TV/Movies Megathread

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Yes, Battlefield Earth frequently makes "N Worst Moves Ever" lists.  I haven't seen it, but from what I have read it seems to be stuck in the middle of being a campy, so-bad-it's-kinda-good movie like Flash Gordon and being a "serious" sci-fi movie, and so fails at both.

[Duque de Bragança]

Yes, Battlefield Earth frequently makes "N Worst Moves Ever" lists.  I haven't seen it, but from what I have read it seems to be stuck in the middle of being a campy, so-bad-it's-kinda-good movie like Flash Gordon and being a "serious" sci-fi movie, and so fails at both.

Flash Gordon was a success in the UK, among other countries such as Italy or France, but it flopped in the US.
One of the favourite movies of the late Elizabeth II, according to Brian Blessed. 
Flash Gordon was supposed to be a serious for the producer Dino Laurentiis, but the director and actors had other ideas. Production design is still gorgeous with one of Fellini's regulars, Danilo Donati, among the staff.
Fellini was rumored to be director for the movie, before production started.

[Grey Fox]

My friend still gets his royalty checks from Battlefield Earth. IIRC, it's only about .25$ every year.

His part didn't make it into the final cut.

[Valmy]

I've never got the supreme hate for it.

Well...there is that whole Scientology thing.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I loved Flash Gordon as a kid.

Battlefield Earth was a mess.  Too bad to be good and not good enough to be watchable even when you are bored.

[Savonarola]

Fellini was rumored to be director for the movie, before production started.

Now that would have been brilliant.

I don't think I'd ever want to go back and watch it after seeing the Buster Crabbe Serials; but Flash Gordon was an okay attempt to cash in on the post Star Wars Sci-Fi craze, and it had a Queen soundtrack.

I thought Battlefield Earth was great.  It's not the masterpiece that, say, Plan 9 from Outer Space is, but for an inadvertently funny B movie it's worthwhile.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Fellini was rumored to be director for the movie, before production started.

Now that would have been brilliant.

I don't think I'd ever want to go back and watch it after seeing the Buster Crabbe Serials; but Flash Gordon was an okay attempt to cash in on the post Star Wars Sci-Fi craze, and it had a Queen soundtrack.

I thought Battlefield Earth was great.  It's not the masterpiece that, say, Plan 9 from Outer Space is, but for an inadvertently funny B movie it's worthwhile.

I found it too obnoxious to enjoy as a B movie.  It just was bad at everything from the camera work to the acting.  I actually liked the book when I read it(I was young).

[Savonarola]

I found it too obnoxious to enjoy as a B movie.  It just was bad at everything from the camera work to the acting.  I actually liked the book when I read it(I was young).

The acting is what I remember most, especially John Travolta and Forrest Whitaker doing their impression of Kang and Kodos.  Also I thought the plot was so monumentally stupid that you had to laugh at it.

[The Minsky Moment]

I saw Flash Gordon in one of the old far uptown Manhattan movie palaces, a huge ornate decaying theater. It was in what could fairly be called a diverse neighborhood.  We arrived early and another movie was ending with some kind of action suspense plot, and some of our fellow patrons freely and enthusiastically gave advice to the protagonists about their next course of action and warned them about lurking dangers. The main feature enjoyed similar high spirited participation.

My grandfather took me to see it, he was about 76 or 77 at the time.  He had fled Communist Ukraine in the 1920s and then Nazi Vienna in 1938, and made it as far as Brussels when the Blitzkrieg caught up with him; he spent the next 5 years running and dodging around Belgium with a wife and small child. In the 60s/70s he ran a fur shop in a "transitional" neighborhood in NYC with the transition mostly going the wrong way.  Ever since he died in the 90s, I've often thought about seeing Flash Gordon that day. I can't even imagine what he must of have thought of it.  If I asked at the time, I don't remember his answer.

[Sheilbh]

Interesting bit on Battlefield Earth. Apparently it wasnt a flop?

https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/battlefield-earth-is-hollywoods-most-infamous-sci-fi-flop-but-25-years-on-director-roger-christian-is-still-proud-of-his-work-with-travolta-exclusive

Honestly I agree with the director here. I've never got the supreme hate for it. It's an OK film in a campy silly pulp way. Kind of like Flash Gordon.

Isn't the key difference that it was intended to be a useful tool for Scientology - that was why it couldn't get major studio funding.

I feel like part of the thing with most B-movies is a sense of naivety - You think of Susan Sontag: "one must distinguish between naive and deliberate camp. Pure camp is always naive. Camp which knows itself to be camp ("camping") is usually less satisfying."

I'm not sure if a film associated with a dodgy cult can ever really be naive enough to be enjoyed camply or as a B movie. There's always a grit.

[Josquius]

I've never got the supreme hate for it.

Well...there is that whole Scientology thing.

That's what the director blames. People just kneejerk not giving it a chance because of the scientology associations.

Certainly valid to avoid giving any business to the film due to this, and it certainly does have hints of Hubbards lunacy (evil psychologist aliens), but going in ignoring scientology and just watching it as a film in its own right... It's not unfun.

[Admiral Yi]

I saw Flash Gordon in one of the old far uptown Manhattan movie palaces, a huge ornate decaying theater. It was in what could fairly be called a diverse neighborhood.  We arrived early and another movie was ending with some kind of action suspense plot, and some of our fellow patrons freely and enthusiastically gave advice to the protagonists about their next course of action and warned them about lurking dangers. The main feature enjoyed similar high spirited participation.

Reminds me of an old Eddie Murphy skit about the only people allowed to talk in movie theaters are black people during kung fu movies.

[Duque de Bragança]

I saw Flash Gordon in one of the old far uptown Manhattan movie palaces, a huge ornate decaying theater. It was in what could fairly be called a diverse neighborhood.  We arrived early and another movie was ending with some kind of action suspense plot, and some of our fellow patrons freely and enthusiastically gave advice to the protagonists about their next course of action and warned them about lurking dangers. The main feature enjoyed similar high spirited participation.

Reminds me of an old Eddie Murphy skit about the only people allowed to talk in movie theaters are black people during kung fu movies.

I saw Flash Gordon in one of the old far uptown Manhattan movie palaces, a huge ornate decaying theater. It was in what could fairly be called a diverse neighborhood.  We arrived early and another movie was ending with some kind of action suspense plot, and some of our fellow patrons freely and enthusiastically gave advice to the protagonists about their next course of action and warned them about lurking dangers. The main feature enjoyed similar high spirited participation.

Reminds me of an old Eddie Murphy skit about the only people allowed to talk in movie theaters are black people during kung fu movies.

That's also whole scene of the Last Dragon (1985) https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt0089461/

Viper:

Doublage qualité française. À regarder impérativement en VF pour les nanarophiles. 

[Valmy]

That's what the director blames. People just kneejerk not giving it a chance because of the scientology associations.

Certainly valid to avoid giving any business to the film due to this, and it certainly does have hints of Hubbards lunacy (evil psychologist aliens), but going in ignoring scientology and just watching it as a film in its own right... It's not unfun.

There are hundreds of not unfun movies I have yet to see, I have no reason to pick the evil cult one.

[HVC]

That's what the director blames. People just kneejerk not giving it a chance because of the scientology associations.

Certainly valid to avoid giving any business to the film due to this, and it certainly does have hints of Hubbards lunacy (evil psychologist aliens), but going in ignoring scientology and just watching it as a film in its own right... It's not unfun.

There are hundreds of not unfun movies I have yet to see, I have no reason to pick the evil cult one.

If you're avoiding scientology's that blacklists a quarter of Hollywood actors