Need to identify this eighties/early nineties film.

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What about Battle Beyond the Stars? Not that I can remember much about it.

Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 14:41 (sixteen years ago) link

That looks more closer to what I'm looking for (I assume it was some B rate film and not a well-known flick), but it doesn't seem to feature either a cyborg nor a robot, so I don't think it's it.

Tuomas, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 15:07 (sixteen years ago) link

Ice Pirates

sexyDancer, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 15:54 (sixteen years ago) link

This sounds like The Dark Half, based on the Stephen King novel, starring Tim Hutton.

Eazy, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 16:04 (sixteen years ago) link

Oh, wait, that one doesn't have rapping and phantom-balls.

Eazy, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 16:05 (sixteen years ago) link

It's not Ice Pirates either, I think.

Tuomas, Thursday, 25 October 2007 07:46 (sixteen years ago) link

Did StarCrash have robots? If so, that.

Or rather this : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079946/

pisces, Thursday, 25 October 2007 14:29 (sixteen years ago) link

The robots in those last two pics are the awesomest evah!

stevienixed, Thursday, 25 October 2007 14:34 (sixteen years ago) link

It was a sci-fi film set in the future, or maybe even on another planet. It had a small group of heroes trying to reach some goal, possibly escape from somewhere, and of course they had to fight some bad guys along the way. Most of the group were humans or human-like, but it also included one cyborg and one robot reminiscent of R2-D2. I distinctly remember that the cyborg got killed while helping the others to escape. Possibly he was electrocuted.

this is the plot of the Black Hole, to the letter.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 25 October 2007 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link

cyborgs are alluded to as well:
"Reinhardt claims he is the only human remaining aboard the vessel. But the Palomino crew's suspicions are raised as Booth observes one humanoid robot (who walks with a limp) tending an enormous vegetable garden large enough to feed thousands, and Holland observes a "space burial" being conducted by the humanoids. An older robot model similar to V.I.N.CENT, named Old B.O.B., reveals that the crew of the Cygnus mutinied against Reinhardt when he refused to obey a recall order and return to Earth. After killing the ringleaders of the rebellion (particularly Frank McCrae, Kate's father), he used the fully automated robots aboard the ship, particularly Maximillian, to lobotomize the remainder of his crew and make them the humanoid robots on the Cygnus."

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 25 October 2007 16:58 (sixteen years ago) link

the first one reminds me of this episode of AYAOTD?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0514415/

Will M., Thursday, 25 October 2007 17:07 (sixteen years ago) link

The fact that this movie in question is in grainy black and white, but has rapping, seems like it should be some sort of clue, because they invented color movies before rap was a "thing"

Will M., Thursday, 25 October 2007 17:10 (sixteen years ago) link

this is the plot of the Black Hole, to the letter.

Yeah, but like I said the cyborg I remember didn't look at all like the cyborg(?) in Black Hole, he was definitely a human with some cybernetic parts.

Tuomas, Thursday, 25 October 2007 20:34 (sixteen years ago) link

I think this is "That Movie Tuomas Made Up".

HI DERE, Thursday, 25 October 2007 20:36 (sixteen years ago) link

ernest borgnine?
man is straight up human, dog

sexyDancer, Thursday, 25 October 2007 20:36 (sixteen years ago) link

The fact that this movie in question is in grainy black and white, but has rapping, seems like it should be some sort of clue, because they invented color movies before rap was a "thing"

Who said it was in "grainy black and white"? The TV series you link to might possibly be it, but the plot synopsis is too short to really tell.

Tuomas, Thursday, 25 October 2007 20:38 (sixteen years ago) link

Oh, I see Tombot for some reason wrote that I said the movie was in black and white, but I never said that. I think it migh'tve had this sort of film noir pastiche feel, but it was in colour.

Tuomas, Thursday, 25 October 2007 20:45 (sixteen years ago) link

no, I didn't say that.

El Tomboto, Thursday, 25 October 2007 20:55 (sixteen years ago) link

I think that the movie 'unfinished business' asked abt on 7 March 2007 might be HEART AND SOULS (1993), from the director of TREMORS

also:

http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/club/4297/pics/android03.jpg

Ward Fowler, Thursday, 25 October 2007 21:03 (sixteen years ago) link

KINSKI!

sexyDancer, Thursday, 25 October 2007 21:06 (sixteen years ago) link

She's not aged well.

nickn, Thursday, 25 October 2007 21:17 (sixteen years ago) link

nine months pass...

