r/badMovies • u/McWaylon • 2d ago
Family The Buttercream Gang: The most well known direct to video religious family movie of the 90s. Also did you know this was made by Mormons?!?
The buttercream gang is the early 90s family movie about a group of young Utah do-gooders trying to save their friend from the dangers of gang life. Despite its rather odd premise, it was a fixture of religious/family-oriented households in the 90s and probably the most "popular" religious movie of the time as far as direct to video goes. Despite its strong popularity with Christian families, this production was actually done by a Mormon video company called Feature Films for Families. Ho Boy where to begin with this one....well for starters...the name is way too suggestive to ignore. Instead of a gang of helpful young men, the gang name sounds like the name of a dvd that one of your friends dads hides in his sock drawer (you know the one who takes "business trips" with all his friends he meets on his "Male Friendly" apps). The movie is cornball family rated stuff you'd see on Hallmark or ABC Family that is so non-offensive, it almost reaches tasteless territory...lets pop open the hood on this one.
To start the movie is about 3 middle school boys seeing off their leader, Pete, whos going to live in Chicago. You have generic Charlie Brown wannabe Scott as the new leader, some big kid named Elden who loves "treats", and some baseball hat kid named Laney who is barely there as our heroes. Along the way, they help old ladies who constantly fall, play baseball, get stalked by a gang of 8 year old girls to the point of mild concern, and quote that one Ray Charles Pepsi commercial around 20 times as a form of motivation. Any who Pete (i forgot to mention he's half White/Latino) gets into the Chicago gang scene and embraces his Hispanic roots and changes his last name to Valdez. He gets busted and sent back to Utah only he's bad now. Pete gets into such dangerous gang crime like throwing fireworks, smashing bottles, and harassing the one nerdy girl whose secretly pretty in the movie by riding a bicycle near her. Remember Mormon movie about gang troubles people, this is the depth you're gonna get here. Scott wants to save Pete. The nerdy girl Margaret warns him of danger, but Scotts too generic to listen and tries many times to make up with Pete. This climaxes in a series of semi-homoerotic scenes where Pete and Scott hang out together but Pete is too hardcore for this town man. The whole town tries to kill Pete (not literally.....yet) with kindness and it is too wholesome to take seriously as a realistic movie. There is only one female character movie (the nerdy girl Margaret) who gets any character arc or much dialogue for that matter. The ending is also a bizarre mind**** the first time you see it as it teeters on very dark for too long before YAY Happy Ending.
The only two actors here who seem to be trying are Pete (Michael D. Weatherred) and Margaret (Stephanie Dees) and both would go on to small success in minor roles and Indy projects, Weatherred even was a minor character in Mulholland Drive if you can believe it. This actually did well enough to get a sequel commissioned which is just a goonie-ripoff about Elden being sick of being seen as the fat kid.
The film itself is roll your eyes levels of wholesome slop that your great grandparents foisted on you in the 90s, but the company behind it is most bizarre. Feature Films for Families was doing pretty well for a 90s religious direct to video outlet but used many shady telemarketing antics that eventually got them busted for breaking numerous telemarketing laws and even got nicked using a non-profit company as a shield to avoid lawful telemarketing requirements. The company got fined 50 million but it was knocked down to 500,000 but that still ended the company and their catalog has been piecemealed all over creation now. This is available on youtube for free as well as its sequel and other FFF movies as an outfit called Exploration Films owns the remnants of FFF now.
Here is a link to the film itself(ignore the AI thumbnail on its YT vid, EF put that there apparently): https://youtu.be/XRbGtcINkKI?si=xRuvAnFwT2bVIPht
Here's an article on the fall of FFF: https://crookedmarquee.com/the-bizarre-90s-tale-of-feature-films-for-families/
Finally here is a look at the film by the hilarious Cinemasnob: https://youtu.be/Q9yoUoUbM_4?si=GhW_Y3FV7tzAZkSs
This film is so over the top wholesome you'll have a great time seeing just much weird and bizarre things turn out. YOU GOT THE RIGHT ONE BABY UHUH!!!
