A Deep Dive into Weirdo Cinema [22] Quiz

Answer: Dan Aykroyd

Oh boy, and it was not good. "Nothing But Trouble" was a family affair with Dan Aykroyd directing and starring and his brother, Peter Aykroyd, writing. Neither were particularly positive turn-outs with the movie making under $9,000,000 USD on a budget of five times that amount. In time, it would receive a Rotten Tomatoes score of 15%.

The movie also featured Chevy Chase and Demi Moore as a couple who got themselves into some regional hot water when they ran a stop sign, unwittingly finding themselves in the company of the demented citizens of Valkenvania. John Candy also starred. The problem here was that, in the grand tradition of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", generally, you need to land the gags, and this didn't. Instead it landed six Razzie nominations, winning one for Aykroyd for Worst Supporting Actor. It lost Worst Picture to "Hudson Hawk" which, honestly, might be controversial in the weirdest sense of the situation.

Answer: The Fellowship of the Ring

And let me tell you, it was only "The Fellowship of the Ring" and not the others in the trilogy. Originally performed for television broadcast in 1991, "Khraniteli" was a Soviet take on Tolkien's classic work, created a decade before Peter Jackson would bring his works for the screen (the animated "The Lord of the Rings" film would come out in 1978, however). Shown as two hour-long sagas, the tale commences, as it should, with Bilbo Baggins' birthday party and departure and concludes with Sam and Frodo heading out to Mount Doom alone. All of the characters are still there (and more!) but there's no resolution to the tale; they did not elect to continue the adaptation, even though it only took a week to film the two hour production.

For many decades, "Khraniteli" was considered lost art, having aired once and vanished. It was uploaded to the internet in 2021. t is absolutely weird, and a hard tonal shift away from the "Lord of the Rings" content considered the standard in the 21st century.

Answer: Friends

"Friends through eternity, loyalty, honesty
We'll stay together through thick or thin
Friends forever, we'll be together
We're on top 'cause we play to win"

"Miami Connection", released in 1987 and then vanishing off the face of the Earth for twenty-five years before being restored, was about drugs, ninja gangsters, and intrigue in Florida's hottest city, but what the film persisted with was the power of friendship. A tonally bonkers movie, there's more than one instance in which the plot takes the viewer to a club to watch Dragon Sound, a band comprised of the heroes of the story, performing a song about friendship. And boy is it a bop.

At the time of its release in the late 1980s, "Miami Connection" was a big flop, costing its director and star (Y. K. Kim) about a million dollars of his own money. It would take until its revival as a cult classic, mostly driven by support from Alamo Drafthouse, before it gained a following and positive reception.

Answer: Transformers

Although "Transformers" media had been circulating for decades at that point, the 2007 Michael Bay movie was the first instance in which fans had a look at a live-action, big-budget, high-CGI version of the story. In this adaptation, LaBeouf's plucky Sam Witwicky comes into possession of his grandfather's enhanced glasses, the key to locating the AllSpark, an item eagerly sought-after by both the Autobots (good Transformers) and the Decepticons (bad Transformers), both arriving on Earth from across space.

"Transformers" was a blockbuster hit and Michael Bay continued making them for ages afterwards, often to varying success, and often with nauseating aspect ratio changes from cut to cut. Despite middling reviews, however, the original was a colossal success and worth the watch if only because of its grand action sequences.

Delving into the later movies, however, if you want to see a Transformer take the time to salute Buzz Aldrin for some reason (actually), then I guess keep watching.

Answer: Aerobicide

Usually when a film has a different name in different regions, it's a bit of a gem. "Aerobicide" in the UK but "Killer Workout" in other regions, this 1987 movie got onboard with the health craze, to a degree, in the same way that "Death Spa" (also known as "Witch Bitch" in the UK) did in the late '80s, by loosely draping a slasher plot over the concept of fitness. We do see aerobics a bit in this movie-- just a bit!-- but it mostly follows the employees and clients of a fitness spa as they're pursued by a killer.

