foolin' Around (1980) with Gary Busey and Annette O'Toole. Not great, but very watchable. So late 70s.

The whole thing's on youtube. I'm watching it now.

PS: Gary Busey still has his original, jacked up teeth (as opposed to his current jacked up teeth.

PPS: Just spied a young William H Macy, as a scammer selling outdated textbooks to Busey.

Nice to meet you, r489

Heh. I swear I did a CTRL-F before posting, R491. Not sure how it (and/or I) failed.

You have to have a certain kind of body to pull off those tight late-70s jeans. Gary Busey does not have that kind of body.

R475 that's a fun movie. And you also get to see a young Ryan Reynolds.

Aw no worries, r489/92. This thread is so long it's not surprising the search functions don't catch everything. Actually I'm glad to know someone besides me remembers it. I'm gay as a goose but I had a crush on Annette O'Toole in this. Gary Busey might be the cure for my homosexuality 😝

Not Without My Daughter !!

Not really forgotten but I thought I would add it anyway. Seems like another Sally Field bmovie came out around the same time. Can't remember title.

With the mention of Sally Field, I thought of Heroes, which was supposed to launch Henry Winkler as a movie actor after having been in Happy Days.

It was released around the same time as Saturday Night Fever.

Travolta went into the stratosphere while Winker crashed & burned.

I came across The Last Married Couple in America from 1980, starring Natalie Wood (just before her death!) and George Segal, on a cable channel years and years ago. I've never met another person who's seen it.

Also, another forgotten Natalie Wood film: All The Fine Young Cannibals.

Speaking of mediocre, forgotten Natalie Wood movies, there's The Burning Hills, one she did with Tab Hunter

R497, Heroes was mentioned awhile back.

I saw Irreconcilable Differences when it first came out...thought it was pretty bad.

R497 Winkler was also in The Lords of Flatbush (pre-Happy Days) and The One and Only, which also featured TV icons Polly Holliday and Herve Villechaize.

The Marsha Mason film with Kathleen Beller, Promises in the Dark

The Marsha Mason film with Kristy McNichol, Only When I Laugh.

Annette O' Toole makes the list yet again. That poor woman.

One on One - Robby Benson and Annette O'Toole

Annette O'Toole has more than a few DL fans. Many of us feel we might not have turned out gay had we met Annette in high school. (or we could have at least made one exception!)..

Goldie Hawn IS The Girl from Petrvoka.

^ Petrovka.

The Russia House

I cant believe no ones mentioned this one!

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

80s comedy Joy Of Sex

The Tamarind Seed with Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif. I saw it with my parents when I was a kid. I vaguely remember enjoying it, but I've never seen it since.

Casual Sex? - with Lea Thompson and cunt Victoria Jackson

"Cool Blue", featuring Woody Harrelson in his first starring role, and a cameo by Sean Penn. Filmed in 1988 and released straight to...late-night local TV? At least that's where I first heard of it.

The Killing Kind with Ann Sothern playing the weird mother of an even weirder John Savage who did a little time for raping a girl due to peer pressure. He gets out and starts fixating on Cindy Williams. It's an odd movie. I don't remember liking it (seemed like, for a thriller, there weren't many thrills), but I sure remember it.

"Harsh Times", another "dirty L.A. cop" story from the writer of "Training Day". This time, the dirty cop is Christian Bale and the questioning partner is Freddie Rodriguez.

Not really mediocre, just not well-known.

Here’s a good’un I bet no one else here knows.

When I was a nipper my favorite film was PAWS, a wacky caper dramedy about a nerdy computer-geek who designs tech to help his pet dog talk (in the voice of Billy Connelly, don’t ask) and in the process gets caught up in a criminal plot to steal the fortune of a recently-deceased man.

In the film our protag has a doomed crush on a girl in his class who acts in school plays and aspires to Broadway. The show she’s playing in at the time of the film is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and guess which sweet 16 appears the Oberon to her Titania as his very second film acting credit?

What about The Attic with Carrie Snodgress? She's a spinster librarian who lives with her crippled father (who was Ray Milland I think) and she's slowly going crazy. The ending has haunted me forever, but I can't remember much else about it. It had a kinda V.C. Andrews feeling to it.

