Greatest Cult Classic Movies of All Time
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The term "cult movies" or "cult classics" was popularized in the early 1980s by Danny Peary, who described them as films with a dedicated following. It doesn’t matter if they were No. 1 at the box office or went straight to VHS, though most cult films didn't make big money when they were first released.
Instead, these films have collected a loyal fan base over the years. Some of them have become so popular their catchphrases have wormed their way into the common vernacular, or have entire fan events held in celebration.
These are the best cult films of all time. They are ranked on the strength of their following and just how good the movie is.
51. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
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Year released: 1985
Director: Tim Burton
Written by: Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens, Michael Varhol
Starring: Paul Reubens, E.G. Daily, Mark Holton
Budget: $6 million
Box office: $40.9 million
Best quote: "On this very night, ten years ago, along this same stretch of road, in a dense fog just like this. I saw the worst accident I ever seen. There was this sound, like a garbage truck dropped off the Empire State Building. ... And when they finally pulled the driver's body from the twisted, burning wreck. It looked like this!"
Bottom Line: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
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A twisted tale about one manchild scouring the country for his big red bicycle, "Pee Wee’s Big Adventure" is a good watch for both kids and adults.
But adults will arguably get the better experience out of the twisted movie, which launched Tim Burton’s career.
The film turned 35 in 2019, and Paul Reubens toured the country to attend screenings in 20 major cities.
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50. Death Race 2000
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Year released: 1975
Director: Paul Bartel
Written by: Robert Thom, Charles B. Griffeth
Starring: David Carrdaine, Simone Griffeth, Slyvester Stallone
Budget: $300,000
Box office: $5 million
Best quote: "You know Myra, some people might think you're cute. But me, I think you're one very large baked potato."
Bottom Line: Death Race 2000
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"Death Race 2000" is an oddball B-movie set in a dystopian future where a country-wide race among battle cars has become the new national sport.
There's a cast of comic-book characters out to defeat the reigning champion and national hero, the gimp-suited Frankenstein (David Carradine). Running down pedestrians is encouraged and earns the racers bonus points. Women are worth 40, toddlers are worth 70, and the elderly are worth a whopping 100 points.
But a resistance group has its own plans to capture Frankenstein during the race and use him as leverage against the totalitarian government.
"Death Race 2000" is a stupid fun movie featuring Slyvester Stallone as Machine Gun Joe, whose car has Tommy guns and a cartoonishly large Bowie knife attached to the front.
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49. Rushmore
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Year released: 1998
Director: Wes Anderson
Written by: Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson
Starring: Jason Swartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Brian Cox
Budget: $9 million
Box office: $17 million
Best quote: "I'm sorry. I just came by to thank you for wrecking my life."
Bottom Line: Rushmore
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"Rushmore" is the second movie by Wes Anderson and is a comedic drama about a high school playwright (Jason Schwartzman) and a millionaire (Bill Murray) who both fall for the same teacher (Olivia Williams).
"Rushmore" wasn't a box-office smash, but it was well-received by critics, and has since become a favorite among Anderson's filmography.
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48. Heathers
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Year released: 1988
Director: Michael Lehmann
Written by: Daniel Waters
Starring: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty
Budget: $3 million
Box office: $1.1 million
Best quote: "What is your damage, Heather?"
Bottom Line: Heathers
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While "Heathers" seems even darker with modern rewatches, the movie delivers some delightfully macabre humor.
Casting for the movie proved somewhat difficult as numerous actresses such as Drew Barrymore, Heather Graham and Jennifer Connelly turned down roles. Winona Ryder’s agent begged her not to take the role and told her that she would never work again.
The film was a commercial failure. "I made more money writing a treatment for 'Parent Trap 3' for the Disney Channel that never happened,' writer Daniel Waters told Entertainment Weekly.
But like other cult hits, "Heathers" found its legs on home video and inspired many other mean-girl movies to come. See: "Mean Girls."
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47. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
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Year released: 2001
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Written by: John Cameron Mitchell
Starring: John Cameron Mitchell, Andrea Martin, Michael Pitt, Miriam Shor
Budget: $6 million
Box office: $3.64 million
Best quote: "It's a car wash, ladies and gentlemen."
Bottom Line: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
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"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is a musical comedy about Hedwig Robinson, a fledgling German rock singer who undergoes a botched sex-change operation, leaving her with an "angry inch."
Unsurprisingly, the film did not do well with 2001 audiences and crashed at the box office, although it gained a steady following throughout the years. It would probably be much more well-received in 2020, where conversations about gender have become more commonplace and gender fluidity more accepted.
"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is a brilliant, hilarious film that anyone will enjoy, with some great tracks. The film was based on the 1998 off-Broadway play of the same name, gained fame around the world, and then came to Broadway in 2014 starring Neil Patrick Harris. Hopefully, a new tour will happen in the future.
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46. Primer
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Year released: 2004
Director: Shane Carruth
Written by: Shane Carruth
Starring: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Goode
Budget: $7,000
Box office: $545,436
Best quote: "Man, are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon."
Bottom Line: Primer
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"Primer" is an ultra low-buck indie movie about two friends who discover time travel, and use this new power to travel backward in time and game the stock market. Their plan spirals out of control, with multiple timelines intertwining with their past and future "doubles."
