Jump to content

Good Pulp Movies to watch


voodoo54

Recommended Posts

Tron 2 was really good... Wait, what??? I really like the tv show Murdoch Mysteries. It's a murder mystery show set in late Victorian/early Edwardian Toronto. Good show.

 I don't know if it has been shown where you are but "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" is worth a look (set in Melbourne, Australia in the 1920's) is another good Pulp crime detective show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
  • 8 months later...
Quote

If you watch with your hands covering your eyes and only peeking through your fingers you can try the Frank Miller version of The Spirit.

 

Its actually  not awful.  The first half or so is pretty poorly done, disappointing stuff, but it gets a lot better as the movie goes along and is pretty solid by the second half.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...
Quote

 

Crap movie but the clothing was spot on...

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

 

 

While directing is uneven and acting can be bad, and as screenwriting can be very unreliable, the one area that is rock solid amazing and perfect in almost every Hollywood film is the set design and costuming.  Those guys break their backs trying to get every single detail right, even things you barely notice or will never see.  That's where the real professionals work.  All that CGI and the explosions just distract everyone from the solid, excellent jobs by unsung heroes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

While directing is uneven and acting can be bad, and as screenwriting can be very unreliable, the one area that is rock solid amazing and perfect in almost every Hollywood film is the set design and costuming.  Those guys break their backs trying to get every single detail right, even things you barely notice or will never see.  That's where the real professionals work.  All that CGI and the explosions just distract everyone from the solid, excellent jobs by unsung heroes.

 

I hella totally agree with you about the real professionals in the film business who put in the hard work are the set designers, costumes, et al. It's truly a craft and an art. I know someone who did costumes for Chicago theater productions and was the only costumer in the crew. It's very hard work even when you may start from existing pieces of clothing and make modifications.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Danger Diabolik ! could easily be adapted for a Pulp scenario.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger:_Diabolik

The villain has the requisite cool lair and his robberies don't have to be superpowered. Stealing $10 million from the police on a dock; scaling a building to steal a necklace; getting away from the police using a catapult and misdirection; getting away from fellow criminals in a plane or airship; destroying the entire country's tax records; stealing a giant ingot of gold.

It could easily be done

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, death tribble said:

Danger Diabolik ! could easily be adapted for a Pulp scenario.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger:_Diabolik

The villain has the requisite cool lair and his robberies don't have to be superpowered. Stealing $10 million from the police on a dock; scaling a building to steal a necklace; getting away from the police using a catapult and misdirection; getting away from fellow criminals in a plane or airship; destroying the entire country's tax records; stealing a giant ingot of gold.

It could easily be done

Sounds like he might be the inspiration for Monkey Punch's classic manga Lupin III (and the anime TV series and movies adapted from it, including Miyazaki's first film The Castle of Cagliostro). Lupin has a similar knack for escaping the scrapes he gets himself into, and has attempted such grand-scale crimes. He doesn't always get the prize, but he always lives to steal another day (in spite of the INTERPOL Inspector whose entire way of life revolves around bringing him to justice). And in the process he often brings down criminals who are much worse than he is.

 

The ,music video for the Beastie Boy's "Body Moving" was directly inspired by Diabolik, even using the character's name in the end credit. It might even have used footage from the movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Ok, after watching it and doing some digging - "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" takes place in late February to early March of 1940.

 

Would you consider something that late to be pulp?

 

Ok, how did I come by that. Polly says it's "March 2" when flying to the island before they meet Frankie. She meets the Dr. at Radio City Music Hall for a showing of "Wizard of Oz" and during the attack of the mechanical monsters we see a marquee for "Wuthering Heights". Based on the movies release dates it has to be 1940. It COULD be 1941 but even then I doubt they still be showing both those movies for 2 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

 

Ok, after watching it and doing some digging - "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" takes place in late February to early March of 1940.

 

Would you consider something that late to be pulp?

 

 

Its probably meant to be in the 30s but the director didn't get the setting details exactly right (like what movies were out).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Very surprised no-one mentioned "The Phantom", with Billy Zane. Excellent pulp story played straight... which might be why it didn't do very well at the box office.  It included a LOT of the lore of the Ghost Who Walks:  the skull signet ring, that leaves an indelible brand; the father-to-son tradition of the mantle of the Phantom; Skull Island itself, complete with natives who call the Phantom "Ghost Who Walks", and "Uncle Walker"... just like in the newspapers!

 

The movie presented a pulpy-good story that ranged from pre-WWII New York to Skull Island in the South Pacific.  There was the requisite diabolical villain (industrialist and pre-war ally of the Germans), who off-handedly blinds a treacherous underling with a gimmicked microscope), and a henchwoman in black leather (a sadistic lady pilot played by, I believe, a young Catherine Zeta Jones).  And the hero is noble, a little bit mysterious and splendidly, athletically two-fisted (Billy Zane did his own stunts).  There's also a love interest, because there always has to be in the pulps, but tellingly, I don't remember anything about her... except that her father was, I think, a newspaper magnate, and she worked for him as a reporter.

 

And they all played it straight! (Perhaps too straight, in the case of The Phantom's pale-purple bodysuit... which was, I think, taken from the look of his costume in the earliest days of colour newsprint.)  It's a movie I liked a lot, and it's one I actually bought on videocassette (lo these many years ago).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
On 12/22/2020 at 7:31 AM, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

Its probably meant to be in the 30s but the director didn't get the setting details exactly right (like what movies were out).

It seemed like it was meant to be pre-war, just on the cusp. Japan was in China, Sky Captain might have been a flying tiger...?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I don't think the specific era is important to whether it is or is not pulp. It being pulp is more about the action adventure, the fact that the heroes never even question their own decision to do the right thing, even when it gets them into danger, the wide exploration of the setting, and so on. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...