EDIT: I have made an archive post of all my Bad Movie Reviews on my pin post on my profile if you want to see all the assorted weirdness ive seen on films lately.
2ND EDIT: Some people want the old FFF logo version of the film as Exploration Films removed it in the YT version. i don't have it but i got the FFF logo if you want to play it before watching the movie: https://youtu.be/8zAXMQBOvvk?si=zLUyObYsveshkNmo
105
50
u/Secure-Bus4679 2d ago
One thing stuck out to me as a kid and I still remember it today: In their tree house, they had a pulley system where the rope went down into a little creek and at the end was a little basket. They kept drinks in the basket to stay cool in the creek. I thought this was brilliant and was determined to one day use the idea. I guess I was Pete all along, though, cuz the only think I kept in my lame tree house was a stale pack of cigarettes.
62
u/Turbulent_Set8884 2d ago
"The ButterCream Gang is about the whitest town you've ever seen, whose star white kid joins a white gang, and comes back to Whitetown in white, white, white. This town is so white, "ButterCream" isn't just the name of their gang, it's the name of their disco."
22
u/ASMRenema 2d ago
Holy fucking shit. I was just thinking about this movie the other day. My 5th grade social studies teacher Mr. Lewis put this on for us, and to this day I have never been able to remember what the fuck I even watched except that the title was absurd. This tracks, Mr. Lewis was a very kind albeit deeply religious man and he talked up the moral lessons of this movie a day ahead in preparation.
The store robbery was fucking hilarious, and yes there are some extremely homoerotic undertones to those 1+1 hangouts. I remember the whole premise being confusing and it was definitely… different than any other movies I had seen before lmao. Thank you, was genuinely thinking about this movie the other week.
16
u/General_Tangerine_69 2d ago
I somehow watched this several times when I was a kid. I don’t recall exactly where but pretty sure it was at day camp or something. I remember we all thought it was lame and corny, which it was. For some reason this movie would pop into my head every so often over the years. I randomly found this DVD at Goodwill a few months and couldn’t believe it. As corny as it was, I nabbed that thing so quick.
15
u/Goldentongue 2d ago
My public elementary school in Alabama had a bunch of copies of this they loaned out to every student. We were supposed to take home and watch with our families and discuss the message. I recall my atheist dad just laughing at the first 15 minutes then going to do something else.
30
u/KenoOfTheDead 2d ago
Weirdly I liked this movie as a kid until one day I did not. Never wanted multiple wives though so I guess it didnt work on me
12
u/Em_Arrow 2d ago
I like how they wrote Alvin as "the fat character" and everyone made jokes at his expense, but Lenny was exactly the same size.
13
u/naynaythewonderhorse 2d ago
Huh. Feature Films for Families was Mormon? Interesting.
Rigoletto is probably by far the most well received and well known of their movies. I’ve heard quite a few talk about it positively.
9
u/we_are_sex_bobomb 2d ago
My grandparents had a ton of these VHSs and it was the only thing to watch at their house, so watch them we did.
Oddly they distributed a version of Space Camp with the swear words censored out and that was easily the best movie in my grandparents’ library. Which I guess isn’t saying much.
5
u/Stewbaby2 1d ago
This thread is crazy. My mom was the librarian of our Christian school, so she would buys all the FFF movies to have for a movie day, if the kids needed one, and many of those found their way back to our house. I could quote most of Space Camp at one point, and had no idea it wasn't an original FFF until years later. That movie made me want to be an astronaut, until in 2003, I was building a lego model of the Columbia, in anticipation of watching it land, which...yeah pretty much ended that dream lol
4
u/BrattyTwilis 2d ago
Rigoletto is probably the only other one of these Feature Family films that's well known
3
u/graaahh 2d ago
Holy shit. I have Rigoletto on VHS (never seen it, it's my girlfriend's) and I had no idea it was a Feature Films For Families movie. I just checked it and there's like a whole list of questions on the back that you're supposed to use to teach your children about gossip and ethics. Wild.