"Primer" was shot on a shoestring budget, with Shane Carruth taking on nearly every role, from directing to acting to composing the music. The entire movie hinges on its script, which is extremely well done and, while deliberately confusing, makes perfect sense upon a few rewatches or by using online guides.
"Primer" is frequently cited as being one of the best movies about time travel, mostly because the labyrinthine plot resembles the impossible complexity of time travel as a concept.
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45. Showgirls
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Year released: 1995
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Written by: Joe Eszterhas
Starring: Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan
Budget: $45 million
Box office: $20.35 million
Best quote: "I'm not a whore. I'm a dancer!"
Bottom Line: Showgirls
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We called "Showgirls" the worst movie of 1995, but it's also so bad it's good. At least, that's what a lot of people think. "Showgirls" bewildered audiences when it came out in 1995 and tanked "Saved by the Bell" star Elizabeth Berkley's career, while simultaneously causing critics to question what the hell happened to satiric genius Paul Verhoeven.
To this day, no one knows if this was a movie that was meant to be serious and completely fell apart or a movie that was meant to be a satire and was played so seriously it's impossible to tell.
"Showgirls" — which is about a woman breaking into the Las Vegas stripping scene and becoming empowered or something — is now shown at midnight showings alongside other cult classics, like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Everything in the movie is so bad that if you don't laugh, you'll break your brain trying to figure out why Verhoeven made this thing.
Seriously, was this supposed to be a satire?
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44. Big Trouble in Little China
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Year released: 1986
Director: John Carpenter
Written by: Garry Goldman, David Weinstein, W.D. Richter
Starring: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun
Budget: $25 million
Box office: $11.1 million
Best quote: "When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye, and asks you if you paid your dues; you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: 'Have you paid your dues, Jack? Yes sir, the check is in the mail.'"
Bottom Line: Big Trouble in Little China
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Jack Burton isn’t your typical hero. He’s a bumbling trucker with an inflated ego who somehow manages to help save the day from supernatural threats.
Like most of John Carpenter’s films during the 1980s, "Big Trouble in Little China" was a box-office disappointment (it didn’t help that "Aliens" released during the same time). But also like almost all of John Carpenter’s films, the movie found new life at home theaters.
The failure of "Big Trouble" at the theater was the tipping point for Carpenter to quit Hollywood and start working on independent films for several years.
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43. Existenz
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Year released: 1999
Director: David Cronenberg
Written by: David Cronenberg
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe
Budget: $15 million
Box office: $2.85 million
Best quote: "I do feel the urge to kill someone here. ... I need to kill our waiter."
Bottom Line: Existenz
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In "Existenz", virtual reality functions more like "The Matrix" than the headsets we have today. Plug your spine into a "biopod," and reality melts into the fantasy world of "Existenz," a game so good you can't tell whether you're in the real world or one manufactured in Silicon Valley.
"Existenz" follows a famous game designer (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is being hunted by assassins. She along with a security guard (Jude Law) escape into deeper layers of virtual reality, until no one knows what's real.
It's a complex, puzzling film that's more fun to watch than the typical Cronenberg film.
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42. Hocus Pocus
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Year released: 1993
Director: Kenny Ortega
Written by: Neil Cuthbert, Mark Garris
Starring: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathay Najimy, Ormiz Katz, Thora Birch
Budget: $28 million
Box office: $39.5 million
Best quote: "Oh look. Another glorious morning. Makes me sick!"
Bottom Line: Hocus Pocus
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"Hocus Pocus" is a Disney film about three dead witch sisters who have come back to life in Salem, Massachusetts, on Halloween. In order to stay alive, the sisters must eat the souls of children, and a group of kids must stop them.
"Hocus Pocus" conjured up just $39.5 million at the box office, failing to earn twice its production budget. It wasn't too well-received critically, either, and was panned by most critics as silly child's fare.
But time can make viewing hearts grow fonder. There isn't much to "Hocus Pocus" story-wise, but it has a great Halloween feel and is a quick and fun family movie to watch when the leaves start turning.
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41. Pink Flamingos
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Year released: 1972
Director: John Waters
Written by: John Waters
Starring: Harris Milstead, David Lochary, Mink Stole
Budget: $10,000
Box office: N/A
Best quote: "Filth is my politics! Filth is my life!"
Bottom Line: Pink Flamingos
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Filthy, lewd, disgusting, dangerous, horrifying, shocking, obscene. "Pink Flamingos" is all of that and more.
This isn’t a movie you’ll want to put on for family night, or possibly not a movie you want to see at all (an actual chicken died during one scene, and the cast and crew ate it afterward).
But a lot of people love "Pink Flamingos," and there’s no doubt that it’s one of the most infamous cult films ever made. It's a wonderful trailer fire.
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40. Repo Man
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Year released: 1984
Director: Alex Cox
Written by: Alex Cox
Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter
Budget: $1.6 million
Box office: $129,000
Best quote: "Flip you, melon farmer!." (TV edit version)
Bottom Line: Repo Man
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"Repo Man" is unusual in the sense that it found much of its popularity because of a special, edited-for-TV version of the film.
