Help identify, name, and remember a movie (general all-purpose title hunt thread)

I was reading a thread elsewhere about finding half-remembered films. I’m sure there used to be a thread for this here. I looked for it using terms like ‘name that film’ or ‘remember a film’ but no all-purpose thread came back. So I’ve started this thread for others to use.

Two movies that I’ve been thinking about that I can’t recall:


MOVIE 1:

I think I watched this on Betamax circa mid-80s. I suspect the film might be circa 1977-1982 vintage.

It was a children’s film with live action and animated sequences. I assume it was relatively low-budget so not Disney quality. I highly doubt it was a Disney movie but maybe it is.

It begins as a live action film. A boy (maybe about 10-12-years-old) comes home from school and has to waste time on his own. His father might be an inventor and he stumbles across his dad’s latest machine. It’s a machine that when he passes through it (walks or drives through it in a large toy car?) he is teleported into an alternative world. The alternative world is animated. I think he goes on multiple adventures (with live action scenes at home throughout the film) so the film is probably episodic in its structure. Maybe it was a TV show edited into a movie for the video market. I think his younger or older brother joins him in the later adventures.

In one adventure to medieval times he is captured and tied up. He is taken to the king and queen of the fairy-tale land. He impresses the king and queen by doing something (like using a cigarette lighter?) and they untie him. He is invited to their banquet and they ask him what he wants to eat. He gives a speech (of thanks for being invited?) instead of saying the food he wants. He is interrupted as he’s been talking for too long. When the food is brought out everyone has proper food but the kid is given the letters of the words he spoke. Someone tells him something about it best not having to eat your own words.


MOVIE 2:

I saw this on TV maybe in the late-80s. It was a spy film like Gotcha! (1985) about a school kid (maybe 16-18-years-old) who is recruited when on holiday (unknown country but I think it has snowy mountains) to do some dangerous spying.

I think there might be a scene on the coach with his classmates when they all lust after a hot woman in a red sports car driving beside them. Maybe later at a rest-stop the lead character surprises his school mates by leaving with her in her car before their very eyes. She’s a spy and she probably turns out to be the main baddie who recruits him by pretending to be a goodie.

I think there was a lot of action but it was low-budget stuff. Maybe there was a fight in a mansion on top of a mountain with a final race to get to a helicopter before the mansion blew up. There might also have been fighting over a thin belt of gold coins (like the coins in the suitcase in the Bond film From Russia with Love (1963)).

There might be some skiing based action scenes. Maybe the kids are on a school skiing holiday.

The film was rubbish but the thing I remember the most was how unlikable the lead actor was. Even at a young age I knew I was looking at an arrogant tosser of epic proportions. He radiated conceited self-love and he looked weird. I mean endless cosmetic surgery weird with oddly proportioned cheekbones and chin etc. Technically he was very handsome but it was very unnatural looking. His body was very buff and he probably had lots of shirtless scenes. He had flowing black hair. His acting was very bad.

 

Found this link showing all movies combining action and live sequences but none of them seem relevant to the first movie you're referring to ; List of films with live action and animation - Wikipedia

Is movie #2 "If Looks Could Kill"?

If Looks Could Kill (1991) - IMDb

 

Yeah, I don't see anything on that list of animated movies with live action in it that matches what I remember.

If Looks Could Kill AKA Teen Agent is 100% definitely the second movie. I can’t watch the trailer with sound at this moment but looking at the soundless images it actually looks pretty decent within the limitations of its era, budget and genre.

Thank you.

 

From the description you give (or at least the part about the boy driving a toy car into an animated world), movie 1 sounds like The Phantom Tollbooth.
The Phantom Tollbooth (1970) - IMDb

 

somewhere Richard Griecos ears are burning

 

You’re right; it is The Phantom Tollbooth (1970). I just assumed that title was a cult horror movie and so didn’t look at it. I watched the trailer. It looks okay.

I also watched the If Looks Could Kill AKA Teen Agent trailer with sound. Looks like a pretty decent film that I’m going to see about watching for the right price. The lead actor seems okay (if a little too chiselled).

Thank you for helping finding these films.

Anyone else want to use this thread to search for a film?

 

I couldn’t get a good price on the films so I watched them via more questionable means (about £15-£18 for a region 1 DVD and it will probably take a month to reach me in the UK (going from past experience when I last bought a region 1 disc about a decade ago)).

I gave up after 10 minutes of Phantom Tollbooth. It’s a slow kid’s movie with a lethargic draggy quality to it and crude, unimpressive animation.


If Looks Could Kill AKA Teen Agent (1991)

A slacker teenager (Richard Grieco) on a school trip to France is mistaken for a CIA agent and becomes involved in deadly espionage.

It's a decent film with a lot to recommend it but it also has a few drawbacks. It's highly amusing (especially the first half) and it had me giggling extensively. The high concept story set up is very appealing. The script ultimately doesn't do much with the idea but it doesn't squander it so much as merely deliver the basics without going the extra distance. It's not a particularly well-structured piece of writing that satisfyingly pays off on everything.

The film suffers from crude filmmaking. Some scenes are just not well realised, especially the action scenes. Action is usually poorly filmed and awkwardly edited. Also the romantic female lead was dubbed in post-production and it's not exactly a seamless job.

When I first saw this about twenty years ago I hated the lead actor and thought he was weird looking, as though he'd been through lots of plastic surgery. I disagree with that assessment now. He's handsome etc. and likable if a little smug.

It's a solid film with interesting sequences and funny scenes but it's let-down by some weak filmmaking. It could have been much better but I liked it despite its flaws.

Above average