When one thinks of B-Grade movies one thinks of bad acting, cheesy special effects and plots so thin they make anorexics look like obese sows. If you have a kind heart you might think they are straight to video movies that just didn’t quite make the cut.

So it should come as a pleasant surprise that there are B-Grade movies that are brilliant but never made it to the big screen. It should come as even more of a surprise that there are brilliant actors starring in B-Grade movies.

There are also big Hollywood stars that started out in B-Grade movies. Stars such as Viggo Mortensen who starred in a little known movie “American Yakuza”. Before the glory days of “Lord Of The Rings” mind you. The plot is pretty straight forward, you have Viggo playing an undercover FBI agent who has to infiltrate the Yakuza. He pretends to be an ex convict and saves the life of a Yakuza boss, falls in love with the boss’ sister and eventuality becomes torn between upholding the law and his new found loyalty to his Japanese friend. No major shocks, I know, however the brilliance lies in Viggo’s performance, the cinematography the acting of the supporting cast and it also doesn’t have the happy Hollywood ending. The best friend and love interest are both killed, and poor Viggo lives. What makes it a good film is how well the characters are fleshed out and the way the viewer is drawn into the film to become emotionally involved with the characters.

Another brilliant piece of film making is “Way of the gun” starring Benicio Del Torro, Ryan Philippe, Juliet Lewis, James Caan and Taye Diggs. The writer/director’s name eludes me but he was the same guy who wrote “The Usual Suspects”. The opening scene of this movie is worth watching this film alone with Benicio and Ryan showing how amoral they are before getting attacked by an angry mob. They play two criminals looking for the one big score that will set them up for life. They kidnap a pregnant woman (Juliet Lewis) for ransom unfortunately she’s the surrogate mother of a powerful criminal. In their defence they didn’t know which makes there situation worse. After a dapper escape from the pregnant woman’s body guards they head to Mexico where the final showdown plays out. What makes this film great is the performance by Ryan and Benicio who are utter bastards, the gritty, intelligent dialogue and the realistic action scenes. The ending is abrupt, open ended and bizarre.

I can’t write about B-Grade movies without mentioning my favourite B-Grade actor Bruce Campbell. He is so brilliant you might wonder if he is acting or hamming it up. Films of his to check out are “Chase Morran” and “Army of Darkness”. “Army of Darkness” is pure genius, part horror, part comedy and very enjoyable, it also stars Embeth Davidtz.

If I still haven’t convinced you that B-Grade movies are treasures I have two words for you “El Mariachi”. Robert Rodriguez’s straight to video cult classic that spawned “Desperado” and “Once Upon A Time In Mexico”. So next time you’re at the video store check out something you wouldn’t ordinarily look at, who knows you might be surprised.

by Punjabi Goth

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