I got the complete collection since it was on sale on Amazon for under $10. So far I've watched the first two.
Anyone remember in the late 1990s when some cable company or companies used to play these films all the time? I think it might have just been Billy Jack and The Trial of Billy Jack. I'm pretty sure TNT was one of the stations that would play these all the time, but it's been about 20 years. I remember looking through my TV Guide and these already were some loooong movies (especially Trial). So if you play them back to back that's a good chunk of the day's programming right there!
On a related note I read some negative reviews for the set complaining how big chunks of Billy Jack Goes to Washington are missing. It's the first time I ever heard someone complain of a Billy Jack movie being too short :bouncegiggle:
Tom Laughlin was a unique breed of dude to put it mildly. He was still trying to make another Billy Jack until about the time he died. At one point he talked about how he would debate George W. Bush in the new movie using computer technology. That was around 2008 and at that point the most recent completed Billy Jack movie had been released in 1977!
I read Robert Altman said Laughlin was a pain in the ass to work with and I can believe it. I'm curious how the franchise could have worked with some more installments. He definitely tapped into something with how successful two of the films were. When you look at the highest grossing films of the 1970s this franchise sticks out as an anomaly.
Quote from: dcj2112 on July 17, 2020, 04:15:41 PM
I got the complete collection since it was on sale on Amazon for under $10. So far I've watched the first two.
...
Does the set include
THE BORN LOSERS (1967) ?
Quote from: Allhallowsday on July 17, 2020, 05:23:55 PM
Quote from: dcj2112 on July 17, 2020, 04:15:41 PM
I got the complete collection since it was on sale on Amazon for under $10. So far I've watched the first two.
...
Does the set include THE BORN LOSERS (1967) ?
Yes!
Born Losers
Billy Jack
The Trial of Billy Jack
Billy Jack Goes to Washington
Plus each movie comes with two commentary tracks! For some reason all have one by Laughlin and his wife then the second one is Laughlin and his wife plus their son. Not sure why or if I'll ever be brave enough to sit through all those :bouncegiggle:
i've never seen any of them to be honest, i just never have gotten the chance to be further honest, but i do know that in (1985) he did start working on another one a final one apparently on IMDB there's a page for it called Return of Billy Jack (1986) apparently it was to deal with Child Pornography & apparently he got hurt and after while he recovered lost funding for it and i forget which film company was putting $$$ but they lost interest and he never could get funding for it.
just read the IMDB trivia it's got a page for it. apparently in (2009) he showed my guess an hrs worth cause that's what IMDB says the length of the film is
on his website. i hate it when films don't get finished cause of stuff like that and than too many years pass and you have cast members pass away and by than it's just too damn late and it sucks
Quote from: Allhallowsday on July 17, 2020, 05:23:55 PM
Quote from: dcj2112 on July 17, 2020, 04:15:41 PM
I got the complete collection since it was on sale on Amazon for under $10. So far I've watched the first two.
...
Does the set include THE BORN LOSERS (1967) ?
The only good one of the bunch, if you ask me.
Quote from: RCMerchant on July 18, 2020, 12:09:12 PM
Quote from: Allhallowsday on July 17, 2020, 05:23:55 PM
Quote from: dcj2112 on July 17, 2020, 04:15:41 PM
I got the complete collection since it was on sale on Amazon for under $10. So far I've watched the first two.
...
Does the set include THE BORN LOSERS (1967) ?
The only good one of the bunch, if you ask me.
That's why I ask...! Plus, I think there were some problems with the 2nd film 3 years later revisiting
LAUGHLIN's character... I think by the 2nd film
LAUGHLIN got a strangle hold on Billy Jack...
^ Yeah, the others were too hippie dippy preaching crap.
All of them - including Born Losers - were banned here: I don't think the last one was released here.
For those who don't know: looking for info on Billy Jack brought me here many years ago. :smile:
really? how long has this site been around than? how long have you been here anyways?
Quote from: pennywise37 on July 18, 2020, 07:08:06 PM
really? how long has this site been around than? how long have you been here anyways?
I think I first came here in the late 1990s: internet in South Africa kicked off around 1996 / 1997 so it must have been around that time.
^ It was 2006. The year I joined.
honestly i don't even remember what year i did i think i was just surfing the net and just found it by accident and was on the main board for ages reading about bad movies before i even got around to signing up to the forum. but this is prolly the most active i've been on here since i joined actually
Quote from: pennywise37 on July 18, 2020, 11:34:42 PM
honestly i don't even remember what year i did i think i was just surfing the net and just found it by accident and was on the main board for ages reading about bad movies before i even got around to signing up to the forum. but this is prolly the most active i've been on here since i joined actually
Date Registered: May 09, 2015, 08:42:58 PM
It was not September 31st!
