Martinex1: "Bad" movies! There were some doozies
Back in the Bronze Age! Some couldn't succeed no matter how hard they tried. Some were so bad that they were good. Video stores lined up some of the worst. Cable TV repeated some that were unwatchable. Some "B" movies made the grade and others were just horrible. What were your favorites? Let's discuss...
20 comments:
Ha. I guess I’m the only one that watches bad movies. HBO in the 80s was a hotbed of awful.
The star of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, David Miller, is a friend of mine. He's one of my high school buddy's brother in law. In the early 80's, they moved from San Diego into my home county and we worked in the local grocery store at night (he also had a job with a government agency during the day). He thought it was the coolest thing that the movie became such a cult classic and loved to talk about it.....still does, I'm sure. For a couple of years at New Years Eve when we were in college, several of us would gather at his house to watch the movie.
Breakin is NOT a bad movie dude! Sheesh! No accounting for taste... LOL
Of the ones you highlighted, the only one I've actually seen is Commando ... and I kinda liked it. Of course, I was a teenager at the time, so I might hate it if I saw it now. I remember being disappointed by Ladyhawke; I'm not sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was I didn't get it.
An 80s movie everyone seems to hate is Willow, but I thought it was pretty good; very D&D-ish, which I like.
Watched Breakin last year with my kids. Tastes have changed LOL but I still dig it!
Hm, I thought Weekend at Bernie's was pretty funny, and Toxic Avenger had it moments - definitely one of those classic camp cult films that college students like to watch and laugh through. Also: Commando, really? It's my impression that among aficionados of 1980s action films, as well as Arnie fans, this is considered one of the better ones. (I think Raw Deal, on the other hand, is widely acknowledged as one of Arnie's flops of that era.)
One incredibly crappy movie that I nonetheless enjoy watching on occasion is the made-for-TV Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. Yep, it stars Kiss, who in this movie are not only rock stars but also superheroes with powers and everything. It's not even so bad it's good, it's just bad, but I've always found it strangely compelling, with some unintentional comedy gold in a few places.
I will defend FRIGHT NIGHT to my grave!!
Now ZAPPED! on the other hand...
As mentioned yesterday I am on a road trip. We were chilling for a few minutes this evening and I turned on Lawrence Welk. Does this qualify as “worst TV?” LOL ��
Ha ha. Lawrence Welk counts.
I liked Fright Night too. Like I said - some B movies were entertaining.
Commando I don’t think holds up but it was good in its day. Zapped - I forgot about that one. And Mac and Me.
Can't believe I haven't checked in today's topic til now!
GREAT fuel for discussion and reminiscence--
Marti-- thank you for citing Mac & Me. As far as I'm concerned, that film has received the award, showered, and is out working on its second celebratory victory cheeseburger before ANY of the other movies have crossed the finish line. And I sat in blasted movie theater FULL of little children during a matinee and gutted it out til the end.
The purist in me feels that ultra-low budget, aimed-for-cult schlock films like KILLER TOMATOES and TOXIC AVENGER should kinda be on a different list somewhere-- they have an unfair awfulness advantage over movies that may have been trying to at least masquerade as being legitimate films.
And I'd campaign to pull FRIGHT NIGHT from consideration as well, oh yeah. Not a bad film at all-- and certainly helped by Roddy McDowell. And MANNEQUIN-- I know we watched it, and thought it was lame-ish, but not the height of badness.
Ha! Saw SPACEHUNTER in the theater also. The only moment that hilariously sticks out is near the end, when after promising our heroes their freedom if they succeed at X,Y and Z-- they do succeed, and still orders their deaths. When confronted with his promise, he simply says, "I lied." My buddy and I laughed for five minutes straight on that one. . .
HOWARD THE DUCK-- I tried to watch again on DVD not long ago. It was honestly worse than I'd remembered. I think I got through 20 minutes, tops.
A new one that I'll put on the list is Paul McCartney's GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROAD STREET which, IIRC, didn't even last the full week after its weekend opening in a "limited" release. A completely unwatchable vanity project--
And-- does anyone remember THE LAWNMOWER MAN with Pierce Brosnan and a young Jeff Fahey? A very early foray into computer animation in a feature film. I cannot remember if I thought it was actually good or not----
HB
HB, good call on Give My Regards to Broad Street. Yeesh, what a lousy - and boring, so, so boring - movie.
And yeah, Howard the Duck is really *that* unwatchably bad.
