Oddball movies that go onto being favourites

[Rosemary Fryth]

I have to admit that I like a lot of the funny little oddball movies that generally slip by unnoticed by the general public.

'He Died With A Felafel In His Hand' - oddball Aussie movie with some great local humour. In fact I believe the first house featured in this movie was actually based on a share-house in Herston where a number of friends of ours once lived (these friends being medieval reenactors/goths). Watch out for the toad killing scene.

'Age of Treason' - I've been trying forever to get this movie on DVD however it's just not available. Bryan Brown plays a Roman private investigator (Falco) who was hired to investigate a murder in ancient Rome. This movie always cracks me up because of the comic incongruity of a broad Aussie accent coming out of the mouth of an ancient Roman. A lot of people hated the movie for this reason, I just think it adds to its general quirkiness.

'Hercules Returns' - another Aussie gem full of local humour, local lingo and almost no political correctness. There are some brilliant lines in the movie and really needs to be seen to be believed. If for some reason you cannot get the movie, there is on You Tube quite a few extracts of some of the funniest scenes.

'Local Hero' - yet another quirky movie that has mostly flown under the radar. It's a lovely movie, with a great soundtrack, and with brilliant character acting. A definate recommendation.

 

[Foxbat]

Branagh's interpretation of Love's Labour's Lost as a 1930s style musical is an oddball and one of my personal favourites

 

[Abernovo]

'Age of Treason' - I've been trying forever to get this movie on DVD however it's just not available. Bryan Brown plays a Roman private investigator (Falco) who was hired to investigate a murder in ancient Rome. This movie always cracks me up because of the comic incongruity of a broad Aussie accent coming out of the mouth of an ancient Roman. A lot of people hated the movie for this reason, I just think it adds to its general quirkiness...

'Local Hero' - yet another quirky movie that has mostly flown under the radar. It's a lovely movie, with a great soundtrack, and with brilliant character acting. A definate recommendation.

I really liked Bryan Brown as Falco. The accent never grated with me. Is Local Hero really an under the radar movie? I used to live very close to Pennan (the village used as the fictional Ferness), so I've always had a soft spot for the movie.

The Winter Guest, with Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law (Thompson's mother) is a personal favourite of mine when it comes to these sort of movies.

 

[Toby Frost]

Hercules Returns is a classic. I can still hear him booming "Almighty Zay-oos!"

I'd nominate John Borman's Excalibur and Neil Jordan's film The Company of Wolves. Both score points - and probably lost revenue - by being fairly adult, which enabled them to discuss the source material more but lost a lot of viewers. I have never worked out if Nichol Williamson in Excalibur is acting superbly or just hamming like crazy - probably the latter, but he remains my favourite wizard of film.

 

[Abernovo]

I'd nominate John Borman's Excalibur and Neil Jordan's film The Company of Wolves. Both score points - and probably lost revenue - by being fairly adult, which enabled them to discuss the source material more but lost a lot of viewers.

Like Excalibur, but The Company of Wolves holds a prime position in my DVD collection. How did I not think of this? I'm already on record as being a fan of Angela Carter's work. Brilliant film of one of her short stories and she co-wrote the script, if I remember correctly.

 

[Ripley!WatchOut!]

Local hero is a FANTASTIC movie.

Have you seen DOWN BY LAW? It's great too.

What about CINEMA PARADISO? Excellent.

 

[Interference]

Zardoz was something of a - here comes that word again - cult fave while I was at college. Boorman again, with Connery doing his darnedest to put all connection with Bond to rest - for good.

...and evidently failing, cos that's what I just did

 

[Foxbat]

Local hero is a FANTASTIC movie.

Have you seen DOWN BY LAW? It's great too.

What about CINEMA PARADISO? Excellent.

Watched Down By Law very recently. It is definitely excellent. As for Cinema Paradiso....it's one of my all-time favourites

 

[JamestheLast]

One of my favorites is Scream and Scream Again. A Vincent Price movie that seems to have everything. Body snatching, a killer/dictator of a fascist country who can destroy people by crushing their shoulder, a vat of acid, a couple of musical interludes, a car chase, another killer running around with his hand ripped off (which he did himself). Its weird, disjointed, and I like it. Even the title song grows on me.

