But there's no rating that's less than 1! It's a bad movie.

Simon | October 15, 18:38 CET

Simon, I wish this weren't true, but I know several people who love that movie but dislike the series. Of course, they also eat broccoli while wantonly dancing naked at midnight 'round a dead birch adorned with pictures of PeeWee Herman hanging upside down, arms akimbo, and warbling "Up Where You Belong" to the tune of that old Joe Cocker tune from An Officer and a Gentleman.

jaynelovesvera | October 15, 18:54 CET

It's an... interesting movie. To be honest, the fact the studio added a soundtrack with "Buffy! Buffy!" across the entire of the theatrical trailer probably lost half the potential audience anyway. There's a fine line between cheese and drama.

Speaking of which, I rewatched Alien 4 the other day, and I don't actually want to hurl things (or myself) at the screen anymore. Although there are entire scenes were you go 'Uh, the director really didn't understand the script, did they?'. But Jayne's virtually in that film, pretty much.

jlv - you scare me sometimes.

gossi | October 15, 19:04 CET

Well, to me, the original Buffy movie is fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000. Can you imagine what the Satellite of Love could do to that movie? Come to think of it, what if the real Buffy found it?

impalergeneral | October 15, 19:06 CET

Which I can imagine happening.

"I never said that. Or that! Why didn't that guy explode? And - hey, that's Ben Affleck!"

Craig Oxbrow | October 15, 19:28 CET

FWIW, while Joe Cocker did indeed sing that song in the movie, it was written by Buffy St. Marie (who won an oscar for it.) I prefer Buffy's rendition, myself. But then again, I'm not dancing naked around any Birch trees...

napua | October 15, 20:24 CET

Alien 4 is the only movie I have ever walked out of at the cinema. On viewing it years later on DVD, it's not actually that bad.

Simon | October 15, 21:05 CET

I can never bring myself to walk out of a movie, even a really bad one. My naive nature makes me think that maybe, just maybe, it will redeem itself at some point. But if I HAD walked out of movies...Batman 4, Something About Mary, What Lies Beneath, and Pulse come to mind.

As for the Buffy movie, I have never seen it in its entirety, so I can't comment. Maybe it redeemed itself after the bits I saw....ahem....

[ edited by Rogue Slayer on 2006-10-15 19:12 ]

Rogue Slayer | October 15, 21:12 CET

uh, not exactly. Still, it featured early roles for Hillary Swank and David Arquette

impalergeneral | October 15, 21:31 CET

Rogue Slayer, were you as ancient as I and had availed yourself of the opportunity to see Caligula in the theater, there may very well have been a first time. That is still the worst movie I have ever seen. It makes the recent remake of The Fog, which I also couldn't bear to watch till the end, look like Citizen Kane.

jaynelovesvera | October 15, 22:07 CET

Yeah, never watched the movie.

MySerenity | October 15, 22:14 CET

Dangerous, dangerous subject. There were a few aspects about it here and there to enjoy, though the movie itself (oh, foresight where were you when I first viewed it) was a mess and had none of the underlying seriousness topped by humor you expect from JW. It was pure camp. That said, there's Hauer playing the Head V. as a dandy, his sidekick Paul Reubens, who makes the most of his death scene, and Luke Perry (who I actually liked the most) as a goofy boyfriend type that actually suggests what Xander would be like in the series. As for Alien: Resurrection, I can't say it's bad even though Joss has written it was horrible. I'm thinking gossi saying Jayne was in the movie was a reference to Ron Perlman's character (though Johner was not exactly a person of indecision and semi-cowardly moments).

Joss, hope you saw the tribute to you on October 10th.

[ edited by Tonya J on 2006-10-15 20:56 ]

Tonya J | October 15, 22:35 CET

The vampiers fly. I think that about sums it up.

Noclaf | October 15, 23:35 CET

Vampires don't fly on TV as you have a budget ;o)

Tonya - correct, Johner. I love that character. Although he is an idiot. I thought a majority of Alien 4 actually works, although there's the odd scene which is totally out of kilter, the ending is awful (uh, sorry Joss) and some of the reactions from the characters - particularly facial expressions... They take random campness to a new level, when it's probably supposed to be fear.

[ edited by gossi on 2006-10-15 21:49 ]

gossi | October 15, 23:47 CET

The last act of Alien 4 is terrible. Ripley should just have let the monster land. Who's scared of a big weird alien space baby thing anyway ?

(but the rest of the film has its merits - the Ripley/Alien DNA mesh is a genius idea and the merc crew are pretty cool)

The Buffy movie was a totally different beast to the series, much more lightweight, much more camp. I actually though Paul Reubens death scene was pretty funny and I could even stand Luke Perry as Pike but i'd sort of rather the film wasn't called 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' at all and was seen as a totally separate entity. That said, I don't mind if I never see it again (especially since I don't think it'll age well) and if I had to score it, I think 4 out of 10 would be generous.

(never walked out of a film though i've fallen asleep in a couple)

Saje | October 16, 01:07 CET

I actually like the original Buffy movie. Of course, in comparison it is bad. And I know Joss Whedon doesn't like it. But I liked it before I knew who Joss Whedon was.

It's not brilliant but it's a fun piece of fluff. I know he wasn't going for fun piece of fluff, but it's still reasonably entertaining.