In that version, which was cut by Alex Cox, swear words were replaced by phrases like, "Flip you, melon farmer!" The ridiculousness of this, in conjunction with the movie's surreal plot and weird tone, increased its cult following.
The "Repo Man" Criterion Edition includes the cleaned-up cut as one of its many extras.
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39. The Toxic Avenger
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Year released: 1984
Director: Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman
Written by: Joe Ritter
Starring: Mitch Cohen, Mark Torgl, Andree Maranda, Pat Ryan Jr.
Budget: $500,000
Box office: N/A
Best quote: "And you can tell all your scum friends that things are gonna change in this town. I'm not just another pretty face!"
Bottom Line: The Toxic Avenger
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"The Toxic Avenger" is a delightfully sleazy anti-superhero parody about a 98-pound weakling who becomes a hideously deformed superhero with superhuman strength.
It's very low-buck, making its over-the-top violence more comical than gruesome — various props the filmmakers used were melons (for crushed heads) and spaghetti (for guts). It's all done in deliberately bad taste and is the definition of a trash movie. In this case, that's a good thing.
The film even spawned a short-lived, family-friendly cartoon.
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38. Clerks
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Year released: 1994
Director: Kevin Smith
Written by: Kevin Smith
Starring: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti
Budget: $27,575
Box office: $3.1 million
Best quote: "This job would be great if it wasn’t for the f---ing customers."
Bottom Line: Clerks
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"Clerks" captures that feeling of being a young twentysomething no longer in school and firmly planted in a dead-end job. It’s angsty, sure, but it’s also straight clever, with some brilliant lines of dialogue, like the one about what one should try not to do on the way to the parking lot.
It’s also an inspirational film for aspiring filmmakers. Kevin Smith made the movie on a shoestring budget (he shared those figures on his Facebook) and sold it to Miramax.
The film made 112.5 times more than what it cost when it hit the box office in 1994. "Clerks" proved that anyone could make a movie.
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37. The Warriors
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Year released: 1979
Director: Walter Hill
Written by: David Shaber, Walter Hill
Starring: Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenberg
Budget: $4 million
Box office: $22.5 million
Best quote: "Warriors, come out to plaaaay!"
Bottom Line: The Warriors
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While "The Warriors" fictional gangs were comic book imaginings that didn’t mimic the real street thugs of 1970’s New York City, the filmmakers had to pay off real crews during filming.
The film enlisted a contact within the New York Police Department who told them which gang members required a payoff so they could film "The Warriors" in peace.
At one point, someone didn’t get their cut, and a gang urinated on the actors from above an elevated subway track. The making of "The Warriors" is almost just as good as the movie itself. Can you dig it?
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36. Office Space
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Year released: 1999
Director: Mike Judge
Written by: Mike Judge
Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Stephen Root
Budget: $10 million
Box office: $10.8 million
Best quote: "The thing is, Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy. It’s that I just don’t care."
Bottom Line: Office Space
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"Office Space" is the quintessential film that captures the soul-crushing boredom of lower-tier office workers and lets us live vicariously through the one guy who simply stops giving a damn.
Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) one day just stops caring after a hypnosis session, and this attitude and approach to work somehow get him promoted.
He and his other co-workers scheme up a way to slowly siphon money from the company — a plan that goes terribly wrong — but are saved by the actions of one man with a missing stapler.
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35. The Nightmare Before Christmas
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Year released: 1993
Director: Henry Selick
Written by: Caroline Thompson (screenplay) and Tim Burton (book)
Starring: Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, Danny Elfman
Budget: $18 million
Box office: $50 million (original run)
Best quote: (Sung): "What’s this? What’s this? There’s color everywhere. What’s this? There’s white things in the air. What’s this? I can’t believe my eyes, I must be dreaming. Wake up, Jack this isn’t fair. What’s this?"
Bottom Line: The Nightmare Before Christmas
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Put aside the excessive commercialization, and "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a super-catchy musical with expertly done stop motion. It’s a staple for both Halloween and Christmas.
The film seems to be one of Hot Topic’s main pillars and has grown into a billion-dollar merchandising machine. That’s quite unusual for a cult film, and film snobs might wrinkle their nose at this Tim Burton movie.
But there’s no denying its devoted fanbase.
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34. Tremors
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Year released: 1990
Director: Ron Underwood
Written by: Brent Maddock, Steven Seth Wilson
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Reba McEntire, Michael Gross
Budget: $10 million
Box office: $16.6 million
Best quote: "We killed it! F---! You!"
Bottom Line: Tremors
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"Tremors" is a movie about giant man-eating worm monsters that burrow underneath the desert sands of Nevada and a group of survivors who need to get the hell out of there.
It's a schlocky horror-comedy with some great practical effects and a stellar cast, including a standout performance by Michael Gross (who went on to star in all six of the increasingly bad "Tremors" sequels) and Reba McEntire's first acting gig.
There's little to dislike about "Tremors," if anything at all.
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33. Re-Animator
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Year released: 1985
Director: Stuart Gordon
Written by: Dennis Paoli, William J. Norris, Stuart Gordon
Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale
Budget: $900,000
Box office: $2 million
Best quote: "Mister West! I suggest you get yourself a pen."