 

[Starbeast]

Prophecy: The Monster Movie (1979) Armand Assante, Talia Shire & Richard Dysart

Strong messages in this creature feature about the consequences of pollution effecting people & nature!

 

[Snowdog]

A few:

Birdy (1984) with Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage
Turk 182 (1985) with Tim Hutton
The Wanderers (1979) with Ken Wahl

I'm not sure if they qualify as oddball, but they've always stuck in my mind, far longer than most major films ever do.

 

[TheTomG]

Excalibur, Company of Wolves, and Local Hero. Great movies. Not adding anything new to this thread, just reiterating for the sake of giving weight to those fine pieces of movie art. Oh for more unique and interesting movies, even if flawed!

 

[paranoid marvin]

Salute of the Jugger - Post-nuclear Rollerball in Oz. Picked it in the budget section on video years ago , simply because it was cheap. Brilliant film , and one I return to again and again.

 

[Toby Frost]

That used to be my boss' favourite film. He could recite the entire plot, which was strange coming from a man not wholly unlike Hugh Grant.

I also have a friend who is a massive fan of the Falco books.

Oh for more unique and interesting movies, even if flawed!

I totally agree. I was thinking about Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock yesterday, about all its flaws, and realised that I would far rather have a book like that than the slickest and most polished Tolkien clone.

 

[TheTomG]

I keep meaning to re-read Mythago Wood, but my copy has gone walkabout somewhere in my many moves. I'll have to rebuy it, but I think I've looked on Kindle and couldn't find it. This reminds me to look again and then look further afield if I can't find it there, as I must get that book again!

Anyway, yes, flaws but originality. I can even come to love the flaws as something unique and special But polished, slick and formulaic is always going to be boringly unlovable.

 

[Starbeast]

I have to admit that I like a lot of the funny little oddball movies that generally slip by unnoticed by the general public.

So do I, in fact, I search for them. This is a fantastic thread idea Rosemary.

Creation of the Humanoids (1962)

Decades before films like The Terminator came out, this B-Movie hit the theaters.

The Story: Thousands of years after an apocalypse, humans develope androids with emotions to serve people, but humankind treat them like inferior beings and eventually decide to destroy them. The gentle androids which are programmed not to harm humans secretly build a humanoid robot prototype that can kill, in effort for the peaceful androids to survive.

Side Note: Artist, Andy Warhol was a big fan of this film.

 

[Toby Frost]

In the UK at least, Tom G, Mythago Wood seems to be out of print. I gather they're bringing a new version out and collecting some of Holdstock's other stuff together (which I've never read).

I should also mention a small British film called Mirrormask, which involves Stephen Fry and Neil Gaiman, IIRC. It has an incredibly sinister version of Close to You by the Carpenters, performed by robots.

 

[Dave]

I should also mention a small British film called Mirrormask, which involves Stephen Fry and Neil Gaiman, IIRC. It has an incredibly sinister version of Close to You by the Carpenters, performed by robots.

I immediately need to see that. Where can I?


One film I like but know that I shouldn't is Napoleon Dynamite.

 

[Toby Frost]

It should be available on DVD. It's not perfect, and pretty cheaply-made (and it does go on a bit), but the visuals are interesting and the lead actress is pretty good. In a funny way, given that it's a PG, it feels more grown-up than might be expected.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Salute of the Juggers, and Creation of the Humanoids are both great films. Weirdly flawed, both of them, neither of them should work at all but they do.

Here are a couple suggestions:

Young Einstein (1988) which plays the audaciously weird idea of 'what if Albert Einstein had been a Tasmanian apple farmer who came up with a formula for splitting beer atoms'.

Thunderpants (2002) - a ten year old boy with chronic flatulence dreams of becoming an astronaut and, after a brief spell as an opera singer where he gets to 'sing the high bit with my arse', he succeeds.

Mirrormask is available on a region 2 disc. I watched it recently. And rather good it is too.