Thanks for answering my question (again)! Just seeing the thumbnail brought a smile to my face.
Yeah, Shatner hasn't done that many good movies, but he's done a ton of movies. Some of my favorites (besides the ones you mentioned):
In Impulse (1974), Shatner plays a slick conman who seduces lonely women and then kills them for their money. Shatner's at his hammiest and Harold Sakata (aka Odd Job) plays a character named Karate Pete!
Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) is, you guessed it, a horror movie about rapidly multiplying spiders. Shatner plays a small town vet simultaneously trying to cope with the spiders and getting it on with the female scientist who's come to town to study them.
Disaster on the Coastliner is a 1979 TV movie about two trains on a collision course and Shatner as a conman on board one of them who has to become the hero to avoid the crash. Paul L. Smith (from Pieces) plays the sweaty villain and Lloyd Bridges plays basically the same role he does in Airplane! a year later.
TekWar (1994), directed by Shatner himself, is the first of four TV movies (followed by a one-season TV series) based on his own book series. Shatner plays the CEO of a huge comglomerate and a benefactor to the lead character, a cop who was framed and wrongly imprisoned trying to clear his name. It's set in 2045, and it looks exactly like you'd expect a cheap 90's show set in 2045 to look like. The 90's futuristic tech is charmingly bad and there's a robot hockey player assassin, so it's definitely worth seeing just for that. Predictably, the sequels go downhill pretty fast. Haven't watched the TV show.
2015's A Christmas Story is a horror anthology with the quality of the segments ranging from silly and bad to actually pretty effective. Shatner plays the narrator as a radio DJ telling stories on air and getting increasingly drunk as the movie goes along.
And Batman vs. Two-Face (2017) is the second of two animated movies styled after the 60's Batman show and voiced by the elderly Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar. Shatner voices Two-Face, who's actually an interesting twist on that character's usual origin story, and he's modeled after what Shatner would've looked like had he played that character in the 60's.
Impulse, Disaster on the Coastliner, and TekWar (and its sequels) can all be found on YouTube if anyone wants to check them out.
And when I say favorites, they're all 3-3½ star movies at best. But of course his best non-Star Trek movie is Airplane II: The Sequel, where he has a small cameo.
Wow! Nice write up Mikko. Shatner must be in the ether right now as i just saw on twitter an old (late 90s) MTV movie parody where Shatner plays all the roles for the final scene of Se7en. Hilarious!
Speaking of hilarious, he gives one of my all time favorite line reads ever in Airplane II: "Striker? Never heard of him....Thats not exactly true...we were like brothers!"
And when it comes to deadly spider movies...Kingdom of the Spiders is an all time fav. Looooooove the final shot.
Thanks for answering my question (again)! Just seeing the thumbnail brought a smile to my face.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Shatner hasn't done that many good movies, but he's done a ton of movies. Some of my favorites (besides the ones you mentioned):
In Impulse (1974), Shatner plays a slick conman who seduces lonely women and then kills them for their money. Shatner's at his hammiest and Harold Sakata (aka Odd Job) plays a character named Karate Pete!
Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) is, you guessed it, a horror movie about rapidly multiplying spiders. Shatner plays a small town vet simultaneously trying to cope with the spiders and getting it on with the female scientist who's come to town to study them.
Disaster on the Coastliner is a 1979 TV movie about two trains on a collision course and Shatner as a conman on board one of them who has to become the hero to avoid the crash. Paul L. Smith (from Pieces) plays the sweaty villain and Lloyd Bridges plays basically the same role he does in Airplane! a year later.
TekWar (1994), directed by Shatner himself, is the first of four TV movies (followed by a one-season TV series) based on his own book series. Shatner plays the CEO of a huge comglomerate and a benefactor to the lead character, a cop who was framed and wrongly imprisoned trying to clear his name. It's set in 2045, and it looks exactly like you'd expect a cheap 90's show set in 2045 to look like. The 90's futuristic tech is charmingly bad and there's a robot hockey player assassin, so it's definitely worth seeing just for that. Predictably, the sequels go downhill pretty fast. Haven't watched the TV show.
2015's A Christmas Story is a horror anthology with the quality of the segments ranging from silly and bad to actually pretty effective. Shatner plays the narrator as a radio DJ telling stories on air and getting increasingly drunk as the movie goes along.
And Batman vs. Two-Face (2017) is the second of two animated movies styled after the 60's Batman show and voiced by the elderly Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar. Shatner voices Two-Face, who's actually an interesting twist on that character's usual origin story, and he's modeled after what Shatner would've looked like had he played that character in the 60's.
Impulse, Disaster on the Coastliner, and TekWar (and its sequels) can all be found on YouTube if anyone wants to check them out.
And when I say favorites, they're all 3-3½ star movies at best. But of course his best non-Star Trek movie is Airplane II: The Sequel, where he has a small cameo.
Wow! Nice write up Mikko. Shatner must be in the ether right now as i just saw on twitter an old (late 90s) MTV movie parody where Shatner plays all the roles for the final scene of Se7en. Hilarious!
DeleteSpeaking of hilarious, he gives one of my all time favorite line reads ever in Airplane II: "Striker? Never heard of him....Thats not exactly true...we were like brothers!"
And when it comes to deadly spider movies...Kingdom of the Spiders is an all time fav. Looooooove the final shot.
Have you seen Visiting Hours (1982)? Shatner plays a secondary part, and it is a good movie. Starring Michael Ironside.
DeleteEdit before hitting post: Oh my, it's was critically panned. Well, I thought this Canadian horror movie was good.