A Deep Dive into Weirdo Cinema [21] Quiz

Answer: Underworld

Although there were five core films in the "Underworld" series, Selene only really appeared in four, skipping the third film, "Rise of the Lycans", entirely as it was a prequel to the events that unfolded in the others. Beckinsale's portrayal of Selene was an action-horror standard at the time-- she and Milla Jovovich had the market cornered. As a vampire assassin, she was adorned in long, black capes and skin-tight leather combat outfits. It was always dark (vampire) and it was always raining or snowing, but she managed to unearth the truth about her nefarious family line, complicate her career of killing Lycans, and fall in love. All in a night's work, I guess.

"Underworld", as a series, was quite popular for its run. The original "Underworld" premiered in 2003 and the fifth and final outing for Beckinsale ("Blood Wars") showed up thirteen years later. While not critically well-regarded, it was indicative of a wave of these kinds of vampire movies that persisted in advance of "Twilight" at the end of the 2000s. You can, at the very least, claim it had style points.

Answer: Louise Linton

It's hard to say if this would have gotten any attention whatsoever if not for Linton's connection to the first Trump Administration...or if people weren't still sorting out the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic... but this 2021 release ended up happening, with the film debuting at a Los Angeles drive-in theatre attended by a couple dozen vehicles (not including Linton's husband, Mnuchin). The movie would head to streaming shortly thereafter and quickly be regarded as one of 2021's controversial low-ranking releases.

The film itself, starring Linton as a psychotic, girl-boss serial killer named Catherine Black, features little more than her exploits before she (maybe?) falls in love with a guy she's planning to kill, but since he happens to be a clever thief, things get a bit more cat-and-mouse than intended. The movie, which contains dozens of high-priced outfit changes and ends with a wedding and three kids, proves that perhaps the real girl-bossing happens when you bankroll your own movie and make it despite the red flags.

Answer: The Monster Squad

Taking all the classic Universal monsters and tossing them into a blender in the 1980s resulted in this fun, family adventure that seems like it could only have been made in that decade. A collaboration between Fred Dekker and Shane Black (who wrote the "Lethal Weapon"), the movie followed a group of kids who unwittingly discovered that they were the only line of defence capable of stopping Dracula (and a recruited horde of monsters) from plunging the world into darkness, and to do that, they needed to locate a magical amulet and cast the beings into another dimension. You know-- typical coming-of-age stuff. (And who can forget the classic determination that the "Wolfman's got nards!"?)

"The Monster Squad" ultimately flopped at the box office, a consequence of feeling derivative and, possibly, never finding a groove with marketing. Despite this, the aesthetic, cast, and contents led it to become a cult film associated with midnight revival screenings.

Answer: Artemis Fowl

When the "Artemis Fowl" books first started releasing in the 2000s, they seemed rife for adaptation. A popular series by Eoin Colfer, they followed a young, rich child in a world of magical creatures who used his wealth and abilities to, firstly, help his family and regain his wealth, but secondly, to fight back against other dangerous organizations.

It's why, when the film adaptation finally showed up will after the intended audience aged out of the series, Disney seemed to flop with it, dropping it onto Disney+ instead of pushing a full theatrical release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Directed by Kenneth Branagh (of all people), the film ended up being quite clunky, a result of numerous script rewrites over a decade and a half of living in development hell. It landed under 10% on Rotten Tomatoes and plans to continue the film series never materialized. Neither did newcomer Ferdia Shaw's career in film.

Answer: Gyo

Though "Gyo" was originally a serialized manga released between 2001 and 2002, the adaptation came to screens in 2012 and found its place in the surprisingly sparse Junji Ito film canon, a surprise because Ito's cosmic, Lovecraftian-tinged brand of horror has always been both visually compelling and weird. "Gyo" was unsurprisingly odd, starting off with the premise of an awful stench being the cause for fish to start appearing, on land, with legs. Soon, Japan is overrun by the creatures, and it doesn't end there! Soon, humankind's fate hangs in the balance.

Answer: Cameron Diaz

Jim Carrey had a banner year in terms of comedic films when he appeared in the box office three times in 1994, first with "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective", then with "The Mask", and then once more with "Dumb and Dumber". Although all three are distinct in their own ways, "The Mask" is a lot more fantastical, drawing its inspiration from an early-1990s comic book series about a man who dons a mask that creates a whole new personality (with cartoonish abilities). It would also prove to be a breakthrough role for Cameron Diaz who, after this, would become a romantic comedy mainstay into the 2000s, being one of the most bankable female leads in Hollywood.

"The Mask" was followed by "Son of the Mask" in 2005 and, honestly, the less you put that in your mind, the better. Jim Carrey didn't come back for that one, and it's easy to see why.

Answer: True

I have a lot to say about this movie. Releasing in 2016, it never really got a lot of momentum outside of the film festival circuit, and it's likely because it attempts to deter the viewer at every opportunity, not only pushing gross characters and scenarios, but by providing one of the most repulsive soundscapes in film, both with its music (one of the tracks is called "Fizzy Barf", I may note) and its foley work. Characters say lines that have no place in common parlance and they always seem to take the route of deepest concern.

In the movie, an older gentleman takes up the mantle of 'The Greasy Strangler', covering himself, naked and head to toe, in grease before killing people, then washing it all off in a car wash. He soon has it out for his son, but that doesn't go the way one would expect it to either. It's weird cinema for the sake of weird, for sure.

Answer: Nazi Germany

Hot off the heels of having directed "Thor: Ragnarok" to great acclaim in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, New Zealand director Taika Waititi turned his attention instead to "Jojo Rabbit", adapted loosely from the 2008 novel "Caging Skies". In the film, a young boy named Jojo finds himself in the midst of a more complicated series of events in the midst of 1940s Germany. What most don't know is that, while the atrocities of the Nazi regime persist around him, his own imaginary friend is none other than Adolf Hitler (played by Waititi).

Despite the odd premise, "Jojo Rabbit" was critically well-regarded, even landing on the Best Picture nominations list that year (though it lost to "Parasite").

Answer: Michael Jordan

While, in hindsight, "Space Jam" was little more than a merchandising opportunity for everyone (Jordan, the Looney Tunes, Nike, the NBA, and on and on), kids in the 1990s probably watched this enough to know it word-for-word. In "Space Jam", the Looney Tunes are beset upon by aliens and, in a twist of fate, challenge the pipsqueak extraterrestrials to a game of basketball only to find out about their true powers. Bugs manages to escape and recruit Michael Jordan to play on their team...and the rest is history.

Coming out less than a decade after "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", "Space Jam" does manage to hit the spot for live-action/animated blending, and it is loaded with gags by all means, but in hindsight it's a nostalgia trip of consumerism. Critics didn't care for it, but the film made over $250,000,000 USD in the box office, and bajillions more in merch and Happy Meal toy sales.

Answer: Hard Ticket to Hawaii

I love "Hard Ticket to Hawaii". Is it good? Not really. Is it 'bad good'? Absolutely. The 'Triple B' series, created by filmmaker Andy Sidaris, was more interested in building stories out of "Playboy" Playmates and guns than it was in following through with complex narratives.

And "Hard Ticket to Hawaii", the sequel to "Malibu Express", brings these forth in spades, following Donna and Taryn, both of whom work for a non-descript 'Agency' in fighting all manner of crime in Hawaii. By the end of the movie, not only do they fly themselves into a diamond-smuggling scheme, but they fight a giant, radioactive snake that attacks from a toilet (yes, actually).

The 'Triple B' series ended with twelve films. Sidaris passed away in 2007.