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   Now in our seventh calendar year
    PCR #302  (Vol. 7, No. 1)  This edition is for the week of January 1--8, 2006.

LA FLORIDIANA
Book Review: Sunshine Skies: Historic Commuter Airlines of Florida and Georgia....PhyMed Partners, Inc.: From the Criminal to the Civil  by William Moriaty
MOVIE REVIEW
"The Producers"  by Mike Smith
MY MIDDLE TOE
Is Tampa's Film Community Obsessed with B-Movies?  by Mark Terry
DEADGUY'S DEMENTIA
A Shot In The Dark  by Mike "Deadguy" Scott
SPLASH PAGE
2005 – A Year to Forget?...Looking Ahead....Can't Believe What We Read?  Brandon Jones
MATT'S RAIL
Bush Is Great!!!...King Kong DVD....The Return of Dick Clark....Masters of Horror Update  by Matt Drinnenberg
MIKE'S RANT
Happy New Year....Passing On....Miscommunication....Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards....My Favorite Films--Chapter 1: The Buddy Holly Story  by Mike Smith
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My Second Toe Is Longer Than Yours

Is Tampa's Film Community Obsessed with B-Movies?  

I can't think of a better way to kick off the new year than talking about something that is the center point of this web site and the Tampa Film Community. B-Movies!

I always talk about how I grew up in the 80s. Without a doubt the 80s films shaped my own tastes in movies to this day. I'm sure the same way Roger Corman B-Movies shaped the thinking of folks my father's age. The single biggest influence on my movie watching as a kid is Golan-Globus, which bought the Cannon Group. Golan-Globus is most known for making their formulaic action movies during the 1980s. Some of their more memorable movies to me are Cobra (Sylvester Stallone), Cyborg (Van Damme), Invasion USA (Chuck Norris), and the sequels to the Death Wish series (Charles Bronson). These are just a few of the films off the top of my head. Golan-Globus had every action star swallowed up. Hell they even dabbled in horror movies making the God awful sequel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If you haven't seen it lets just say it isn't one of Dennis Hoppers' most shining moments.

My always handy source, Wikipedia.com, defines a B-Movie as the following. The term B-movie originally referred to a Hollywood Motion Picture designed to be distributed as the "lower half" of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters, or horror. You have to also throw in action movies to that as well. I also notice Wikipedia.com says, "B-Movies originally referred to..." as if that term isn't true any more. They are right the term is not true anymore.

Golan-Globus' feature "Cyborg"
1989's "Cyborg", Starring Jean Claude Van Damme, would be Golan-Globus' last feature. The film was originally slated to be the sequel of the He-man movie "Masters of the Universe" which proved to be Golan-Globus' biggest failure financially.
Such B-Movie companies are as I mentioned The Cannon Group, Full Moon Entertainment (Charles Band), New Concorde (Roger Corman), and so on. These are the top tear of B-Movies. Without sounding redundant they are the A-list of B-Movies. Then there is the lower bracket of B-Movies which includes Troma, Ei, and ultra low budget companies that try to emulate them.

The reason for the big set up is to pose a question. Why is the Tampa film community obsessed with B-Movies? Now maybe a lot of the local film makers are like me and grew up watching these films. I know personally its a lot more fun to make a genre film then it is to make a drama.

I have to play devil's advocate as well on this subject. If a B-Movie is defined as a lower half of a double feature, is the Tampa Film Community aiming low? Maybe getting these b-movie actors and actress' in our films is like asking an ugly girl on a date. You know you won't rejected. You can't exclude me from this discussion either. Then again we did make a feature making fun of how bad D grade B-Movies are today.

So what's the solution in all this discussion? I don't know. If I did have an answer chances are no one would listen to me anyway.

I do know this much though about B-Movies. Golan-Globus made a business out of B-Movies. They sometimes pumped out over 10 films a year and made money on all of them. The term in Vegas is "It takes money to make money." These two cousins from Jerusalem had the bank role to prove that theory correct. You can also throw Roger Corman into the group with Golan-Globus. Corman's book on how he made B-Movies in Hollywood and never lost a penny is very interesting.

I truly hope that one day two young business men come along like Yorman Golbus and Menahem Golan and bring money to Florida's film community. Using SAG-Indie or going nonunion and using financial core for name talent, is something that could be done for sure.

For a list of Gloan-Globus' films visit the link here: http://imdb.com/company/co0159707


"My Middle Toe Is Longer Than Yours" is ©2006 by Mark Terry.  Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova.  All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2006 by Nolan B. Canova.