Bottom Line: Re-Animator
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"Re-Animator" is a horror-comedy about a mad scientist med student, Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), who has developed a serum that can bring corpses back to life. It is very, very loosely based on the H.P. Lovecraft short story, "Herbert West — Reanimator."
Like many B-horror movies from the 1980s, "Re-Animator" has a bunch of bloody special effects. In fact, it received an infamous X rating in theaters and was later edited for an R-rated edition for movie rental stores.
But because the movie is a horror film — and also because of its low budget— these special effects are more funny-looking than terrifying.
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32. Fight Club
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Year released: 1999
Director: David Fincher
Written by: Jim Uhls (screenplay), Chuck Palahniuk (book)
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Budget: $63 million
Box office: $101.8 million
Best quote: "The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of fight club is, you do not talk about Fight Club."
Bottom Line: Fight Club
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Inspired by a camping trip fight between freshman author Chuck Pahalinuk and some unruly campers, "Fight Club" went from a book with mediocre sales to a movie with terrible box-office ticket sales to a cultural phenomenon. Hell, Rosie O’Donnell hated the movie so much that she spoiled the ending for millions in order to harm the movie’s box-office returns.
Today, none of that matters. The movie found an extremely profitable life when it came out on DVD and remains an endlessly rewatchable movie.
If you want to learn more about the making of "Fight Club," we’ve written about it extensively.
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31. The Shawshank Redemption
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Year released: 1994
Director: Frank Darabont
Written by: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton
Budget: $25 million
Box office: $28.38 million
Best quote: "I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope."
Bottom Line: The Shawshank Redemption
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Perhaps the most universally beloved movie of all time, "The Shawshank Redemption" is indeed a cult film.
The movie absolutely bombed at the box office, accruing just $16 million during its first three-month run in the theaters. The film was pulled after Thanksgiving, but thanks to seven Academy Award nominations, the film was re-released in theatres in 1995, where it made enough back to cover its budget. It found popularity on home video, and later on TNT, where it’s still regularly shown.
If you love the movie, we have an entire, in-depth article about behind-the-scenes facts and trivia about "The Shawshank Redemption."
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30. Idiocracy
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Year released: 2006
Director: Mike Judge
Written by: Mike Judge, Ethan Cohen
Starring: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Terry Crews
Budget: $2.4 million
Box office: $495,503
Best quote: "As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down.
How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species."
Bottom Line: Idiocracy
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"Idiocracy" is a fantastically silly film that, unfortunately, seems to be getting more and more documentary-like as anti-science fringe theorists enter the mainstream at a worrying rate.
The concept of "Idiocracy" is pretty much what we selected for the best quote. Stupid people have out-bred the intelligent ones, and the human race has become abnormally dumb, electing an incoherent reality TV star as president and opposing even the most non-invasive methods to prevent the spread of a deadly virus.
Wait, that second part doesn't sound right.
In the movie, people 500 years in the future have elected Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camancho (Terry Crews) as president, a machine-gun wielding, pro-wrestler type figure who is trying to fix the world's crumbling economy and food shortages. He can't, of course, so he hires Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), a U.S. Army corporal from 2005.
The film absolutely flopped at the box office because 20th Century Fox put just about zero dollars behind marketing — including no ads or trailers — did not screen the film for critics and crippled it with a severely limited theatrical release (even the movie's budget is still somewhat of a mystery). But you can't stop a good movie from gaining an audience, as this one did.
Watch a (fan-made) trailer
29. Tank Girl
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Year released: 1995
Director: Rachel Talalay
Written by: Tedo Sarafian
Starring: Lori Petty, Ice-T, Naomi Watts, Malcolm McDowell
Budget: $25 million
Box office: $6 million
Best quote: "It hasn't rained in 11 years! Now, 20 people gotta squeeze inside the same bathtub. So it ain't all bad."
Bottom Line: Tank Girl
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People had high hopes for "Tank Girl," which had already amassed a cult following from fans of the comic books.
But the film didn't meet expectations among critics, few people ventured out to see the post-apocalyptic steampunk flick, and "Tank Girl" was an enormous failure at the box office.
Over the past 25 years, the picture has been looked upon more favorably. As of 2019 a reboot possibly starring Margot Robbie is planned. That's some perfect casting.
Watch a trailer
28. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
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Year released: 1971
Director: Mel Stuart
Written by: Roald Dahl
Starring: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum
Budget: $3 million
Box office: $4 million
Best quote: "You get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!"
Bottom Line: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
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It’s strange to think that "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" was a bomb when it was released in 1971. It’s difficult to say exactly how much "Willy Wonka" made during its initial run, as The Numbers only has an estimated $4 million in box office takes, while Box Office Mojo has no data for that time.
Regardless, the movie found popularity in syndication when it appeared on television in 1975. Despite the first VHS film appearing in 1976, "Willy Wonka" was first released on VHS in 1984 in the U.K and then in 1988 in the United States. By then, its popularity had exploded.
The movie is skillfully crafted, comfortable and just a tad terrifying at times.
