Question of the Day: What obscure movie(s) have you seen way too many times???

[BruiserBrody]

https://www.reddit.com/r/80s/comments/164pyvk

I was lucky growing up that one of my aunts taped hundreds of movies off HBO and Cinemax so I had access to a LOT of options.

I saw crap like "Hot to Trot" and the "Disorderlies", along with all kinds of classic films, smut and all things in between.

As far as obscure movies I really liked was "Hunter's Blood". I am a fan of the city slicker vs hillbilly type movies (Deliverance, Southern Comfort, etc)

 

[Valeyard]

Fortress with Christopher Lambert. Really fun little movie.

Dark Passage with Bogart and Bacall is one of the greatest noirs ever made but no one talks about it.

There are any number of random ass Christmas movies I could list.

Cyborg with Van Damme isn't seen by enough people.

Bunch of westerns, specifically John Wayne. Big Jake sticks out the most.

The Mary Martin Peter Pan special.

 

[Brocklock]

The Vagrant with Bill Paxton - My mom had a huge crush on Bill Paxton after seeing Twister and rented and watched all his movies a bunch, so a lot of Bill Paxton movies fit the bill. This was a bizarre horror comedy that is really a lot of fun. Paxton is fantastic and plays both cool dude and neurotic geek so well.

The Granny starring Stella Stevens and featuring a clip of a Sting vs Steve Austin match on Saturday Night. This is just b movie horror comedy schlock, but I rarely see it mentioned. Haven't seen it since the 90s.

Freaked with Alex Winters, Mr. T, Randy Quaid, Brooke Shields and a host of others. It has garnered a cult following over the years but I still love this stupid movie. A lot of it just hits and it's so gross and silly. I'm still laughing just as hard as when I was a kid.

 

[Gary]

Too many to count

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Rocket Man. Disney’s failed attempt to make Harland Williams the next big comedic star not the Elton John biopic.

Undercover Blues with Dennis Quaid and Kathleen Turner was inexplicably my older brother’s favorite movie for a few years. Idk what about a middle of the road romantic/action comedy appealed to a 10 year old. He just really really liked Stanley Tucci’s character but he is only in a few minutes of it.

Idk how obscure Bebe’s Kids is. I think it is enough of a unique culture touchstone to avoid obscurity but not by much. Me and my brothers watched it almost every day on pay cable.

Disco Godfather with Rudy Ray Moore. Dolemite and The Human Tornado are justifiably cult classics but this is the one me and my college buddy always rewatched. There is something still hilarious about an X Rated entertainer like Rudy Ray Moore producing a PG anti drug movie.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Hardball starring Keanu Reeves (and a young Michael B. Jordan!) in a white savior role coaching inner city little league to get out of his gambling debts. Watched this way more times that I should have. There's a hilarious scene where Reeves starts rapping Biggie.

 

[Hawk 34]

I have a feeling I know why my ass watched Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead roughly 259 times as a young child but I sure did enjoy it.

 

[strummer]

Just One of the Guys was on HBO just about every other day from 90-92

 

[Valeyard]

The Wild Life with Eric Stoltz, Chris Penn, and Lea Thompson. Cameron Crowe's shitty follow up to Fast Times. I'd probably find it interesting now but when my brother had it I didn't care.

 

[strummer]

Feds with Rebecca De Mornay and Mary Gross

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Hardball starring Keanu Reeves (and a young Michael B. Jordan!) in a white savior role coaching inner city little league to get out of his gambling debts. Watched this way more times that I should have. There's a hilarious scene where Reeves starts rapping Biggie.

#1 movie at the box office the weekend after 9/11.


I retain weird information.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Feds with Rebecca De Mornay and Mary Gross

This is a fun movie and I will not hear otherwise!

Not "tape" necessarily but thanks to constant airings on HBO, Showtime, etc.

Shock Treatment was a go-to for young teen me and is still one of those soft spot/favorites of mine. I think I've always preferred it to RHPS for that reason. Way too much horror but Man's Best Friend with Ally Sheedy & Lance Henriksen, Lord of Illusions with Scott Bakula, and Witchboard 2 were instantly memorable horror movies I saw repeatedly on TV.

 

[Valeyard]

Had an ex whose favorite movie was Feds. Had the poster on the wall.

 

[Incandenza]

Doesn't qualify for "the most times" as I'm not entirely sure I've actually watched this Dave Thomas (SCTV guy, not the founder of Wendy's) directed 1989 comedy starring John Travolta. But when I learned of (was reminded of?) its existence while looking up something else, it sounded awfully familiar.

Have I seen this movie? Is it remembered by anyone other than hardcore Travoltaheads who know the set is where Travolta and his future wife Kelly Preston first met?

 

[Incandenza]

It certainly looks like the kind of movie I would have watched on HBO back then, especially since as a kid I'd watch just about any movie that aired on HBO.

 

[Gary]

Eh, I'll mention a few

-Blood Rage-80's slasher that's one of the few that take place around Thanksgiving. Come for the gore and exploitation, stay for Louise Lassier chewing up scenery like you wouldn't believe. I watch this every Thanksgiving week.

-Blue Collar-this one's actually an amazing movie, was the directorial debut of Paul Schrader and stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Koto in what may be the best performance of his career. Can't recommend it enough.

-Pieces-Another 80s slasher, and one of my go to trashy horror movies. Tons of gore, plenty of sleaze and non stop hilarity (none of it intentional) from start to finish.

I used to watch "Body Slam" (terrible wrestling based comedy with Roddy Piper, Lou Albano, Dirk Benedict and Billy Barty to name a few) whenever it was on HBO when I was younger.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Another one since Hardball may not be as obscure as I thought it was: Career Opportunities. Being alone in a Target and letting loose since like the dream as a child. Plus, young, hot Jennifer Connolly.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Have I seen this movie? Is it remembered by anyone other than hardcore Travoltaheads who know the set is where Travolta and his future wife Kelly Preston first met?

One of my favorite anecdotes from Gilbert Gottfried's (RIP) podcast was how he was up for a part in this movie and he was reading the script on an airplane and Michael Nesmith from the Monkees sat next to him. After exchanging pleasantries, Mike asked Gilbert what he was reading and Gilbert strained to describe the plot, Mike took it in then said in his slow Texan drawl "Sounds like a real piece of shit."

 

[Gary]

Is "The Street Fighter" (1974) considered obscure? It's pretty well known in action circles and was talked about in one of those "I Love The" shows VH1 did in the 00s, but outside of that I dunno.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I'm having a hard time defining obscure. Like Dirty Work is probably obscure to a normie but it's a celebrated movie in comedy nerd circles I run in on the internet. The King of Comedy and After Hours are relatively obscure for Scorsese movies but not really obscure to film nerd (and also comedy nerd) circles I run in on the internet!

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I'm having a hard time defining obscure. Like Dirty Work is probably obscure to a normie but it's a celebrated movie in comedy nerd circles I run in on the internet. The King of Comedy and After Hours are relatively obscure for Scorsese movies but not really obscure to film nerd (and also comedy nerd) circles I run in on the internet!

Nowadays thanks to SyFy airing the bejesus out of 2012 or USA? airing The Day After Tomorrow, I feel like those movies could be future candidates but they've been aired so often that I feel like most people know of them somehow.

I think obscurity would be more the general public in that they may've heard of a movie but the great majority have never seen it. I'd be curious how many people watched The King of Comedy after Joker came out as an example of an "obscure" movie becoming more well-known.

 

[Incandenza]

Defining "obscure" in this instance feels fruitless. Given that in either real life or through the internet, we gravitate towards like-minded people, so judging what is or isn't obscure is more or less relegated to how often you interact with contemporary normies.

 

[Incandenza]

That said, my one contribution to this discussion is a movie I don't think I've even seen, and one that might only be remembered by devoted Travoltaheads or, apparently, Gilbert Gottfried superfans.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

“2012” and “The Day After Tomorrow” both were top ten highest grossing movies of the year they were released so they are definitively not obscure even if they didn’t really leave much if any lasting cultural footprint.

 

[strummer]

Airborne from 1993 was another that was on HBO all the time that I watched. Features an early 20s something Jack Black and still teen Seth Green

 

[strummer]

Feds with Rebecca De Mornay and Mary Gross

I also remember thinking the scene where De Mornay's character supposedly eats an entire large pizza by herself to be absurd as a kid but hey...

Mentioned above but I remember the Granny as well. I thought it was a tag match with Steamboat and Sting v Austin and (I think ?) Flair in the background.

Also the blatant gratuitous nudity with the snobby daughter (in law?) ripping her top off to try on the fancy clothes and the vampy granddaughter checking herself out in the mirror nude and then doing a stripper type dance before she's killed by Granny from behind

 

[Brocklock]

That movie was sleazy as hell. It had to be Cinemax that I saw it on. I was way too young, but that's the benefits of being a latchkey kid with Cinemax.

 

[Valeyard]

I gotta add Bakshi's Wizards too. My brothers recorded tons of stuff either over other things or that they hid so only we could watch them when the parents were out. Wizards was one of the few that actually got me in trouble for watching.

 

[Youth N Asia]

Airborne from 1993 was another that was on HBO all the time that I watched. Features an early 20s something Jack Black and still teen Seth Green

For no good reason I would catch this on TNT or TBS at like 2am, and end up watching it a ton of times.

 

[The Thread Killer]

Good question.

I have a bunch of movies like this in my collection. Movies which are not great (or even good in some cases) in the technical sense, but I find them enjoyable for some strange reason and end up watching them more than once. Kind of like the cinematic version of fast food.

The most egregious example of this would have to be Sniper starring Tom Berenger. It’s a 1993 action movie. It’s pretty slow paced, and the story is certainly nothing to write home about. I have always been a big Berenger fan, so maybe that’s why I like it so much.

In fairness, I must not be the only one who feels this way. Even though it was pretty much a box office flop, it has spawned no less than 8 Direct-to-DVD or VOD sequels, with a 9th due this month. I love this movie and even I can’t explain that.