|
      
|
 |
 |
 |
"We Are Not Alone"
The following movie web sites have either had a strong in influence on B-Notes or are at least noteworthy in some way. There are several others out there, but these are the ones we often visit and tend to recommend to others.
Mostly Older Movies:
The B-Masters Cabal
The B-Masters Cabal is a collection of websites dedicated to.... Uh, sorry. That would be telling. However, they do coordinate their activities (whatever they are) and occasionally will do group reviews of movies.
|
|
or two |
|
| Jabootu's Bad Movie Dimension | Detailed | Our keepers on the web. |
|
|
|
"[A] mad scientist's views on other mad scientists." Witty and fun, plus some of the best writing about the members of the b-movie phylum. |
|
|
City |
"Illuminating the dark heart of video every week" Along with movie reviews based on the Lava Lamp Scale, it's a strip mall of guilty fun. |
|
|
Suburb |
An annex of Stomp Tokyo. Entertaining descriptions of entertainingly bad (and not so bad) movies. Put together by the "treacherous Dr. Freex," who believes a movie should be rated by its sense of fun (the Tor Scale), its parody value (MST3K Scale), and its party value (Tobor Radar Robot scale). |
|
|
Reactive | Straightforward reviews by the former moderator/archivist of The B-Movie Mailing List. The top five percent of the movies reviewed are flagged with a "Hot Fusion" symbol, telling you that these are the real deal. On the other hand, a "Cold Fusion" symbol signifies a cold, inert movie where nothing is happening. |
| Teleport City | Entertainment-Fu | "Hitting you with the whole loaf of Kung-Fu." Stylish presentations of candid movie reviews. Subject features fall into the common cult categories, plus martial arts, anime, and Euro-westerns. Also includes a few album reviews. |
| The Unknown Movies Page | Cinema Obscura | Straightforward reviews of rarely seen movies, taking into account why they are rarely seen. Downright archeological. Part of StompTokyo's Bad Movie Planet. |
| The Brain Eater | More brains! | After a horrible freak accident ("I got drunk and watched a Bruno Mattei double feature.") a respectable man became a movie zombie. The testament of his metamorphosis is this website on general cult movies, Japanese monsters, haunted houses, and Lucio Fulci. |
|
|
Professors Emeriti | Capsule reviews with an irreverent format. One of the best designed and most original sites in the history of bad moviedom on the web, but the owners have since moved onto bigger-better-baaader things. They no longer update, but it's still worth a visit. |
Mostly Older Movies:
Other Places of Note
| Site |
In a word
or two |
Description |
| badmovies.org |
Discovery
|
"A website to the detriment of good film" Contains pictures, sounds, and clips from some true guilty pleasure class monster movies, which are rated on the Slime Scale. Not for small children. |
|
|
||
| Opposable Thumb Films | Hasselhofferrific | "Featuring the only film commentary with the cleansing power of HOFF!" Yet another annex by Stomp Tokyo, and until recently, another member site of the B-Masters. Well written analysis of movies, rated on the (tongue-in-cheek) Hoff' scale. That is, how much would this movie had been improved if David Hasselhoff was in it? The more Hoff's, the worse it is. |
| Be Afraid! |
Cable network TNT dropped John
Bloom's legendary drive-in denizen from their MonsterVision
program like an empty beer can. For those of you who still miss his
enthusiastic monologues about B movies and B living, you can get your fix here.
Meanwhile, MonsterVision has gone belly up. Go figure.... |
|
| Losman's Lair of Horror |
Guide
Book |
Useful introduction to horror films, with subgenera specified. Recommended for those wishing to systematically explore the genre. |
| Dante's Inferno & All Night Video Store | Infernal | "The video vault of the damned." Irreverent (well, duh!) plot descriptions and analyses of mostly action/adventure films, rated strictly for entertainment value on The Devil Scale. For a long time, I never looked at this site because I thought it was, well, a video store. Don't you make the same mistake. Give him a visit, won't you? Part of StompTokyo's Bad Movie Planet and the Rogue Reviewers (see below). |
| 3B Theater | Brew View |
"Making bad movies better one beer at a time." With a design inspired by a line from Strange Brew (1983), it taps out some unapologetic descriptions of and views on some unapologetic movies. Features the Beer Scale, which is directly proportional to how much better the movie might look on a few or possibly too many. (Don't worry. It's all in fun. Honestly.) A founding part of StompTokyo's Bad Movie Planet. |
| The Astounding B-Monster | Astounding | "The Internet's Coolest Cult Movie Resource." News and not-so-news in a magazine format. Unlike most cult movie websites, you'll find original interviews with the people who made older (as in the 1950's) B-movies. Well presented and highly recommended. |
| Rogue Reviewers | B-Fu | A not-so-loose confederation of websites "dedicated to bringing you reviews of some of the best...and worst B-Movies ever made." (Special thanx to the proprietor of The B-Movie Film Vault for bringing this to our attention after our year-long absence.) |
| The Terror Trap | Roadside Attraction | Capsule reviews, plus a few articles, regarding horror films. We don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things (for example, they give high praise to Tourist Trap (1979), the inspiration for the site's name), but the material is well presented and sincere. |
Mostly Newer Movies
| Site |
In a word
or two |
Description |
| Mr. Cranky | Cynical | In the American legal system, the accused is presumed innocent; in Mr. Cranky's world, the most recent releases are presumed guilty and sentenced using the Bomb Scale. Not for small children and their little dogs, too. |
| The Cranky Critic |
Vox
Populi |
"We review movies based strictly on their entertainment value...." His method is simple. When he goes to see a movie, he bases his review on the reactions of the rest of the audience. Then he rates them on the Dollar Scale, with suggested adjustments by demographics. |
| Roger Ebert | Icon | Let's get down to cases on this: When he does that thing on TV, he doesn't speak his mind as much as he does in print, and sometimes the man can be refreshingly crude. (His response to You've Got Mail is, "Yes, and I'm gonna stick it up your modem!") We used to agree with him most of the time, but we don't see things the same way as often as we used to; I don't think that bothers him. |
| The Z Review | Awake | This is the little site that did. Starting out as a collection of justifiably cynical views on mostly newer movies as seen in the U.K., the format has gone mainstream hit. |
| The Movie Review Query Engine | Exhaustive | Sure, you can go to one or two sites to check out a movie review, but if you've got a fast connection, this sucker lets you onto links for several reviews for a given title. It's not pretty, but it is functional and not limited to recent movies. |
| Rotten Tomatoes | Browseable | If you're in a hurry and just want to browse what's recently opened, check this out. Each movie page contains blurb reviews (with links to the source) from several critics, and each blurb is accompanied by a rating on the Fresh-or-Rotten Tomato Scale. |
Reference
| Site |
In a word
or two |
Description |
| The Internet Movie Database | Essential | "The ultimate movie reference source" |
| The All Movie Guide | Competitive | It's not as exhaustive as the IMDB, but it does offer a different view, plus a few titles not in the IMDB. |
| What a Character | Who? | "The Faces You Can't Forget!" Catalogue of character actors. When you watch older B-Movies on a regular basis, these are the people you root for. |
Updated 11 February 2003
|