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27. Videodrome
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Year released: 1983
Director: David Cronenberg
Written by: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Woods, Sonia Smits, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorksy
Budget: $5.95 million
Box office: $2.1 million
Best quote: "This is Videodrome! Long live the new flesh!"
Bottom Line: Videodrome
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"Videodrome" is one of the most bizarre sci-fi horror movies ever made.
In the film, Max Renn (James Woods), a small television station president, is consumed by a mysterious show called Videodrome. The show, which only shows violence and murder, induces hallucinations in Renn, and he discovers the show has a much more deadly purpose.
It's a disturbing movie that only David Cronenberg could make. It's fascinating, too, although you'll need a strong stomach to sit through the entire film and not look away at its goriest moments.
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26. Dazed and Confused
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Year released: 1993
Director: Richard Linklater
Written by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jason London, Cole Hauser, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich
Budget: $6.9 million
Box office: $8 million
Best quote: "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."
Bottom Line: Dazed and Confused
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"Dazed and Confused" is a classic high school comedy that made everyone say, "Alright, alright, alright." Eventually, at least. The movie only made $8 million on a $6.9 million budget — a commercial failure by studio standards— although it was a critical success.
The original idea for "Dazed and Confused" was much different than what was actually produced. Writer/director Richard Linklater initially wanted the movie to take place wholly within a single car ride, with two guys driving around and talking while ZZ Top’s entire “Fandango!” album played in the background.
Thankfully, we got something much better. One of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite films.
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25. American Psycho
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Year released: 1991
Director: Mary Harron
Written by: Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner, Bret Easton Ellis
Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto
Budget: $7 million
Box office: $34.3 million
Best quote: "Is that a raincoat?"
Bottom Line: American Psycho
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"American Psycho" is both disturbing and funny as hell. Based on the Bret Easton Ellis book of the same name, the movie follows Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), a trust-fund executive who is more concerned with murders and executions than mergers and acquisitions.
Whether Bateman actually does murder anyone or if the entire movie is just one psychotic daydream is left to the interpretation of the viewer.
It’s a great film to rewatch and debate with friends.
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24. Donnie Darko
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Year released: 2001
Director: Richard Kelly
Written by: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore
Budget: $4.5 million
Box office: $7.5 million
Best quote: Donnie Darko: "Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?" Frank: "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"
Bottom Line: Donnie Darko
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A film about free will, time travel, cellar doors, superheroes, and the terrible lives of smurfs, "Donnie Darko" is one of those movies that requires another watch. And a third. And probably a fourth. Maybe a fifth for good measure.
A lot is going on in "Donnie Darko," and the movie will make little sense upon a first watch. Those who want to fully understand the film will want to read about "The Philosophy of Time Travel," the fictional book in the "Donnie Darko" universe, as well as fan theories and director commentary on the DVD.
But none of that is needed in order to appreciate a movie that is weird, engaging and intriguing.
Watch a trailer
32. Scarface
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Year released: 1983
Director: Brian De Palma
Written by: Oliver Stone
Starring: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer
Budget: $23 million-$37 million
Box office: $66 million
Best quote: "What you lookin' at? You all a bunch of f----n' assholes. You know why? You don't have the guts to be what you wanna be. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your f----n' fingers and say, 'That's the bad guy.' So? What that make you?
Good? You're not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say goodnight to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There's a bad guy comin' through! Better get outta his way!"
Bottom Line: Scarface
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"Scarface" is an example of a cult movie that made a modest amount at the box office and received middling reviews, but then became one of the most influential movies in history.
Even people who haven't seen "Scarface" know about Tony Montana, the ridiculously slimy and foul-mouthed drug king played to screaming perfection by Al Pacino.
"Scarface" made a lot of cash once it hit stores, raking in $5 million in videocassette sales — which cost $79.95 each — in 1984.
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22. Akira
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Year released: 1988
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Written by: Katsuhiro Otomo, Izo Hashimoto
Starring: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Taro Ishida
Budget: $5.5 million
Box office: $49 million
Best quote: "Amoebas don't build their own houses and bridges, do they? They just devour all the food they can find around them."
Bottom Line: Akira
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"Akira" is a groundbreaking anime that introduced much of the Western world to Japanese anime.
It's a frenetic, violent cyberpunk film about a biker gang leader who acquires psychokinetic superpowers and goes absolutely mad.
The animation is still awesome, and the film has influenced scores of Hollywood films, television shows and video games.
Watch a trailer
21. Friday
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Year released: 1995
Director: F. Gary Gray
Written by: Ice Cube, DJ Pooh
Starring: Chris Tucker, Ice Cube, Nia Long, Tom Lister Jr., Regina King, Bernie Mac
Budget: $3.5 million
Box office: $28.2 million
Best quote: "You got knocked the f--- out, man!"
Bottom Line for Friday
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"Friday" is about two friends who become $200 in debt to the local neighborhood drug supplier, and have half a day to come up with the money.
It's a classic stoner comedy movie made by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh, who wanted to make a movie about the hood that wasn't as grim as films like "Menace II Society" and "Boyz N the Hood."
The entire movie was shot in only 20 days, and the role of Smokey was written for Chris Tucker — although he was so bad at the audition, he was given extra time to come back and prepare.
