When it comes to why some movies live on through the decades while others suffer the indignity of being consigned to the bottom drawer of cinematic history, there is often no rhyme or reason.
Some films that completely tank at the box office go on to become cult classics (you’ll find a few of those below), while other critically lauded films age like milk left in the sun (Best Picture Oscar-winners American Beauty and Crash, we’re looking at you).
The may be as delightfully diverse as it gets, but the one thing that unites these movies is a certain je ne sais quoi that has ensured they’ve stood the test of time.
Heathers
The black comedy / coming-of-age classic Heathers is one of those anomalous movies that underperforms at the box office (USD$1.1 million on a USD$3 million budget during its American theatrical run) yet still goes on to have an incredibly long shelf life.
Starring a post-Beetlejuice Winona Ryder, Christian Slater in full ‘Young Jack Nicholson’ mode and Beverly Hills 90210’s Shannen Doherty, this tale about a clique of bitchy high-school girls getting their comeuppance has been spun off into both a not-very-well-received 2018 TV show, and a very-well-received musical that began life in 2014 and is currently enjoying a repeat run in London’s West End.
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Heathers
Dark comedy • 1989
Dark comedy • 1989
Showgirls
Another flop-come-good is 1995’s outrageously camp erotic thriller Showgirls, from director Paul ‘RoboCop’ Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct). Packed with gratuitous sex and nudity, the movie made a meagre USD$37.8 million off a USD$45 million budget, but it has since made well in excess of USD$100 million in rental sales, making it a top 20 all-time best seller for film studio MGM.
Showgirls is now considered a so-bad-it’s-good cult classic, leading to a 2019 documentary (You Don’t Nomi) and a sold-out 2024 Academy Screening in LA that garnered three standing ovations for the film’s star, Elizabeth ‘Nomi’ Berkley.
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Showgirls
drama • lgbtq • 1995
drama • lgbtq • 1995
Ringu
Although modern audiences may ask “What’s a VHS cassette?”, this absolutely terrifying Japanese horror film about a cursed video tape is still pants-wettingly scary 26 years after its initial release.
Based on a 1991 novel and preceded by a 1995 Japanese made-for-TV movie, Ringu made static on a TV screen seem the stuff of nightmares and was so enormously popular that it spawned a couple of TV series, a manga and a further 13 films, including the successful 2002 American remake starring Naomi Watts as the poor sod dealing with a demonic girl crawling out of a television.
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Ringu
horror • thriller • 1998
horror • thriller • 1998
Weekend at Bernie’s
Comedy films with ludicrous premises were clearly a thing for actor Andrew McCarthy in the ’80s. Deciding that a movie about falling in love with a department store mannequin that magically comes to life wasn’t silly enough (1987’s Mannequin), McCarthy signed up for 1989’s Weekend at Bernie’s, about a couple of finance bros who make their dead boss appear like he’s still in order to not be implicated in his murder.
The off-beat film did well enough to spawn a 1993 sequel, which completely jumped the shark by having Bernie’s (surely badly decomposing) body reanimated via voodoo. As you do.
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Weekend at Bernie's
comedy • 1989
comedy • 1989
Shaolin Soccer
If you think a movie about a bunch of Shaolin monks using their superhuman kung fu abilities to play the most insane games of soccer ever put on a screen sounds completely awesome, you would be 100 per cent correct - it is. Stephen Chow writes, directs and stars in this 2001 bonkers action-comedy, which UK director Edgar Wright says informed his own cult classic, 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
The movie was later turned into a comic book, led to a Japanese spin-off film (Shaolin Girl) and Chow has announced he’s finished writing a spin-off film titled Shaolin Women's Soccer.
Shaolin Soccer is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Shaolin Soccer
action • comedy • 2001
action • comedy • 2001
Tank Girl
Thought the Mad Max films were the only post-apocalyptic films set in the ravaged Australian Outback? Think again. 1995’s Tank Girl, based on a comic created by Brits Jamie Hewlett (the man behind all the visuals for the band Gorillaz) and Alan Martin, sees the titular character team up with best bud Jet Girl (Aussie Naomi Watts, in her first major US film role) to fight an evil corporation with the help of some mutant kangaroos (one played by rapper and actor Ice-T).
The movie bombed, but thanks to striking visuals, strong feminist themes, a cool soundtrack curated by Courtney Love and ace make-up effects from Stan Winston Studio (The Thing, The Terminator, Aliens, Predator), Tank Girl has become a beloved cult classic.
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La Femme Nikita
In the late ’80s and early ’90s, remaking French films was all the rage in Hollywood, with 17 made between 1987 and 1993.
1993 US film Point of No Return began life as French action-thriller La Femme Nikita from writer-director Luc Besson, the film about a woman convicted of murder who’s trained to be a professional assassin (clearly a thing for Besson at the time, whose next narrative feature film was 1994’s hitman hit Léon: The Professional).
It made enough impact to inspire other remakes (one in Hong Kong, one a Bollywood version) as a well as a couple of TV series.
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