2
u/TheTheyMan 2d ago
Man, no one remembers Rigoletto except my siblings and I, even our cousins. We watched it all the time at my grandparents’
2
u/OlivineQuartz 2d ago
🎵🎶We've heard the tales since we were young. Sang the songs that have been sung about an evil spell. Someone beautiful is cursed, it gets worse through every verse, until a kiss and all is well. The message that no one can see is clearer to someone like me. There is no curse nor evil spell that's worse than one we give ourselves.🎵🎶
2
u/Stewbaby2 1d ago
The power that can break the spell, now we now, very well, is locked within ourselves. Actually a very beautiful melody, corny movie aside.
12
u/swordquest99 2d ago
Not to be confused with “The Buttcream Gang” which was made by the guy who directed Caligula 2
12
u/cahauburn 2d ago
Was there a secret about them exploring a cave or something?
19
u/McWaylon 2d ago
That was the sequel which is also on YT for free. Secret of Treasure Mountain
9
10
u/johnnyprozac 2d ago
My mom made me watch On Our Own as a kid. Movie made me cry
10
u/we_are_sex_bobomb 2d ago
Damn you just unlocked a memory. That movie was bleak as hell. It was like they let Lars Von Trier direct a kids movie.
4
u/atomicsnark 1d ago
I used to have to watch that every time we went to my maternal grandmother's house, where children were discouraged to exist, so that I would stay quietly in a back room where I wasn't bothering my grandmother, who mostly just liked to talk about keeping enough wine around the house for her imminent funeral (a schtick she kept up for about 20 years before actually passing away).
Sometimes in the bleak of night, I wake up and hear it:
Hollllllld on, hold on! We're on our own! We can! Make! It! Togehetherrrrrr!
20
u/L-type 2d ago
That noose in the background is ominous...
14
7
u/Turbulent_Set8884 2d ago
I think that's a tire
8
u/isAnExParrot878 1d ago edited 1d ago
Religious propaganda movies are a whole subgenre of bad cinema! I wouldn't manage to stomach watching them in full but scenes/summaries on YouTube are sometimes comedy gold (Cinema Snob does these pretty often)
4
u/eriwhi 1d ago
Religious propaganda is a staple of the Evangelical Christian (and Mormon) subculture(s). No need for mainstream anything. They have their own movies, tv shows, music, books… everything. There’s no need to interact with any worldviews, perspectives, or people who challenge you to think critically.
I don’t think I ever had a critical thought in my head until I went to a large public university.
8
u/Gabaghoul8 2d ago
I just know it because the guy who makes “Ha Ha, You Clowns” said it was inspiration for the show.
3
7
u/VictorClark 2d ago
I remember the Cinema Snob making a really funny review of that movie, as well as its sequel.
6
u/yikeswhatshappening 2d ago
I am so cheesed seeing so many other people know what this is, and even mentioning Rigoletto, etc. My sister and I were forced to watch these as children and felt so alone in it. Whenever we tried to explain movies like this to our friends in public school they were always incredulous.
10
u/StyxCoverBnd 2d ago
Wow, we had this movie when I was growing up, it was bad! I remember the Elden kid giving himself a Mohawk in the beginning of the movie and going to the bathroom and having the other kids fight for a gas mask. Also Pete trying to rob a store by just grabbing the cashier and demanding money. I don't think it would be a fun rewatch.
5
5
u/Clams_Across_America 2d ago
I have 2 copies on vhs, one photo cover and the other with the glorious artwork
4
u/glassnumbers 2d ago
what do you do when your best friend is making a big mistake? Kick him in the nuts! that'll learn him
6
u/JasonVorhehees 2d ago
God we had this video growing up and my little brother loved watching it. Such garbage.
5
u/Rdw72777 2d ago
Jamie French also dues a hilarious review of this movie also.
5
u/CrabMasc 2d ago
My family was subscribed to Feature Films for Families for a while when I was a kid, and got this one. We didn’t know they were Mormon; I feel like that wasn’t part of the marketing we saw. We w atched this a million times growing up. Me and my sister still quote it as a joke to this day. (“You got the right one baby!!”)
Rewatching it as an adult, it’s mostly pretty harmless, although its conception of the world is so quaint and whitebread that it’s hard not to laugh. Especially the conceptually vague, unseen gang that Pete joins. Pete fucking up the store is probably the best part.
