Angels in the Outfield (1951)
Mar 11, 2001Angels Aid Baseball Team
An amiable venture into the light fantasy films that were popular during this era., Here angels come down and intervene to aid a baseball team on a losing streak
Keenan Wynn
The Glass Slipper (1955)
Aug 25, 2002Cinderella Adaptation
A live-action version of Cinderella starring Leslie Caron. This is a rather staid version with ballet sequences where the magic and romance never much ignites
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)
Apr 9, 1999Anti-Gravity Rubber/Disney Comedy
One of the inspired delights from Disney's live-action era, a hit that became the template for their subsequent live-action films. The scenes with flying vehicles and basketball teams are entirely charming.
Son of Flubber (1963)
Jun 1, 2015Absent-Minded Professor Sequel
Sequel to Disney's The Absent-Minded Professor that only unimaginatively shuffles around the same elements and lacks the inspired touch of the first film
Dr Strangelove or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Nov 16, 2001Nuclear War Black Comedy
Stanley Kubrick decided the only way to make a film about nuclear war was to resort to black comedy. Aided by three sidesplitting performances from Peter Sellers, the result are mercilessly funny
Around the World Under the Sea (1966)
Mar 4, 2001Submarine Adventures
Inspired by Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, this was one among the spate of 1960s underwater adventures. Passable adventure following a team on a quest to plant earthquake sensors on the ocean floor
Finian’s Rainbow (1968)
Aug 17, 2002Leprechaun Musical
One of Francis Ford Coppola's earliest films as director, a musical where Fred Astaire procures a pot of gold and makes a deal with a leprechaun
The Monitors (1969)
Jul 14, 2016Alien Invasion Comedy
Comedy about aliens who have invaded Earth and keep broadcasting commercials to tell how wonderful life is. You feel like this should be great satire but instead the film flounders about without any plot tapping a 60s counter-culture vibe before finding it doesn't have anything to say
Herbie Rides Again (1974)
Jan 11, 2002Cute Car/Disney Comedy
This was the second and best of Disney's Herbie the Love Bug films. Here the entire show hits an inspired height of nonsensical absurdity in terms of cars doing wacky things
The Killer Inside Me (1976)
May 6, 2001Psycho Sheriff
The original film version of the Jim Thompson novel with Stacy Keach as a charismatic and well-liked sheriff's deputy in a small Montana town who harbours a psychopathic side
Orca (1977)
Aug 6, 2000Killer Whale
After his crass remake of King Kong, Dino de Laurentiis went on to make this blatant copy of Jaws, which was widely ridiculed. Contrarily, i rather liked it – a Moby Dick by way of Jaws, it comes with some visually fantastic moments
Laserblast (1978)
Jun 3, 2005Teen Underdog Takes Revenge with an Alien Raygun
One of the first films to come out exploiting the success of Star Wars – a badly made teen underdog fantasy in which bullied Kim Milford takes revenge after finding an alien raygun
Piranha (1978)
Dec 26, 2000Killer Fish
The second film from Joe Dante. Mounted as a quickie copy of Jaws by producer Roger Corman, Dante succeeds in peppering it with a lot of sly jokes and genre in-references
Parts: The Clonus Horror (1979)
Jan 6, 2016Secret Cloning Program
This had its entire plot ripped off as Michael Bay's The Island. Without Bay's action overkill, this is by far the better film, working as a fascinating mystery set-up that leads to an ingenious twist
Billion Dollar Threat (1979)
Nov 3, 1999Spy Film
A TV movie that was released theatrically outside the US with Dale Robinette as a James Bond copycat with Dale Robinette up against villain Patrick MacNee who has weaponised the ozone layer
The Dark (1979)
Jul 3, 2001Alien Monster
An absurd monster movie that was started by Tobe Hooper who walked off set whereupon it was completed by another director whereupon SF elements were added to sell it as a copy of Alien
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Mar 7, 2004Unicorn's Quest/Animation
Beautiful and underrated animated fantasy film about an apprentice magician who protects the last unicorn. This has a maturity that most animated fantasy lacks
Wavelength (1983)
Jul 28, 2002Alien Visitors
Modestly made alien contact film that came out not long after Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Black Moon Rising (1986)
Aug 4, 2000Techno-Thriller/Hi-Tech Car Theft
Made from an old John Carpenter script, this is a reasonable action film starring Tommy Lee Jones as a professional thief who is tasked with stealing a hi-tech car
Hyper Sapien: People from Another Star (1986)
Apr 12, 2003Alien Runaway Kids
This is a derivative and dull copy of E.T. about two alien kids and pet who run away from their family on The Moon and found by a teenage cowboy on a ranch in rural Wyoming