Some very misunderstood movies on this list. Just because a movie contains elements that are easy to make fun of doesn’t mean that those elements are there unintentionally. I.e., Army of Darkness and Starship Troopers are not good BAD movies, but good GOOD movies: their respective directors were fully cognizant of the ludicrousness of those films’ ludicrous moments. Some people are oddly patronizing to those two films in particular, when each one remains well within its director’s intentions. I.e., you’re mistaken if you think YOU get the joke, but Raimi and Verhoeven don’t.
Also, Ishtar is a decent film that was hamstrung by a media campaign that focused on its budget. Elaine May, the director, is a member of the John Cassavetes school of directing, and very little of the huge budget appeared on the screen, to the eyes of those who expected a big budget to mean flashy special effects, etc. It’s a film whose production history was plagued with bad luck and bad publicity, but I think it’s one of the most unjustly maligned films of all time. Watch a few more of May’s films to get an idea of her style, then perhaps you’ll “get” Ishtar a little better.
I was just about to compose a post explaining Ishtar, but lissener beat me to it. It’s not really a bad film–it’s very watchable. Its infamy comes more from bad publicity surrounding its production (there were articles written maligning it while it was still being made!). It had a huge budget and a high profile cast & it would have been difficult for any film to meet its expectations. So if you rent it expecting to see a truly bad movie, you’ll be disappointed.
I think a great movie for you & your lady friend would be Female Trouble. It’s very cheaply made, the plot is absolutely outrageous & the acting is laugable. Unless one is familiar with John Waters’ work, they’d think this film is the epitome of bad. But, as a fan of Waters, I can say that’s just part of his charm. This movies really pushes the limits of taste…and even though the film was made almost 30 years ago, it is still shocking in parts. I used to show this film to prospective girlfriends as sort of a “test”…if she “got” it, I knew that we’d be compatible.
Anybody - and I mean ANYBODY - who dares mock Gone Fishin’ will suffer a horrible, terrible, diabolical, dastardly fate.
Now, for some GREAT bad movies…
If you can get your hands on it, I recommend a 1984 flick called Hard Rock Zombies. In my circle of friends, we love it, as it contains the worst “Cutting off of a hand” sequence in movie history. The villain is an old man who turns out to be Adolph Hitler in disguise, and at the end, one of his midget zombie flunkies (yes, there are midget zombies!) winds up eating himself. It’s horribly wonderful.
Another one, and much newer, is a flick called Airspeed. It was made in '98, and by all accounts, is a puker of a film. My buddy saw it and reviewed it, and couldn’t come up with a single good thing to say about it.
Just because a movie’s director is cognizant of the film’s ludicrous moments doesn’t mean the movie wasn’t a stinker - it’s just your opinion that these two weren’t.
Also, Ishtar is a decent film that was hamstrung by a media campaign that focused on its budget. Elaine May, the director, is a member of the John Cassavetes school of directing, and very little of the huge budget appeared on the screen, to the eyes of those who expected a big budget to mean flashy special effects, etc. It’s a film whose production history was plagued with bad luck and bad publicity, but I think it’s one of the most unjustly maligned films of all time. Watch a few more of May’s films to get an idea of her style, then perhaps you’ll “get” Ishtar a little better.
[/QUOTE]
The movie’s media coverage and budget had little to do with the quality of the movie. It’s considered a bad movie because the two leads hammed it up the entire time. The script wasn’t very good, anyway. But then again, as I said - your opinion.
I just had my annual Bad Film Fest last weekend, and I showed Doc Savage, Man of Bronze – superb badfilm, if you can find it. I also showed Atlantis, the Lost Continent and the Richard Chamberlin/Sharon Stone version of King Solomon’s Mines.
The trick is not to find Bad movies – there are plenty of those. It’s finding entertainingly bad movies. A good pair of films to start with, if you haven’t done this before, are It Came from Hollywood and (if you can find it) Horrible Horror, starring Zacherley, the eminent badfilm host.
Bad Taste - But this one preys on the “bad is good” idea, so it may defeat the purpose. Rollerball - The remake, that is. It’s so bad, that I would not wish you to suffer through it even on a “let’s make fun of a movie” night. Freddie Gets Fingered - I actually like this movie a lot. But it’s probably too recent for your party.