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20. Withnail and I
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Year released: 1987
Director: Bruce Robinson
Written by: Bruce Robinson
Starring: Paul McGann, Richard E. Grant, Richard Griffiths
Budget: £1 million (roughly $1.6 million)
Box office: $1.6 million
Best quote: "We are not drunks. We are multi-millionaires."
Bottom Line for Withnail and I
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"Withnail and I" is a British dark comedy about two drunk, unemployed actors stumbling about the English countryside on holiday. There's not much of a plot, and there doesn't need to be one. It's loaded with quotable lines and is one of the funniest British movies ever made.
Even more surprising is Richard E. Grant's performance as Withnail. Grant is a teetotaler as his body cannot metabolize alcohol. He did, however, go on a 12-hour bender to learn what it was like being drunk.
It ended with him projectile vomiting all over the studio.
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19. Harold and Maude
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Year released: 1971
Director: Hal Ashby
Written by: Colin Higgins
Starring: Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort
Budget: $1.3 million
Box office: N/A
Best quote: "Harold, everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You just can't let the world judge you too much."
Bottom Line: Harold and Maude
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A black comedy about the love affair between a pseudo-suicidal 19-year-old and a licorice-stick sucking 80-year-old woman, "Harold and Maude” was initially a disaster at the box office. So much so that whatever money it made during its short initial run hasn’t been recorded by major number-crunching sites like Box Office Mojo or The Numbers.
It took 12 years for "Harold and Maude" to finally turn a profit, thanks to its cult following.
Ruth Gordon, who played Maude, almost threw her $50,000 check away when it came over a decade later. "I thought it was one of those sweepstakes from the Reader's Digest," Gordon told The New York Times in 1983.
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18. Brazil
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Year released: 1985
Director: Terry Gilliam
Written by: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown
Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins
Budget: $15 million
Box office: $9.9 million
Best quote: "That is a receipt for your husband — thank you! — and this is a receipt for my receipt."
Bottom Line for Brazil:
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A surreal, dark comedy from the mind of Terry Gilliam, "Brazil" is a mixture of dystopias from George Orwell and Franz Kafka.
"Brazil" is difficult to explain. It's about a low-level bureaucrat (Johnathan Pryce) who has fantastical daydreams about being a hero and saving a damsel in distress. He gets mixed up in a plot involving a terrorist HVAC worker and an insane, Kafkaesque government.
It's beautifully bizarre, funny and depressing.
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17. The Return of the Living Dead
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Year released: 1985
Director: Dan O'Bannon
Written by: Rudy Ricci, John A. Russo, Russell Streiner
Starring: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Leanna Quigley, Beverly Randolph, Thom Matthews
Budget: $4 million
Box office: $14.2 million
Best quote: "Come in dispatch. Send ... more ... paramedics."
Bottom Line: The Return of the Living Dead
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"The Return of the Living Dead" is a zombie film satire that is endlessly rewatchable. The film starts with two medical supply warehouse workers talking about how George Romero's "The Night of the Living Dead" was based on a real event, although they got some of the details wrong. The reanimated corpses actually were caused by a chemical developed by the Army, and a few barrels of it accidentally ended up in their storage.
After opening the containers, some corpses come back to life, and the workers kill and burn the corpses in an incinerator, causing acid rain clouds that spread the chemical throughout the town.
"The Return of the Living Dead" is a rare horror-comedy that hits every note, making it not only one of the best cult classics of all time but also one of the best zombie films ever made.
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16. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
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Year released: 1978
Director: George Romero
Written by: George Romero, Dario Argento
Starring: David Emge, Ken Foree, Gaylen Ross
Budget: $1.5 million
Box office: $55 million
Best quote: "We got this, man! We got this by the ass!"
Bottom Line: Dawn of the Dead
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While each of the original "Night of the Living Dead" trilogy films have a cult following, "Dawn of the Dead" is the most beloved.
There’s something oddly comforting about holing up from the zombie apocalypse in a shopping mall with a few other survivors.
Ya know, until a biker gang busts through the doors and everything goes to hell in a gloriously bloody mess.
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15. The Evil Dead
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Year released: 1983
Director: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam Raimi
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy baker
Budget: $350,000
Box office: $2.66 million
Best quote: "We can’t bury Shelly. She’s a friend of ours."
Bottom Line: The Evil Dead
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Sam Raimi and Bruce Cambell were childhood friends. In 1978, they created "Within the Woods," a zero-budget, 30-minute horror flick used as a proof of concept to secure funding for "The Evil Dead."
The "Evil Dead" prequel, which is available on YouTube in all its VHS blurriness, was good enough to gain investor interest and acquire the $350,000 needed to make one of the greatest cult movies from the 1980s.
Being the first in the "The Evil Dead" franchise, Raimi’s 1983 film is the most serious iteration of the bunch. It’s also wonderfully violent. The MPAA’s "X" rating, which used to be a death knell for a film’s financial health, just made it more popular.
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14. Blade Runner (1982)
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Year released:1982
Director: Ridley Scott
Written by: Hampton Fancher and David Peoples
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young
Budget: $30 million
Box office: $32.9 million
Best quote: “Wake up. Time to die."
