Your Favorite Terrible Movie. Or So Bad They're Awesome

[Bartholen]

I've been running bad movie nights for 4,5 years. My time has come:

• Dungeons and Dragons (2000)
• anything by Neil Breen
• The Room, obviously
• anything by Wakaliwood
• Jupiter Ascending
• Black Dynamite (it's both ironically and unironically awesome)
• The Lady in the Water
• Sleepwalkers (the Stephen King adaptation)
• Mortal Kombat Annihilation

Spoiler: A short synopsis on each because these are all worth your time

Dungeons and Dragons
A gem of an underrated good bad movie, this is a movie the likes of which you'll never see again. It has a very unique blend of occasionally great production values contrasted by terrible, very specifically dated early 00s CGI, a confused as hell tone, and Jeremy Irons devouring the scenery whole

Neil Breen
If you're a connosseur of good bad movies but haven't seen anything by this absolute maestro, you should be slapped. His movies are endlessly entertaining and rewatchable, because 1. the plots make David Lynch movies look as straightforward as 80s Disney cartoons, and 2. you'll be laughing so hard you barely have time to register anything. Any one of his movies is an absolute blast, but Twisted Pair is my current favorite.

The Room
well duh

Wakaliwood
Insert the same "you should be slapped" spiel about Neil Breen here. These are true up and comers from the slums of Uganda with boundless energy, a fantastic sense of humor and hearts in their right place. "Who Killed Captain Alex" is free on Youtube, and it's a great starting point. One of my friends literally fell out of his chair because he was laughing so hard.

Jupiter Ascending
This is the insane sci-fi epic the Wachowskis splurged like $200 million on, but barely made back their budget. It's got absolutely insane ideas and lines ("Bees can sense royalty"), the plot is like the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist methhead, and Eddie Redmayne turns in a glorious crackhead performance as the villain.

Black Dynamite
This is a bit of a questionable pick, because it's a legitimately hilarious and kickass movie. But what's truly amazing about it is that it's deliberately made to look like a cheap-ass blaxploitation movie from the 70s, complete with hokey acting, obvious flubs and props and jumbled editing. It's so authentic you could easily be mistaken for it being an actual bad movie. But it's one of the funniest comedies of the century.

The Lady in the Water
One of the most ludicrous premises ever, a laugh-out-loud funny script that's completely serious, and some of the most bizarre framing and cinematography you'll ever see. It should be studied in film school on how not to make a movie.

Sleepwalkers
Don't remember that much about this to be honest because I was absolutely sloshed, but I remember it being gloriously entertaining. Something to do with werewolves, it's got gnarly practical effects, cats killing people and mother-son werewolf incest. It's wild.

Mortal Kombat Annihilation
One of the most energetic movies you'll ever see. It rams the pedal to the metal from frame 1 and doesn't let up. Come for the mid-90s CG, stay for the awesomely bad line delivery. A choice pick

 

[Bartholen]

Showgirls

I watched Showgirls last year, and am still conflicted about it being a good bad movie. There's certainly parts of it that are (the sex scene you mentioned being one of the highlights), but I found a lot of it just boring and frustrating. It touches on so many interesting ideas about showbiz, sexuality, identity and struggle for the limelight, but butchers all of them with frankly astonishing efficiency. Also the rape scene towards the end is a super jarring lurching tonal shift.

 

[Casual Shinji]

• Sleepwalkers (the Stephen King adaptation)

Aah yes, incestuous cat-people who's only weakness is actual cats, starring the guy from Return to the Blue Lagoon.

 

[Agema]

I watched Showgirls last year, and am still conflicted about it being a good bad movie.

It's a bad movie. It's got a certain something to it - a sort of hyped up, silly, crass melodrama - and I can see why it would be a cult movie. Also, rarely has such overtly sexual content looked less sexy on film. Maybe that was even an intent.

Either way, I watched it at the cinema when it came out with some friends just to see how bad it was. I've never wanted to watch it again. That was, incidentally, in terms of sharing personal content you probably might not care to know, also the night I broke up with my girlfriend of the time (although that break up was long coming and nothing to do with the film or my thoughts on it).

 

[Piscian]

Definitely not on my list of favorite or favorite terrible movies, but I just watched SPEED for the first time and there's an actual scene where a bus defies the laws of gravity and flies through the air like a rocket. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.

 

[thebobmaster]

What ever happened to Fox, she was such a big deal.

I was just recently watching New Girl and she appears for some episodes and is not a bad actress. I mean, they definitely gave her a role that plays to her strengths- like she's basically a very confident successful cool hot chick- so it's like she's the straight man as Deschanel and the other wacky characters run around them but straight man is an important role and she did a fine job. It's important for an actor to do comedy to show range and a sense of humility so good for her, I liked her and not JUST because she is good looking.

Jennifer's Body. That's what happened to Megan Fox. I'm not saying that it was because it was a bad movie, because it really, really is not. But it flopped at the box office, partially because of the poor marketing for what it was, and it was being promoted as Megan Fox's big chance to prove she could draw an audience. That, combined with her getting the boot from the third Transformers movie due to comparing Michael Bay to Hitler (REALLY bad idea when your producer is Steven Spielberg, who has ahem strong opinions on the matter), and...