5 out of 10.

crossoverman | October 16, 01:16 CET

And let's not forget that Jennifer Warnes & Joe Cocker performed the hit song "Up Where We Belong" together, and they both received a Grammy for their rendition. She's one of my favourite voices...

The sympathetic pains I feel on Joss's behalf when I've watched the Buffy movie (twice) make me constitutionally unlikely to view it again, although I love Paul Reubens, Rutger Hauer, and certain moments in the screenplay. I would, however, make an exception to see it done up right royally on the Satellite of Love.

And yeah, jlv, I agree -- I am ancient enough -- though a mere child at the time -- to have seen (a version of) it in the theatre and Caligula was an unredeemable mishmosh of a botched mess that did a disservice to the talents of Helen Mirren, Gore Vidal, and others.

QuoterGal | October 16, 01:19 CET

I actually walked out of Alien because it scared me too much.
But I have a sneaking fondness for the Buffy movie. I laughed myself silly over Reuben's death scene. It is a cliche I had never actually seen done before except in very very old movies.

Lioness | October 16, 01:41 CET

I rented the Buffy movie more than once and enjoyed it more than I should admit, but that was before the Real Thing came along.

Pointy | October 16, 03:08 CET

Well, I have the original Buffy on DVD, just for historical reasons of course. I don't remember if I saw the movie before I saw the TV show (I lived in a teeny town in Humboldt County with no WB about ten years ago), but I could see the difference between the two.

impalergeneral | October 16, 04:31 CET

I saw the original movie holed up in a cheap hotel in Green River, Utah, drinking whiskey and singing Hank Williams songs with nothing but local TV to watch.

About one half of that previous sentence is true.

Anyway, it was a movie I wanted to catch on the big screen because I thought the title was funny. But I was so disappointed it took three years of positive word-of-mouth to get me to watch the show.

Soon after the series finale, I decided to rent the movie and give it another shot and IMHO, it's really quite bad. But I did think Paul Reubens was the only one who got it (in terms of the movie, in the show, his performance would have been way off kilter).

I would love to see the MST3K crew do it primarliy because that would mean MST3K was back.

I'd probably give it a 3 or 4 out of 10.

batmarlowe | October 16, 04:55 CET

I didn't forget, it's just that whenever I think of Jennifer Warnes my mind quickly switches over to thoughts of Jennifer Warren, blood flows like salmon to its natural home, and I have to tell everyone, wait for it..."I'll be in my bunk".

jaynelovesvera | October 16, 05:22 CET

The reason I watched the TV series in the first place was because I saw the movie. I had liked it, but it felt terribly uneven - certain bits made me laugh quite a bit (especially the "clap!" commment), and other parts seemed as if they were grafted on from another movie. Later I would come to recognize the good bits as the Joss bits. Still, it was good enough to get me interested in the series.

Ocular | October 16, 05:34 CET

Alien: Resurrection's a boring film. Joss' script isn't particularly good and Jeunet's obviously bored out of his mind. It doesn't lend itself towards a great movie.

The Dark Shape | October 16, 05:39 CET

I walked out of The Road to Wellville and very nearly walked out after the first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan...

MobileHQ | October 16, 12:34 CET

His royal Jossness has said something along the lines of the end of alien ressy was re-written about 10 times, with him turning in a script and them saying, "we like it, but it's too expensive." Might've been a bit better if they had bothered to put a bit more budget in.

Aaaaaanyway, back to the important bit, Buffy the movie. I *love* it. It's one of my all time favourite films and most watched videos :) Some of it is Joss' script, some of it is the greatest death scene in cinema history, and, to be honest, a fair chunk of it is Kristy Swanson. Phwoar :)

I was actually very very disappointed with the tv series when it started as it was sooooo different and Buffy just wasn't Buffy (I've never found SMG particularly attractive, so that doesn't help either. Yep, I'm a dirty old letch.) Obviously I got into the show eventually and love it to bits too, just in a different way. I really wish that the series hadn't been called buffy though. If they had started it by killing Kristy and SMG coming into her powers then I probably wouldn't have had my initial knee-jerk reaction.

Buffy the movie FTW!!!

eviltobz | October 16, 19:35 CET

If Box Office Mojo is accurate, the production budget was $75 million (which, given that the film is nearly ten years old, was probably a pretty big budget at the time) and the domestic box office gross was less than $50 million. On that basis, I imagine the idea of an increased budget would get short shrift. Having said that, it took $113 million oversees, which probably helped to calm tempers and somewhat.

I rather liked the 'Buffy' movie and still do. I thought Kristy Swanson made a great Buffy. Mind you, I like all sorts of crap films, so that probably explains it.

alien lanes | October 16, 20:40 CET

Wow, deja vu. I'm home sick and I caught the last half-hour of the movie yesterday by flipping around on cable, very unexpectedly. It had been a long while since viewing it and it had a couple more lines of dialogue I'd forgotten that seemed performed very Josslike:

The group of vampires are at the door of the prom causing havoc and the principal says, holding them in his fist: "I've got detention slips for everyone!!"

"You know, you're not like other girls, Buffy." "Yes, I am."

But again, just moments. I didn't rate it in my last post, but I'd give it a 5 for the elements I already listed.

Tonya J | October 17, 19:24 CET