50 New Pulp Movies To Get You Started

So after stirring up more than enough trouble with my “50 New Pulp Books To Get You Started” why then would I go ahead and go ahead and dive into making up a list of New Pulp movies. And how can there be New Pulp movies in the first place when New Pulp has been barely recognized as a genre in the first place?

Simple: I think there should be a way for people unfamiliar with what I and a whole bunch of other writers/editors/similarly minded creative folk term “The New Pulp Movement” to get into it and movies are a terrific way of doing that. First of all, what is New Pulp? Broken down to the simplest of elements it is fiction written in the mold and sensibilities of the style of Classic Pulp of the 1930s and 40s. Linear storytelling, creative use of words and phrasing, larger than life characters but with the added layer of modern perceptiveness and sensitivity.

Take CONGO, for instance. One of the movies on my list. It’s a movie that has a lost city in Africa containing a fortune in diamonds guarded by killer gorillas, a Great White Hunter (played by a black man) a gorilla who can talk to humans using sign language and enough cliifhangers to give Indiana Jones the vapors. Many of the elements of that movie wouldn’t have been out of place in an adventure movie of the 1930s but it’s told in modern times, using modern technology and with modern characters but still evokes that sense of adventure and wonderment all of us who love Pulp so much hunger for.

For a long time now I’ve been noticing that there are movies that I feel would fit into the catergory of New Pulp. These are movies that usually straddle genres. Take into account that Pulp both Classic and New can encompass many other genres such as science fiction, horror, western, crime, romance, martial arts and thriller. Take BUCKAROO BANZAI for instance. Is it science fiction, action adventure, satire? Yes. It’s all of those things and for my money because it has all of those elements and so many more as well, to me it qualifies as a New Pulp Movie.

But I’ve run off at the mouth more than enough. You came to read the list, not to hear me pontificate. So here it is for better or for worse 50 NEW PULP MOVIES TO GET YOU STARTED:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER

ACTION JACKSON

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

CONGO

DARK CITY

DISTRICT 13/BRICK MANSIONS

DJANGO UNCHAINED

ESCAPE PLAN

FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE

GOLDEN NEEDLES

GYMKATA

HAMMETT

HELL OR HIGH WATER

HUDSON HAWK

IN LIKE FLINT & OUR MAN FLINT

INTO THE NIGHT

JOHN WICK I & II

JUPITER ASCENDING

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE

KONG: SKULL ISLAND

LONE WOLF MCQUADE

MIDNIGHT RUN

PLANET TERROR

QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER

REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

SERENITY (and the parent TV show “Firefly”)

SHOOT ‘EM UP

SKY CAPTAIN & THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

SILVERADO

STAR WARS

SUGAR HILL

SUNSET

THE A-TEAM (both movie and televison series. And yes, I’m cheating a bit here. Shut up. It’s my list.)

THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI IN THE EIGHTH DIMENSION

THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU (LTD)

THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (especially the second one)

THE EXPENDABLES (Don’t argue with me on this one. You’ll lose.)

THE FAST & THE FURIOUS (the whole franchise in general but the last five movies defintiely)

THE FIFTH ELEMENT

THE LAST DRAGON

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU

THE KILLER

THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS

THE MUMMY (1999…the Brendon Fraser one. The good one)

THE PRINCESS BRIDE

THE PROFESSIONALS

THE WARRIORS

THE WRATH OF GOD

THE ZERO EFFECT

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA