Badmovies.org Forum

Theaters of the past had a opening film that was considered a B-Movie then they would play the Feature Presentation.

At the Drive-In you had a similiar situation. A good movie and some lesser films considered B-Movies.

What makes a film a B-Movie Today? Straight to video/DVD? Or is it some other quality?

I can't describe it, but I know it when I see it.

Actually, to be honest I really don't care.  There are wide varieties of things that I will enjoy watching and not really care if it's a "B Movie" or not.  I mean, I'll watch "The Terminator" and "A.P.E.X." and "Road Warrior" and "Cherry 2000" without batting an eye so who am I to say what's "B" and what's not?

for me, a B-movie doesn't mean a crappy movie.

it means a movie that isn't mainstream [much like arthouse i guess] except it contains more sensational storylines [in other words, not just a drama-type thing, but a horror/scifi/action/monster-type film]  Low budget is often a factor, mainly because most respectable film companies wouldn't release the film, therefore the idea that they aren't mainstream.  but its not a requirement to be low budget: i consider the Scorpian King to be a B-move and wasn't a straight to video release, and i'm pretty sure there was much money involved.  so too is the upcoming film Hellboy [based on the comic] which so far looks very 'B' like.

the scream series often has a B-movie feel to it, but i think its more on the edge, than one way or another.

but remember if it is really classy, no matter how

Some personal B-Movie rules:  reality has no place here, just because the laws of gravity may apply in life, doesn't mean it does in a B-movie.  in other words the stories MUST contain some kind of the surreal. whether it be a different time or planet, or has monsters, or super powers, a B-Movie must contain something out of the ordinary.

acting isn't a requirement, so too is storyline, character development or proper special effects.

it isn't afraid to poke fun at itself: corny lines may be rife, silly situations, events which may not suit the genre [eg comedy in horror]

hope this helps

I think the term "B-Movie" somes from a different era and related directly to a certain disribution/presentation mechanism which then came to mean something else because of the movies that tended to inhabit that world.  However that world itself is no longer applicable, but  the nickname still carries over, but is now much harder to classify

I don't even use the term 'B-movie', because it doesn't apply to how movies are marketed today. I use 'low-budget' or 'lower-budget' to describe movies if they are just that.

I prefer the Deathstalker films, the Carnosaur Trilogy, and Zombie Lake better then Minority Report and The Lord of the Rings movies. So there!

Low (or lower) budget is one element, IMO.  I'm sure there are b-movie versions of Terminator, and what really separates Time Runner ( http://www.badmovies.org/movies/timerunner/index.html can't figure out how to do hyperlinking here) from Terminator besides the budget -- for FX, actors, script writers, etc. ?

Not having artisitc pretensions is another element.  Many arthouse films have low budgets, but I wouldn't label them as b/bad movies -- though a lot are downright awful.

B-movies usually tend to have a fantasy element in them too, either horror (demons & vampires) or SF, but then again Shannon Tweed's movies were usually murder mysteries or comedies.  

Anyway, that's my 1 penny (converting my two Canadian cents to US)

Examples of a B-Movie:

-Fantastic Four
-the"Attack Of THe Killer Tomatoes"series
-Robot Zombie
-Manos,The Hands of Fate(the quintaessetial Mystery Science Threatre 3000 movie)
-Zombie!VS Mardi Gras
-any Peter Jackson movie before"The Frighteners"and"Lord Of The Rings"
-the Godzilla movies(NOT counting the remake)
-any Ed Wood movie
-Charlie´s Angels(modern B-Movie)

I would say that The Fast And The Furious is also a modern B-movie.

I don´t think so.

Oh I agree Fast and the Furious is a TERRIBLE movie. well, except for that hispanic girl, she was cute

He didn't say 'terrible' he said 'B'

oh.

"Eight Legged Freaks"is another example of a modern B-Movie.

wasn't 8-legged freaks pretty much made with that whole b-movie feel in mind?  that was what i gathered when they were promoting it: "come see an actual modern b-movie".

although i haven't seen the sequel, i don't consider fast and furious a B movie, but more a teen-action-flick which seems to have created a genre of its own [eg XXX  and so on]