So-bad-they're-actually-good films

[Mike]

I came up with the idea for this thread last night, while watching the brilliantly inept Original Sin, starring Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie. Not many people have seen this, but you all should. The acting is abysmal, the direction is shoddy, the script induces more laughs than any six Adam Sandler films, the storyline is so absurd you'll want to watch Mission Impossible 2 for a dose of realism, and the whole thing looks like it was edited by a drunk with a rusty knife. Even the extras are unconvincing. Truly unmissable.

It might just have toppled Body Of Evidence (sample quote: 'That's what I do, Frank....I fuck') as my favourite bad film ever. What's yours?

[Lisa]

I won't dwell on Mother may I sleep with danger? with Tori Spelling, since I have always failed to see it, despite its obvious quality.

Instead I suggest Hush in which Jessica Lange tries to kill her daughter-in-law, Gwyneth Paltrow. The quotes they have listed at IMDB are joyously stilted e.g.
Martha Baring: You show a lot of potential for a city girl
Helen: Thank you. You are an excellent liar

[jode*]

I recently saw Convoy - www.imdb.com/title/tt0077369/

Amazing.

[elmsyrup]

I love both Toys and What Dreams may Come- big budgets, gloriously displayed. Plus all the Sabrina films- made with two tin cans on package tours to exotic locations.

[Ezzie]

Wrong Turn. SO shite, yet so amazing.

[si]

Ezzie said:

Wrong Turn. SO shite, yet so amazing.

Why was Wrong Turn shit?

Better than most teen slashers.

[QuincyMD]

jode said:

I recently saw Convoy - www.imdb.com/title/tt0077369/

Amazing.

Best film ever!!!

How Sam Peckinpah went from The Wild Bunch and Cross of Iron to this is surely one of the great mysteries of 20th Century cinema.

[klee]

Showgirls Showgirls Showgirls

[mikemk]

Nooooooooooo!

This should be in the so-bad-they-really-are-bad category.

[klee]

Sorry, I have to disagree. The bit where Elizabeth Berkely rubs off Kyle Maclachalan in the backroom of a strip club has to be among the funniest things I've ever seen.

And as for some of the lines: -

"You're gonna see a smiling snatch if you don't fix this g-string now!"

"You fuck people without fucking them."

"I am not a whore!" (This one's repeated ad nauseum.

I totally *heart* the way everyone (except the director, who is well-known for subverting his own material) thought this was meant to be an erotic movie. It's about as titilating as cat litter and all the better for it.

[Jonny]

Fortress starring Christopher Lambert

In a future where the Earth is over populated, folks are limited to one child each. Lambert and his wife broke the rules.

Both got caught and stuck in the Fortress- where nobody has ever escaped.
Naturally, he gets out.

Dreadful script, stupid special effects, ridiculous plot- absolute bliss from start to finish

Also, The Running Man is the best 80s action movie bar none. All the cliches are present and correct:
Muscle bound hero sent down for a crime he didn't commit
Feisty woman who ends up falling for our hero
Black best friend who dies and tells the hero to go on without him
Geek who does lots of exposition and dies
Terrible one-liners
HUGE explosions
Cameo by a wrestler

And if that wasn't enough, Mick Fleetwood puts in a terrible cameo performance and it's also way ahead of its time by showing where reality TV might be heading, before it even began.

[Mimternet]

Ezzie said:

Wrong Turn. SO shite, yet so amazing.

And to follow on from this, Dead End. Also Wild Things 2, The In Crowd and Cruel Intentions 2.

[QuincyMD]

Highlander (the sequels are just rubbish.)

[dirtypop]

I totally second Showgirls. It is the most fabulous piece of shitty filmaking I have ever seen. Jesse out of Saved By the Bell "sexily" tossing her hair around whilst shagging what's his face off Sex and the City in the swimming pool is utterly hilarious.

I add Gigli for the obvious turkey time bit and J-Lo's "moving" speech about why lady bits are better. She compares them to the moon and the stars and oysters and pearls or something.

[milkmonitor]

Spiceworld!

[Jen]

Everything Tiffany Amber Theissen has ever done.
Most things shown on bbc1 or itv at 1.30 am.
Most things Living tv used to show at 9pm every night.
I *heart* crap films.

[elmsyrup]

I have bought some DVDs from Poundland with three films on them. I bet THOSE will be really crap. Glee.

[jode*]

Jen said:

Everything Tiffany Amber Theissen has ever done.

Yeah, I "got hold of" what I thought was Scary Movie 3 the other day, and it turned out to be "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The Thirteenth". Anyway she was in it.

Needless to say it was rubbish, but at the same time actually quite great. Johnathon and Darla from Buffy/Angel were in it too.

[Mike]

I have so many bad films I got free with my DVD player, but haven't got round to watching any of them yet. Maybe I should have a bad film-fest one day....

I like how this thread is going. We should all have bad film avatars! Like mine! Or not, whatever. I'm breezy.

[mikemk]

thisisnotatest said:

I like how this thread is going. We should all have bad film avatars! Like mine! Or not, whatever. I'm breezy.

If you think I'm changing Dermot for the Village People in "Can't Stop the Music", think again!

[Sean]

"Switchblade Sisters"

Practically defines the term 'so bad it's good'.

[Steven]

Lisa said:

I won't dwell on Mother may I sleep with danger? with Tori Spelling, since I have always failed to see it, despite its obvious quality.

I have this on tape somewhere. If I ever find it, you can borrow it.

I would third (fourth? fifth?) Showgirls and would add Crossroads, which doesn't quite manage so-bad-it's-good but breezes so-bad-it's-fabulously-entertaining. Every single plot twist is signalled with a neon sign thirty minutes previously, and it's full of brilliantly wasted opportunities (the casting of Kim Cattrall as Britney/Lucy's mother was inspired, and she only appears in one atrociously-acted scene). Plus the video commentary with Britney (which I activated once by sitting on the remote control and still haven't figured out how to access normally) is stunning: "the crying scene was really hard for me, because I just didn't feel sad that day!"

I would add Charlie's Angels to the list, but I don't think it's actually bad, just a little light on plot and a little over-dependent on arch references to the TV series.

[richdidnt]

Crossroads has to be added for the comedy pregnant girl sidekick.

"Oh My God you have a....BLUE BEER BOTTLE!!!"

*FALLS DOWN THE STAIRS AND LOSES HER BABY*

3 hours later....
"Britney I can't sing, you should be the star, but I will do the backup! We can bury my baby tomorrow"

Its just genius. Its so so so bad it must be good. I laughed so much in a cinema full of young girls and their mother, one of them turned round and called me Vile. I was so happy.

Richard

[FWWM]

Starship Troopers - Porn stars and soap mannequins battling giant insects to save mankind? Fabulous!

Street Fighter - Most people I know think this is so-bad-it's-bad, but I love it personally.

Atomic Train - They've shown this on BBC1 at least three times in the past two years. It has Mena Suvari and Charlotte from Sex And The City in it, which seems to be the main selling point on the DVD cover.

And, of course, the mother of all so-bad-they're-good films - MOMMIE DEAREST



"NO! WIRE! HANGERS!!!!"

[jode*]

FWWM said:

Atomic Train - They've shown this on BBC1 at least three times in the past two years. It has Mena Suvari and Charlotte from Sex And The City in it, which seems to be the main selling point on the DVD cover

And Rob Lowe, and the guy who played Whitney in Smallville.

It's great in a terrible way, thus perfect! The fact that the nuclear warhead actually goes off, and everyone probably dies from radiation poisoning in a few days time anyway doesn't even come into it. The family end up altogether. Ahhh.