Quote from: Allhallowsday on July 18, 2020, 11:43:31 PM
Quote from: pennywise37 on July 18, 2020, 11:34:42 PM
honestly i don't even remember what year i did i think i was just surfing the net and just found it by accident and was on the main board for ages reading about bad movies before i even got around to signing up to the forum. but this is prolly the most active i've been on here since i joined actually
Date Registered: May 09, 2015, 08:42:58 PM
It was not September 31st!
September? Huh?
5 years huh? i didn't realize it had even been that long. i think i found this just by chance i listen to a podcast that's called Radio Drome where they talk about various movies/tv etc... stuff i love and one of the hosts is the guy that has the you tube channel good bad flicks. i could never remember the name of it so when i happen by chance to find this site i thought it was his site but i was apparently wrong but either way i'm glad i found it
This site has been around since at least 1998: https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/ (https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/)
I found this site before 2010, probably when I was looking up Star Wars Ripoffs. There were a bunch of other similar sites, but almost all of them are gone now. Most of the survivors, like StompTokyo & The Bad Movie Report, are abandoned.
Probably 1st registered in 2012, but I've deleted & recreated my account a few times since then. Always used the same name tho.
And now the topic at hand:
I've tried watching the Billy Jack movies a few times, when they come on TV, but I can't get into them. Filmaking style's too late 60's/early 70's. :bluesad: There was an episode of Airwolf which seemed to spoof Billy Jack, "Where Have All the Children Gone?" That was kinda fun.
Quote from: dcj2112 on July 17, 2020, 04:15:41 PM
I read Robert Altman said Laughlin was a pain in the ass to work with and I can believe it. I'm curious how the franchise could have worked with some more installments. He definitely tapped into something with how successful two of the films were. When you look at the highest grossing films of the 1970s this franchise sticks out as an anomaly.
I had always dreamed of Steven Seagal doing a remake of one of the Billy Jack movies because that is who Tom Laughlin reminds me of the most. They both have that same monotone personality and screen presence. I know that it would be terrible, like
On Deadly Ground (1994) terrible. That's why I had wished that Seagal would do a movie like that. :teddyr:
Quote from: pacman000 on July 20, 2020, 11:13:06 AM
This site has been around since at least 1998: https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/ (https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/)
I found this site before 2010, probably when I was looking up Star Wars Ripoffs. There were a bunch of other similar sites, but almost all of them are gone now. Most of the survivors, like StompTokyo & The Bad Movie Report, are abandoned.
Probably 1st registered in 2012, but I've deleted & recreated my account a few times since then. Always used the same name tho.
And now the topic at hand:
I've tried watching the Billy Jack movies a few times, when they come on TV, but I can't get into them. Filmaking style's too late 60's/early 70's. :bluesad: There was an episode of Airwolf which seemed to spoof Billy Jack, "Where Have All the Children Gone?" That was kinda fun.
I like the late 60's/early 70's filmmaking style, but completely get what you mean. I think Billy Jack is really a movie you either have to watch on video or DVD/Blu-ray. I couldn't imagine young folks watched it all in one sitting when they were playing it a lot, but imagine you could watch segments and pick up the gist of the story. Maybe old timers who like Westerns could hang in there. These films can certainly drag. With commercials when they would play Billy Jack and the Trial of Billy Jack back to back, in the 1990s I could see it being 6 hours of programming. 2.5 for Billy Jack and 3.5 for Trial of Billy Jack. I may even be underestimating the length :buggedout:
With our YouTube, Vine, etc. culture decreasing all of our attention spans Billy Jack on cable can be a tough watch. The Trial of Billy Jack even tougher!
i don't know you don't give the younger generation enough credit there are no doubt plenty of young folks out there that do love this type of thing. i started to love film i mean really love it when i think i think it was in my teens. my brother introduced me to a good number of films, as did his than GF who got me into Hitch
but than so did TCM as well. it was a good number of things pretty much, there is a good portion that yes will just ignore anything from the 60's. but i think it sometimes depends on what they grow up with as well like if they have a parent who loves various kinds of movies like we do here they may give it a chance,
all my life i had heard of the Marx brothers but had never seen any of their films until one day/night whatever time it was they had a Marathon on TCM and my dad was watching i want to say it was "At The Circus (1939) and he was telling me a bit about them and i think i was in my 20's. and pretty much cause i didn't have anything else to do i watched some with him and fell in love with the guys. but by than i loved old movies from the 30's anyways as i used to hate Black & White movies too growing up as well. for me it really wasn't until i started to want to see all of Mickey Rooney films as The TV Show "The Black Stallion (1990-1993)
introduced me to him and than TCM was playing his older stuff he did as a kid and on a lark i taped the Andy Hardy films and fell in love with those films plus Hitch and that's how i got into them.