I love that movie, r519. It’s actually a spinoff of characters from The Killing Kind mentioned at r516. Carrie Snodgress is heartbreaking and Milland is hatefully slimy. Too bad he’s not still around to play Mitch McConnell.

"Lost & Found" (1999) with David Spade and Sophie Marceau, of all people. I had to check that this really exists because I had a feeling that Ebert reviewed something with Spade and Marceau but my brain was telling me that such a pairing would be highly unlikely.

"Feds" with Rebecca de Mornay and Mary Gross (1988)

Earth Girls Are Easy

Does anyone really remember "The Mosquito Coast" with Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix? It was one of those hotly anticipated movies of 1986 that bombed both critically and commercially, only to be erased from the collective memory and never be spoken of again.

The Terror of Tiny Town....

UHF, the Weird Al movie

Harrison Ford at his absolute hottest, r524. Lucky River Phoenix, being around that hot, shirtless man.

"Nadine" with Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger,Rip Torn, Jerry Stiller

Cool As Ice

Nightkill (1980)

This suspense thriller stars DL icon Jaclyn Smith. The cast also includes Robert Mitchum, James Franciscus, and Sybil Danning.

The Village (2004)

The Little Mermaid. I saw it like 20 years ago and it was terrible. Nobody talks about it anymore.

r527 oh River definitely feasted on Harry's thick daddy dick!

If I recall correctly, The Mosquito Coast was supposed to be Harrison Ford's continuing bid to be a leading dramatic actor. He was very successful with Witness (Oscar nom) the year before, but The Mosquito Coast was the complete opposite of the excellent Witness - it wasn't a bad film but too obtuse for audiences.

Mosquito Coast has a 6.6 rating with over 24,000 votes on imdb. Hardly obscure and not a terrible rating either.

R400, you buried the lede: "Beyond Therapy" not only tarred Christopher Guest but also: Jeff Goldblum, Tom Conti and Glenda Jackson. And it was directed by Robert Altman!

Starred not tarred (though that works too, I'm sure)

I can’t find Arnold !

Howard the Duck ?

Matter of Time. I tried to watch it once. Very painful.

I need to revisit Howard The Duck. Just to see if it's as bad as everybody says it is.

Made In Heaven. It's this depressing as hell 80s movie about reincarnation but I loved it. None of the hets I know remember St. Elmo's Fire.

with Debra Winger in drag.

Trespass - I think actually saw this in the theater. Bill Paxton, Ice-T and Ice Cube. Two firemen get a treasure map that leads to buried treasure in an abandoned building. A gang gets in the way of their finding the treasure. I don't even remember how it ends. I wouldn't even call it mediocre, really, I've just never seen or heard it mentioned.

Ice Castle

Trepass. Is that the one with Cuba Gooding jr gets anal cavity checked ?

A lot of the Sharon Stone flops - The Quick and the Dead, Sliver, Intersection, The Specialist, the Diabolique remake.....

The TV remake with Joan Hacket and Tuesday Weld is incredible...

My time is come!

An out-and-out gay hustler flick produced by GvS with Jesse Bradford, Jordan Brower and qwerty starring before they all retired and Daryl Hannah luminous in a supporting role. What more could you possibly ask for?

I have very fond memories of.....

R549, I remember that version! It haunted me for years until I found it about a decade ago.

Brokedown Palace, starring Claire Danes

Speaking of mediocre Claire Danes movies, there was also that shitty remake of The Mod Squad

Shallow Hal

r551 Reminds me of the shitty remake of the avengers that came out the year before...

R551 That's a thread unto itself. Best and worst film version of a TV show.

Best: The Fugitive, The Brady Bunch movies.

Worst: Pretty much everything else. The Honeymooners, Miami Vice, Dukes of Hazzard, CHiPs, Sergeant Bilko...most of them forgotten.

Deep Impact. I only remember it mostly for one scene. Tea Leoni gives up her seat on a resue copter to Laura Innes who says nothing just looks at her stunned.

Return to Paradise, with Anne Heche, Joaquin Phienix, and Vince Vaughn

[quote]Return to Paradise, with Anne Heche, Joaquin Phienix, and Vince Vaughn

What year was this? Supposedly Vaughn fucked Heche on the set of Van Sant's Psycho. Whispers were that Ellen nearly broke it off with her. Ironically, it took Heche's affair with Sheryl Crowe to finish the job.