For the record, this was the statement that got her fired. "He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it's endearing to watch him."

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

It's a bad movie. It's got a certain something to it - a sort of hyped up, silly, crass melodrama - and I can see why it would be a cult movie. Also, rarely has such overtly sexual content looked less sexy on film. Maybe that was even an intent.

Yeah that's a big part of it for me at least. It's the same feeling I have at a strip club- like wow look at all these hot naked women, but ew and lulz.

@thebobmaster I think you just made me like Megan Fox more. So she pulled a Godwin, big freaking deal. A bit crass but so what, I've seen so many people toss around Hitler like that so often that I wouldn't have thought twice about that description of her. I don't even remember Jennifer's Body so now I think I'm gonna watch it this weekend.

You know there's been this trend of like rehabilitating celebs who were made fun of in the past, like Britney Spears and Brandon Frasier. I say let's get that going with Megan Fox!

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I don't want to be too mean - no wait, actually that's not true, I'd love to be - but rewatching those reviews also reminds me that the attitudes to women in those movies are painful. I'm aware that I was about 2-3 times the age of the main target audience when they came out, but it felt like not much had moved on from Revenge Of The Nerds and Porky's, except that they couldn't get nudity into the desired age restriction certificate. Unfortunately, as I had by then used my decade plus of adulthood to grow the fuck up and appreciate women as human beings rather than sex objects for smutty ogling, it just made me rather deflated.

I will honestly have to take your word for that, because I remember almost nothing from the first movie aside from an overwhelming sense of disappointment.

Although intensely militaristic, the society in the book is not really fascist, because anyone is free to sign up and become enfranchised; it is not an illiberal society, nor (outside political power) do the disenfranchised have any disadvantage, many evidently being wildly successful.

I never did read the book. Did it have the "civilian/citizen" divide where the primary route to citizenship (and being allowed to procreate) was the military, like the movie?

 

[thebobmaster]

I will honestly have to take your word for that, because I remember almost nothing from the first movie aside from an overwhelming sense of disappointment.


I never did read the book. Did it have the "civilian/citizen" divide where the primary route to citizenship (and being allowed to procreate) was the military, like the movie?

Pretty much any time you ask if the Starship Troopers movie took something from the book, the answer is "no".

 

[Agema]

Yeah that's a big part of it for me at least. It's the same feeling I have at a strip club- like wow look at all these hot naked women, but ew and lulz.

I have only been to a strip / lapdancing club once for a friend's stag do. I found the experience mostly a little depressing. The women were good looking and all, but sexy it was not. You're one of a load of punters many of whom are sad, boorish or yobbish, and you know the know the staff view you as a job, like filing paperwork, replacing a tyre or taking a blood sample. Obviously, they wanted to get paid and approached, and I was quite clear I (and my girlfriend whose wishes I would honour) disapproved. What was interesting is they then sent me someone else who was happy to chat more philosophically about how this line of employment affected societal perception of women. Whether this was an attempt to engage me in the hope intellectual discussion might turn me on and I'd shell out for a lapdance, or just professional courtesy to entertain someone in their club by whatever means, or maybe she was interested in having that conversation too, I'll never know.

Jennifer's Body. That's what happened to Megan Fox.

She'd have survived a difficult movie easily enough, even several. If I remember rightly, I'm not sure she was happy with her career direction and public image, and it's possible that mostly she withdrew from the limelight voluntarily.

I never did read the book. Did it have the "civilian/citizen" divide where the primary route to citizenship (and being allowed to procreate) was the military, like the movie?

Yes. The film is close to the book in setting and plot: it's the tone that's completely altered. The book is serious and philosophical, the film is gonzo satire.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Yes.

Ah. Well, I don't see how much more fascist you can get than to allow the state to decide who can and cannot reproduce.

 

[Agema]

Ah. Well, I don't see how much more fascist you can get than to allow the state to decide who can and cannot reproduce.

I don't recall reproductive control from the movie (and isn't Johnny Rico the son of a non-citizen?). If it so in the film I don't remember that from the book, so it might be a novelty for the film.

The society in the book as far as I could discern is actually liberal, outside the restriction of voting rights only going to people who have done their service. Racism appears to be gone. Sexism is a mixed bag: the infantry are all male and super-macho masculine, but women do also serve, as pilots (I wonder if this wasn't a limitation of Heinlein and the era it was written, and whether he'd have gone further if he'd written it later).

The main theme of the society is its militarism. It takes a rather depressing view that survival depends on kicking the crap out of any potential opponents. The human state is therefore aggressive, domineering and bullying to violently suppress neighbouring alien races. One gets a sense this was Heinlein's view of the world, and many have found it very unpalatable. But it's not quite fascist, either.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I don't recall reproductive control from the movie (and isn't Johnny Rico the son of a non-citizen?). If it so in the film I don't remember that from the book, so it might be a novelty for the film.