no doubt i'm not the only one. at some point i do plan on seeing these but WOW they are some long movies
Quote from: pennywise37 on July 22, 2020, 12:19:44 AM
i don't know you don't give the younger generation enough credit there are no doubt plenty of young folks out there that do love this type of thing. i started to love film i mean really love it when i think i think it was in my teens. my brother introduced me to a good number of films, as did his than GF who got me into Hitch
but than so did TCM as well. it was a good number of things pretty much, there is a good portion that yes will just ignore anything from the 60's. but i think it sometimes depends on what they grow up with as well like if they have a parent who loves various kinds of movies like we do here they may give it a chance,
all my life i had heard of the Marx brothers but had never seen any of their films until one day/night whatever time it was they had a Marathon on TCM and my dad was watching i want to say it was "At The Circus (1939) and he was telling me a bit about them and i think i was in my 20's. and pretty much cause i didn't have anything else to do i watched some with him and fell in love with the guys. but by than i loved old movies from the 30's anyways as i used to hate Black & White movies too growing up as well. for me it really wasn't until i started to want to see all of Mickey Rooney films as The TV Show "The Black Stallion (1990-1993)
introduced me to him and than TCM was playing his older stuff he did as a kid and on a lark i taped the Andy Hardy films and fell in love with those films plus Hitch and that's how i got into them.
no doubt i'm not the only one. at some point i do plan on seeing these but WOW they are some long movies
Haha if anything I'm giving old timers who like Westerns too much credit. Try to watch just The Trial of Billy Jack with commercials and then get back to me :bouncegiggle:
well i at some point will try and watch at least one of these films, well there are a lot of good westerns out there but that's really never been my favorite Genre
Quote from: pennywise37 on July 22, 2020, 06:27:50 AM
well i at some point will try and watch at least one of these films, well there are a lot of good westerns out there but that's really never been my favorite Genre
I'd recommend watching it in chronological order if you try. As a bad movie fan, The Born Losers really hits a lot of the sweet spots so much of us seek. That one has less Western/conventional drama elements and more exploitation stuff. IIRC its the only Billy Jack film that has a Nazi biker gang. Certainly, the only one where they're the main baddies.
The Born Losers also has the best action to drama ratio. Billy Jack is rarely promoted as a pure action franchise and if someone went into it expecting an action movie they'd be very disappointed. That said The Born Losers features a few moments of very violent and exciting scenes, certainly by 1967 standards. Unfortunately, each movie this ratio gets more out of whack and shifts from any action to LONG preachy speeches. By the Trial of Billy Jack you have little more than a three hour sermon. And that's not even the last one!
Quote from: dcj2112 on July 21, 2020, 09:51:42 PM
Quote from: pacman000 on July 20, 2020, 11:13:06 AM
This site has been around since at least 1998: https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/ (https://web.archive.org/web/19981205040018/http://www.badmovies.org/)
I found this site before 2010, probably when I was looking up Star Wars Ripoffs. There were a bunch of other similar sites, but almost all of them are gone now. Most of the survivors, like StompTokyo & The Bad Movie Report, are abandoned.
Probably 1st registered in 2012, but I've deleted & recreated my account a few times since then. Always used the same name tho.
And now the topic at hand:
I've tried watching the Billy Jack movies a few times, when they come on TV, but I can't get into them. Filmaking style's too late 60's/early 70's. :bluesad: There was an episode of Airwolf which seemed to spoof Billy Jack, "Where Have All the Children Gone?" That was kinda fun.
I like the late 60's/early 70's filmmaking style, but completely get what you mean. I think Billy Jack is really a movie you either have to watch on video or DVD/Blu-ray. I couldn't imagine young folks watched it all in one sitting when they were playing it a lot, but imagine you could watch segments and pick up the gist of the story. Maybe old timers who like Westerns could hang in there. These films can certainly drag. With commercials when they would play Billy Jack and the Trial of Billy Jack back to back, in the 1990s I could see it being 6 hours of programming. 2.5 for Billy Jack and 3.5 for Trial of Billy Jack. I may even be underestimating the length :buggedout:
With our YouTube, Vine, etc. culture decreasing all of our attention spans Billy Jack on cable can be a tough watch. The Trial of Billy Jack even tougher!
Weirdly I enjoy old westerns, serials, 50's sci-fi, etc.
oh i always prefer to watch a film series with the 1st film rather than the 3rd even if it's a series i love. though at times i do switch it around at times depending of the series of course. but normally ones i've seen a lot though