[quote]Mosquito Coast has a 6.6 rating with over 24,000 votes on imdb. Hardly obscure and not a terrible rating either.

One of Ford's best films. Never see it on any streaming service. Criminally unpopular.

Peter Weir is low-key a borderline great auteur. Or was in the 80s and 90s.

[quote]What year was this? Supposedly Vaughn fucked Heche on the set of Van Sant's Psycho. Whispers were that Ellen nearly broke it off with her. Ironically, it took Heche's affair with Sheryl Crowe to finish the job.

It was 1998. I remember the movie being heavily promoted before it's theatrical release. It didn't do well and it played on cable for a couple of years afterwards. A few years back, it started to being aired on cable again. It was the same with Brokedown Palace, it wasn't aired on TV for years and then it popped up again for a bit.

Interesting, R559. Same year as Psycho. I love these celeb affairs that take place on-set, then flame out after. Evidently, those two could at least double their time together. But then, some of Nic Cage's marriages make their (alleged) affair look like a 30-year relationship.

Someone mentioned Ford Fairlane. I don't know what to make of it, but I kind of love it.

Daniel Waters is one of the great modern screenwriters. Wrote the Apocalypse Now of teen movies -- Heathers -- and the Citizen Kane of comic book movies -- Batman Returns. The latter is probably also the best, and most personal, film that Burton has made (that, or Ed Wood). And the two of them got away with this angry, malignant "nightmare movie" (as Leonard Maltin called it), with Warner Bros' biggest property.

It's no wonder, having actual talent, that Waters has gotten much less work than certain studio hacks that pump out whatever an executive or director tells them. Burton has just slowly faded into a name-director that is a studio hack director (Alice In Wonderland, as one example of his more recent output).

[quote]The Village (2004)

I wonder if M. Night remembers it? It was the beginning of his fall from the heights of "the new Hitchcock!" to the eventual level of Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV Director.

Can anyone defend the plot for this movie? It appears that the Blind Daughter is an allegory for the poor screenwriting.

The Good Son

R554; The funniest thing about that [italic]Homeymooners[/italic] movie is that [italic]The Flintstones[/italic] got one first.

Roxy Carmichael

The North Avenue Irregulars- a live action 70s Disney film about church women breaking up an illegal gambling ring. How that translated into somebody thinking it'd be a great family film, it's actually quite funny. Plus, the cast includes Edward Herrmann, a young Melora Hardin, Karen Valentine, Cloris Leachman, Susan Clark, Barbara Harris and Patsy Kelly.

Liar's Moon with Matt Dillon in the early 80s was on cable all the time. My sister and I watched it repeatedly. She usually had it on, I would half-heartedly object but I secretly found Matt Dillon as dreamy as she did. It was an awful movie but Matt Dillon was beautiful. His character was from the wrong side of the tracks, and ran off with the banker's daughter after their parents conspired to keep them apart. They eloped to Lousiana, where it was legal for underage kids to get married. Then it got really fucked up. Spoiler alert:

The girl got pregnant and then found out the reason the parents wanted to keep them apart is that they were brother and sister. The doctor says “In Louisiana, only a few things are illegal, but incest is certainly one of them.” She had an abortion -- not just because it was her brother's baby, but because she wanted to keep screwing him and stay married without any kids. She dies during the abortion and then it turns out they weren't brother and sister after all, Matt Dillon's mother lied to the girl's father about him being the father of Matt Dillon's character.

[quote]I wonder if M. Night remembers it? It was the beginning of his fall from the heights of "the new Hitchcock!" to the eventual level of Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV Director.

[quote]Can anyone defend the plot for this movie? It appears that the Blind Daughter is an allegory for the poor screenwriting.

