Thursday, May 21, 2015

Screenshot Trivia #7

Vintage 1986 cinematography; shoot everything at night so no one can tell it's a soundstage
This was a pivotal film in my cinematic development. The key to these lower budget flicks is to make an attempt to rise above the puerile material and get goofy when the timing requires it. It's a revolving door of sequences involving, goofy acting, sex, generic stunts, heroic character arcs. Simple, but don't forget to be unmistakably goofy.

Any Guesses?

Hint: This is one of the few movies to have a character named Oggie, pronounced exactly how my blog name is pronounced. Very portentous. Also, this movie was about as low class/budget ($2.7 million) as would be made in 1986 and it's simply far superior to a $200 million dollar Fast and Furious flick which is technically superior but lacks greatly in the mystique department.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

death race 2000?

Oggy Bleacher said...

So close.
This fine movie is The Wraith with Charlie Sheen as a resurrected racer out for revenge.

Watching this movie brought back many memories as the depictions of a time period 30 years ago was not flattering. Watching this movie is technically like Back to The Future, because I was the same age as the characters in the movie, when the movie came out in 1986. And watching it 30 years later is like returning to 1955 from 1985. From the perspective of a modern teenager in 2015, 1985 is no different than my perception of 1955 was in 1985. Billy Idol is equivalent to Pat Boone. Black Sabbath is like The Chordettes.

Several characters have great quotes such as "This shit's got some kick." when Skank drinks paint thinner. Also Gutter Boy says, "I'm a 4 day virgin." (his final words before dying) My friends and I recited these lines all summer. These are memorable lines and I'm puzzled how few modern movies go for cheap laughs like this. The movie is filled with lame but successful efforts to establish personality/character and that really defines movies from 1986. Even Randy Quaid is goofy. 30 years later every actor is totally stoic. Ryan Gosling hasn't cracked a smile on camera in 9 years. No one is capable of any emotion. "Zaniness' is dead.

The Wraith remains very watchable.


Here's a quote:

Packard Walsh: [Oggie is about to race the Wraith] All right. I want you to tear this guy a new asshole. Do it to him 'Oggie-style'.

Oggie: I'll burn this Iranian!

Creative Commons License
Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.