Anyone notice the plethora of SF "B-Movies" coming out these days?

[RAMA]

Back in the old days..say from the 50s to the mid 1990s, you could count on some low to medium budget SF movies to complement the more well known ones. These days that rarely happens. I did notice that Babylon AD and the remake of all things Death Race 2000 called Death Race are coming out in the very near future. Of course "low budget" today probably means under $50 million...

RAMA

 

[captcalhoun]

um, i think you've got the wrong word there. doesn't 'plethora' mean 'a lot'? if there's very few, it's a 'dearth' isn't it?

 

[Neroon]

Or perhaps a "paucity" ... which I guess is the same as "dearth".

RAMA, I don't know if this meets your qualifications but perhaps such films have found a new home on cable TV and direct-to-video, as opposed to the theater. Lord knows the Sci-Fi Channel fits that bill. Well, at least with B-grade horror flicks, as opposed to regular sci-fi

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Yeah, it seems like the direct-to-DVD/cable market has taken over in that regard. It's unfortunate, because those movies are almost always terrible or cheap knock-offs of larger ones.

Lots of B-movies used to actually be good, they just didn't have A-list stars or large budgets.

It's unfortunate that at least an entire generation has grown up with the notion that B-movies are garbage.

 

[Greg Cox]

Agreed. I think that direct-to-video flicks are the new b-movies. (Or c-movies, in some cases!)

 

[Temis the Vorta]

There's just a boatload of sf/f in general - big-budget and lower-budget both - probably because people are abandoning the theater to get movies on DVD so the smart strategy is to make movies that are "wait-proof" - if you want to see WALL*E, The Dark Knight, The Mummy, etc., you'll be more likely to get to a theater to see them, versus the less visual/visceral type of movie like some Woody Allen flick. What's the point of bothering with that before the DVD comes out?

But the really cheap stuff doesn't fit the strategy. You've got to hit a minimum standard before it's worth going to the theater to see.

 

[RAMA]

um, i think you've got the wrong word there. doesn't 'plethora' mean 'a lot'? if there's very few, it's a 'dearth' isn't it?

No I DID mean there are a lot lately. The ones I mentioned were some of the higher profile ones.

I did consider that "b" movies are now the province of direct-to-dvd but Deathrace might be considered one of the medium budget movies I mentioned.

RAMA