Bottom Line: Blade Runner
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A box-office bomb when it debuted, the original "Blade Runner" grew into a cult classic and highly influential film.
Look at nearly any cyberpunk-leaning sci-fi flick, and you’ll see traces of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, whose future Los Angeles is a technologically advanced but gritty city stuffed with neon signs and battered by torrential rain. Harrison Ford is great as Rick Deckard, but the late Ruger Hauer, playing the android Roy Batty, steals the show.
The "final cut" version of "Blade Runner" is what you want to see. Avoid the original theatrical version, where Ford was dragged "kicking and screaming" into the studio for a voiceover in post, and allegedly sabotaged his performance by giving the most listless voiceover possible.
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13. Eraserhead
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Year released: 1977
Director: David Lynch
Written by: David Lynch
Starring: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart
Budget: $10,000
Box office: $7 million
Best quote: “In heaven, everything is fine. You’ve got your good things and you’ve got mine."
Bottom Line: Eraserhead
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Explaining "Eraserhead" to someone who hasn’t seen it is an exercise in futility.
It’s a surreal experimental film that every self-indulgent college art movie has tried to replicate for the past 40-plus years. Only it's good. Really good. And deeply unsettling.
The "Eraserhead" Criterion Edition is the way to go. It offers interviews with the cast and crew members, along with archival commentary from David Lynch.
Watch a trailer
12. The Room
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Year released: 2003
Director: Tommy Wiseau
Written by: Tommy Wiseau
Starring: Tommy Wiseau, Greg Sestero, Juliette Danielle
Budget: $6 million (somehow)
Box office: N/A
Best quote: "I did not hit her! I did NOT! Oh hi, Mark."
Bottom Line: The Room
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"The Room" is one of the holy grails of so-bad-it’s-good movies. Movies like this require a director with three things: delusion; a complete and fundamental misunderstanding of the filmmaking process; and the belief that what they’re making isn’t just good, it’s genius.
There have been thousands and thousands of words dedicated to the baffling creation of "The Room," not even including the book, "The Disaster Artist," which spawned a movie of the same name.
To his credit, Tommy Wiseau has rolled with the punches — and there have been many of them — and regularly appears at screenings of his happenstance masterpiece throughout the country.
Watch a trailer
11. They Live
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Year released: 1988
Director: John Carpenter
Written by: John Carpenter
Starring: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster
Budget: $4 million
Box office: $13 million
Best quote: "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass and chew bubblegum ... and I’m all out of bubblegum."
Bottom Line: They Live
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What happens when a drifter named "Nada" finds a pair of sunglasses that unveils a hidden world of aliens and subliminal messaging used to keep the people of earth as capitalistic sheep?
He goes on a bubblegum-less tear to take down our hidden alien overlords. And he fights his only friend in one of the most iconic fight scenes in movie history.
Roddy Piper actually believed that "They Live" had its roots in an event known as the Brunswick Affair, which Piper thought was real.
In reality, “The Brunswick Affair” was a mockumentary from the 1970s about a television manufacturer that sent subliminal messages via its television to make people buy more stuff.
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10. Army of Darkness
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Year released: 1992
Director: Sam Raimi
Written by: Sam and Ivan Raimi
Starring: Bruce Campbell
Budget: $13 million
Box office: $21.5 million
Best quote: "Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! It’s a twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington, S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That’s right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?!"
Bottom Line: Army of Darkness
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"Army of Darkness" is less violent than "Evil Dead" I and II, and it relies more on humor and camp than its predecessors as well. And it works wonderfully.
"Army of Darkness" didn’t do great at the theaters, pulling in $11.5 million domestically and an estimated $10 million internationally. Production was severely underbudgeted. Initially, the film only had an $8 million budget, which proved way too little.
Even after Universal gave the crew another $6 million, Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and producer Rob Tapert pulled $1 million out of their salaries to fund necessary reshoots.
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9. The Blues Brothers
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Year released: 1980
Director: John Landis
Written by: Dan Aykroyd, John Landis
Starring: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher, John Candy
Budget: $27.5 million
Box office: $115.2 million
Best quote: "It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses."
"Hit it."
Bottom Line: The Blues Brothers
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"The Blues Brothers" originally had a budget of $17.5 million. It exceeded that by $10 million, with costs ballooning to accommodate the fleets of cars needed (103 of them) and John Belushi's drug habit, which caused filming delays. The stunt scenes in the film are nuts; the final car chase scene included a car being dropped from 1,200 feet and needed the Federal Aviation Administration's approval. Hell, the movie even had a cocaine budget — but is anyone surprised?
"The Blues Brothers" was extremely successful when it released in theatres, grossing $115 million worldwide and becoming an instant cult classic around the world.
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8. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
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Year released: 1974
Director: Tobe Hooper
Written by: Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel
Starring: Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Paul Partain
Budget: $60,000
Box office: $30.8 million
Best quote: "The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Bottom Line: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
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"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was the prototype for modern slasher flicks and the "final girl" trope. The making of "Chainsaw" is harrowing, starting at the very beginning — director Toby Hooper got the Leatherface idea from a doctor, who told him that he once skinned a cadaver for a Halloween mask.