My actual recommendations:
Death Race 2000 - Cars, carnage, and Sly Stallone as “Machine Gun Joe.” Highly recommended for a night like yours. Yor: Hunter from the Future - The title itself should be enough. Absolutely terrible movie. Essential for a bad movie fest like yours. An IMDB reviewer says: “Absolutely the worst , most cheaply produced film I have ever seen which tried to pass itself off as a serious movie…though possibly rivaled by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II” Avenging Disco Godfather - Another one that should be picked solely on the basis of its title. Makes a great ice-breaker at stuffy cocktail parties. Plot: makes no sense, but roughly involves a disco owner beating the crap outta some drug dealers.
If you fancy a musical, Grease 2 - although it’s about 1/1000th as good as the first movie, it’s got an interesting cast (led by Michelle Pfeiffer), some amusing songs, and loads to laugh at, while still being an entertaining film to watch.
Roger Corman’s Jurassic Park rip-off Carnosaur has a special place in my heart, or some other part of my body. And not really bad, since it’s intentional, but Return of the Living Dead III - the best zombie love story ever.
CROSSROADS. Oh lordy. Britney is majoring in math AND science. Baby Jesus on a bicycle. After watching it with girlfriends, we decided it was definitely a “good” bad movie. The best part was that we’d watched it after Mulholland Drive, so we made a go at deconstructing both plots in the same manner (“So, you see, Britney’s book of poetry is a symbol for all…”)
SGFBI was produced by the same company that did Beach Babes From Beyond, I believe. It had a much lower budget, though, not even enough to hire the talent in BBFB. So, no Don Swayze’s or Joey Travolta’s…
If you want more info, they both have write-ups on badmovies.org (a great place for ideas for these sorts of things). Anything with either a 4 drip rating or 1 skull is worth watching.
I’d like to point out the distinction between meritoriously bad films, such as Plan 9, and inexcusably bad films, such as Ishtar.
You won’t find any more truly entertaining bad films than you will find truly excellent ones. “Entertainingly bad,” by my definition, can include exceedingly inferior production quality, hilarious plot holes and genuinely incompetent acting, but not inanity, script bowdlerization, or any of the other Hollywood failings which are the hallmark of so many forgettable films–perhaps even the majority of its output.
By my definition, which you can take or leave, Show Girls is just a shitty film, and not worth viewing, ever, under any circumstances.
But Game of Death is a different bowl of rotten tomatoes entirely. It features dazzling special effects wonders as a photograph of the dearly departed Bruce Lee pasted on a mirror and (perhaps as homage to Ed Wood), a stand in who looks and moves nothing like Bruce Lee. It has Gig Young slurring his own swan-song on his way to the big martini shaker in the sky. Combined with a parcel of The Dragon’s last, best footage and the revolutionary Nintendo-style level-up-to-kill-the-big-boss plot, Game of Death is truly the stuff of legend, and one of my favorite films, good or bad.
Finding those flawed screen gems is like nosing around for marshmallows in a bathtub full of pig manure. Be sure to test for consistency before serving them to your audience.
Ultimate Soldier II. Thrill to the screen debut of pro wrestler Goldberg. Be amazed that even HE out-acts van Damm.
The Ninth Gate. Damn. Satan got back!
If you can find it, go with Raw Force: Invaders Of The Jade Tombs. This martial arts movie features samuri cannibal monks who raise a zombie ninja army. Best scene is when a bunch of toughs dressed as the Village People attack.
Action Jackson Best bad movie this side of Agent 00Soul. Hell, rent that one too.
I’m shocked - shocked! that no one has brought up Cool As Ice - Vanilla Ice’s vehicle. There is no better “so bad it’s good” movie on the planet. You will not be disappointed.
You think “Billy Jack” is a good-bad movie! I beg to differ, dear. It wasn’t bad enough to be bad, not good enough to be good. Kind of watchable, if you happen to have lived through that period of time. Notice I didn’t say “LUCKY enough to have lived through that period of time.” My parents forbade me to see that movie, so of course I went and saw it. Maybe that colors my affection for it.
I think, though, that you must be thinking of “The Trial of Billy Jack.” Now THAT was a bad movie. Bad enough to be good, that is.
BTW, I haven’t seen it, but I understand that “Billy Jack Goes to Washington” is an even BETTER so-bad-it’s-good movie. Some friends of mine rented it (it is on video) and said they laughed so hard they couldn’t eat their popcorn. You’d have to know my friends to know why I give it TEN POP CORN’S without ever having SEEN the thing.