Wow, this thread.

Doctor Casino, Friday, 25 July 2008 12:54 (fifteen years ago) link

This is still a mystery to me.

Tuomas, Wednesday, 6 August 2008 12:33 (fifteen years ago) link

You were doing a lot of mushrooms in the early nineties?

This still rings true. That Kinski film is called Android? I remember liking it when I saw it years and years and years ago.

Tom D., Wednesday, 6 August 2008 12:51 (fifteen years ago) link

five months pass...

New year, maybe someone will finally identify this?

Tuomas, Tuesday, 27 January 2009 13:25 (fifteen years ago) link

me OTM in 2007

Barack You Like A Husseincane (HI DERE), Tuesday, 27 January 2009 14:00 (fifteen years ago) link

nine months pass...

I watched the "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" episode Will mentioned upthread, but unfortunately it wasn't what I was looking for. So I still need to identify this.

Tuomas, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 09:50 (fourteen years ago) link

Sexvision?

Not the real Village People, Thursday, 19 November 2009 00:15 (fourteen years ago) link

I want to see this movie

Jack Kirby's Orangutan Surfing Civilization (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 19 November 2009 00:30 (fourteen years ago) link

Gigli

It's-a not so bad (jeff), Thursday, 19 November 2009 00:33 (fourteen years ago) link

xp I mainly want to see what other forces are at play................

Not the real Village People, Thursday, 19 November 2009 01:16 (fourteen years ago) link

Spent like an hour and a half yesterday running keywords through IMDb on this ("Typewriter", "novelist", "sex-change") and checking EVERY unfamiliar movie or TV episode from the 80s & early 90s that came up. Found nothing even remotely close.

my full five minutes of iguana time (contenderizer), Thursday, 19 November 2009 03:46 (fourteen years ago) link

I suppose that's a shameful confession more than anything else.

my full five minutes of iguana time (contenderizer), Thursday, 19 November 2009 03:46 (fourteen years ago) link

In the early nineties I remember seeing this film, which must've been made a couple of years earlier, and I wonder if anyone could identify it. It was an American film about a crime novelist, who suddenly realizes he has a magic typewriter: whatever he writes with it comes true! Unfortunately, one of the villains of his books has come to life, and he steals the magic typewriter. Using the typewriter the villain does all sort of nasty things to the writer: first he turns him into a woman, and then makes him speak only by rapping (he hates rap). That's about all I can remember, except that at one point the writer rap about how awful it is that he can't scratch his balls (because he's now a woman).

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, April 20, 2006 8:40 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You were doing a lot of mushrooms in the early nineties?

― Mingus Realty (noodle vague), Thursday, April 20, 2006 8:44 AM (3 years ago)

this is exactly what i was thinking

no idea on this track let the boring begin (k3vin k.), Thursday, 19 November 2009 03:51 (fourteen years ago) link

<3 noodle

chillwave dudes get washed out, totally (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 19 November 2009 03:59 (fourteen years ago) link

Is it possible you've conflated several films in your memory, T?

hulk would smash (Trayce), Thursday, 19 November 2009 04:31 (fourteen years ago) link

I guess it's possible, but I'm certain that I remember a movie/TV series where...

1) the villain has magically turned the male protagonist into a woman,

2) he has used the same magic to make the protagonist speak only by rapping, even though he hates rap music,

3) the protagonists raps how awful it is that he can't scratch his balls anymore.

I guess it's possible I've conflated this with a magic typewriter story, but I do have a clear memory of the protagonist being a writer whose typewriter makes things written with it come true. Anyway, I'm quite sure of at least seeing the sex change and the rapping part, so if anyone knows a movie where this happens, let me know. The reason I think is a movie and not a TV series is that the "scratching my balls" gag seems a bit risque for an late 80s/early 90s American TV.

Tuomas, Thursday, 19 November 2009 07:50 (fourteen years ago) link

And no, it's not "Sexvision", I don't think Finnish TV was showing porn films back then. And I'd certainly remember if it was porn.