When it came out plenty of critics went after the issues with the plot twist. Some loyal M. Night fans loved the movie and the twist. I remember some film reporter said he hated the idea that the elders thought living in a "past" era would protect them from bad things and they were never totally protected from bad things. In the beginning the little boy died from illness that was likely curable. There were people on IMDB that had the theory that Bryce Dallas Howard's blindness would have been fixed with modern medicine and surgeries. They thought it was quite cruel that a wealthy man llike William Hurt;s character was in a sense making his daughter suffer more than she had to. The same could be argued with Adrien Brody's developmentally disabled character. He was going without therapy and other interventions and he proved to be a danger to the community. This may sound mean of me, I remember loving the scene where Bryce slaps the shit out of him for the stabbing.

I thought the title of the thread wsa "Medicare movies that you remember, but nobody else does", so my response is Cocoon 2.

Stuck on you

"Born to Win", one of the many "drug addiction" movies of the early-70s. Stars George Segal as the addict/hairdresser (though we never see him dressing hair 🤷‍♂️), Paula Prentiss as his addict wife turned prostitute, Karen Black as his "straight" girlfriend, Hector Elizondo as a drug dealer, Burt Young as a goon, Robert De Niro as an undercover vice cop, and the then-gloriously-sleazy Times Square as itself. The movie also has a great, jazzy score by William S. Fisher. The movie is public domain, so there's several uploads on YouTube.

Singles (1992) with Bridget Fonda and Matt Dillon

A Thousand Acres with Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jason Robards, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

White Palace

“A Sensitive, Passionate Man” from 1977 starring Angie Dickinson and David Janssen.

The opposite phenomenon is weirder: mediocre films you thought were forgotten but turn out to have fans years later. I remember hearing someone say last year that Jack Frost (the 90s film where a man is reincarnated as his son's snowman) is one of their favourite Christmas films.

Along those lines, R576, "Somewhere in Time," cited earlier in this thread, was not a success at the box office but now has a big cult following.

Movies about tennis are almost always mediocre, such as Players starring Ali MacGraw

Another forgotten tennis flick, and this one stars Bert Convy and Lynda Day George. I bet the lines were around the corner for this one..

I always love those little small films that come out, are poorly reviewed and received, flop, and then go on to have big cult followings. Those movies simply can't be all bad if they're bringing so much joy to that many people. I've often thought that might be an even better gift than a big opening weekend and an Oscar. I couldn't even tell you the big box office hits or Oscar winners from last year, but I can quote every line from something like Drop Dead Gorgeous or Serial Mom.

I never knew what Susan Anton was famous for other than being the subject of several posters and starring in this movie...

Another Goldengirl poster. Susan Anton's running pose.

Hollywood Ending

Spun

"Racquet" even had Monti Rock III!

China Moon, with Ed Harris and Madeleine Stowe

Golden Gate, with Matt Dillon and Joan Chen

Oh, we remember Golden Girl. Susan Anton's character received Pavlovian style conditioning, she was hooked up to a vibrator during press interview simulations. When flash bulbs popped and microphones appeared, she started to glow!

The Program-90s movie about a college football team dealing with different issues. James Caan played the coach. Crag Sheffer and Omar Epps played the players that the film focused more on. Kristy Swanson played Sheffer's girlfriend and Halle Berry played Epps' girlfriend

Neccessary Roughness- another 90s movie about a college football team, but a comedy movie. Scott Bakula starred as the 30 something guy who recruited to play quarterback. Kathy Ireland played the team's female kicker. Sinbad and Jason Bateman had roles as players. Hector Elizondo and Robert Loggia were the coaches.

The Gift (2000)

Here on Earth- teen triangle love story movie that starred Chris Klein, Leelee Sobieski, and Josh Hartnett. It flopped hard at the box office and most critics panned it.

"Always", starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman and Audrey Heburn. One if Stephen Speilberg's few failures.

Heart and Souls (1993)- Robert Downey Jr. played a guy who reconnects with ghosts of people who died around the time he was born. Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Sizemore, Alfre Woodard, and Charles Grodin played the ghosts.

M Night's worst I can't even remember the title. Bryce Howard spends most of it in a bathtub...

Part II thread

R593 That was Lady in the Water. I think that the critics hated that one more than The Village.

Hudson Hawk

The Men’s Club

We all remember The Gift and The Former Mrs Tammy Cruise's tatas.

"Hudson Hawk" would have to have been a lot better than it was to qualify as mediocre.

R566: I met a couple who actually met each other on the set of that film. The wife still works for Disney.