Charles Band

[Alan Smithee]

Where would we be without him?

[Fearless Freep]

I'd have many wasted hours of my life back.....and it wouldn't have been nearly as fun

[The Burgomaster]

We'd probably be in the same place that we'd be in without:

* Harry Novak
* Jerry Gross
* Sam Sherman
* Wade Williams
* K. Gordon Murray

And a whole bunch of other people who contributed to the greatness of the B-movie industry.

I salute them all!

[Andrew]

He does make some movies that seem to strike a cord with viewers like us.  However, they never have the depth that many of Corman's old movies used to.  Stuff like "Arena" or some of the "Puppet Master" films are shallow, but entertaining.  

Mr. Band has also had a tendency to run film companies for a while, then they go bust.  Afterwards, he starts up a new company and goes through the cycle all over again.  From what I have seen, it is becoming a system of diminishing returns.

[StatCat]

Charles Bands intentions were good in the beginning but later just ended up to be total crap. I remember participating in a chat session with him back in about 1998, if anyone can track down a transcript of it I'd be very interested to read it again. Also have Band's autograph a couple of times thanks to my dedication to full moon pictures before they became absolute garbage.

[Andrew]

I think the difference in Band's and Corman's films is this:

Corman often took a concept, like power corrupting, and created a movie around it.

Band often makes a movie, then inserts a message into it.

[Scottie]

Andrew wrote:

"I think the difference in Band's and Corman's films is this:
Corman often took a concept, like power corrupting, and created a movie around it.
Band often makes a movie, then inserts a message into it."
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So, the main difference is that Corman already had an idea for his film and never had to rationalize it because it was always there, while Band on the other hand always had to rationalize his films because they never had a good idea to begin with? Is he the guy who started Full Moon Productions? Or was it distribution? Yeah, those movies were terrible! After about 1995, the quality dropped to zero as they started to fill a lot of space with filler. It kind of reminds me of the filmmaking style of Godfrey Ho over in the Phillipines. He'd buy one movie, cut it up, add his own little story, and paste it back together and repackage it as a kung fu film. It looks like Ho's kung fu is Band's sci-fi. How revolting.

[raj]

Yes, Scottie, Charles Band started Full Moon.  It has resurrected of sorts, here:
http://www.fullmoondirect.com/

He did have some good ideas -- the Subspecies set (though the little demons in first one were poorly done) and the Puppet Master set (though the puppets were evil to begin, then became good.  Huh?)
Execution was uneven.  Full Moon I think was also somehow involved with a softcore company (Seduction Cinema? Surrender Cinema? one of the two.  I'm at the reference desk right now, can't google it.)

There is a certain charm about the movies, decent f/x, o.k. plots, uneven acting & directing; in other words, perfect bad movies.