**Ha--- I'm seeing that typing while falling asleep (above) is NOT the best friend to coherent sentence structure--! Apologies for the mistake-riddled response, eh? **
HB
HB and Martinex, I agree MAC and ME is the winner by ten lengths!
I saw LAWNMOWER MAN when it was released and remember liking it. I'm guessing it doesn't hold up very well though.
Killraven-- it kind of just disappeared from my memory, really. Upon further reflection, I'm recalling Jeff Fahey's performance in particular was pretty good (that's a tough assignment, portraying such an extreme range of growth in mental capacity-- and doing it convincingly), whereas Pierce Brosnan was. . . well, adequately handsome and leading-mannish, but rather forgettable. And since the whole premise was basically an offshoot of "Flowers For Algernon", an unhappy ending was going to be a foregone conclusion. But it probably wasn't a "bad" film, nah, you're right.
Oops- and it turns out it was a '92 film anyhoo--- swiping the name from an earlier Stephen King work.
OH! But speaking of the prolific Mr. King's movie-adapted works: MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, anyone?
HB
Maximum Overdrive...ugh!
How about Sheena, Rhinestone, Stroker Ace, Jaws: The Revenge, and Over the Top (Arm wrestling anyone?)
Kind of, ok, very late here. I'll toss in a whole genre- "Beach party movies". They were kind of cheesy, but lots of fun. They're a particular weakness for me. Some are almost classic- "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "Ski Party". But I'll admit, "The Horror of Party Beach" was pretty bad...
I'm still reeling from the claim that Critters is a bad movie. Admittedly, I've not seen it for about 30 years but I have happy memories of it.
As for my nomination, who could forget the power and majesty of Starcrash? Caroline Munro, Christopher Plummer and David Hasselhoff in the film that Star Wars could only ever have dreamt of being.
Okay, I'll add a few, knowing it's awful late and I've been gone for too long...
All the Porky's movies.
All the movies they made from songs: Convoy, Take This Job And Shove It, Harper Valley PTA, You Light Up My Life, The Nights The Lights Went Out In Georgia and Just The Way You Are (Kristy McNichol)
Tony Danza's Going Ape
Brian Bosworth's Stone Cold
The Sunshine Boys
That one where they train the Doberman Pinchers to rob a bank...
Dean Martin's The Wrecking Crew, the franchise was just running out of gas...
Ron Howard's Grand Theft Auto
Charlie Sheen's The Wraith
I don't know if that's it but it's what I can think of...
Mostly.
A warrior from a war-like planet comes to Earth to prove his superiority by hunting humans... Spoiler Alert: Doctor Who, The Woman Who Fell To Earth.
(Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star,
And everybody's in movies, it doesn't matter who you are.
There are stars in every city,
In every house and on every street,
And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Their names are written in concrete!
Don't step on Greta Garbo as you walk down the Boulevard,
She looks so weak and fragile that's why she tried to be so hard
But they turned her into a princess
And they sat her on a throne,
But she turned her back on stardom,
Because she wanted to be alone.
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Rudolph Valentino, looks very much alive,
And he looks up ladies' dresses as they sadly pass him by.
Avoid stepping on Bela Lugosi
'Cos he's liable to turn and bite,
But stand close by Bette Davis
Because hers was such a lonely life.
If you covered him with garbage,
George Sanders would still have style,
And if you stamped on Mickey Rooney
He would still turn round and smile,
But please don't tread on dearest Marilyn
'Cos she's not very tough,
She should have been made of iron or steel,
But she was only made of flesh and blood.
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of.
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a star
And everybody's in show biz, it doesn't matter who you are.
And those who are successful,
Be always on your guard,
Success walks hand in hand with failure
Along Hollywood Boulevard.
I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die.
You can see all the stars as you walk along Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Oh celluloid heroes never feel any pain
Oh celluloid heroes never really die.
I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die).
Wait, wait--- we're seriously drifting out of the 80's here in some cases, yes?
Hahahaaaaa! Remember when I took bravely took some good-natured heat for callin' all of us out for bending the "rules" every time we have a parameters-based post? Hmmmm?
Well, well, wellllll--- vindication is a cold dish. . . that. . . is served. . . with the best. . . revenge as a side-- never mind. Abort snarky quote. . . daggone it. . .!
HB
I can usually tolerate a bad movie....I'm sort of a glass half full type of guy as far movies go.....but I have to say that Doctor Detroit, starring Dan Ackroyd was the absolute worst movie I've ever seen. My glass had nothing in it when the credits rolled on that one.
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