Smash-hit Blockbusters...or not!

Some movies that never had a chance, but I thought were very cool for one reason or another.

1. Deep Rising.

From the man who gave us The Mummy, another brilliant, B-Grade action/adventure with a bloodlust, a massive bodycount and one very large bad guy.

Treat Williams does a great job in the Brendan Fraser part as a mercenary whose motto is "If the money is there, we don't care!"

Along for the ride as his sidekick is Kevin O'Connor (from The Mummy), doing a great job as the whiny good guy instead of the whiny bad guy and Wes Studi as the head of the "other" mercenaries, who include a nice mix of accents!

Not to mention Bond badgirl Famke Janssen.

2. Robocop 3.

With the agonising death throes of Orion this one had no hope.

Anyway, this film is cool only for a couple of lines.

When some unnamed loser tries to rob a diner full of cops the guy behind the register asks:

"What's it like being a rocket scientist?"

When a group of "urban terrorists" breaks into a police armoury one of them (CCH Pounder) tells the others to lift a piece of unexplained hardware because:

"It looks expensive."

And when faced with the need to do some repairs to Robocop, Daniel Von Bargen announces:

"This ain't exactly a valve-job on a Chevy!"

3. Tale of a Vampire.

Starring Julian Sands, this is a seriously cool, almost cerebral vampire movie in which you see almost no blood and no teeth. Absolutely beautiful. Watch it late at night with your girlfriend if you want an excuse to offer lots of consoling cuddles afterwards!

4. 12:01.

Telemovie, Twilight Zone stuff that probably only got made because Groundhog Day was a hit. This one is real fun, especially if you don't mind you're sci-fi being light on budget and earth-bound...