The movie was filmed during the sweltering summer days in Austin, Texas, with only one working restroom for a cast and crew of 40 people, who worked seven days a week for 12 to 16 hours.
If "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" makes you feel kind of gross while viewing it, it makes sense, because the cast and crew were going nuts in real life.
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7. Starship Troopers
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Year released: 1997
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Written by: Edward Neumeier
Starring: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, Dina Meyer, giant bugs
Budget: $105 million
Box office: $121.2 million
Best quote: "I’m doing my part!"
Bottom Line: Starship Troopers
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Initially excoriated by critics who couldn’t figure out that this film was a parody of hyper-nationalism, "Starship Troopers" was panned for being some kind of odd, overly violent action movie with a strange ensemble of overly attractive stars.
But "Starship Troopers" is a brilliant film dripping with irony.
Every single person fighting for the United Citizen Federation has been brainwashed by the state and called to enlist in a war that the UCF started to begin with. It ends with a swarm of UCF soldiers surrounding the "brain bug" while Jenkins (Neil Pattrick Harris) proudly declares "It’s afraid!" and everyone erupts in cheers.
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6. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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Year released: 1975
Director: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones
Written by: Monty Python
Starring: Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin)
Budget: £229,575 (about $285,000)
Box office: N/A
Best quote: "'Tis but a scratch."
Bottom Line: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is the first original film created by the legendary Pythons. The movie is one of the best comedies ever made, with humor that is as fresh as it was 45 years ago.
To achieve their very modest budget, the Pythons raised £20,000 ($24,781) from 10 investors, three of whom were the rock bands Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin and Genesis.
"There was no studio interference because there was no studio. None of them would give us any money," Terry Gilliam told The Guardian in 2002. "This was at the time income tax was running as high as 90 percent, so we turned to rock stars for finance. Elton John, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, they all had money, they knew our work and we seemed a good tax write-off. Except, of course, we weren't. It was like 'The Producers.'"
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5. The Princess Bride
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Year released: 1987
Director: Rob Reiner
Written by: William Goldman
Starring: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Robin Wright
Budget: $16 million
Box office: $30.9 million
Best quote: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Bottom Line: The Princess Bride
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"The Princess Bride" is not an inconceivable success. Wry, charming and full of heart, "The Princess Bride" captures the imagination of both children and adults. Originally a film that made slightly less than double its budget — generally a failure by studio standards — the film did receive glowing reviews.
On VHS, the film found its rightful popularity. And the film has been selling thousands of units per week ever since.
According to The Numbers, the DVD has sold nearly 6.2 million units between November 2007 and October 2019.
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4. Pulp Fiction
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Year released: 1994
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Written by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken
Budget: $8 million
Box office: $213.9 million
Best quote: Jules: "What country are you from?" Brett: "What?" Jules: "What ain’t no country I ever heard of! They speak English in What?" Brett: "Wh-what?" Jules: “English, mother------! Do you speak it!?"
Bottom Line: Pulp Fiction
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"Pulp Fiction" is a flat-out masterpiece of a movie on every level. The dialogue is fantastic, the score is awesome, the performances are great, and the story is better than a royale with cheese. The film rewards casual viewers and cinephiles alike.
This is the movie that made Samuel L. Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson.
And thank God for that.
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3. This Is Spinal Tap
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Year released: 1984
Director: Rob Reiner
Written by: Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer
Starring: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner
Budget: $2 million
Box office: $4.5 million
Best quote: "These go to 11."
Bottom Line: This Is Spinal Tap
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"This Is Spinal Tap" is the movie that launched the mockumentary genre, roughly 20 years before that style of entertainment became mainstream.
The film was not a financial success at the box office but found a dedicated fanbase after it was released on VHS.
It’s one of the most influential comedy films ever made, and given that most of the dialogue was improvised, that’s even more impressive.
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2. The Big Lebowski
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Year released:1998
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Written by: Ethan and Joel Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston
Budget: $15 million
Box office: $46.7 million
Best quote: "Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man."
Bottom Line: The Big Lebowski
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Possibly the best comedy in the last 20-plus years, "The Big Lebowski" is endlessly quotable, endlessly rewatchable, and perfectly executed. There isn’t a single minute in its one hour and 59-minute runtime that could be cut, nor a snippet of dialogue excluded.
On top of that, the movie has a rabid fan following. Lebowski Fest is a yearly celebration where fans dress up as their favorite characters of the movie, drink white Russians, bowl, and be very Dude-like for two nights.
"The Big Lebowski" is the penultimate cult classic film. It ties this whole list together.
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1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
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Year released: 1975
Director: Jim Sharman
Written by: Richard O’Brien and Jim Sharman
Starring: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick
Budget: $1.4 million
Box office: $112.9 million
Best quote: "I see you shiver with antici...pation."
Bottom Line: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
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There is no denying that "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is the ultimate cult movie. Ignored upon release, the film drew a following at the Waverly Theater in New York City, with fans starting to cheer and recite lines along with the movie.
The movie has gained such a following that there is an official participation guide of what to do during certain scenes for newcomers.
No other movie has achieved such a strong and enduring cult following. A toast!
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