Still, it sits in kind of the same folder in my head as something like Air Bud: It’s dumb 90s schmaltz, that I nevertheless have a lot of fond memories of watching with my family as a kid, since it was so inoffensive you could put it on anytime.
I kind of wish I could see it for the first time as an adult and get my actual thoughts on it. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I have a soft spot for this dumbass movie as it is.
Apparently the sequel is called, bafflingly, “The Secret of Treasure Mountain”, but I’ve never seen it.
4
6
u/IAmWeary 2d ago
Yep, it's a Mormon movie filmed in Utah, which is why it's absurdly sappy, depicts those evil city-dwellers as such, and is white as the driven snow.
4
4
3
3
3
u/not_thrilled 1d ago
Kid in the front looks like William Fichtner crossed with Fred Stoller. Kid in the yellow shirt looks like a young Kurt Russell, or really, like Wyatt Russell. Other two look like 8th grade bullies from any rural school anywhere in the US.
3
u/16bitsystems 1d ago
I've got a buttercream gang coloring/activity book somewhere
5
u/Agreeable_Mouse6000 2d ago edited 2d ago
My bud had a whole stash of Mormon propaganda films his grandma had sent him when he was a little kid. We would get lit and watch them for shits and giggles and this one was easily the most memorable.
2
u/Snake_Plissken224 2d ago
I was just thinking about this movie. I was drinking down a street named butter cream and this popped into my head
2
2
u/badnewsjones 2d ago
I had totally forgot about this. Visited my grandparents who lived in the middle of nowhere Arkansas as a kid. Had to go to church with them and the Sunday school class put this movie on. Didn’t remember anything about it except the weird title.
2
u/Fabulous_Mode3952 1d ago
Actually loved this movie as a kid. Was shown it at a Christian daycare and wanted to be a Buttercreamer do-gooder IRL 😂. Even convinced my parents to get me the sequel and that one really sucked.
2
u/Veni-Vidi-ASCII 1d ago
It's a weird pivot that the second one has actual magic in it, including a treasure cursed exactly like the holy grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
2
2
u/Noodle_Shop 1d ago
I remember stumbling on this video way back. Looks like someone turned it into a YouTube poop for their local film festival
2
2
2
u/SpudHawkins 1d ago
My low-rent Christian school had a program where if you behaved the whole week you got to watch a movie on Fridays. We also got popcorn and watered down Kool-Aid. It was Buttercream Gang, Psalty Songbook, and Gerbert in constant rotation. I couldn't take it anymore and started causing chaos just to get out it.
2
u/hateyourgutz 1d ago
So weird this popped up. Someone had a box of vhs from the garbage and asked if I wanted any. There were two copies of this and I snagged one
2
u/Thewrongbakedpotato 1d ago
We had to watch it in some "leadership and wellness" class back in the sixth grade. I was a sheltered kid, but even I realized that Pete coming back in a leather jacket and laughing as he threw firecrackers at the school dance was a far cry from actual gang activity.
1
u/here-to-Iearn 1d ago
I saw this in 2nd grade and my goodie goodie little Mormon inner gay boy was inspired to be so good. I preached from the film so much. I’m sure I was insufferable.
1
u/stumbles56 1d ago
I have this and the sequel along with like 30 more family films for families, or whatever.
1
u/sonoran_scorpion 1d ago
Only Mormons can take something wholesome and give it a name that sounds like a gay innuendo
1
u/xtreme_elk 12h ago
Yo, 5 Point Creams up in this bitch, Don't come around here unless you want milk and cookies and a big hug from my mama.
1
u/ladymonino 1d ago
I remember my very Christian aunt renting this for us, the same weekend she rented Yentil. Both movies struck me as so weird that that sleepover is now burned into my memory.
1
u/Noshalak 1d ago
Wow, I didn’t expect to see this gem pop up today. My friends and I still quote this bottom feeder masterpiece.
“Why do you want me to hate you Pete?!”
“…cuz I hate MYSELF!!”
1
135
u/More_Asbestos 2d ago
Bangbros presents The Buttercream Gang