A very by-the-numbers movie, it's schlocky and campy in just the right ways to be worth considering, but if you want something off-the-wall, "Death Spa" is leaps and bounds more obtuse and fantastical. David A. Prior, who directed it, was also known for B-movie classics like "Sledgehammer", "Deadly Prey", and "White Fury".

Answer: Japan

A fascinating and highly-detailed animated film from Japan, "Tekkonkinkreet" was based on a manga series originally released in the mid-1990s. Following two teenagers as they pushed back against the local crime syndicate to protect Treasure Town from danger. The situation escalated when 'White' was apprehended, leaving 'Black' to unleash his rage in a way that only his partner can quell.

A well-celebrated film in Japan, "Tekkonkinkreet" received otherwise muted buzz internationally despite being the recipient of a handful of animation awards. Its animators, Studio 4C, were previously known for the experimental film "Mind Game", released a couple years earlier (and also worth the watch). Visually, "Tekkonkinkreet" is quite the stunning piece, if not for the main characters, then for the cityscape itself, which might as well be its own character.

Answer: Shrek

I mean, what is there to say? "Shrek" has taken on somewhat of a mythic status amongst Millennials and Gen Z animated film viewers as it came out at a formative time in many of their early-age movie-going experiences. And it helps that "Shrek" was somewhat groundbreaking, being one of the first mainstream films to take advantage of CGI as an animation style. Bolstered by the voice acting of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy, it was a colossal hit and resulted in numerous sequels, spin-offs, and added content features, sparking Dreamworks' long-growing catalogue of animated hits.

In the original "Shrek", an ogre is called upon to complete a mission for Lord Farquaad (played by John Lithgow) in order to save his swamp. What he finds, however, is a love story is ready to unfold in his own life, not unlike something you might read in a fairy tale.

Answer: Trolland

After years of creating B-movie content designed to trick people into buying blockbuster-adjacent content (and "Sharknado"), The Asylum turned some of their efforts to animation, starting with the "Finding Dory" knock-off, "Izzie's Way Home", in 2016, and ending the year with "Trolland", developed to release in conjunction with the 2016 DreamWorks film "Trolls". While "Trolls", about the titular dolls, starred Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, and Zooey Deschanel amongst others and resulted in nearly $350,000,000 USD in box office returns (and sequels), "Trolland" went straight-to-DVD and featured the voice acting of Dick Van Dyke and Jerry O'Connell (of all people).

Instead of focusing efforts on being a jukebox musical like "Trolls", "Trolland" had a basic storyline in which a kid and a troll had to stop a bad park ranger from wiping out the trolls. Considering the animation quality, it might have been in their best interest to let the park ranger succeed.

Answer: Sweden

Shortly after the traumatic deaths of her family, Dani (played by Florence Pugh) heads to Sweden with her friends in hopes of heading deep into the Scandinavian wilderness to enjoy a drug-fuelled, hallucinogenic Midsommar experience in the land of day-round sunshine. What follows, however, is a tense and horrifying trip that none of them would forget... if they could survive the local rites unfolding at a rapid pace before them.

Director Ari Aster followed up "Hereditary" with this terrifying movie which, despite its runtime, was regarded as a strong second horror offering after the critical acclaim of his first. Appearing quite early in Florence Pugh's quickly-rising career in film, it was noted for creating high tension in broad daylight, in great contrast to the moodier A24 films (most of which also mused on grief) that released at the time.

Answer: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson

By 2010, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson had already started making a name for himself not just in film (with a handful of action-oriented roles under his belt) but as a family comedy lead. "Tooth Fairy" was one of his early ones in this regard, putting him into the role of a hockey player who, coincidentally nicknamed 'The Tooth Fairy', had to become an actual tooth fairy because he told his girlfriend's daughter that the mythical being didn't exist and stole the money left for her. Naturally, his experience as a tooth fairy made him better-equipped to be an unconventional father figure, boyfriend, and star of the Los Angeles Kings.

While it made a ton of money, the concept was fantastical without much substance. Critics didn't like it, but audiences seemed to. A sequel came out two years later, but none of the cast returned, and The Rock's role was covered, instead, by Larry the Cable Guy, so you can imagine how that turned out.