I've been trying to locate "Screamplay" (which someone mentioned in 2006) on the web, but with no luck. All I've found is trailer for that movie, but that doesn't ring any bells. Plus "Screamplay" is from 1985, which seems a bit early for rap-related jokes. But if anyone has seen it or has a copy of it, let me know.

Tuomas, Thursday, 19 November 2009 07:56 (fourteen years ago) link

Anyway, big thanks for Contederizer and others for their effort in trying to find this!

Tuomas, Thursday, 19 November 2009 07:56 (fourteen years ago) link

three months pass...

I still haven't found out what the movie in the original post is, but I recalled two other movies/TV series from my childhood whose names I've forgotten, so maybe you might identify them? Both of these are from the 80s, I think.

1) This might've been a movie or a TV series: it featured a kid who found a magical underwater world with talking fish and stuff, kinda like in The Little Mermaid. The scenes that took place in the "real world" were done in live action, but when the kid went underwater, he and everything else turned into cartoons. (A similar trick was used in the the movie James and the Giant Peach, but this one is much older.)

2) This one was definitely a TV series: it featured a boy who ended up in space in a rather weird way. Someone or something dislodged his room (but nothing else) from his parents' house, and the room was floating in space. So when he opened the door to his room, all he could see was stars! The series also had a cyborg bad guy with a scary, glowing cyborg eye.

Tuomas, Monday, 1 March 2010 17:29 (fourteen years ago) link

The first one is almost certainly The Water Babies, as detailed here.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 1 March 2010 17:56 (fourteen years ago) link

Yeah, that's most likely it! Thanks Ned!

Tuomas, Monday, 1 March 2010 19:10 (fourteen years ago) link

2 sounds like Jason of Star Command

http://i637.photobucket.com/albums/uu92/damien_stone/jason-3-dragos.jpg

Fahrvergnügent (herb albert), Monday, 1 March 2010 19:48 (fourteen years ago) link

A few years ago I took Tuomos' description to the A/V Maniacs boards. Truly, if anyone could identify this thing, it would be them. But I forgot to post a link to the thread (this revive reminded me).

So here's the thread I started and a handful of guesses:
http://www.avmaniacs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33311

Shannon Whirry and the Bad Brains, Monday, 1 March 2010 20:10 (fourteen years ago) link

for some reason this reminded me of the late-eighties amazing stores series produced by steven spielberg. i cross-referenced that with "typewriter" and found out there was an episode where a screenwriter finds out he is in possession of a magical screenplay-writing houseplant that feeds off the cathode rays emitted by his black-and-white television set. interesting, kinda, but unfortunately it does not solve this puzzle.

iiiijjjj, Monday, 1 March 2010 20:32 (fourteen years ago) link

I don't think "Jason of Star Command" is it... The bad guy in the series I recall did have a similar cyborg eye as the guy in that pic, but otherwise it doesn't ring a bell. The plot summaries don't mention anything about a kid and his room flying into space.

Thanks for the link, Ben. I tried to check the movies suggested in that thread, but none of them sound like the real deal... Except maybe for Screamplay, which was mentioned in this thread too. But so far I haven't been able to find that movie online, or even a proper summary of its plot. If anyone happens to own a copy of Screamplay or knows more about it, let me know.

Tuomas, Monday, 1 March 2010 21:22 (fourteen years ago) link

I tried that, but I get an error message saying that you can't watch the movie outside the US due to copyright.

Tuomas, Monday, 1 March 2010 21:45 (fourteen years ago) link

Screamplay is on Netflix (US) - 2 stars.

Aspiring screenwriter Edgar Allen (Rufus B. Seder) works as a janitor for room and board at the Welcome Apartments, a run-down building filled with freaky characters and bizarre plot twists that wriggle their way into Edgar's horror movie script. Reality blurs with Edgar's vivid imagination, driving him into a state of creative madness. Katy Bolger and George Cordeiro costar. Extras include commentary by director Rufus B. Seder and much more.

http://cdn-7.nflximg.com/us/boxshots/large/70025317.jpg

Not the real Village People, Monday, 1 March 2010 23:57 (fourteen years ago) link

no mention of rapping about ball scratching?

bracken free ditch (Ste), Tuesday, 2 March 2010 00:11 (fourteen years ago) link


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