Punishment Park

This 1971 film by Peter Watkins is kinda the original Battle Royale, kinda.

Plot: The Vietnam war rages and Prez Nixon's prisons are at breaking point. "Anti-government" or students are arrested and given two choices; serve your sentence in prison or face Punishment Park, 53 miles of desert, no food, no water and armed police giving chase.

The story is shot in  documentary style and includes interviews with officials and prisoners.

Budget: $66,000

It's a creatively shot story that makes use of a small cast and smaller film crew to create a vision of desperation and political dissent. Very much worth a watch. The big screen is perfect for the expanse of the desert.

Fun Fact: Given the tensions around Vietnam at the time of the films release, British director Watkins came under attack from the film industry and viewers alike. The film was even said to hold communist sentiment and as such was not distributed.

Hannibal Brooks

Yes, it was directed by Michael Winner, for the snobs among us, don't let that put you off.

This 1969 war story follows the exploits of Stephen Hannibal Brooks (Oliver Reed), a POW who is made to work in the Munich Zoo and look after their elephant, Lucy. When air raids threaten the inhabitants, the director of the Zoo sends Brooks, two German Officers and a female cook to the Innsbruck Zoo, safe from the bombing. Not allowed to travel by train, the foursome must walk.

I'll not say too much more. It's a sweet homage to Hannibal, the Carthaginian military commander who took his elephants over the Alps, though updated and amended, somewhat.

Worth a watch on a rainy summer sunday.

Primer

Created on a shoestring budget ($7,000) and shot in a variety of locations, mostly parents garage, living room and brothers flat, director, writer, producer, editor, and star, Shane Carruth has created something special.

Plot: Four engineers/friends have their own company, run from the garage and kitchen, the group try to create a devise to minimise weight. By happenstance, two of the men discover that what they have actually created experiences time differences, it seems they have created a time machine.

Watching this film, you feel transported. The script and acting are top notch, while the cinematography gives a dulled/empty feeling that mirrors the story brilliantly.

Gross: $424,760

Fun Fact: A smash hit at the 2004 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

RoboCop

What can you say about this film. The title as often happens, gives the premise away rather easily.

Plot: Officer Murphy (Peter Weller) and his partener Lewis (Nancy Allen) are cops in Detrioit, a crime and violence ravaged city which is on the brink of coprorate takeover. While on patrol the pair enter into a chase with bank robbers. After trailing them to their hide out, Officer Murphy is riddled with bullets and pronounced dead. Having signed his life over to the police, the corporation now in charge of the precinct, OCP (Omni Consumer Products) takes ownership of his body and procceds with a transplant and insertion. Following extensive surgery, the OCP have a new weapon against crime, his name is...RoboCop!

Shot in 1987, director Paul Verhoeven spent $13,000,000 to create a sci-fi cult film, which, oddly for such endeavours reaped box office reward, $53,424,681 to be precise.

Fun Fact: While Peter Weller wore the suit, he was losing upwards of 3 pounds a day through sweat. There were two sequels and a TV series to follow. There was also talk of a Darren Aronofsky remake, which he quashed at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Journey to the center of the Earth

Filmed in 1959 and based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name, Journey to the center of the Earth is both a Classic and Cult story.

Plot: A professor (James Mason) at Edinburgh university is presented a volcanic rock by a pupil (Pat Boone). Upon investigation, the professor discovers the origin of the rock and a message from a long dead explorer. A proposed a mission to follow the man is launched. As they decend deeper and deeper, the expedition encounters luminesence, giant mushrooms, monsters and the Lost City of Atlantis.

A joy from beginning to end, this is a timeless story that inspires and enchants in equal measure.

Fun Fact: Nominated for Best Effects at the Academy Film Awards.

Damnation Alley

Budgeted at $17,000,000 in 1977, this Fox production was one of only two Sci-Fi releases by the studio that year, the other being a rather unimpressive idea based on the premise of a Western in Space-Star Wars. No faith being shown in Star Wars, Fox quickly lost faith in Damnation Alley too, delaying release with post-production running for ten months.

Based on Roger Zelazny's novel, rather loosely, this film starred George Peppard (Hannibal-A-Team and Jan-Michael Vincent (Airwolf & Big Wednesday) as airforce, post-apocolypic survivors with a big van, who believe others might be living in Albany. Why? You have no reseason to care.

There are two good things in this film;

1. The truck is like a bendy bus and has missiles, also it cost the equivilent of $1,300,000 to make.
2. Sound 360, a pre-cursor to the Surround Sound we use today emphasized the soundtrack, something Star Wars made the best use of.

Fun Fact: Cult TV show Ark II had a very similar van too.

Swamp Thing

This 1982 feature film adaptation (by Wes 'Kruger' Craven) of the comic book Swamp Thing, written by the king of graphic novels, Alan Moore, is, by all manner of thought...a bad film.

Don't get me wrong, there are silly and fun scenes...but mainly, it's a pastiche of a great idea.

Plot: Louisiana, swamp, mad scientist and a whoopsie moment, then the doc gets covered in ooze and mutates, oh and his mrs is killed, so he goes crazy. Fun, fun, fun for all the family.

Best to just read the comics, they have depth and aren't just about a bloke that looks like a green, gooey weed with muscles.

Budget: $3,000,000

Fun Fact: Joel Silver (fella that produced The Matrix) is producing a remake in 3D. Yes there's a sequel, no it's not worth watching.