If I'm remembering right, there was a throwaway line from a woman saying that she wanted kids, so she was enlisting to gain citizenship.

 

[Gordon_4]

If I'm remembering right, there was a throwaway line from a woman saying that she wanted kids, so she was enlisting to gain citizenship.

Citizenship probably makes that easier with the various privileges she’ll have earned by completing service. Also I recall in the book that the military is not the only civil service by which citizenship is granted, just a popular (because it’s military sci-fi) and relatively quick one. You can earn it also by testing space suits on Titan in like six months, the only trick is surviving the six months.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

@thebobmaster I think you just made me like Megan Fox more. So she pulled a Godwin, big freaking deal. A bit crass but so what, I've seen so many people toss around Hitler like that so often that I wouldn't have thought twice about that description of her.

I can't fault the director of Schindler's List and founder of the Shoah Foundation for firing an uppity starlet after she compares the director of the movie he's producing to Hitler (on top of other insults). I wouldn't care if he hadn't, but think it's perfectly understandable that he did.

 

[Agema]

I can't fault the director of Schindler's List and founder of the Shoah Foundation for firing an uppity starlet after she compares the director of the movie he's producing to Hitler (on top of other insults). I wouldn't care if he hadn't, but think it's perfectly understandable that he did.

I think, broadly, making it about the "Hitler" would be an overreaction: whilst insensitive, it is by now a byword for someone tyrannical - in the same vein as the grotesque overuse of terms like "Nazi" and "fascist" that is rife and embedded in society.

What is in my mind more problematic is the basic act of publicly abusing one's colleagues, thus bringing them and the project/business into disrepute. That's very unprofessional. If there is a genuine problem about the director's behaviour, there are better ways to address it than randomly slagging them off in public.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Jennifer's Body. That's what happened to Megan Fox. I'm not saying that it was because it was a bad movie, because it really, really is not. But it flopped at the box office, partially because of the poor marketing for what it was, and it was being promoted as Megan Fox's big chance to prove she could draw an audience. That, combined with her getting the boot from the third Transformers movie due to comparing Michael Bay to Hitler (REALLY bad idea when your producer is Steven Spielberg, who has ahem strong opinions on the matter), and...

For the record, this was the statement that got her fired. "He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it's endearing to watch him."

Not just that, but the rest of the cast and crew (and public in general) really got stuck into her. Apparently she had opinions and wasn't shy of spreading them and a lot of people (I think mostly men) didn't like that. I think the Hitler thing was just an excuse. Though, IIRC, a lot of the cast later backpedaled on that, but at the time they followed the lead of them upstairs and got stuck into her. Also, the excessive sexualisation apparently made her have a breakdown.

But she worked with Bay again for TMNT, and was sexualised a bit, but not so much, and apparently they got on then.

 

[Gordon_4]

I think, broadly, making it about the "Hitler" would be an overreaction: whilst insensitive, it is by now a byword for someone tyrannical - in the same vein as the grotesque overuse of terms like "Nazi" and "fascist" that is rife and embedded in society.

What is in my mind more problematic is the basic act of publicly abusing one's colleagues, thus bringing them and the project/business into disrepute. That's very unprofessional. If there is a genuine problem about the director's behaviour, there are better ways to address it than randomly slagging them off in public.

Actually considering the power structures at play in Hollywood, a bit of public slagging - and Fox’s was pretty fuckin’ softball in tone - is probably one of the few ways actors who aren’t industry lifers can fire back. Though I do agree it’s doubtful Spielberg would have given much of a shit if she’d compared Bay to Mussolini or Franco or Stalin or even just called him dictatorial.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think, broadly, making it about the "Hitler" would be an overreaction: whilst insensitive, it is by now a byword for someone tyrannical - in the same vein as the grotesque overuse of terms like "Nazi" and "fascist" that is rife and embedded in society.

What is in my mind more problematic is the basic act of publicly abusing one's colleagues, thus bringing them and the project/business into disrepute. That's very unprofessional. If there is a genuine problem about the director's behaviour, there are better ways to address it than randomly slagging them off in public.

Sure, maybe she just got fired for badmouthing the director in public and the Hitler narrative just became metonymic of that. Spielberg has actually denied firing her and said it was her call to not come back (maybe she was given an ultimatum, who knows). I think maybe it was just a case of her not giving a shit about the movies thinking she could do without them, and also the crew not wanting her back anyway (there was an open letter). Either way calling her director - and Spielberg by proxy - "Hitler"... I dunno, isn't that a little bit like a white actress calling a black director/producer you know what, on top of talking trash in public?

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Either way calling her director - and Spielberg by proxy - "Hitler"... I dunno, isn't that a little bit like a white actress calling a black director/producer you know what, on top of talking trash in public?

No you're making a couple of very huge leaps there.
Criticising even insulting a director is not doing anything "by proxy" to Spielberg, that is rather silly. And as u/Agema correctly explains, "Hitler" is a short-hand for "mean bossy pants," while the n-word is so bad we are both at least smart enough to not even type it on a message board.